Deep Glove Bruno posted:

I am an editor and, depending on if the project is worth the gambit, have definitely agreed with my director/edit producer to pull a Mel Brooks from time to time.

Pardon the derail, but I am fascinated that a channel commissioner is on SA and want to ask you loads of questions. 1. How'd you get the job? Had you made a lot of TV before (I mean made, not execed)? 2. How did you find other commissioners? Were they weird? Did they seem like they knew what they were doing?

From our perspective these people are like inscrutable, erratic aliens with one consistent feature: whatever the project was that they greenlit, they will be confused and disappointed when you deliver it as promised and demand it be completely different, probably by eliminating everything about it that made it worth making.

There are exceptions who perhaps understand better that their role is a supportive one and not really editorial outside of making sure a show doesn't cross lines like legally. But most here (UK) seem clueless, and if you look them up they generally failed upward through family connections. I know someone who recently worked on a BBC show commissioned by a guy who was literally featured in the wikipedia article on "nepotism".

grittyreboot posted:

https://twitter.com/Ethan_Booker/status/848004017494134785?t=n4oPssdWSP0hfyjMXtDXXA&s=19

flavor.flv posted:

Regarde Aduck posted:

I don't know who the gently caress bothers with poo poo like britbox.

flavor.flv posted:

https://twitter.com/HTHRFLWRS/status/1462526327643414535

Deep Glove Bruno posted:

I am an editor and, depending on if the project is worth the gambit, have definitely agreed with my director/edit producer to pull a Mel Brooks from time to time.

Pardon the derail, but I am fascinated that a channel commissioner is on SA and want to ask you loads of questions. 1. How'd you get the job? Had you made a lot of TV before (I mean made, not execed)? 2. How did you find other commissioners? Were they weird? Did they seem like they knew what they were doing?

From our perspective these people are like inscrutable, erratic aliens with one consistent feature: whatever the project was that they greenlit, they will be confused and disappointed when you deliver it as promised and demand it be completely different, probably by eliminating everything about it that made it worth making.

There are exceptions who perhaps understand better that their role is a supportive one and not really editorial outside of making sure a show doesn't cross lines like legally. But most here (UK) seem clueless, and if you look them up they generally failed upward through family connections. I know someone who recently worked on a BBC show commissioned by a guy who was literally featured in the wikipedia article on "nepotism".

quote:

From our perspective these people are like inscrutable, erratic aliens with one consistent feature: whatever the project was that they greenlit, they will be confused and disappointed when you deliver it as promised and demand it be completely different, probably by eliminating everything about it that made it worth making.

The Neal! posted:

No problem as long as you don't mind my long winded answer.

1. The network I worked for (SBS) would be described as the smallest major national free to air channel, so still quite significant but the projects we make weren't Mel Brooks level sort of stuff. It's also partly tax payer funded. If I had to guess I'd reckon it was maybe a 1/4 the scope and size of the BBC is to the UK?

I didn't enter the role by traditional means (if such a thing exists) at all. The network advertised for a vaguely described online Managing Editor of Comedy position. It wasn't until I was deep into the 1st interview that they revealed that it was to run a newly funded initiative they had for launching a comedy dedicated website (like Cracked or College Humour used to be I suppose) but with an angle for it to be a pathway to television for emerging artists. Before this point I had only really directed a few comedy shows at Australian and UK festivals, done some videos online and managed a large part of the program and some venues for an Australian comedy festival. Zero television or even website editing experience. For some insane reason they decided to take a punt with someone younger (I was 30) who knew a lot about what emerging comedy trends in Australia over the more experienced people they had to choose from.

Due to some really good decisions and dumb luck the website I launched ended up extremely successful (for an SBS website anyway). We had a political satire section that was generating a lot of viral articles (it was basically just The Onion but Australian) and I found that I was hitting all the website traffic targets while only using half the considerable budget they had given me . None of my direct managers were interested in comedy so I had an insane level of autonomy in the role and started making cross department deals with the channel programmers, funding initiatives with government arts agencies and funnelling most of my remaining budget into projects that could be split into 12 minute online pieces for the website but also combined together to create 24 minute TV show episodes. Using this model I got all sorts of projects made from pilot episodes, short series and even a feature films. SBS loved that they were getting cheap television made and eventually they starting referring to me as the SBS Head of Comedy. In 4 years I'd gone from being a relative nobody to someone wielding some of the most power in the country in comedy television. It was pretty wild.

Meanwhile the political satire portion of the website was creating a massive political headache for the channel with right wing figures and politicians calling up the Managing Director of the channel regularly to complain and the Murdoch press was at our throats. Eventually SBS decided to ditch the whole thing. They paid out my contract and said thanks for the hard work. I figured I'd get rehired somewhere else pretty quick but instead spent the next 2 years only being able to attach my name to some projects while getting rejected for full time work at networks (Australia's TV industry is really small and even smaller for someone whose experience was exclusively in comedy) and even though my experience got me lots of interviews in the UK, my lack of actual UK experience was obviously an issue for the people that didn't end up deciding to hire me.

