NICKY KURTA has been working on the new children’s TV show for ABC, HOOT HOOT GO!
It’s been 8 months in the making, so we take you behind the scenes with a “Day on Set” with Nicky.
Today’s call is 7:15am for a 7:30am on set call, which gives me 15 minutes to do a vocal warm up (I really like Leigh McRae’s Vocal Mastery) and a physical warm up with our puppeteer consultant, Fiona.
Ziggy, our awesome AD calls us on set and we sit down with our Director, Karin Fitzhardinge. We all have a script read through and watch the animatic of today’s episode. I head to my table and put my microphone on and a green screen suit if required. We shoot a lot of green screen stuff but we also have a bunch of different sets. Some of which also involve chroma key. We will often shoot a script of order, just so that we can get all the shots that utilise the same set piece done. It’s way more efficient.
Usual set ups are a small monitor on a magic arm connected to a stool with that changes height and has wheels for easy movement. My script will be attached underneath the monitor so it’s easy to see both. We hide behind a play board so our arms can be held comfortably above our heads whilst puppeteering.
Getting the lighting just right can be quite a process but as soon as that’s done we get to do our first run through. We then record a few takes, wides, close ups, two shots etc. and then move on. Some shots require a full green outfit from head to toe which means I get to wear a green mesh face mask 🙂
It takes 2 days to shoot one episode. After the block is shot, we have to do some pickups in ADR. This would be if there were any audio problems or dialogue redirection. These sessions are usually pretty quick as we try to pick up most of these things on set.
It’s been a really fun and exciting new challenge and I can’t wait for the show to be out in the big wide world! I’m really glad my agents, Kathy & Kathryn suggested me for the job as it’s not something I’ve ever thought of doing or that I was capable of….but I’m really loving it! – Nicky Kurta
