Before the Cameras Roll

I've told you all before what happens behind the scenes on a normal shooting day....but what I haven't told you before is how the process works on days before the camera is even there.

Once Upon A Time... there was a TV show. So many things happen behind the scenes on this TV show that no one even knows about. Two weeks before the cameras roll on a new episode, preparations are under way. First come the meetings with all the department heads, directors, and producers. Then the table read with the cast, and the writer's in LA, and then everyone gets to work.

Once everything is decided in the meetings, the production designer meets with the set decorator and the director to design and create any new sets that are going to be built. Then once it becomes finalized, construction comes in and starts building the set. For the next couple days it's a whirlwind of carpentry, paint, saws, and a familiar rhythm of hammering. They work quickly and efficiently and usually within three days the set is built. The rigging department works after they are done putting in metal beams above the sets that gives the electric department the ability to hang lights from, on the shooting day. Then the set dressing department comes in with furniture, curtains, lamps, picture frames, rugs, couches, desks, and anything else the environment needs. No detail is overlooked when it comes to set dressing. They put files in the file cabinets, medical equipment in the hospital rooms, they put up decorations when theres a party, and many other things.

While all this is going on, the prop department is shopping for the props that will appear in the episode, just as wardrobe is doing the same for each character's costumes. Days before the episode begins to shoot the prop and wardrobe departments do a show and tell for the director. Things are approved, things are added, things are taken away. From then on it's a mad dash to find any other items that were added, age any of the props, etc. In the prop department it's also very important to have multiples of almost all the props, especially the ones that the main characters use or handle. That goes for letters, teddy bears, backpacks, medical items, and many other objects.  On Army Wives we had doubles for all the character's cell phones, on Hunger Games we had multiples of Katniss's bow and arrow.

Then just a few days later, the shooting crew comes in, along with the cast, and the cameras begin to roll. Everything now on the set, is what you see on TV when it airs. That is the magic of TV, the hard gritty, glamour of it all, and now you know what happens before, once upon a time.

Stand By and Stay tuned, there's more to come.