Well it was another early morning for us. On Tuesday I saw on Facebook that Channel 7's Sunrise morning show was going to be in the Melbourne studio this morning & that you could apply for tickets. Why not, I thought. I've never been in a live audience for a TV show. We got the call on Wednesday, after we had gotten back from our helicopter flight over the Twelve Apostles, informing us we were successful getting tickets. It's been a week of new experiences.
Melbourne's Channel 7 studios are located right next to Etihad Stadium in the Docklands area. As Sunrise starts at 6am, the audience members needed to be at the studio by 5.30am at the latest. At around 5.45am, we all filed into the studio & took a seat. There was about 40 of us. All the Sunrise team were there getting prepped. Samantha Armytage was having a touch up on her hair & makeup. Natalie Barr was sitting at a desk in the studio next door, finishing up the 5.30am news. Photography was allowed, but not while the show was live, as flashes etc can prove distracting for the presenters.
Once Nat finished with the news next door, Sam, David Koch, Nat & Mark Berretta all settled into their allotted chairs behind the desk. There was some light banter with the audience. In the email we had from the studio a day prior to the show, they were encouraging everyone to come in their team colours to show their support for Geelong or Port Adelaide who are playing tonight. Berretts is a Geelong supporter & Kochie is the President of the Port Adelaide club so there was a lot of ribbing & rivalry.
Nothing happened on the set without the floor manager. He controlled everything from counting in segments, time checks during the ad breaks, where the hosts would stand when doing a particular story or segment, placement of cameras & the recording of sound bites.
There were 3 large cameras, all with the auto cue machines on them. During the first news break, Nat was indicating for the camera man to move the camera closer to her as she was having trouble reading the auto cue. When the camera was only focused on a single person during a segment, for example Nat reading the news, the other hosts would be checking phones, checking paperwork for upcoming stories, walking around, grabbing a bite of breakfast or doing autographs for the audience. The ceiling is just covered with row upon row of lights.
The show works on a delay, so if you're watching a monitor, the words you hear are a few seconds behind the lip movements. During one of the ad breaks, Sam did some sound bites for a later story on a new Julia Roberts movie. This is a voice over that plays with a pre recorded clip rather than seeing Sam as an interviewer. The movie had the word county in the title, but Sam mispronounced county with something not quite appropriate for TV. There was a huge roar of laughter, particularly from Sam. She then had to recover & keep a straight face while she tried it again.
During the ad breaks, Sam, Nat, Kochie & Berretts would chat & laugh, give each other a ribbing & share a joke with the audience. At the end of the show, they had all the audience join them on stage while they signed off & handed over to Kylie Gillies & Larry Emdur for the Morning Show. After the show they were good enough to hang around for photos & autographs.
It was really fascinating to get an insight into the production & workings of a TV show & studio.
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