Curious Cat:
Hello children.
Kye and Louis:
Hello Curious Cat.
Curious Cat:
What are you doing?
Kye:
We're watching a program on TV.
Curious Cat:
Do you know how TV is made?
Kye:
No.
Curious Cat:
Well go and meet my friend, Steve, who can tell you all about it.
Kye and Louis:
Hi.
Steve:
Hi Louis, hi Kye.
Kye and Louis:
Hi.
Steve:
Would you like to see how we make television?
Kye and Louis:
Yes please.
Steve:
Follow me.
Curious Cat:
It all starts in a television studio, where programmes are filmed. For live TV, the studio is connected to a special room where everything is controlled. The people who run the show sit in here telling everyone, including the presenters, what to do.
Producer:
Can we count to three then, last ten seconds. In three, two, one.
Female presenter:
This is, this is the same point.
Matt:
Go on, is it Nutella? Come on.
Producer:
That bit is the important bit, yeah?
Curious Cat:
Let's find out what a presenter does.
Kye and Louis:
Hello.
Matt:
Hello, how lovely to see ya. Welcome to my studio.
Steve:
Kye, Louis, this is Matt, he presents The One Show live for the 鶹Լ. He's gonna tell us what being a live presenter's all about.
Kye:
Ah, what is being a live presenter all about?
Matt:
Well, it's a very good question. Basically you've got half an hour to get loads of information into a show, we've got lots of different films, and the key is knowing your guest. Right lads, you see this? This is a special little tool that all presenters have, and it's called an ear piece, and this fastens, it's a bit like a walkie talkie system, okay? And this is like you'd go, hello? Right? But, what you do is you fasten that to the end and then you stick this bit in your ear, tuck it all in behind so no-one can see it, and you can hear what people are saying in the gallery. And this is a special room where lots of people are talking. So, Steve sits in there, he's the director.
Curious Cat:
From this special room, Steve can talk to Matt in his ear piece. But Matt uses another clever piece of technology that tells him what to say. It's called an autocue.
Steve:
We've seen how Matt and the professionals do it, they read the words on the screen in front of the camera there, that lots of people have helped write for them.
Curious Cat:
The screen is see-through, and the camera is hidden behind it. This means the presenters are looking directly at the camera as they read their words. It must be really hard listening and reading at the same time. Why don't you have a go? Kye, you read the words from the autocue and Louis, you tell him things to do, just like the people talking to Matt in his earpiece. We've got you on camera. Action.
Kye:
Today we will learn how TV is made.
Louis:
Put your right arm up.
Kye:
We are on the set of The One Show.
Louis:
Put your left arm up.
Kye:
We are filming behind the scenes.
Louis:
Put your right arm down.
Kye:
Here we will learn about filming a live TV show.
Louis:
Put your left arm down.
Kye:
Next we will see how the show is sent to TVs all around the country.
Louis:
Put both arms up.
Louis:
Put both arms down.
Steve:
So now you've had a go at reading and listening at the same time, it's quite difficult isn't it?
Kye and Louis:
Yeah.
Curious Cat:
While Matt is listening to his ear piece and reading the autocue, the cameras are recording his image and sound. Why don't you have a go on the cameras?
Curious Cat:
Studio cameras are really big, they have a screen to see what you're filming and buttons to control them. They also have wheels so they can move around the studio.
Louis:
I like being a cameraman.
Curious Cat:
Next, the pictures and sound recorded on the cameras in the studio go to a special room full of TVs. This is where everything is controlled, it's called the gallery.
Steve:
This is the gallery, or the control room, where everything's controlled from on a live transmission. The producer sits there and talks to Matt in his earpiece, and I sit here and try and make sure the show goes out smoothly.
Curious Cat:
The producer is in charge and they control everything from this room using the TVs and buttons. Steve is the director, and he tells the cameramen what to do. Some of the TVs show what each of the studio cameras are recording. This one is for the final program that you watch on your TV at home. Let's find out what the buttons do.
Steve:
As you press the buttons on this row here it changes what happens.
Kye:
Yep.
Louis:
Can we use these? The lever.
Steve:
You can use the lever. So Louis, if you just move that lever. See? So that's something called a mix effect.
