Television Production Workshop

Objectives

The Television Production Workshop course offers firsthand experience of how a magazine, a report, and an interview are created, incorporating into these genres the techniques and new formats emerging with content platforms and the rise of on-demand viewing. In all cases, the production and realization of audiovisual products is covered from the beginning: concept development, design, production, and live production on set.

The objective is to consolidate the knowledge acquired in previous courses and develop a complex audiovisual product that integrates different genres into a single program, the magazine. The course also delves into multi-camera production, block-based recording, knowledge of the technical equipment of a studio and production booth, and the roles and working dynamics in a television studio.

It also analyzes what factors explain why the number of minutes spent in front of the television falls every year when, paradoxically, more audiovisual content than ever is consumed through mobile devices, mainly smartphones and tablets.

Learning outcomes

• Apply knowledge to develop an audiovisual product from the beginning (idea) to the final implementation (production and post-production), working as a team.
• Learn the basics of audiovisual language and television narrative, as well as the challenges and opportunities posed by changes in the sector.
• Use tools that facilitate filming and the visual and audio editing process typical of any audiovisual project.
• Master and know how to use the equipment that makes up a television studio and a production booth.
• Find the best format to broadcast informative, entertaining, fiction, and non-fiction content to all audiences, whether specialized or not.
• Creates conceptually innovative formats, keeping in mind the rise of multi-platform media.
• Knows how to react to complex, adverse, and unexpected situations that require quick solutions.
• He is capable of leading and/or being a member of a work team and properly managing the time required to develop a proposal and bring it to fruition.
• Analyzes the structures, content, and codes of both linear and on-demand television programming.
• Critically evaluates television products currently being broadcast, paying special attention to equipment, budget, and filming/editing difficulties.
• Use gender-sensitive language.
• Design interventions that are respectful of gender issues.

Competencies

General skills

• Acquire skills in project design and management by making appropriate decisions and using problem solving strategies.
• Demonstrate interpersonal skills and be able to adapt to new situations and work under pressure.
• Organize and plan tasks related to professional performance through proper time management and timing of these tasks.

Specific skills

• Create content and organize management and direction processes for the cinema, television, radio and interactive media.
• Create content and organize management and direction processes for the cinema, television, radio and interactive media.
• Develop narrative skills for different audiovisual and multimedia products and apply techniques for creating fiction, non-fiction and entertainment screenplays.
• Express oneself fluently and communicatively, orally and in writing, in Catalan, Spanish and English, using the discourse of traditional media and new digital media.
• Master audiovisual and multimedia technology and apply it to the different stages in the creative process and thus be able to adapt to different work environments.

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.

Core skills

• Become the protagonist of one's own learning process in order to achieve personal and professional growth and acquire all-round training for living and learning in a context of respect for linguistic, social, cultural, gender and economic diversity.
• Display professional skills in complex multidisciplinary contexts, working in networked teams, whether face-to-face or online, through use of information and communication technology.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Television: in danger or in transformation?
   1. An uncertain future due to new viewing habits
   2. Rise of on-demand content platforms and live streaming
   3. Presentation of television genres. Hybridization of formats
2. Multi-camera production and roles in audiovisual production
   1. The axis rule
   2. The television set and the technical means
   3. The production booth
   4. Roles and hierarchies in an audiovisual production
   5. The role of the public
   6. Space, scenery, and intention. The stage play
3. The television interview
   1. Concept and background
   2. Classification
   3. Guidelines for pre-production, production and realization
4. The television report
   1. Definition and classification
   2. The demands of the script
   3. Filming and visual and sound editing
   4. Guidelines for pre-production, production and realization
5. The television magazine
   1. Origin and characteristics
   2. Production needs
   3. Changes of set
   4. Guidelines for pre-production, production and realization
6. The crystal ball
   1. The fusion of formats
   2. The TV what is coming
   3. Review of concepts

Evaluation

• Production of an interview, with follow-up of the work done: 25%
• Production of a report, with follow-up of the work done: 20%
• Production of a magazine, with follow-up of the work done: 35%
• Activities through the Virtual Campus, including the final exercise to close the course: 15%
• Attendance and participation: 5%

Assessment is continuous. To pass the course, students must attend 80% of the practical and theoretical sessions.

The practical activities must be carried out according to the specific guidelines indicated for each one. The magazine includes several of the genres covered and/or explained throughout the course.

If necessary, students may choose to make up two of the internships within the period established in the academic calendar.

Methodology

In order to achieve the knowledge of the syllabus, the following are combined:

• Practical workshops: On-set sessions to learn how to use the equipment and record the interview and the show live, always devoting some time to assess how the team works. In this case, students are divided into subgroups.
• Theoretical classes with the entire group: watching programs that are currently on the air or that have marked a turning point in the programming.
• Tutoring: individual and group.
• Self-employment.
• Specific readings.

Bibliography

Key references

• Barroso García, Jaime (1996). Realización de los géneros televisivos. Síntesis.
• Barroso García, Jaime (2018). Realización televisiva: De la TDT a la IPTV. Fragua.
• Castillo, José María (2016). Televisión, realización y lenguaje audiovisual (3 ed.). Instituto Oficial de Radio y Televisión.
• Laura Saula (2018). El futur incert de la televisió: Els avenços digitals i els nous hàbits de consum marquen les tendències del sector. Retrieved from https://www.raco.cat/index.php/Capcalera/article/view/338124/428995
• Terán, Borja (2019). Tele: Los 99 ingredientes de la televisión que deja huella. Somos Libros.

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.