Mike Cohen's Blog

Learning by Watching Television

This blog post will focus on what we can learn by watching different genres of television.

Specifically, what do I learn from watching television? And what can I apply to my career?

Network Drama Series

A series I have watched every season is 24. If you can get over the absurdity of one guy doing all of these extraordinary things in one day (such as driving anywhere in LA in less than an hour), one can learn some useful techniques.

For example, most scenes have a master shot, generally a wide shot, as well as a B camera on shaky-cam closeups. You occasionally see another shot of the same scene but from farther away, to suggest someone else's perspective, or usually to suggest that there is something shady going on.

I have several shoots per year where we are in an OR or a trauma room. We give the "actors" a scenario and suggested dialogue, then we roll 2 or 3 cameras, sometimes hand-held, sometimes locked down, sometimes on sticks but following on a medium shot, sometimes up high on a wide shot. Then we make some suggestions and shoot it again, sometimes the whole sequence, sometimes just the parts we need. Sometimes just with one hand held camera. Then of course the insert shots as needed, usually an on the fly decision.

Cooking Shows

Aside from my girlfriend threatening to move back home if I forced her to eat burned chicken ever again, Jamie Oliver is the reason I got interested in cooking. Luckily I learned how to cook and my girlfriend became my wife!

Jamie Oliver's original Naked Chef shows were shot in his home kitchen with 2 handheld cameras - one on a wideshot, on on closeups. You sometimes could hear the producer asking him questions, giving the show a very unrehearsed feeling, and you really felt like this was a regular guy cooking in his kitchen. We also got to see him visiting his local produce, butcher and fish sellers and pick out the ingredients. As the seasons progressed, Jamie's home kitchen seemed to evolve. One such kitchen was difficult to discern whether this was his actual apartment or some fake kitchen. Regardless, his shows continued to be enthralling, with a very casual production style.

His recent show, Jamie at Home, is more of the same, but with some unique additions. For one, Jamie now has a country house with an amazing garden. Each episode is dedicated to one ingredient - and he cooks something in the backyard, something in the kitchen and something out in the woodshed on a wood stove. Very rustic. This show is shot with a wide shot, a closeup, and an extreme closeup camera which does sweet subtle little dolly shots of an ECU of whatever he is doing - chopping veg, plating his food or dressing a salad. I wonder if this all happens in real time, or if they pause the action to get these ECU shots.

On the other end of the spectrum is Everyday Italian. I am not so sure what dishes are being prepared, that is, the presenter is eye candy enough. This show is shot in a real house, which the producers take over for the entire season, using the garage as a prep area. The show is shot film style - One camera on a wide shot, all the way through. Then they do everything again to get closeups of the presenter and closeups of the food prep and cooking and plating. Shows like this have been called "food porn" because of the extreme closeups of moist luscious food, the sensual description and handling, the obvious shots of Giada licking her lips, looking at the camera in a flirtatious manner and the use of extreme closeup sound - you hear every nuance of the food being cut, chopped, squished and beaten.

I'm feeling a little excited, aren't you?

So how can I learn from these shows? Surgical education uses aspect of the wide shot, closeup and extreme closeup, highly descriptive audio and retakes. Well, most of the time surgery does not give the opportunity for retakes, although it has happened.

Nursing education and other hands-on training, however, is often done with mockups and simulation, so wide shot, medium, closeup of the same actions is the norm. Granted this is the norm for most production, but the application and technique differ based upon the subject matter.

Check out this video, speaking of overhead cooking style production: