by Craig Colby
“Are you alright?” my wife Nancy said softly.
I took off my headphones and looked at her quizzically.
She continued “It sounds like something’s wrong. Shane and I are worried.”
My wife and 16-year-old-son’s lunch was interrupted when they heard me swearing under my breath.
“Oh, it’s just this podcast someone sent me.”
I’m a TV producer. Most podcasts are painful for me to listen to. I imagine it’s how singers feel at karaoke night. Almost every podcast I listen to makes fundamental errors in structuring and executing interviews that make me crazy. All of those errors could be avoided if the hosts had bothered to get even basic training.
Huge mistake. Nothing accelerates growth like training. Here’s an example.
No Bull
In 2009, while I was the Director of Production at High Fidelity HDTV, a broadcast start up that launched the first four HD channels in Canada, my boss John Panikkar called me into his office.
“Can you take over this show?”
John didn’t often look this tense. He’s usually as cool as the other side of the pillow. The show he’s been giving notes on must need more work than he has time for.
“Sure” I said. I looked at the rough cuts. The series is about bull riding, but each episode has bits of stories about other rodeo activities, like barrel riding and rodeo clowns. However, it’s like a statue made from wet spaghetti – no form and no connections.
We agreed that I should go out to Saskatchewan to work with the production company for a few days. It didn’t take long to see what’s wrong. The show was supposed to be about the back-and-forth race bull riders face in each leg of the Canadian Bull Riders Association Tour. There’s one problem. That’s not how bull riding works.
Instead of staying for the whole rodeo, a bunch of riders show up in a truck together, to save costs. They each ride one bull, then hop in the truck and drive down the road to another rodeo. The riders weren’t in town long enough to become characters in each episode. The production company hadn’t done enough research before they started shooting to know this. In part, this was because the owner of the production company was a salesman who was new to television.
I sat down with the owner of the company and two producers. We needed to take a step back.
Back to Basics
I took out a piece of paper and said, “here’s how a production works” then wrote this.
Idea
Access
Commission from Broadcaster
Research
Shoot
Write
Edit
Deliver
“This is the process. You get an idea, get access to shoot the show, get a broadcaster to pay for it, then you research it, shoot it, write it, edit It, and deliver it. You’re having problems because you didn’t do enough research before you started shooting. You were researching during the shoot. Here’s why that’s a problem.” I put dollar signs beside “shoot” and “edit”.
“The most expensive parts of your production are shooting and editing. That’s when you hire extra people and equipment.”
Then I added a few more words.
Idea
Access
Commission from Broadcaster
Research - Planning
Shoot - $ - Execution
Write - Planning
Edit - $ - Execution
Deliver
“Production has two basic parts, planning and execution. Execution is expensive and planning is cheap. If you don’t have much money, you need to spend as much as you can on planning, because it costs less. The last thing you want to do is be planning while you’re executing because it wastes time, which wastes money. You won’t come back with enough material to make a good show.”
I showed the paper to everyone in the room. Then I started to crumple it up. The owner yelled “Stop!” and grabbed the piece of paper. These were new concepts to him. Then I gave the owner and producers seminars I’d developed for my own production team. One seminar was on the methodology of interviewing (gathering information) and one was on the methodology of writing (delivering information).
A Great Ride
Before I left, we created structures for the current shows and talked about what future seasons could look like.
When it was finished, the first season looked okay. It was fun and fast with lots of action. Then the series took off. Hell on Hooves ran five seasons and won Gemini Awards for Best General/Human Interest Series and Best Writing in an Information Series. All of that sprouted from a two-day production boot camp. The people at the production company had talent, they just needed a little training.
The Best Shortcut
Training is the best shortcut in the world. The training programs I’ve developed gave emerging producers tools to create good programs right away. That was crucial when I was managing a production team at a startup. Those professionals are now working all over the industry, at CTV’s W5, CBC’s Quirks and Quarks, Blue Ant Plus, IMAX format films and all across independent production. One producer told me she still hears my voice in her head when she’s putting together a story.
Every bit of training I’ve had has paid off. I had leadership training in high school, where I was captain of the football team, and university, where I was a residence assistant. In my career, I’ve had a handful of training days, most were for management. However, I had one glorious day of instruction in interviewing methodology. It’s the reason I now swear at podcasts.
In the last two weeks, I’ve been sent three podcasts. All of them were terrible. Not one started the broadcast by telling the audience what the show was about. They didn’t give the audience a reason to listen. Structure is as important as the questions you ask. And just because you can ask questions doesn’t mean you can conduct an interview. It’s a craft.
Leading or Bleeding?
Untrained podcasters are annoying. Untrained managers can ruin careers and businesses. I’ve seen way too many managers pushed into the deep end without any leadership training. It’s stressful for the staff and the manager. Without basic skills in leadership, or conflict resolution, staff can become despondent and managers frustrated. Productivity drops through the floor.
Here’s the part I don’t understand. Training isn’t that expensive, doesn’t take that long, and plants the seeds that grow into a huge skill set. So why don’t more people invest in training?
Without training, you’re hoping to figure it out…. sometime.
Do you really want to butcher karaoke night, or do you want to take a few singing lessons and shine?
Get stories as soon as they're published!
Contact the author at craig@colbyvision.net for training, writing, consulting or production.
Craig Colby is a television executive producer, producer, director, writer and story editor. He runs a storytelling consulting and production service for businesses.