TV Shows and TV Production
Jessie is a great show. A nanny named Jessie is going to New York City to follow her dreams in being a pop star. When she gets thrown out of the taxi (because she had no money), she meets this little girl named Zuri, walking out the door of her apartment building. Her nanny had just quit because the children are well, boisterous. When Zuri asks Jessie if she wants to be their nanny, Jessie says yes. When she arrives at the penthouse, all the children are running around tackling each other. When Jessie breaks everything up, Luke, the 12 year-old boy immediately develops a huge crush on Jessie. After that, Zuri introduces Jessie to the children. There is Emma, Ravi, and Luke. And did I mention their dad, Morgan Ross is a famous movie director and their mom, Christina Ross is a supermodel?
Emma is 13 years old. She is one of those popular girls: you know, the ones who wear high heels to school and are always updated with the latest style and always listen to parents and teachers. Luke, 10, on the other hand, is the loud, crazy one. He is the type of guy that dances hip pop with all those moves. Ravi, 7, was adopted from India when he was little, by the Ross family. The only thing Ravi brought with him from India was his pet lizard named Mr. Kipling. He’s not one of those pet lizards who live in a little cage on your desk: he is a seven-foot Asian water monitor lizard. Zuri is a sweet little girl that has dolls and imaginary friends like any regular 7 year-old girl. But, if she doesn’t get what she wants, she can lose her marbles. And last but not least, there is Bertram. He is the butler for the Ross family. I guess he’s a bit grumpy. He just always complains about his job and kids.
Well, now you know all the characters. It’s time to see how TV shows get made. As you probably already know, there’s a pilot episode. It’s the first episode of a TV series. If the network likes the pilot, it will pick up the show for the season and develop it into a series. When the series is approved, the showrunner and producers are hired. As you probably must think, the director is in charge … wrong! In a television series, the showrunner takes over everything, and is in charge of production, the directors, the script and writers, and of course, the cast and actors. Producers are like the showrunners’ assistants. They help the showrunner handle everything, and they are part of hiring the director, talent, crew, writers and assistant producers. They first update the script, and after that, they start to audition actors; then they hire the crew. And finally, the pilot is shot and edited. TV shows are scheduled into three parts: preproduction, production and postproduction.
Before they start shooting, there will probably already be a star attached to the project. If not, the producers will assemble an exciting cast. The director hires extras, people who don’t have any lines to say, for the background.
Did you know that more than 80 people can work on a TV set together? Here are some of the chief positions on a TV set: the director of photography, the production designer, and the gaffer and best boy. The director of photography (known as the DP), manages the camera. The DP sets up the camera angles and shoots with, and supervises, the camera. The production designer creates the visual aspect of the show and designs the set, wherever it takes place. The gaffer is the lighting technician. The grip is a person who focuses the lights. A best boy is a person who serves the head gaffer. The Foley mixer records and plays with the sound effects. The editor ties everything up and makes some changes. Then the show is finished.
All TV shows operate with these concepts of production, although they have different sets and creative teams, and therefore are unique. Consider Good Luck Charlie. Good Luck Charlie (GLC) was inspired by the shows Full House and George Lopez. GLC’s pilot was entitled “Study Date”. It was shot in February 2009 at Sunset Bronson Studios. Luckily, the network liked the series so it continued to produce it. Even though the show is set in Denver, they shot it all in Los Angeles. Starting with the second season it has been taped in Los Angeles Center Studios. The show follows a weekly schedule. On Monday the script is presented. On Tuesday the cast reads the script and gets familiar with it. On Wednesday they start to rehearse. The final script comes out on Thursday and then bam! on Friday they perform in front of a live studio audience.