Nikki Parsons
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| Fig. 1 Directing Strictly (2014) |
Nikki Parsons is an English studio director known for both the US and UK versions of So You Think You Can Dance, Strictly Come Dancing, and The Graham Norton Show.
Overall, Parsons job as studio director is to lead the production team, and use her understanding of the show and its requirements as well as her own "creative vision" to pull off a show without problems - at least from the audience's perspective (Rooney & Belli, 2013:23).
Parsons believes this can best be done through collaboration, therefore she has stated that she thinks a director should:
“Watch, and listen, and learn from everybody around you, and never assume that you know everything. There’s always something that’s gonna trip you up... So...it’s good to listen to other people and take on board their experience.”
(In Focus: Multi-Camera Directing, 2015).
So You Think You Can Dance (BBC/Fox)
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| Fig. 2 So You Think You Can Dance monitor wall (2018) |
Initially, Parsons wanted to be a dancer, therefore she has many years of experience dancing (In Focus: Multi-Camera Directing, 2015). However, because of this, Parsons now directs many studio dance show competitions, since her knowledge of dance means she understands the logistics of choreography and can therefore memorise dances when necessary, helping her to be able to tell a story when cutting rather than cutting only to the music (Rosen, 2018).
Understanding dance also allows her to deal with the tight schedule which So You Think You Can Dance runs on - just one day to block without cameras and one day to block with them before the show airs live that afternoon (Rosen, 2018). Yet, to make the most of these rehearsals, Parsons ensures the whole crew know what they should be doing so that if a problem arises during the show, there is more of a chance it can be fixed quickly and thus go unnoticed by the audience (In Focus: Multi-Camera Directing, 2015). In order to pack so much into rehearsals, she always stays calm and ensures everything keeps progressing so no time is wasted (Rosen, 2018).
Nonetheless, to keep everything going smoothly, Parson collaborates with the crew, especially the lighting director and choreographer to understand how they envision the programme, and how her directing can help this and how their departments can help her directing so each dance works to an overall theme and/or tone (Rosen, 2018).
Thus, Parsons aims for:
"the whole thing to be as creative as possible... If I'm shooting something and I suddenly notice that there's this amazing lighting look going on and I'm totally missing it, then I'll change my shots to make sure that I incorporate [that]. The way I direct is a collaboration rather than a dictatorship"
(Rosen, 2018).
For example, in many of the routines on So You Think You Can Dance the lighting often starts off much dimmer and more focused on the contestants. Therefore, in order to focus the audience in on this, Parsons often uses close-up shots to frame the contestants at the beginning of the routine (see fig. 3).
Fig. 3 YouTube: So You Think You Can Dance S15E09 Meet The Top 10 Aug 07, 2018 (2018)
Yet, to make this transition from the host introducing the contestants in a different area of the set to the stage smoother, a push-in is used to get to this close-up shot, further helping to guide the audience's attention in a way which is not jarring.
Fig. 4 YouTube: So You Think You Can Dance S15E09 Meet The Top 10 Aug 07, 2018 (2018)
However, as the dance progresses the music becomes faster and the choreography more impressive and elaborate. Therefore, as the dancers use more of the space, the lights come up, thus Parsons pulls the cameras out to emphasise this and ensure that everything stays in the frame so that a dance move is not cut out (Rosen, 2018) - (see fig. 4).
Overall, this gives the dance a dramatic, serious feel through the lighting style, choices of shot size and the cuts - a crane is mainly used to track with the dancers with very few cuts happening, only to cut to close-up to highlight a move. Without these elements working together, the routine wouldn't be conveyed as effectively to the audience, since the production values would not be able to add up to a cohesive whole or be able to create a tone.
Strictly Come Dancing (BBC)
Parsons directs Strictly Come Dancing in a similar way to that of So You Think You Can Dance. Because of its live nature, Parson also likes to be prepared, since there are no retakes, thus the entire crew need to do a good job whilst on air (In Focus: Multi-Camera Directing, 2015).
However, Parsons enjoys this because of the adrenaline (In Focus: Multi-Camera Directing, 2015), especially since there is always a new challenge - such as an increase in the number of contestants - to be dealt with (Bell, 2014).
Because the show airs on the BBC there are no breaks for advertisements, therefore if there is a problem it has to be solved during a VT (Bell, 2014). Nonetheless, collaboration is again important to Parsons which works well on Strictly because many of the crew have been working on the show for a long time, thus know their roles, and each other, well (Bell, 2014).
Figure 5. YouTube: Blackpool Group Dance - Strictly Come Dancing 2017 (2017)
Despite this, the show sometimes moves to Blackpool Tower for a special episode during the season, creating different challenges, such as more props to help create the sense of a special event (Parsons, 2015) - (see fig. 5). Many of these props have to built especially for the episode, yet the crew have to still ensure the ballroom looks like the show so it fits, but keep the feeling of being on location for the audience so they are aware of the change (Bell, 2014).
Parsons' directing helps with this, since she uses shots to show features of the ballroom, for example, before the hosts enter she shows a close-up of one of the ballroom's light fixtures (see fig. 6), craning up to a wide shot (see fig. 7), before cutting to see the hosts enter, showing more of the space than she would when filming in the TV studio.
