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HELP! I just got booked to do our first television show!
*Perfect example of being in the right place at the right time! I am with a small & relatively young video production business (which mostly does weddings) and I have a client who would like to do a “Bloomberg” style television program. I am wondering exactly how to go about doing that and get the best quality?
They want the screen to be broken up into several different pieces with a video on the left, changing pictures and text on the right, and two tickers constantly crawling at the bottom. What would be the best way to do that? Should I use a template created in photoshop? I have had tickers running at the bottom of the screen in times past, but I never thought they looked all that great. Should I use after effects for this?
We’re also in the process of discussing the use of HD (which I do not have yet) and was wondering if I can edit HD on my Premier pro 1.5? Or do I need an upgrade?
Any suggestions\tips for someone doing their first television show would be MUCH appreciated! Thanks!!!
Hardware & Software Configuration
Pentium 4 dual core 2.8ghz
2 Gigs Ram
Matrox RTX 100
Adobe Premier Pro 1.5
Adobe After Effects 6.5
Photoshop 7 -
6 Replies
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My advice: Subcontract and participate. That’s the best way to learn and make money at the same time.
Now, I don’t know how much they know about tv production, and what they plan in having “you” handle. There is so much involved in producing a TV show, from scripting, to casting, lighting, set design (a big one often forgotten), copyrights, contracts, and of course overbudgets, the list goes on.
Without equipment, you have to budget in long term rentals, location licenses, location rentals, lots of insurance, basically things you certainely wouldn’t have to worry about in smaller live evnts such as weddings. If you add to that multicamera shoots, you just doubled your list and costs.
Then you’ll have to explain to them what format they should use and why. If the client feels in doubt about your capability, they may just decide to go somewhere else.
Yes, your computer can handle some HD, DVCProHD mainly. Most TV stations do accept work shot in DVCPro HD 100. Be aware that the same doesn’t go for HDV, they usually only accept a small percentage of a final work coming from HDV, if any.
For uncompressed HD or HDCAM, etc., you’ll need some major upgrades, an SDI capture card, terabytes in Sata drives, and probably an upgrade to CS3.
I would post in the broadcast forum as well, you’ll get much more specific info, the job forums is also a great resource for people in your area.
Good luck !
Vince
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Thank you very much for the advice, I will definitely take your words to heart!
I do have about three months experience with television, but mostly from the prospective of cameraman and editor. As for the client, they were fairly heavy into video production about 10-12 years ago and still have a decent understanding of how things operate. They will be handling the scripting, casting, some of the lighting & set design, and copyrights.
It also would have been wise for me to mention the type of equipment I am currently using. The cameras I have are a Panasonic AG-DVX100A & DVC-30. I have a decent Lowell lighting kit along with a mess of other lighting I have acquired. I am using Sennheiser EW-100 G2 Wireless mics along with a mix of Octava condenser and Sure hand held mics.
Thank you also for the HD wisdom. I was figuring some upgrades would probably be in order.
Matthew Baker
Baker Creative Productions, LLC -
If you plan on using your own equipment, you will probably need some wired lavs. Wireless does carry some inherent noise, even counting out interference, and we only use them if the situation absolutely requires it. I would personally recommend the ubiquitous Sennheiser MKE 2 (As someone said in the other forums, if it’s good enough for Jay Leno, and our company uses it for Steve Jobs…)
For lighting, well that really depends on what the set looks like. Some lowel lights may do the job (Tota for example), some won’t. Arrilites 1k kits are probably the most affordable at the pro level, and bundled with medium Chimeras / grids can really be sufficient for most interview style shoots, or even talents on a set.
For Camera, I would definitely rent, but again, it depends on what you are shooting.
Vince
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As for the “ticker” on the bottom of the screen, you can do this quite simply in PPRO using the title tool.
Instead of a title ROLL, choose CRAWL instead and set the direction (usually right to left).
Just have the client supply the pre-approved, proofed text in a RTF or Word doc format, copy from that and paste into a new title in PPRO.
The duration of the title is based on the length you stretch it in your timeline, e.g., if you want it to last the entire length of your production, stretch the title to fit the entire timeline once it is added into the mix. If you have too little text, the crawl will go VERY slowly, and if you have too much, it will go way too fast.
Sometimes simply repeating previous info smooths out this issue.
I think Vince gave some sage advice, get help from people who have better studio quality gear. I would suggest at the very least in renting 2 or 3 HVX200’s and match them up with firestore’s or direct to hard drives on laptops or a DVR.
Good luck! Please let us know how it all turns out.
Scot
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Excellent advice, thank you very much for your expertise!
Matthew Baker
Baker Creative Productions, LLC -
Thank you for the tips Scot! I have had some issues with that process in the past though. Mostly to do with the crispness of the text scrolling. I will probably try to use the photoshop method for a crawl.
As for the HVXs, that will definitely be plan A. I’ll look into the portable hard drive option as well (the 16G cards are still pretty pricey for me at the moment)
Thanks again!
Matthew Baker
Baker Creative Productions, LLC
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