Setting the Scene
Posted: Friday, March 09, 2007 3:30 PM by Jaclyn Levin
(Fom Kristin Costa, TODAY Associate Art Director)
I am writing to you from literally behind the scenery as one of the Art Directors of the Today Show. My day ended only a few hours ago – at around 9pm. As you have no doubt read from other members of the staff, you know that this is a 24 hours a day operation. I share this position with one other Art Director, and he and I will work split shifts. Between us, we share the responsibility of the visual elements of the show. The fashion shows, the tabletop displays, the home decorating and organizing segments, the food segments, and the all plaza extravaganzas like this week’s Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, and last Friday’s Today Takes a Snow Day.
A typical day will start at 5:30 am where I will arrive to the back scene dock and check in with the studio crew. I look at the worksheet to make sure there weren’t too many changes from the night before. One of my main concerns would be the amount of time available between the “scene changes.” Although this is TV, and scene changes are more common to the theatre, I find that this show runs a lot like theatre because of the live element. Once the “curtain” goes up at 7am, it doesn’t come down until 10am . There is an incredible amount of coordination that happens behind the scenes in any given day. Changes are made mid show, and the decision has to be made whether or not 3 minutes and 10 seconds is enough time to move out a toy segment with multiple pedestals loaded with products and a flat screen TV, and move in a cooking table with display tables, flowers, and burners to be plugged in. What the viewers don’t get to see is the studio crew walking off towards the right of their screen as the camera starts to roll on left!!! It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it really gets the heart pumping.
Instead of working the early shift today at 5:30 am, I worked the later shift that starts closer to 10am and continues until, well, the job is done. Tonight I finished up on the early side, around 9pm. However there have been nights when I have been at work until 12am, or even all night long until 6am. Those nights are luckily spaced out evenly enough that I don’t mind so much.
Tonight we set up for a nutrition segment about whether junk foods can be health foods. Well I won’t spoil it for you – but I do know that some of these products sure tasted good! We just had to sample some of the goodies.
In addition to this segment, we also set up for a cooking segment with Chef Richard Sandoval. Bianca Borges Henry, our resident Food Stylist, works with the chefs to make sure that every pot, pan, bowl, and spoon is in the proper place for the mornings segment. She does a whole lot more than that, but we’ll save that for another blog. Tonight we brought in one of our favorite pieces of scenery - the hutch.
We decorate it with various bowls and plates of produce used in the recipes, flowers and decorative items depending on the feel of the segment. But even with a relatively calm night in the studio, there is always more work to be done because we try to get a jump on the next days’ show if possible.
All of the guests, producers, crew, and products showed up to the studio at 4pm. The studio became a large workspace, with all of the surfaces covered with boxes, tables, cooking supplies, chairs, stools, TV monitors, not to mention all of the cameras normally in the space. Throughout the evening all of the segments got sorted, and all of the linens got ironed, the dishes got cleaned and polished, the flowers got watered, the rugs got vacuumed, the floors got buffed, the segments got designed, and marked on the floor in different colored tapes. All of the empty boxes got sorted and put aside for after the show.
What starts off as a sometimes chaotic evening always ends with the satisfaction of a good days work. I wrote notes for the crew that arrives in the morning – anywhere between 12am and 2am. With hand drawn diagrams, computer drawings and photos, it all seems to get translated very well. The baton gets passed and the next crew comes in to light the segments for the morning. At 5:30 am, the morning shift Art Director picks up where the other left off. And the process starts all over again.
The days are long, but the days are satisfying. The morning shift has the excitement of the live show, the energy of the hosts and guests, and the unpredictability of it all. The middle shift in the office is all about organization and communication. The night shift is the time to work out any kinks and to prepare for the mornings’ show. You only get one chance in live television. And really at the end of the day, you are only as good as the other people that you work with. I consider myself lucky to work with incredibly dedicated and talented people throughout the day, in all of the different shifts.
