Kaba, Kutob, Kilabot: Mga Totoong Kababalaghan is a docu special in the tradition of Magandang Gabi Bayan’s yearly Halloween episodes. KKK is not a weekly show, however, just a one-shot special. It’s being produced by Bayan Productions, the same company that produces MGB.
Yep, you heard me right. It’s Bayan Productions, “Kabayan” Noli deCastro’s company. A lot of people mistakenly think that MGB is produced by ABS-CBN. Well, it does air in this channel but it’s also what is called a block timer. Block time shows are basically shows that are produced by independent companies. These independent companies then buy airtime from a network so that the episodes could be aired. The producing company earns money through commercials.
This, however, is different from syndicated shows like Koreanovelas. Syndicated shows are programs that a network buys from the company producing it. Syndicated shows are also bad news for local television people like me. These shows only need a handful of people to run it (voice talents, mainly), which means no job opportunities for writers (except translators and transcribers, who are hardly writers *snort*), researchers, directors, segment producers, etc. Simply put, people like me hate foreign television shows. And the rerun soap, Pangako Sa’Yo.
Anyway, the reason I’m promoting KKK is because I’m a part of this Halloween special in my recent incarnation as a segment producer-slash-writer. That said, this is an opportune time to answer two questions from a couple of friends, namely Meerah (who was asking what a segment producer does) and Steel (who was asking why docu shows need writers). Okay here goes:
There are different kinds of television producers. There’s the production manager who oversees a handful of shows. PMs are the bigger bosses whose asses we regularly kiss. But I shouldn’t be saying that because I want to keep my job. Forget I even mentioned it. A show’s head is the executive producer who oversees all the aspects of his show. The EP’s right hand is the associate producer whose long arm can seek out and strangle slackers wherever they may be. Directly under the AP are the lowly segment producers. SPs are the little producers who oversee docu shoots, usually called backpacks.
An SP is usually accompanied in shoots by his writer and researcher. In backpacks, the writer is the think tank, the SP is the director, and the researcher arranges everything (side note: I’ve been a researcher once when I was still training as a writer in !okA tokaT and, frankly, I sucked at the job). This triumvirate comprises the staff of a backpack team. They are accompanied by the crew that includes the cameraman, audioman, lightman, driver, etc. During more complicated backpacks, the staff and crew may include a talent coordinator (when the SP needs talents for reenactments, celebrities for cheesy reality challenges, etc.), a production designer (who, with his art department crew, takes care of costumes, sets, etc.), a director (effectively making the SP the assistant director in most cases), and various other people. Any bigger than this and it’s not a backpack anymore. It’s called a taping or (in the case of movies) a shooting.
Now, you may think that a backpack team’s job ends when the backpack ends. Wrong. The writer still has to make an editing script out of the video material the backpack team shot, the researcher has to gather additional material needed (like file videos and pictures stolen from the internet), and the SP still has to oversee the editing of the segment he’s producing. Most SPs don’t have the technical skill to edit video (yours truly included) so he has an editor with him. A seven-minute segment may take seven or more hours to edit. An entire one-hour show takes a few days. Sometimes an episode of a show requires several segment producers (Noypi, Rated K, etc.). In other cases, a show only needs one SP per episode (Nginiiig!).
Then there’s the case of the segment producer/writer. The SP/writer, in my opinion, is an abomination. Either you write or you shoot. I have yet to see a person who’s good at both jobs. The SP/writer is a Frankenstein monster created by the even more horrific cost-cutting monster. Even I (a fucking genius, psychic, and prophet all rolled into one face-rocking package) almost suck at segment producing. I say “almost” because I’ve been hanging around SP friends and have, through a process called social osmosis*, absorbed the very basics of segment producing. I’m not awesome at it, I admit. Not as awesome as I am as a writer. But I don’t suck either.
Anyway, Kaba, Kutob, Kilabot: Mga Totoong Kababalaghan airs on Sunday, October 29, 2006, 10:30 PM over at ABS-CBN Channel 2.
*Social osmosis is a process wherein desirable human qualities are absorbed by individuals lacking these qualities by basking in the presence of individuals who do have them. The rate of absorption is relative to a combination of both physical and social proximity of the absorbing body to the emanating body. While this process has not been verified by science, it is nevertheless accepted by various groups of people, namely: hangers on of politicians and celebrities, socialites and social climbers, and name-droppers.
The Man Blog has been nominated for the 9th Annual Philippine Web Awards. Of course it was. TMB is fucking awesome. It’s so awesome in fact that little children have been known to experience their first orgasms upon reading any of its awesome posts.
Songs of the Salamander has been chosen as part of the first batch of blogs in Dashmedia Network. The short of it is this: Dashmedia is a network of blogs that don’t suck. Which is why your blog isn’t part of it. Click on this link and fuck off.
