Television Directing

Course Description

Television Directing presents the methods and techniques used to plan, produce and direct entertainment and informational programs and short subjects in the broadcast media that prepare individuals to function as professionals in broadcast and production media.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, RTV is the Radio and Television prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, offered fall and spring, with RTV1000 as a prerequisite and RTV1510 as a corequisite, giving approximately 60 contact hours at the prefix convention.

The corequisite structure is the point. Directing is taught alongside studio production because it cannot be learned in the abstract — you learn to call a show by calling one, with a real crew who will do exactly what you say and nothing you failed to say. The director's job in live television is decision-making under time pressure with no opportunity to reconsider, and that is a temperament as much as a technique.

Daytona State does not publish a lecture and laboratory split for its RTV courses, but the convention across the prefix is consistent: every published RTV course at this institution runs at approximately 20 contact hours per credit (RTV1000 and RTV1510C at 4 credits and 80 hours; RTV2100C and RTV2600C at 3 credits and 60 hours). These are studio and laboratory courses, and the hours reflect substantial hands-on time rather than lecture.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe the director's role and responsibilities in television production.
• Describe the roles of the full studio and control-room crew.
• Break down a script or rundown into shots.
• Prepare a marked script and a shot sheet for a crew.
• Plan camera positions, framing, and movement for a programme.
• Prepare and run a production meeting.
• Direct a rehearsal effectively and use rehearsal time well.
• Give clear, timely, and unambiguous commands to camera operators.
• Call a live multi-camera programme using standard terminology.
• Anticipate shots and ready sources before they are needed.
• Direct talent clearly and courteously.
• Work with a technical director, audio operator, and graphics operator.
• Integrate graphics, playback, and remote sources into a live programme.
• Manage programme timing and hit marks accurately.
• Use standard hand and verbal time cues.
• Respond to failures and unexpected events without stopping the programme.
• Apply visual storytelling principles to shot selection.
• Maintain continuity and screen direction in multi-camera work.
• Direct interview, panel, and demonstration formats.
• Direct informational and entertainment short-form content.
• Communicate calmly and decisively under time pressure.
• Evaluate a recorded programme critically and identify directing errors.
• Accept and act on critique of your own directing.
• Work productively as a crew member on other directors' programmes.

Optional Outcomes

• Direct remote and multi-location productions.
• Direct scripted dramatic material.
• Apply advanced lighting design to directed programmes.
• Direct programmes with live audience participation.
• Describe the director's role in post-produced formats.
• Build a directing portfolio.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The director's role
• Studio and control-room crew roles
• Script and rundown breakdown
• Marked scripts and shot sheets
• Camera planning
• Production meetings
• Rehearsal technique
• Commands to camera operators
• Calling a live show
• Anticipation and readying sources
• Directing talent
• Working with the technical crew
• Integrating graphics, playback, and remotes
• Programme timing
• Time cues
• Handling failures live
• Visual storytelling
• Multi-camera continuity
• Interview, panel, and demonstration formats
• Informational and entertainment formats
• Communication under pressure
• Critical evaluation of programmes
• Receiving critique
• Crewing for others

Optional Topics

• Remote and multi-location directing
• Directing scripted drama
• Lighting design for directed work
• Live audience formats
• Directing for post-produced formats
• Portfolio development

Resources & Tools

• The programme's own studio, control room, and field kit — by far the most valuable resource here, and the reason to take these courses in person. Book open lab time and use it.
• Television Production Handbook (Zettl) — the standard text for studio and field production.
• Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics (Zettl) — why shots work, not just how to get them.
• In the Blink of an Eye (Murch) — short, and the best thing written on why an edit happens where it does.
• Grammar of the Edit and Grammar of the Shot (Bowen) — practical and genuinely useful early on.
• Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition, or DaVinci Resolve — Resolve has a genuinely capable free version, which matters when you are building skills outside lab hours.
• Frame.io, Vimeo, or YouTube for review, delivery, and portfolio hosting.
• NAB Show and SMPTE — where the industry's technical standards and equipment are set out.
• Florida Association of Broadcasters (fab.org) — state industry body, job board, and scholarships.
• NATAS Suncoast Chapter — regional Emmy chapter; student entries are a realistic and well-regarded credential.
• FAA Part 107 study materials (faa.gov) — free, and the certificate is directly marketable.
• Production music libraries and Creative Commons audio — learn to license properly now, because it is unfixable later.

Career Pathways

• Film and video editor — SOC 27-4032.
• Camera operator, television, video, and film — SOC 27-4031.
• Producer or director — SOC 27-2012.
• Broadcast technician / audio-visual technician — SOC 27-4012, 27-4011.
• Sound engineering technician — SOC 27-4014.
• Local television news — the traditional entry route, and still a real one in Florida's many mid-size markets.
• Live sports production — a large and growing Florida sector, from college athletics to professional venues.
• Corporate, marketing, and agency video — where a large share of production work actually is, and frequently the best-paid.
• Houses of worship and non-profits — substantial steady demand for competent live production.
• Government, municipal, and educational channels — stable employment with benefits.
• Theme park and attractions media — a distinctively Central Florida employer.
• Freelance and owner-operator work — common in this field; treat it as running a business.
• Transfer to a bachelor's in telecommunication, digital media, or mass communication — ⚠ confirm which of these courses apply, since technical production credit does not always transfer as major credit.

