For the production of the pilot featurette, Breaking Through: Women in Comedy, the group wanted to approach a female comedian who is emerging yet has a wealth of experience to draw on. The group approached award-winning comedian Tessa Waters.  Tessa was agreeable; indeed enthusiastic, and kindly offered her assistance. As an advocate of female empowerment, much of her content is focused on feminist causes so she was the appropriate subject for the first episode of Breaking Through: Women in Comedy.

 

Production of the first episode will require an interview with the subject along with general vision and overlay footage of her current show, Volcano. As a result, the production would need to take advantage of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF). This festival is the right time to shoot as Ms Waters is often touring around Australia and internationally, so her availability is limited. Additionally, MICF offers interesting visuals and atmosphere that contribute to the tone of the piece. It was decided to depict the comedy scene from the perspective of the hard-working, ‘hustling’ comedian rather than sanitising the industry as a glamorous pursuit.  

 

While the Festival offers great visual opportunity for our subject matter, it is also a tricky production to schedule. Our comedian is performing nightly in her own show in addition to regular appearances as part of a comedy trio. She is also preoccupied with guest spots on other live shows, media commitments, her own social media plan and administration. Compounding this, she is also mentoring several other performers within the space of a month at MICF. Additionally, image release and venue permission had to be sought to film Tessa’s show. ‘Permissions needed to shoot extend beyond human subjects to include physical locations’ as outlined by Fox (2017, p.192). With permission granted by the Comedy Festival administration, filming was ready to begin.

 

Production for the pilot episode of Breaking Through: Women in Comedy began on 29 March at Melbourne Town Hall shooting photographs and general vision of the opening night crowds at MICF. This was shot hand held with a Canon 7D DLSR with an 18-85mm lens. The decision was taken to remain unobtrusive and to draw as little attention as possible from the flow of the festival and the various comedians ‘flyering’ to promote their shows. The aim was to present a ‘fly on the wall’ perspective of the festival crowds. Additionally, much of the footage was shot hand held to maintain the depiction of the comedy scene as hard frenetic work.

 

8 April was the next production date with some ‘behind the scenes’ footage of Ms Waters backstage in her dressing room. Some unplanned off the cuff dialogue about the current season, women in comedy and her intercultural perspective of her comedy was also shot. Initially, it was planned to film at Melbourne Town Hall with Tessa ‘flyering’ for her show however she had decided to delegate ‘flyering’ to a colleague. Meanwhile, Tessa volunteered much content that pertained to the final online story . As a result, it was decided that the crew would remain at the venue in to take advantage of this and to prepare to film her show, Volcano, in full.  Making the decision to change the plan on the day was easier having a clear understanding of what was needed for the final online story. As Bernard (2007, p 178) states ‘You want to go into the field with a clear sense of your film’s story and approach so that you can maximize the quality and impact of what you get, and so you’ll be better able to recognize and take advantage of those moments you couldn’t possibly have anticipated beforehand.’  

 

Production on 8 April made use of a Sony X200 camera, which is more appropriate for event filming. Moving forward, the Sony X200 will be used for the final production date, which will be the full interview with Tessa Waters. For ease of logistics, for both Tessa and the production crew, filming will take place somewhere at RMIT. This interview will take place before 22 April, the close of the festival and before Tessa goes on tour again. The interview material in the production will drive the narrative with a mixture of ‘sit down interview[s]’ and ‘interviews within a scene’ (as mentioned earlier) and as outlined by Story and Heart (n.d. para. 6). A final date will be locked in by close of business 13 April. Post-production will commence from 6 May using Adobe Premiere, although an initial assemble edit with the general vision and overlay footage has already taken place.

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Equipment Inventory:

Sony X200 Video Camera

Canon 7D DSLR

Rode Video Microphone

Tripod

MacBook Pro

Adobe Premiere

 

See Figures 1.0 for production schedule and Figure 2.0 are proposed interview questions.