CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN TELEVISION AND CABLE ALLAN TAYLOR JAMES ROBERT PARISH Foreword by NAT SEGALOFF To Linda and Virgil Barnes for their constant support and enthusiasm Career Opportunities in Television and Cable Copyright © 2007 by Allan Taylor and James Robert Parish All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permis- sion in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Ferguson An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data Taylor, T. Allan. Career opportunities in television and cable / by Allan Taylor and James Robert Parish. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-6312-5 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Television—Vocational guidance. 2. Cable television—Vocational guidance. I. Parish, James Robert. II. Title. HE8700.4.T39 2006 384.55023′73—dc22 22005037889 Ferguson books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Ferguson on the World Wide Web at http://www.fergpubco.com Cover design by Cathy Rincon Printed in the United States of America VB Hermitage 10987654321 This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS Foreword v EDUCATION Industry Outlook vii Acknowledgments xi Director of Instructional Television (ITV) 60 How to Use This Book xiii Instructional Television (ITV) Specialist 63 ENGINEERING ADVERTISING Assistant Chief Engineer 66 Account Executive—Sales 2 Audio Engineer and Video Engineer 68 Advertising Copywriter 5 Chief Engineer 71 Assistant Sales Manager 8 Engineering Supervisor 74 Director of Development 10 Engineering Technician 76 General Sales Manager 12 Maintenance Engineer 78 Market Researcher 14 Master Control Engineer 81 Sales Coordinator 17 Technical Director 83 Traffic-Continuity Specialist 19 Transmitter Engineer 86 Videotape (and Digital) Engineer 89 ARTS AND DESIGN MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION Art Director 22 Accountant 92 Graphic Artist and Graphic Designer 24 Bookkeeper 95 Matte Artist 26 Business Manager 97 Production Designer 28 General Manager 100 Set Designer 30 Receptionist and Office Clerk 103 Storyboard Artist 33 NEWS CABLE/SATELLITE TELEVISION Assistant News Director 106 Chief Technician 36 Desk Assistant and Researcher 109 Customer Service Representative 38 News Anchor 112 Director of Local Origination 40 News Director 115 Installer 42 News Writer 118 Marketing Director 44 Reporter 121 Sales Manager 46 Sportscaster 124 System Manager 48 Weather Reporter 126 Technician 50 PERFORMING DIRECTING Choreographer 130 Extras 133 Assistant Director 54 Performing Artists (including Actors, Dancers, Director 56 Singers) 135 iv CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN TELEVISION AND CABLE Stunt Coordinator 138 Operations Manager 220 Stuntperson 140 Production Assistant 222 Production Coordinator and Production PRODUCING Secretary 224 Unit Production Manager and Line Producer 226 Associate Producer 144 Casting Director 147 Music Executive Producer 149 Composer and Songwriter 230 Producer 152 Music Director 232 PROGRAMMING, PUBLIC RELATIONS, Props and Set Maintenance AND MARKETING Property Assistants 236 Property Master 238 Community Relations Director 156 Director of Publicity and Promotion 159 Sound Film/Tape/Digital Librarian 162 ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) Program Manager 164 Supervisor 242 Publicity/Promotion Assistant 166 Boom Operator 244 Foley Artist 246 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION Music Editor 248 Production Sound Mixer 250 Camera Sound Editor 252 Assistant Camera Operator 172 Sound Effects Coordinator 254 Camera Operator 174 Sound Recordist 256 Cinematographer 177 Special Effects and Visual Effects Editing Special Effects Supervisor 260 Assistant Editor Positions 182 Visual Effects Supervisor 262 Editor 184 Postproduction Supervisor 187 WRITING Hair, Makeup, and Wardrobe Script Supervisor 266 Costume Designer 190 Scriptwriter 268 Costumer 193 Hairstylist 195 APPENDIXES Makeup Artist 198 I. Educational Institutions 272 Lighting and Electrical II. Major Trade Periodicals, Newsletters, and Best Boy Positions 202 Other Publications 338 Gaffer 204 III. Professional, Industry, and Trade Key Grip 207 Associations, Guilds, and Unions 342 Lighting Technician 209 IV. Useful Web Sites for the Television Industry 351 Location and Transportation Location Manager 212 Glossary 355 Transportation Coordinator 214 Bibliography 371 Index 377 Management (Technical) About the Authors 385 Floor Manager 218 FOREWORD by Nat Segaloff, writer, teacher, journalist, broadcaster, and television producer The television industry today is changing its structure with ican shores. Cable, satellite, and Internet delivery systems confusing speed. Telephone companies now own cable fran- are slicing the income pie into ever-shrinking slivers. chises, movie studios own broadcast and cable networks, Finally, cheap video equipment has turned every consumer and all of them are