Programa de control del motor paso a paso (LabVIEW)

and crew members to operate the equipment. The production manager is typically the crew member who, along with the producer, actually schedules the shoots and reserves the needed equipment.

Videographer

The videographer in field TV has a larger responsibility than the videographer in studio TV, primarily because the field director does not sit in front of a monitor bank in a sound-isolated control room and give directions as does the director in studio TV. In the field, the director may have a portable monitor (which may be small or washed out by the sun) but cannot always give direction during a shot, because spoken commands may be picked up by live microphones.

Camera directions are given before a shot, and both director and videographer work together to make each shot look its best. A good videographer takes the direc- tor’s verbal commands or instructions from a shot list and gets the desired camera shots. A good videogra- pher also finds additional shots through the variation of camera angle, focal length, selective focus, or cam- era movement. This can make a scene more interesting after it is edited. If the director is working from a sto- ryboard, the videographer gives suggestions as to how the camera can be placed and moved to match the de- sired effect and look.

Audio Engineer

The EFP audio engineer is responsible for accurately recording sounds on the location shoot. Unlike stu- dio audio engineers who have the equipment store- room within easy reach, the field sound engineer, or sound recordist, must anticipate all sound require- ments for the location shoot and pack the necessary items to accommodate them. Once on location, the audio engineer must live with the equipment deci- sions already made.

While studio sound engineers often have large, easy-to-read VU meters and high-quality control room monitor speakers to assess sound quality, location au- dio engineers often cope with tiny VU meters located on a portable audio mixer and a set of headphones. Since the camcorder is designed to be operated by one person—the videographer (or news videographer)—he

or she may have to assume the duties of the audio engi- neer. This may be easy when the production is very ba- sic, but can be quite a burden on the videographer when the audio situation is complex. When more than one or two microphones are required, the person as- suming audio responsibilities must set up the micro- phones with the use of a mixer and then provide one or two audio channels from the mixer to the camcorder for recording. Audio engineers sometimes record a sep- arate soundtrack, called wild sound, on an audio re- corder to be added in postproduction.

Lighting Director

Location shoots require a crew member who can pro- vide lighting that will satisfy the basic needs of the camera and the aesthetic requirements of the script. On smaller crews, that job goes to the videographer, but as the size and complexity of the production grows, a separate crew member, the lighting director, can be an indispensable addition. The videographer may need to start blocking and shooting one location while the lighting director and crew start lighting the next location to move the production along at a quicker pace. The lighting director should not only have a thorough knowledge of lighting techniques and instruments but also a familiarity with the specific de- mands of the lighting situation and the electrical power capabilities of the locations.

Grip or Utility

In the film industry, almost every member of the crew has a specific job title that has evolved over the years. Jobs like best boy, gaffer, and key grip are lumped into one title for TV production: the grip. People from a TV studio background usually call them utilities. Un- like in the film industry, these grips or utilities can cover quite a broad range of jobs in the production un- less otherwise limited by a union agreement.

On any given crew, one or more members function as a grip whose responsibilities are to hold, or grip, re- flectors or lights, a shotgun microphone, the recorder, or any other piece of equipment that requires atten- tion during the shoot. The grip is often an assistant or apprentice to one of the other crew members and should have a basic knowledge of the equipment—

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that is, the grip should know the equipment by name and how to handle it. Because of the responsibility of holding equipment during the shoot, the grip should be steady and capable of moving equipment in and out of location as well as in and out of the vehicle used for transporting the equipment.

Talent

Selecting talent is a somewhat different chore from se- lecting other members of the team. Whereas other crew members are most often employed by the same company as the producer, the talent may not be. In a half-dozen different shoots, it would not be unusual to have a different main talent for each one. This may not be the case, however, for industrial video for training and demonstration purposes, or for internal public re- lations programs that have a regular host.

Talent may be selected by committee or by the ex- ecutive producer, producer, or director. Talent can be locally acquired on location (that is, in the city you will be traveling to) or imported with the rest of the crew. One mistake often made by beginners is to select non- professional actors as talent because of their voice or overall appearance. This can be dangerous. Inexperi- enced talent often force numerous retakes, because they may be unable to take direction to correct mis- takes. Sometimes nonprofessionals look terrific in per- son or in rehearsal but cannot adapt to the real situa- tion when taping. The advice here is to stick to experi- enced professionals whenever the budget allows.

As in so many areas of today’s TV production, many professionals are likely to be in a union or guild. This is very much the case with talent. Many professional per- formers are required to join either the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) or the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). A requirement of member- ship is the commitment to never work without a union contract, even in a nonunion production. This means you will have to pay minimum professional rates (and maybe more) to have a union professional in your show.

Editor

The editor takes the original, or raw, footage that has been shot and, with the help of a script, reassembles the program into its proper order. Often the scenes are

shot out of sequence and numerous takes are available for each scene. This allows the editor to use some cre- ativity and professional skills to produce a finished master that is creative and visually pleasing. However, the master must also follow the accepted rules for keeping the flow of the program visually and chrono- logically correct, while conveying the meaning in- tended by the producer, director, and scriptwriter.

A good editor enhances the ideas of the people who wrote and visually interpreted the script without changing either its meaning or its effect on the viewer. When hiring an editor, look for three skills: a thorough knowledge of the software and computers involved, knowledge of the input and output players and record- ers (and their formats), and, most importantly, a strong sense for how to tell a story visually.

Scheduling and Coordinating

Scheduling an EFP project is often a slow and difficult process. Since many crew members in EFP work have other responsibilities, and video equipment is con- stantly being used for a variety of projects, getting a full crew with all the necessary equipment sometimes seems like trying to carry all the unfolded laundry without a laundry basket. If you stoop down to adjust a scheduled shoot time for a critical crew member, you may find that you have dropped something else, such as the availability of a special camera or even the talent. Occasionally an unforeseen delay, albeit a short one, can cause a serious problem in postproduction, such as missing a scheduled visit to the editing suite of your choice. Computer scheduling programs like Microsoft Outlook can help with the scheduling process.

Factors to Consider

When creating your schedule, first consider the gen- eral categories of items to be scheduled. You have peo- ple, equipment, materials, and facilities or locations. Prioritize these items based on your lack of control over them, and schedule first the items over which you have little control. The logic here is that once you have locked into place those items that may have no flexibil- ity, you can more easily schedule in the more flexible items. A couple of examples may help to illustrate.

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