Figure 6. YouTube: Strictly Come Dancing Season 15 episode 17 (NOV 17 2017) Week 9 Blackpool (2017)
Figure 7. YouTube: Strictly Come Dancing Season 15 episode 17 (NOV 17 2017) Week 9 Blackpool (2017)
However, Parsons' does direct this special episode much like those in the studio. For example, after each dance routine there is often a few minutes where the props are dismantled or moved, and thus there is time for the director to get some pick-up shots, as long as the dance floor is not being filmed - for this reason Parsons often uses this time to get close-up shots of the audience reacting in the same way they did to the dances to provide insert shots which can be used as cutaways for the editor, both during episodes set in the TV studio and Blackpool Tower (Parsons, 2015) - (see fig. 8).
Figure 8. YouTube: Strictly Come Dancing Season 15 episode 17 (NOV 17 2017) Week 9 Blackpool (2017)
In general, Parsons uses her knowledge of both dance and the show's requirements, as well as collaboration, to create a show which runs smoothly so that the audience are unaware of anything that might have gone wrong on air. The best way to do this as a director is to listen to the crew and learn from them, as well as stay calm and keep everything running, making the most especially of rehearsal time.
Influence on our game show
Nikki Parsons' emphasis on collaboration helped influence my own directing in that I found it was better for the show if I listened to the other departments working on the show since they all had the skills needed to effectively perform their roles.
For example, the producer and I briefed the lighting team and told them we wanted flat lighting, but also that they had creative license to do what they thought would best fit the show. Despite not having a lighting plan, this worked, and helped me adjust my shots. An example of this was during the opening sequence, when the set is first seen. The lighting team decided to light this with colours, with the lights coming up and being flat and even once the host entered. Thus, instead of cutting to a close-up of the presenter as soon as he entered, I decided to stay on the wide shot so that the lighting change was evident to the audience, similar to how Parsons works on So You Think You Can Dance.
However, collaboration was also vital since our show was live, with no breaks except for the VTs, similar to Strictly Come Dancing. Thus, any problems which occurred during transmission had to be solved during the VTs, as well as re-positioning the cameras so they were able to film the next mission. Parsons does this on Strictly Come Dancing by ensuring the crew know their roles well, helped by the fact many of them have worked on the show for a long time. Since on Mission Control we were only making one episode, I thus used paperwork - camera cards and floor plans showing each cameras position - instead to ensure the camera operators knew what they needed to film, so that if anything went wrong during transmission there was a better chance we could solve it quickly since each game had adequate coverage.
This helped with keeping the action in frame, which was just as vital as Parsons working to not cut out any dance moves in So You Think You Can Dance, as it ensured the audience could always see how the contestants were doing during the games, as well as their positions in relation to the rest of the set, especially when they were moving between missions.
To show the audience's reactions, we also filmed some audience shots, however, unlike the audience shots Parsons picks up on Strictly Come Dancing, we used a locked-off camera focused on the audience. This helped us get the audience's reactions live, providing a cutaway shot to break up the action, as well as something to cut to when the presenter mentioned the audience.
List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Directing Strictly (2014) [Photograph] At: http://www.bafta.org/television/craft-awards/a-decade-of-dance-an-interview-with-strictlys-nikki-parsons (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
Figure 3. So You Think You Can Dance S15E09 Meet The Top 10 Aug 07, 2018 (2018) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNILYjiZcdI (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
Figure 4. So You Think You Can Dance S15E09 Meet The Top 10 Aug 07, 2018 (2018) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNILYjiZcdI (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
Figure 5. Blackpool Group Dance - Strictly Come Dancing 2017 (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBS5lgp5Cv4 (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
Figure 6. Strictly Come Dancing Season 15 episode 17 (NOV 17 2017) Week 9 Blackpool (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6lUb407cW4 (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
Figure 7. Strictly Come Dancing Season 15 episode 17 (NOV 17 2017) Week 9 Blackpool (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6lUb407cW4 (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
Figure 8. Strictly Come Dancing Season 15 episode 17 (NOV 17 2017) Week 9 Blackpool (2017) [YouTube webpage] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6lUb407cW4 (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
References
Bell, M. (2014) 'A Decade of Dance - An Interview with Strictly's Nikki Parsons' In: BAFTA. [online] At: http://www.bafta.org/television/craft-awards/a-decade-of-dance-an-interview-with-strictlys-nikki-parsons (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
In Focus: Multi-Camera Directing (2015) [user-generated content online] Creat. BAFTA Guru. 20 February 15 At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1jDJurxNcI&index=19&list=PLc9QYgv46S0NwHCLeCksn5n1BsdqP2oDU&t=53s (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
Parsons, N. (2015) 'Studio Director's Blog' In: BBC blogs. [online] At: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/strictlycomedancing/entries/7bfec6f5-e51e-41af-813d-37097380bc6d (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
Rooney, B. & Belli, M. (2013) Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing. Oxon: Focal Press.
Rosen, L. (2018) 'Dancing as Fast as She Can' In: DGA Quarterly. [online] At: https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/1804-Fall-2018/So-You-Think-You-Can-Dance.aspx (Accessed on 21 March 2019).
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