Curious Cat:
So, the buttons and levers control what you see on the screens.
Kye:
What happens next?
Steve:
Shall we go and find out?
Kye and Louis:
Yes please.
Curious Cat:
Once the programme is ready it can be sent to all the houses across the country.
Steve:
So, once the programme's finished it comes to the control room here and it gets sent all across the country. If you look there you can see all the different programmes on air life, now, on the 鶹Լ.
Louis:
So then how does it get to the people's homes?
Steve:
I'll show you, follow me.
Louis:
Okay.
Steve:
So, to send the picture to your homes we first have to turn it into waves. I've got a really good way of showing you that. If I talk into this microphone and you look at the screen, see the line moving?
Louis:
Yeah.
Steve:
If I talk quietly, see it's quite small? And then if I talk loudly, see, it goes really big?
Kye:
Yeah.
Louis:
Yeah.
Steve:
That's the sound being turned into a wave. Do you want to have a go?
Kye:
Yes please. Aaaah!
Louis:
Noooo!
Steve:
So, once we've turned it into waves we then have to send it to your house.
Curious Cat:
Once the pictures and sounds have been changed into waves, they're sent to a special machine called a satellite dish.
Steve:
This is where we broadcast all of the 鶹Լ channels from, like C鶹Լ. We have to broadcast 365 days of the year, 24 hours a day. If we didn't there wouldn't be any telly.
Louis:
Why do they have to point upwards though?
Steve:
They have to point up so that they can see a satellite in space.
Curious Cat:
That's right, and Steve's got a really good way of demonstrating why satellite dishes point upwards.
Steve:
So, imagine that light there is a satellite dish. The TV signals travel in a straight line to your home, this mug's your home. If the dishes were on the ground any big building, like my hand or a tree, would block the signal. See the shadow? That's the signal blocking, so people wouldn't get a good picture. So, we don't send it from the dish on the ground directly to people's homes, instead, the dish points up at a satellite.
Steve:
It's pointing at the satellite way up in space, and that beams down to people's homes, and if you put your hands there, see? The signal's not blocked. There's no shadow. So that's why we use a satellite, to get the signals down to everybody at once.
Curious Cat:
So the TV waves are beamed from the satellite dish, up to a satellite in space, which sends them back down to your houses.
Kye:
What do the TV waves do next?
Steve:
Well, when they get to your home they get converted back into sound and pictures so you can watch them on your television.
Louis:
Clever idea.
Steve:
Very clever.
Curious Cat:
Hello children, how was your journey?
Kye:
It was really fun. We went behind the scenes at The One Show and we met the presenter, he told us all about his job.
Louis:
The presenters listen to the producers in their ear piece, and they tell them what to do.
Kye:
I read from the autocue and Louis told me stuff to do, it was very hard to read and listen at the same time.
Louis:
We filmed stuff on the big cameras and it was really fun.
Kye:
And pictures and sounds go into a special room where they put together the programmes.
Louis:
Then the programme is made into a wave, which can travel really far in a straight line.
Kye:
And waves can't around objects so they're sent up to a satellite in space. Then the waves are sent onto all the TVs in the UK.
Curious Cat:
That's great, children. So now you know all about how TV is made. It's time to say goodbye.
Kye and Louis:
Goodbye Curious Cat!
Curious Cat:
Goodbye children!
Video summary
The children visit a TV studio to see how programmes are filmed.
They operate the cameras and learn how an autocue and earpiece work.
They visit the gallery to see how a live programme is put together.
An expert explains how programmes are made into waves and sent by satellites dishes up to a satellite in space, which transmits the waves back down to homes across the UK.
They return to the classroom to tell Curious Cat what they have learnt.
This is from the series: Curious Cat TV, Bricks, Crayons
Teacher Notes
Could be used to add breadth to sound and light topics.
The clip could be used as a stimulus for children to create their own television programme about how television programmes are made.
This clip would provide good cross-curricular links with ICT and literacy, use of equipment, angles, editing, scripts and directions.
This clip will be relevant for teaching Science at KS1 and KS2 in England.
Also Foundation and KS1 in Northern Ireland and Early/1st/2nd levels in Scotland.
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