In The Zone goes LIVE in Birmingham!
Blogging science to life
Fri 23 March 2012, Written by: Chris
The first 'broadcast' of At-Bristol's touring TV studio, In The Zone, took place last week at the National Big Bang Fair… and ratings were through the roof!
Looking back over a hugely successful start to this nationwide tour, we've got the Director's Cut of just what got peoples' pulses racing with In The Zone - the Wellcome Trust's major initiative inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Tuesday lunch time was quite a sight as At-Bristol came rolling into the NEC with a campervan, huge trailer, two 4x4s, two inflatable tents and a team comprising of actors, technicians and science communicators. How big was this exhibition going to be?! Well if you can picture 5 TV studios, a running track, live stage shows and all the bits in between then you get the idea! Still, it took just one long day for the At-Bristol team to set the stage ready for the launch.
It's a good job At-Bristol designed and built this exhibition as, with somewhere in the region of 3 miles of cabling, it's a complicated and ambitious set-up and there's nothing like this anywhere else to copy from! Our visitors and members that helped pilot In the Zone in half-term, including Sir Steven Redgrave (!!), provided invaluable support in advance of this first event - thank you!
Lights, camera…action! In the Zone finally opened to excited queues of some of the brightest young scientists and engineers on the planet at Big Bang on Thursday last week! At-Bristol's team of science communicators…..sorry….floor managers, got straight into character getting the cast members around the studios and ready for the Director. To entertain the masses, we had live shows running from the outdoor broadcasting stage bringing to life the science of our amazing human body relating to sport and movement. Everyone was scrabbling to get on the stage, become part of the cast and take part - the cheers and applause was heard throughout the NEC!
Studio 1 was casting for the Sports Spotlight on Power, with the cast leaping on force plates and watching themselves in slo-mo. We were taking photos under the skin with vein viewers in Studio 2 before asking the cast to get their pulses racing in an uphill handlecycle race through the Alps in Studio 3. With reactions tested in Studio 4, the final filming was for the 10 metre dash. A busy few days of filming saw nearly 5,000 'cast members' star in their own documentaries during the 3 days of broadcasting at the Big Bang Fair. Half have already logged on to getinthezone.org.uk to review their footage and share their showreels. Among those getting In The Zone were World Champion gymnast Beth Tweddle and even HRH Prince Andrew checked out a live broadcast from our team.
To meet the demanding filming schedule, the At-Bristol crew found themselves out in the fair talent-scouting for In The Zone. With lots of exciting investigations exploring lung capacity, pulse rates and even the body's conductivity, we made sure everyone was primed and ready to get In The Zone. From grinning grannies to beaming babies, everyone was excited to see their showbiz smiles on camera and we even grabbed Dr Yan from BBC's Bang Goes the Theory! In fact, if you've got what it takes to star in your own TV show and want to get In The Zone to explore more about the amazing human body, the Director is waiting for you at 12 future events - find out when the TV studio is near you here.
CUT….that's a wrap!
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