To provide film studio production and recording facilities for the filming of a popular YouTube chat show series, Too Hot to Handle: Extra Hot, with 1 host and various in studio and remote guests from around the globe.
Tricaster II Elite, Newtek Talkshow (Skype TX), Yamaha TF1 Sound Mixer, Sennheiser Radio Mics and In Ear Monitors, Sony FX9’s.
Following the success of the first season of Too Hot to Handle: Extra Hot, Netflix approached us to record the next instalment for their hit YouTube series with views running into the millions.
The show involved recording their presenter, Chloe Veitch speaking with in studio guests and bringing in remote callers from around the globe and allowing Chloe to interact with them and talk about any gossip that had occurred during their time on the Netflix show.
We provided and setup 4 Sony FX9 cameras with 24-105mm lenses, allowing us the flexibility we needed with the various shots required in studio; a wide shot, a presenter single, a guest/over the shoulder shot looking at the screen on set and a moving single of Chloe which added extra visual variety for the Directors live cut. The cameras and remote caller feeds were all then fed into the TriCaster and a 4 camera view fed back to the directors monitor on the studio floor and the remote guests to the monitor in vision on set making good use of the 4-stripe TriCaster control panel in the gallery.
For Covid-19 reasons, we routed the main programme feed from the gallery to multiple TV monitors around our facilities, this enabled all departments to keep an eye on the shoot and keep socially distanced.
The producers wanted continuity from their last season, so we recreated the lighting. We used 8 x Astera tubes, with 8 Ianiro RGBW 2x1 LED soft panel lights to create an even colour wash and grad on the Cyc.
In addition to the previous season’s technical set up, Netflix asked us to come up with a solution which allowed us to record the contributors pre-show interviews simultaneously with the show itself. This meant up to 6 remote callers were being recorded in two different conversations at one time.
This was a challenge as we needed to make sure that the in-studio presenter could receive a feed with the first group of callers for the main show whilst in our virtual studio, the warm-up interviews were being recorded with another group of callers for another segment of the show. Using Skype TX, a built for broadcast remote caller solution, we had the capability to host 2 separate Skype sessions, sending and receiving different video and audio feeds to and from the relevant contributors. We recorded all remote caller and Camera ISO feeds and used our Dante Virtual Soundcard solution to route and record the 6 audio feeds from Skype TX along with the 4 radio mics on set. This meant production had the freedom to access all the material, alongside a program mix when it came to the edit.
We had a challenge on our hands with this Too Hot to Handle shoot.
We were juggling capturing multiple interviews at once, with 15 remote guests, an in-studio host plus three in-studio guests. We needed the remote capture to be the highest quality it could be, and the in-studio capture had to match. Broadley was great on all fronts, providing a clear tech solution alongside a modern studio that looked fantastic on camera.
Big thanks to all the crew, who were a pleasure.
