I remember the excitement Sam and I shared when Dr Who were looking for DJ equipment for a wedding scene. I asked them if it wouldn’t be useful to also have an actual DJ on set to operate the equipment and play the part? The answer was yes! Sam was able to set up as he would for a wedding at Miskin Manor and experience the unique and exacting creation of film. You can see this episode here (Sam appears in the last 10 minutes)

I had a similar experience some 10 years later, when DJ equipment was being sought for the drama series The Pact. I am in the background providing the DJ set up and lighting for episode 1 and 4 of series 1. This was in the middle of the pandemic, and mask wearing was a constant rule on set until the director said “And set…” Covid Testing was a prerequisite, as it still is in 2022.

What is it like?

There is a lot of preparation and testing, and at least one rehearsal for each shot. Sometimes there can be around 6 takes of the same scene. The reason is often that in order to get the multiple camera angles without getting crew in the shot there will need to be a repeat of the same action for each angle. There is also the fact that there are slight differences between each take in terms of how the actors and support artists perform it. There is a lot of discarded footage in the cutting room!

Often actors and support artists will be asked to dance in silence as if there is music and the music is layered over the top afterwards. This is so that they can record the speech of the actors clearly.

There are frequently long days and it isn’t possible to get an understanding of the whole story of a given episode, as each scene will only contain a small part of the bigger picture. If the story takes place at night and the filming occurs in the day, then windows need to be blacked out. If filming of day takes place in the dark, then often large cranes will supply artificial daylight through the windows. We have also provided equipment and DJ for two different scenes on the Sky series Extinction, for Casualty, and also equipment for Y Golau and Pobl Y Cwm.