Television production landscape changing
ABC News reporter Will Reeve became the subject of a story himself when, during an appearance last week on Good Morning America, a poorly positioned camera revealed his risky choice of attire. Perhaps that should be qualified — bare legs are a perfectly safe option for when someone on the other side of the camera can guarantee they aren’t in the shot. Unfortunately, Reeve acted as his own operator.
“I’m surprised there haven’t been more cases like that,” senior executive producer Michael Corn said about Reeve’s flub, which circulated online. “But Will’s a great guy, and he was very funny about it. It’s just the nature of the beast right now. There’s a reason we have technical experts in the field, usually.”
GMA is among many TV programs to continue production during the pandemic, which has required an unprecedented amount of remote isolated work.
News anchors, talk show hosts and reality stars now moonlight as their own camera operators and lighting technicians.
“There’s no gold standard,” said Deirdre Connolly, an executive producer on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live. “This is the first time anyone’s leaning into this sort of technology for broadcast, certainly in this capacity. We’re making sure that what we’re doing feels right for us.”
Producers must now jump through extra communication hoops. The initial plan for host Andy Cohen to shoot Watch What Happens Live from home was derailed by his testing positive for the novel coronavirus. He made the decision to return to the show at the end of March, using his computer camera, a separate microphone and an ipad teleprompter. The host has been a “one- man band,” Connolly said. No one from the show has been in or out of his house.
Other programs have a mixed setup. According to a recent Deadline report, The Voice plans to return to its studio with host Carson Daly and a smaller staff of about 30 other temperature- screened people, as opposed to the usual 450. The coaches will record their portion of the show live from home, similar to how American Idol judges operated during the show’s first completely remote episode. And contestants, who will be pre-recording their performances, “received production kits with state-of-the-art camera and audio equipment.”
Jimmy Fallon and his wife, producer Nancy Juvonen, have been shooting The Tonight Show on what showrunner Gavin Purcell calls “low-fi” tech, such as an ipad. After scrambling a bit during a week in mid-march where “nobody really knew what was happening,” they decided on a simpler setup.
“We wanted to make sure it didn’t feel too glossy,” Purcell said. “One of the things I keep coming back to with these shows is, there is a real authenticity that I think people have been trying to get at for a while, because you see people in their real environments.”