- Hi, my name is John Gerbig,
and I work for PBS Wisconsin
as a Director of Remote and Studio Productions.
The director is the person who kind of calls the shots,
literally,
when it comes to multiple camera productions.
So, I tell the cameras what to shoot,
the floor manager when to cue talent,
the audio engineer when to open mics and fade in music,
and the technical director
when to cut or dissolve between shots.
So, I do a lot of talking and not much else.
I take the script that's been prepared,
and then I write all of my commands on there
for what I'm going to be telling different people to do.
It's a real group effort.
You might have a crew
of anywhere from five
to maybe even as many as eighteen people.
When you've got a less experienced crew
that you're working with--
new camera operators, for example--
you've got to do a lot more coaching
and telling them, "Okay, zoom in a little bit more,
pan a little bit more to the left,
a little bit slower on that zoom,
check your focus."
Stuff like that.
When you've got an experienced crew,
they just know it,
and it's so much fun
when it all comes together.
I direct a lot of different types of productions
like news shows, talk shows, debates,
but one of the things that I really like to do
is performances,
especially if it's a live event.
It's a live concert with a live audience.
You can't stop the production.
You've just got to
make sure that we're covering it as best as we can.
And then, the next step up from that
is a live broadcast,
and that's where it really gets your juices going.
It can really be tense and a lot of pressure,
but it can really be exciting
at the same time.
Whatever you're cutting is going straight to the air.
That can really be exciting.
And when you're working with a group of people
that really knows what they're doing
and are really experienced and love their job,
it's just a joy when it all comes together.
It's a lot of hard work,
but it's a joy when it all comes together.
And then, you can look back on it and say,
"I worked on this production.
"You know, I had a hand in shaping this
and in putting this together and creating this,"
and that's really fulfilling.