The three basic forms of television programs are fictional, nonfictional, and live television. Fictional programs include daytime soap operas; situation comedies; dramatic series; and motion pictures made for television, including the mini-series (a multiple-part movie). The basic nonfictional, or reality, programs include game shows, talk shows, news, and magazine shows (informational shows exploring a variety of news stories in an entertainment format). Live television is generally restricted to sports, awards shows, news coverage, and several network daily talk shows.
Most television programs are produced by production companies unrelated to the television networks and licensed to the networks. The network creates the financing for the production by selling commercial time to sponsors.
Have you ever thought what goes behind any television programme production? Or, have you ever noticed the names of the people involved in production process that appear on television after the programme ends? You may not have bothered to look at all the names which appear on the television screen at the end of the
programme. But you must know that a whole range of personnel and equipments are involved in making a television programme.
While watching television, as viewers, we are largely unaware of the production complexities. But professional television production, regardless of whether it is done in a television studio or in the field is a complex creative process in which many people and machines interact to bring a variety of messages and information to a large audience.
PROGRAMME PRODUCTION STAGES
Let us consider a situation in which you are expecting some guests for dinner.
What preparations will you make?
First of all, you need to decide the menu. Then you will arrange for all the vegetables and such other ingredients required for the preparation of food items. You may have to go to the market for buying the
ingredients. Now after arranging for everything, you will start preparing the food. This again involves all the key ingredients to be mixed at the right time in the right quantity. Once the food is prepared, comes the presentation stage wherein you will put the various items prepared in different utensils and after garnishing , they will be ready to be served on the dining table.
So you have seen that there were three stages in the making of various food items. In stage one, you arranged for everything required for preparing the food items. In stage two, you actually prepared the food items and in the third stage, you presented them on the dining table.
Now imagine you have to produce a television programme. In a similar manner as above, you will first arrange everything required for the programme production. In the second stage you will actually carry on the production process, and thirdly you will polish the product for the final presentation on television. Thus, we can divide the entire production process into three major stages.
There are three stages of programme production.
1. Pre production
2. Production
3. Post production
Pre-Production.
This stage includes everything you do before entering the studio or reaching the shooting location. It involves idea generation, research, scripting, discussions with all the crew members and talents (actors), arranging equipment, video / audio tapes, properties, costumes, sets designing or location hunting and booking of
editing shifts.
The first thing to know about any and every production is what you want the programme to look like, just like you need to know what you want to cook. This is the pre production stage. You need a clear idea of what you want to make. Only then will you be able to make a good programme, understandable by the
audience. Once the idea is clear, the next stage is how to get from the idea to the
television image. To translate an idea on screen effectively you need a good and
detailed script. In all it involves planning everything in advance. This is very essential to get desired results. If you have all the raw ingredients ready in your kitchen, you can easily cook the food. Similarly, if you have worked well in this stage of programme production, the other two stages become easy and workable.
Production
This is the stage when you are on the studio floor or on location and are ready to shoot or are actually shooting. (You can compare this to the situation when you were in the kitchen carrying out the process of cooking food). It includes managing all the facilities, handling of talent and crew members, controlling the
crowd, shooting without hurdles and solving any problem related on the spot at that time.
Post-Production
This is the third stage of programme production. It is the stage when you get the final shape of the programme, just like the way you garnished every food item to be presented on the dining table. It includes cutting the recorded visuals into appropriate length, arranging the visuals in a proper sequence, use of desired
effects for the visuals or text / captions, commentary rerecording, music/song recording, and final assembly of the entire programme.
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