fighting over who gets to provide Inter- into a producer, creating the impression that anyone can net access while satellites hover watchfully above. The FCC make a TV show. (Federal Communications Commission) has abdicated its regulatory duty in an effort to spur innovation, marginal * * * * voices are being pushed aside, and the consumer is caught I broke into TV in the late 1970s by what I later learned was in the middle. Critics charge that there may be more TV the traditional manner: dumb luck. As a former publicist liv- channels, but they contain less diversity of content; support- ing in Boston, I knew all the broadcast station executives ers argue that, since anybody can start a personal blog on from having placed touring celebrities on their local talk the Internet, that makes up for the networks abandoning shows (which barely exist anymore thanks to syndicated their responsibility to keep the public informed. About the programming). I left publicity when Clark Smidt, a vision- only thing that hasn’t changed since Philo Taylor ary CBS radio executive (he created the “soft rock” format), Farnsworth invented television in 1927 (at the age of 15!) is asked me to be his on-air entertainment critic. Because I that somebody still has to make the programs. That’s what have, as the insult goes, “a face made for radio,” I never this book is about. even considered television. Nevertheless, Russell Manker, Getting a job in the creative end of television is a little another friend from my PR days, dared me to audition for a like trying to wrangle an invitation to someone else’s dinner show that Westinghouse television was just starting called party: You can drop hints, send notes, and make phone calls, Evening Magazine. but crashing it seldom works—except for those times it Not thinking I had any chance of landing the gig, I arro- does, making it one of the few instances in which the excep- gantly entered the audition room, sat on the edge of the desk tion proves the rule. The trick is to be innovative but not too rather than behind it (forcing the camera crew to adjust innovative, because that means taking a risk, and the televi- angles), looked squarely into the lens, and talked until sion industry is all about minimizing risk. Whether you someone said, “cut.” Fortunately, live radio had given me become a floor director or an account executive, a writer or the experience of ad-libbing. a program manager, when the TV industry tells you it wants And that’s when dumb luck came into play. Evening fresh ideas, what it really means is that it wants old ideas Magazine, it turned out, was designed to put “real people” packaged in a new way. The proof lies in what gets on the rather than anchors on the tube. My being a “mustachioed air and what doesn’t; how many times have you said to Jewish male”—that’s how Russell Manker’s boss described yourself, “That show is so good it’s bound to get canceled”? me when he gave me the job—was just what they were And it usually does! looking for. I did 200 Evening segments over the next two Yes, quality is important, but what fuels a commercial years, wheedling my way into producing them too (for free; medium (and don’t think that PBS isn’t commercial in its I’m sure that’s why they allowed me to do it). Thus, I own way) is the number of people watching it. It’s the job of learned at their expense. Evening was the first non-news people fortunate enough to work in television to attract show to use portable video equipment, and, as the franchise those viewers. spread into some 100 cities under the name P.M. Magazine, As the most powerful form of communication devised its success brought hundreds of new faces into the industry. since the printing press, television not only has to stay Mine, however, was not to be among them. One day, the ahead of the curve, it must be the curve. Those who are faint same executive who hired me told me I was fired because, of heart need not apply. Television faces ever-growing chal- according to a focus group Westinghouse had held in Ohio, lenges. It is, after all, an industry that’s under constant “We seem to have an overabundance of mustachioed Jewish attack from politicians, government agencies, pressure males.” The window had been open for two years, however, groups, critics, and even its own viewers. Rising costs and and I’d climbed through it. I kept my moustache and called dwindling budgets are driving production away from Amer- around to people I had met while in front of the camera to vi CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN TELEVISION AND CABLE see if there were any jobs behind it. After Evening I began their flagship Biography series. The job came from Gary writing and producing for television stations throughout Grossman, a fellow Boston journalist who had just opened a New England while continuing to work in radio and news- Los Angeles video production company with former Enter- papers and to teach.