During the production phase, everything comes together. This may be in the form of a live or recorded broadcast. Editing of shows takes place here to sort out any problems.
Finally, in the postproduction phase, things such as clearing sets, packing up equipment, dealing with any finance, and analyzing the effect of the program are dealt with. Postproduction is also commonly associated with editing. More advanced editing equipment is now used.
There are many aspects that are involved in a production and some of the elements are outlined below.
Personnel
There are many people involved in T.V production. The person who is in charge of the whole production process is the Producer.
He or she comes up with the program concept, sets a budget for the production team, and makes all the major decisions. The producer is generally considered to be the team leader, the one that works with the writers, decides on the key talent, hires the director, and determines the general direction of the production.
The Production Manager/Production Assistant deals with the administrative side of things and generally assists the producer throughout the production.
When considering a production, especially a large one, the producer’s first most important job is to hire a writer so that a script can be written. The producer will then consider the talent that is required, and this includes actors, reporters, hosts, guests, and off-camera narrators – this is anyone whose voice is heard or who appears on camera.
The producer will also need to hire a Director. This is the person who is responsible for pre-production details, regulating the activities of the production staff and on-camera talent, working out camera and talent positions, selecting the camera shots during the production, and directing postproduction work.
The director’s role is quite significant and he/she is responsible for taking the script to the very end of the production process. The Floor Manager in the studio acts as the ‘director’s eyes and ears during the recording and relays any information that the director wants to get to certain performers/members of the crew.
The Producer, Director and Production Manager are all able to communicate with each other using the talk back system.
The Technical Director is in charge of movement between cameras and other video sources, physically changing the picture on the screen. This person is also responsible for coordinating the technical aspects of the production. (This title can vary for each production and may be called a Vision Mixer/Visual Effects Operator).
There may also be a 2nd Vision Mixer or Visual effects operator. This person deals with more complex effects that the program may wish to include and this is normally carried out in postproduction.
There are many different people involved in the production process and this can vary between productions. Some of the others that may be involved include a lighting director, a set designer, a make-up artist, and a wardrobe director.
There are also camera operators. These people not only operate the cameras, but they also have to ensure that the cameras are set up properly and ensure their technical quality. They work with the director, lighting director and audio technician (this person sorts out the recording equipment, sets up and checks microphones, checks the audio quality etc.., to help set and shoot each shot.
Television production requires planning before the production process begins. In making a production there are many things that can to be considered.
The purpose of the production needs to be identified, as well as the goals, and there can more than one goal. The purpose of this would be to evaluate success. And there can more than one goal.
Depending on whom the program is targeted at, the content of the production will vary. Factors such as age, sex, educational level, etc… are also things that should be considered. It is important to determine the basic value of a production. in terms of gain or return on the investment. Developing a production schedule is important to ensure deadlines are reached and so that the production isn’t left out. Selecting the key production personnel, such as the production manager and the director also needs to be done.
Equipment and features used
Camera
In television production, the camera requires a certain level of light to produce good quality video. The light is measured in foot-candles or lux.
In production, using just a simple tripod can make a difference to the end product. It is important that a camera is positioned correctly. In the studio, the entire camera set is usually mounted on a pedestal or dolly. This is to ensure that the camera can be rolled smoothly around the studio floor. The camera is attached directly to a pan head. This is so that the horizontal and vertical camera positions can be adjusted.
When more mobile work is required, there are hand held camera supports that also allow a steady camera shot to be produced.
Camera tracks are also used to achieve further smooth flowing shots.
Lighting
Lighting is another important factor. Used correctly it can enhance important details or if used incorrectly can do the opposite and hide significant details.
Television productions, for obvious reasons, rely on the medium of light, and therefore light needs to be correctly and expertly controlled. Light can be controlled in three ways. These are:
Sound
Sound has two basic characteristics: loudness and frequency.
Sound frequencies are perceived differently depending on equipment and listening conditions. The trebles and controls of playback equipment can be adjusted to make up for these problems.
There is other equipment such as a graphic equalizer. This hi – tech piece of equipment adjusts the bands of frequencies for loudness. A graphic equalizer can be used to match sections of audio that are recorded under different conditions. Alternatively, it can simply be used to customize audio playback to the acoustics of a specific listening area.
Sound is most likely to be affected by the microphone and the audio speaker, however, the final product can really only be at its best if the original audio signal is of better quality.
The acoustics of a room or studio greatly affect sound as it is recorded and played back. It is therefore important that the sound is at an ideal frequency and loudness. An ideal room for both recording and listening to sound would have just enough “reverberation to sound realistic, but not enough to reduce the intelligibility of speech.”
Editing
“Editing establishes the structure and content of the production, along with the production’s overall mood, intensity and tempo.”
A word commonly used to describe editing is ‘cutting’. However, editing involves selecting the best shots, as well as selecting the best parts of the best shots to include in the final product.
After shooting is completed, the producer, director, and videotape editor analyze the tapes and editing decisions are made. This can be done in two steps:
First, there is off-line editing which uses copies of the original tapes. Once this has been done, using an edit decision list as a reference, on-line editing takes place. This time more sophisticated and expensive equipment is used to create the final master copy. It is during this phase that all the other special effects are added. Things such as sound enhancing colour balancing, and special effects.
Professional productions have four elements that are recorded on the tape that are not seen by an audience.
The first, are the colour bars which are shown for a minimum of 30 seconds and are accompanied by a 0db (max level) audio tone on all audio tracks. The purpose of these is to set a proper colour balance and audio and video levels for the videotape playback.
Then there is the slate (for example, this is the thing that they hold and say ‘take1’ with.) This is recorded on a camera and has the following program information on it, which is read out:
- Title of the program
- The episode title (if relevant) and number
- The date (and maybe recording VCR number)
- The audio format (mono, stereo, surround sound designation etc…)
- The presence of closed captioning or extra data
After this comes precisely two seconds of a silent, blank (black) screen followed by the program. Using this enables the film to be loaded at the exact time that it’s needed.
Finally, once the program is completed, it is a network specification that there is five minutes of black screen and silence with a continuous time code after the final scene.
Conclusion
The aim of this report was to inform the reader on how a television show is made. In the introduction it stated that producing a television show, was simple this was obviously not the case as there is far more detail and effort needed. This may not be an accurate example of how a television show is made because it will vary through the different types of show. For example, Channels 4’s reality show Big Brother would not need writers. To improve this article I would carry out interviews with the broadcasting team to further the detail of the article.
Irfan Rashid MCS1: T.V Production