Now I'm a video editor for an Australian baroque orchestra, mainly creating trailers and shooting interviews for them. I love the work, it pays really well for the workload, they really appreciate the work I do and most importantly it's very secure. I'm just so much happier (though it took me awhile to realise that not being a high power TV guy anymore didn't mean I was a total failure). The only reminding I get of the 4 years of 'high flying TV days' is when some young producer looks me up on LinkedIn and asks to meet with me for advice (which I'm happy to do), though even that is getting less and less nowadays.

2. Commissioners are human beings, some of them are idiots who fell into the role (I knew one who failed all the way up), some are really smart with years and years in the TV industry and you should really listen to them. It's unfortunately really hard to know which one you have until your well into it. The commissioners at SBS were really good, I think. I met regularly with them and it was one that I was in awe of that got one of Australia's biggest comedy/dramas off that I was thinking of when I wrote that post about getting blacklisted for not following notes. I remember her complaining about one project not following her direction and it becoming an issue. But I also remember that she could be a bit petty on occasion about certain things I didn't rank as all that important. So I can totally understand how being on the other side of that would be a total nightmare.

SBS being a government funded channel meant that some of our notes were to do with our networks charter though and breaching that was unacceptable, so our strongest network orders were probably different sort of notes than 'fire Gene Wilder'.

I can totally have seen myself doing something dumb like saying 'get rid of the farting' scene though if I didn't find it funny. Sometimes you assume that the writers know more than you and when you suggest things and it's okay when they don't follow them, other times it's an essential change you have to happen to get the project through the head of television or something. You try to clarify everything but sometimes you're juggling several projects and miscommunications happen and it can be up to the creator to read the room (a hosed and totally unhelpful thing to say I know, I'm sorry).

One thing you said totally tracks:

When you get pitched something you end up making up your whole personal vision of how you now think it is going to go sometimes the reality is that was completely different from what the creator had in mind. You can get super excited about this show not realising that your reading of the one pager or show bible you've received is not what the creator actually was trying to communicate. Or the project evolves while you're out of the picture, some projects came back different after being in the writers rooms so when I saw it again months later it wasn't what I was expecting.

I learned early on to temper my own personal disappointment when projects didn't turn out exactly the way I dreamed them but my whole job was working with emerging artists on 'low stakes' projects. I can see how if a huge flagship for the network drama doesn't turn out exactly the way the commissioner expects it can turn into a massive issue. You'd hope that they'd be sticking pretty close to it though so surprises were rare.

I'd hope that good commissioners know when to weave in and out of a project so they're not completely out of the loop and using the experience and direct line to the channel to steer the project they way they need to go without sucking the joy out of it for the creators. Doesn't always happen though unfortunately and there's no real advice (besides clearly communicate your ideas upfront) I can think of that can help you avoid having a bad experience with a lovely commissioner, it's just the luck of the draw.

Sorry for the long derail everyone! Can move to DMs if you have anymore questions.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

People who are addicted to panel shows. Also there are some good Australian shows. Try My Favorite Murder with Lucy Lawless.

Regarde Aduck posted:

Is this why UK tv seems to have reached a nadir in the last 5 years? I just assumed brexit had broke it somehow. Everything domestic is so poo poo now, I don't know who the gently caress bothers with poo poo like britbox.

quote:

though honestly given the initial question its pretty funny that even the guy who worked there successfully for 4 years has no idea why they hired him

quote:

You should do an ask/tell thread! That was very interesting!

Frank Frank posted:

These are getting very stdh lame. All started with that Kings Hand tweet and now there are ton of these wacky "Look what I dreamt about and I made it HAPPEN isn't that CRAZY?" things.

Flint_Paper posted:

Page 1000 dance

https://twitter.com/pikapies/status/1466177958893211650

smellmycheese posted:

https://twitter.com/SophNar0747/status/1466367207454171136

smellmycheese posted:

https://twitter.com/SophNar0747/status/1466367207454171136

Splicer posted:

Why does the sound cut out and get replaced with a dull whine and blood coming out of my ears?

SimonSays posted:

Yeah Australian accents aren't great

SimonSays posted:

Yeah Australian accents aren't great

Jezza of OZPOS posted:

look I think if we can't tell canadians and USA'ians apart fair is fair and they shouldn't be able to tell us apart either

Jezza of OZPOS posted:

look I think if we can't tell canadians and USA'ians apart fair is fair and they shouldn't be able to tell us apart either

Beeswax posted:

Gonna be honest here, I just knew Jeremy Wells from off of Taskmaster NZ. Would have had no clue otherwise

Morpheus posted:

he's a news guy??'

Morpheus posted:

Lol likewise. I may have been able to key off the slightly more...I don't know how to put it, but NZ accents I feel skew towards an 'e' sound while Aussie accents are more towards an 'a' sound, but the moment it loaded I thought 'oh hey isn't that the NZ taskmaster?....he's a news guy??'

zakharov posted:

In thə Kiwi ixcint iviri viwil is cinvirtid ti i shirt I. Viri simplə.

Flint_Paper posted:

Page 1000 dance

https://twitter.com/pikapies/status/1466177958893211650

ultrafilter posted:

https://twitter.com/MarksLarks/status/1465928892280188929

coolusername posted:

Fish and chips / “feeesh and chips” = Australian,