Reality TV workflow!!

[Mark Raudonis]

Eron,

Having spent most of my career on the show that literally created the reality TV genre (MTV’s: The Real World), I think I’m qualified to respond to your question.

Here’s my response:

Why are you trying to bamboozle your “friend” into hiring you for something that you clearly don’t know anything about? Please give me your friend’s name so that I can suggest a dozen other more qualified candidates to hire!

Sure, there are plenty of crappy reality TV shows out there, and perhaps your friend is doing one of those. In that case, good luck! But for most of the shows that I’ve been involved with, editing reality TV is some of the most difficult editing you can ever do. For starters, we expect our editors to work autonomously. That means there are NO producers in the room suggesting what to do. You’re on your own, and you better have a strong enough story sense to know what to do. On top of that, you better know how to construct a scene from a limited amount of material. Inevitably, the most dramatic scene was shot under duress resulting in the worst coverage. Boring scene? Hours of coverage. Exciting scene? Just a few fleeting seconds.

You asked for details… here’s my hint: It’s all about the soundtrack! Cut for dialogue and the don’t worry about the picture. You can always bridge a jump cut, but the audio has to make sense. You’d be surprised at how much “compressing” you can do to speed up a scene. Take out all of the extraneous “ummms”, “ahhs”, “likes” and “you know what I means”, and suddenly a the scene plays well.

Finally, you can kiss your Saturday’s goodbye. If you’re really giving it your best shot, you’re working six days a week, ten hours a day. Your audience doesn’t care that you don’t have the coverage that you need to make a scene work. They just expect it to be perfect.

You’re really doing your “friend” a disservice by trying to convince her that you’re “right” for the job. A true friend would be honest and say, “here’s my experience. I can learn, but I wouldn’t know a stringout from a stringbean”.

Mark

[Bret Williams]

Isn’t 10 hours a standard work day? Losing Saturday stinks, but as long as you’re getting paid for it. Couldn’t you work 5 12 hour days instead? 😛

[Lars Fuchs]

[Bret Williams] “Isn’t 10 hours a standard work day?”

No – you’ve got it backwards. Editors are allowed 56 hours a week for sleep. Not necessarily 8 hours a day, just an average of 8 hours per day). Client owns the rest.

;->

[Shane Ross]

[Mark Raudonis] ”
Finally, you can kiss your Saturday’s goodbye.”

This is why I don’t work in reality TV. I got an offer…and was interested…but then heard that aspect and said “no thank you.” In my world I work the occasional late night or weekend night…but losing ALL of them. Nope, not for me.

I value my time off. No TV show is worth that. IMHO.

But what Mark says is true…the need to know story and working on your own without a producer is a must. Going in without knowing how to cut reality isn’t wise. Typically you assist and then move up. Or you know how to cut something CLOSE to reality, and are brought in to learn.

And a “stringout” is typically done in most non-narrative programming. I do this all the time in documentary.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Dom Silverio]

Mark,
Although I understand the importance of the Real World in the reality TV landscape, saying you guys invented the genre is something I disagree with. There has been reality TV programming since the 1940s (albeit small amount). The show COPS preceded Real World by 2 years if I am not mistaken. There was also a PBS reality show in the 1970s about an American family. Again, I don’t deny that Reality World started the modern craze but it was definitely the start of reality TV – not by a long shot.

Sorry for hijacking…
On topic…. workflow for reality shows varies from show to show. Editors tends to be more autonomous than fictional editors. The workflow is very similar to docs – a lot of footage, long hours, and good music selection.
For certain shows a good grasp of FX (Boris, Sapphire, etc) is necessary. O yeah – sense of humor.

[Dom Silverio]

[Dom Silverio] “Again, I don’t deny that Reality World started the modern craze but it was definitely NOT the start of reality TV – not by a long shot.”
correction

[Chris Borjis]

Eron you might look in the classifieds forum here on the cow.

There’s a guy who keeps posting his book for sale “how to edit reality tv like a pro”

[Mark Raudonis]

dom,

Well, if you’re gonna hijack a thread, at least get the name of the show correct! It’s called “The Real World”, NOT “Reality World”!

You’re entitled to your opinion, but you’re wrong. Prior to 1991 and the premiere of “The Real World”, reality TV was called “documentary”. The examples you cite are more documentary than anything else. It was MTV’s “The Real World” that was the first to combine documentary production technique with the storytelling style of episodic soap operas, edited in a music video style. Prior to that, no other show had all three of those elements. The flood of imitations that followed only confirmed that a new genre had been created.

“An American Family” deserves recognition for it’s achievement, considering the state of production/post production equipment back in the 70’s. And,if you really want to go far back, then don’t forget Robert Flaherty’s “Nanook of the North”, or “Man of Aran”. And of course we owe a nod to Frederick Weisman for his excellent “verite” work. But none of them achieved the popularity and influence on pop culture and other forms of media like “The Real World” did.

Yes, we did invent “reality TV”.

Mark

PS. Followed up 3 years later with “Road Rules” which firmly established the “reality competition” genre.

[Ben Scott]

never done any reality tv edits, not posting to debate that only suggesting tools that may be of use

just thought it useful to mention the multiclip sequence feature

probably also good to say if anything shot HDV or XDCAM you need a good setup with transcoding to prores e.g. final cut server

I would also imagine an XSAN is also a necessity

and of course label the multiangle clips when capturing

it may be more useful to the first original poster to mention the tools and let him work out what is useful rather than debate The real world being the orginal format for reality TV

– – – – – – – – –
Check my podcast at https://cowcast.creativecow.net/final_cut_pro/index.html
or my site at
https://www.benscottarts.co.uk/ – – – – – – – – –

[Dylan Reeve]

My experience mirrors Mark’s to some extent (working at NZ’s reality TV factory) – the editors were quite often very autonomous. We got transcriptions of the tapes, basically, a simple run down of events and points of interest (usually logged at approximate time-of-day by production assistant on the shoot) and some director’s notes. Then we’d make the story.

Long days were usually the norm – if shift editing the late shift editor often got the raw end of the deal. A good digitiser/assistant is very helpful.

In a practical sense, I used to make a lot of use of Avid’s clip colouring so different cameras, events or character would have clips of a different colour and could be easily identified in the sequence.

The ability to cut down dialogue is absolutely vital and can’t be understated. You need to be able to take some rambling IV grab and turn it into a short and succinct bite. It has to make sense and sound more or less correct. I know editors who build up a bin of small words (and, if, of, we, I etc) from each person so they can grab them to tie bits together.

[Mark Raudonis] “If you’re really giving it your best shot, you’re working six days a week, ten hours a day.”

One series I worked on (where I was pretty much the only editor as the other shift editors kept quitting) I worked 40-something days without a day of. One of those days was a 26-hour shift – I started at 7am, finished at 9am the next day and came back again about 4pm that afternoon and worked to midnight. Surely that was my best work ever.

I say if your friend is willing to give you a go then go for it, but don’t be the only editor there if you’re not experienced. Make sure your working with someone with more experience who can mentor you in the role.