Tips on how to work behind the camera

Like fashion, there are also trends in the courses young people take in college. For a while, everyone was into physical therapy – until there was an excess of PTs and establishments abroad stopped sending for them. Now, I’d like to think people are into nursing because even professional doctors are taking up this course since there is a big demand once more for nurses in the United States.

But there is one course that will always be popular among the youth and this is mass communication (communication arts in other schools), which may lead to a job in advertising, public relations, radio and the most lucrative of them all (or so people think) – television.

Since the TV medium is extremely popular today, there is a beeline for job openings especially in GMA 7 and ABS-CBN.

But do you really think it is paradise on earth working for television? Read on and be prepared for the following if what you want in life is to work behind the camera:

Learn to alter your sleeping habits – If you are the type who is all zonked out by 11, 12 or even past midnight, TV work is not for you. In fact, sleep is a word (actually a necessity) alien to most TV people.

For the Saturday afternoon talk show Startalk, for example, most of the program staff members do not sleep anymore Friday night. (Some get an hour or two of rest by lining up chairs in the office or in the editing bay.) Come Sunday, they are dead to the world. But when StarStruck was still on the air, those who were also involved in this star search had to be up and about even on the 7th day – yes, the last day of the week when even the Lord Himself rested.

Do not put a bundy clock in your stomach – Lunch for a lot of people who work for television is at 3, 4 or even 5 p.m. Dinner? Some of them just sleep it off due to exhaustion.

Oh, but when they have the time to sit down to a good meal, they gorge – or as we say in the vernacular – "parang bibitayin."

Sacrifice your love life – The world of television can be a breeding ground for spinsters. Yes, it is tougher on the women than on the men, who often leave their domestic responsibilities to their better half (just make sure you don’t marry somebody who is also from television).

Of course, there are also women from TV who managed to get married and have kids, but they really have to perform a tough balancing act between family life and career. My advice? Never sacrifice your family because they will love you till the end. With television, you are as good as your last show.

Learn to swallow your pride. If you are going to work behind the camera, toss into the trash bin whatever little ego you have on the first day of work. If you come from a well-off family and are accustomed to having servants around you, forget the luxurious life especially if you are to start out as a production assistant (PA), which is often the position given to a fresh graduate out to conquer the world of television.

So what does a PA do? You will be the all-around servant – running to the canteen to get coffee and sandwiches, going to the nearest National Bookstore outlets to buy supplies (manila paper, pentel pen, index cards, etc.) and holding up the idiot board for the show’s hosts.

Even if you go up the ladder and you are already an executive producer (or even a position higher than that), you still have to swallow your pride in some situations. If your star, for instance, is the prima donna type who always throws tantrums, you have to learn how to cajole her and put her in a good mood at every outburst. (And if you find yourself in a tiff with your power-tripping talent and it’s a choice between you and the star of the show, who do you think management would choose?)

In most cases, a floor director has to owe up to the mistakes of the stars. How? If the star, for instance, goofs in the middle of a take, even if that is clearly the fault of the on-camera talent, the floor director would often say, "Sorry, my mistake!" He has to do that so the star doesn’t get demoralized and in the process lose his concentration during the taping of a segment.

Some stars are aware of that practice and apologize later to the crew and especially to the floor director and to the director up in the booth. But there are some superstars whose egos get bloated all the more and think they are so perfect they don’t make mistakes. I know of one on-cam talent like this and his staff got back at him by pinching his small kids (in the guise of horseplay) whenever he would bring them to the studio with him.

Be prepared to read up on all subjects – You do not know what show will be assigned to you (and you are not given a choice) when you are new in television. It is therefore best that you learn to read, read, read on all types of subjects while you are still in college – or even earlier. In fact, even if you are not going to work for TV, I would still encourage you to develop the habit of reading.

Learn basic math – A lot of students take up Mass Communication because they want to escape math subjects. Okay, you may not have calculus in college, but you still have to go through algebra, trigonometry and statistics (very important to your course).

Once you are already working for television, you still have to do a lot of math work because you have to go over reimbursements (especially if you are an executive producer) and other chores that require you to be familiar with numbers.

Stay healthy – You need to be fit when you work for TV because you always have to be on the go (without sleep most of the time). More often than not, you also have to stay at the editing bay (where the video machines are), which is as cold as the Arctic Circle. No, the station doesn’t keep the place cold so that you may sashay there in fashionable sweaters. That entire floor is actually kept at a low temperature as part of the maintenance of those millions of pesos worth of editing equipment.

Don’t be overly sensitive – Like in any office, the new kid on the block always gets picked on. And since you are just starting and still unfamiliar with the nature of your work, you may goof from time to time and if you do, you better be prepared for a severe dressing down.

But you will learn in time and, later, you will realize all that scolding was for your own good. The key here is to be tough and learn to hang on tight because it’s a bumpy ride on the way up the ladder of the corporate world of television.

(Next: The joys of working for television.)