After the n-th person quit from my office, I feel that this has to be said. Guys, TV is nothing more than mundane activities strung together, creating a formula that looks magical. But there is nothing magical about having to source for an obscure prop, or having to be on set on twelve-hour shoot days where you are far away from friends and family, or even getting crew all the drinks they need to plow through the day.
Nothing magical at all.
So before anyone sees a Behind-The-Scenes and go, oooooh so fun, and decides to jump into this industry because you get to see stars, please, I beg of you, DON'T.
The glamour, the lights and pizzazz of television are all made possible on the backs of sweaty men and women who wake up before the crack of dawn, making every minute on set count, doing things that defy the "laws" of a university graduate.
When you read a script, it is just words, description words, character names, dialogue chunks. There is no magic.
When you stand, physically behind the scenes, there is no magic. Everyone is busy in their own department. The logger logs the shot, checks the script and notes continuity. The make up artist scrutinises the actor's face on camera, ready to jump in to touch up at any time. The props master is waiting to put in the props for the next scene and the welfare person is making sure everyone is well and properly fed. On screen, is the action being filmed, one shot here, one shot there. You see the raw, flat shots. There is no magic.
In the editing suite, there is no magic. The editor cuts out the front and the back of the clips, stitches the sound and visuals together, splices different angles together, picks out the best takes and assemble it together. It can be pretty boring to sit through a whole day's footages.
Then it goes to colour grading and audio mixing.
When after all that work is done, from scripts to shoot to the final mix, and you play the video, the film comes to life. That's where the magic is, inside your TV box.
So if you can stand that the satisfaction only comes in that little box, please, come join us in this industry.
If not, seriously, don't even.
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