TV Directing 03; Art and Tech Scouts

TV Directing 03;  Art and Tech Scouts

I have to write this quick because my day starts at 4am tomorrow and I'm already a little overly tired.

Art Department... People working on the show have done a lot more episodes than you, so generally the aesthetic is set, so what you need to do is just make sure that they understand what you need from them from a story point of view.  For example, if you need to make sure the audience understands that something on the computer happened, you need to figure out how that could convey the most simply and have the art department create that graphic.  If someone is wearing a silly hat - it's up to you to figure out what would be the most appropriate sily hat for them to wear.  You know this because you're the one who has figured out what the story is and how to convey that to the audience.

An interesting side note....  for TV, everything must be "greeked."  This means that if you have a Raisin Brand box... you need to change the face of it so much that it no longer is the same logo or name or art work.  Every single product in a movie has either been greeked or cleared byt he legal department.  So - keep this in mind when you're doing an indie film you intend to sell.  This is a by-product of being in a litigious culture.  People will sue for damages if they feel your film misrepresents their brand.  Additionally, certain networks are owned by certain corporations who do not want to feature competitor products in their programming.  This kind of thing is another one of the big changes from amateur to professional working.  But... too many un-clearable products and your movie will never sell.  Visual Effects houses make a lot of money  every day having their artists remove product names and signs from footage.

Tech Scouts...  Before shooting you will go on a tech scout out to all the locations with the heads of all the departments.  This involves finding the exact locations you want to shoot and figuring out where the sun will be so you know at what time of day you should be shooting there.  Big tip - if you have big exterior scenes - try shooting them in  the morning or late at night so the sun isn't quite so harsh.  Big budgets do this by having HUGE silks over the cast.  If you don't have the budget, you can use good timing to get a similar or better result.   The gaffer brings a compas and special charts to map the suns direction and time.  The Art Department will be looking for signs that they will have to greek and new set pieces they will need to bring in order to help continue a motif or help tell the story.

Starting tomorrow I will probably just try to write one tip on direction each day for the next 10 days.