You Can't Tell The Players Without A Program

As I wrote in an earlier post, most of my jobs these days are multi-camera sitcoms.  Things have changed a lot over the years in this little subset of the TV business, and not the least of these changes is in job titles.

In the quaint ole days I would have been called an LD (Lighting Director), but since near the end of the last century I started being called a DP (Director of Photography).  My duties have expanded beyond what I did as an LD back in the day, though I certainly don't have as much authority or responsibility as I do when I am lucky enough to DP a single camera show.  Don't get me wrong, you'll have to pry this job title, like Charlton Heston's gun, out of my cold dead hands.  No, I don't own Charlton Heaton's gun.

Anyway, the guys who control how the pictures coming out of the cameras looked used to be called Engineers.  The boss engineer was called an EIC (Engineer in Charge), not to be confused with the production company or network's EIC (Executive in Charge). The Engineer was often found hanging around with another guy, called the Maintenance Engineer, who might fix stuff when it broke.  

I once heard a Producer making an issue of the fact that he never saw the Maintenance Engineer working.  The Engineer told the Producer that the last thing he should want is to see the Maintenance Engineer busy, because it probably meant that the shoot had been stopped cold.  But I digress.

These days the engineer is now called the VC, not to be confused with the folks who ran the Hanoi Hilton, though there can be similarities in temperament. It stands for Video Controller.  Sometimes they are instead called DIT's - despite not being cute and stupid (generally they are neither) - short for Digital Imaging Technicians.  If a show has both a VC and a DIT, the DIT is the guy who you never want to see actually doing any work.

Shows used to have cameramen and camerawomen.  Now they have Camera Ops.  That may be because WAAY back in the day DP's were sometimes called cameramen, and it would be confusing to have 5 cameramen on a show with 4 cameras.

We used to have TD's (Technical Directors) who switched the cameras for a recorded line cut.  Often, they were also the EIC.  It was a highly respected position, except by the engineer, who generally didn't respect anyone.  The TD sat in the control room at a big switcher next to the Director, who sat next to the AD (Associate Director), who sat next to the Script PA. The director would communicate to the set through the Stage Manager. 

Now the TD is an Audience Switcher who is all alone in the control room at a teeny little panel.  No one thinks twice about them, except the VC &/or DIT who respects them even less than a TD. The Director works from the floor next to Camera or Technical Coordinator who used to be the AD, who is next to the Script Supervisor who used to be the Script PA.  The Stage Manager is now the AD, but not the AD who used to be in the control room who is now the Camera or Technical Coordinator, but an Assistant Director.

They all work behind rolling podiums that are actually lecterns.

Just about the only thing that hasn't changed is the shows themselves.