Special Information

⚠ Live directing: preparation is what makes calm possible

• Nearly everything that goes wrong on air was preventable at the planning stage. Directors who appear unflappable are almost always directors who prepared thoroughly, not directors with unusual nerves.
• Mark your script and know your rundown cold. Reading it for the first time in the chair guarantees a bad show.
• Ready before you take. "Ready two — take two" gives the camera operator and the technical director a beat to prepare; skipping the ready is how you cut to a shot that is still moving.
• Use standard terminology exactly. A crew that has to interpret you is a crew that will eventually interpret you wrongly, and the words exist precisely so that everyone acts on the same meaning without discussion.
• Speak clearly, at a steady volume, and do not shout. Panic in the director's voice propagates through the whole crew instantly.
• Never stop for a mistake on a live programme. Move to the next shot cleanly; the audience notices a hesitation far more than the error you were correcting.
• Have a fallback ready always. A wide shot you can cut to covers almost any failure, and knowing it is available is what lets you take risks elsewhere.
• Thank the crew, and mean it. A director's authority in this industry rests on the crew's willingness, not on the title — and people who are pleasant to work for get better crews.
• Debrief honestly afterwards. Watch the recording, name your own errors first, and the crew will follow.

⚠ Equipment, safety, and the professional habits that get you hired

• Check the kit before you leave and again before you shoot. Batteries charged, spares packed, cards empty and verified, cables present, and audio monitored — a missing XLR cable ends a shoot as effectively as a dead camera.
• Monitor audio with headphones, always. Bad audio ruins good pictures, audiences forgive weak images and will not forgive unintelligible sound, and you cannot fix in post what you never recorded.
• Lighting and rigging carry real physical risk. Instruments are hot, stands tip, and overhead rigging must be safetied. Sandbag every stand, and never place a stand where a cable can pull it over.
• Electrical loads are finite. Know the circuit you are on; tripping the breaker in a live venue is a serious professional failure.
• Tape and dress every cable run. Trip hazards are the most common on-set injury and the easiest to prevent.
• Aerial work requires an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate for any commercial drone operation — a genuinely marketable credential and one many employers now expect.
• Return equipment clean, complete, and on time. Programmes track this, and so do employers; a reputation for careless gear handling follows you.
• Report damage immediately rather than passing a fault to the next crew.

⚠ In this field the reel is the credential, not the transcript

• Hiring in production is portfolio-driven. Employers want ninety seconds of your best work and evidence you can be relied on — the degree opens the conversation, the reel gets the job.
• Treat every course project as a portfolio candidate, which means clearing the music and the releases at the time, not the week you apply for work.
• Keep it short and lead with the strongest shot. A reel is judged in the first fifteen seconds, and padding actively hurts.
• Show your actual role honestly. Misrepresenting what you did on a crew project is found out quickly in a small industry.
• Say yes to crew positions on other people's projects. Credits, contacts, and competence all come from the same place, and this industry hires overwhelmingly by referral.
• Reliability is the actual differentiator. People who arrive early, handle gear carefully, and stay pleasant at hour eleven get called back; the ones with better taste and worse habits do not.
• Local news, live sports, houses of worship, corporate video, and municipal channels all hire steadily in Florida and are where most first jobs actually are — not at the networks.

⚠⚠ Copyright, music licensing, and releases — the trap that ends student projects

• You cannot use commercial music. Not thirty seconds of it, not "for a class project," not with a credit line. This is the single most common serious error in student video work, and it is the one that gets a portfolio piece taken down permanently.
• Fair use is a legal defence, not a permission. It is decided case by case, after the fact, by a court — it is not a box you may tick in advance, and relying on it for background music is not a defensible position.
• "Royalty-free" does not mean free. It means a single up-front fee rather than per-use royalties, and the licence still has terms — read what it permits, especially for commercial or broadcast use.
• YouTube's Content ID will find it, automatically and permanently. A muted or blocked video is a portfolio piece you no longer have.
• Get a signed appearance release from every identifiable person on camera — keep a stack of blank forms in the kit bag, because you will need one at a moment you did not plan for.
• Minors require a parent or guardian signature. No exceptions, and this matters constantly in community and school-based shooting.
• Location permission is separate from people permission. Private property needs the owner's consent; many public spaces require a permit for a tripod or a crew.
• Clear the background too. Artwork, logos, posters, and playing music in a shot are all someone's property.
• Use properly licensed libraries — production music libraries, Creative Commons with attribution honoured exactly as the licence requires, or music a composer has given you written permission to use.
• Keep your paperwork with your footage. Releases and licences you cannot produce are releases you do not have. Rule 11 applies — verify current requirements before distributing anything.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement — relevant here because several Florida universities offer upper-division telecommunication and digital media degrees that these courses feed into.

RTV1670 is 3 credits and approximately 60 contact hours, offered fall and spring at Daytona State, with RTV1000 as prerequisite and RTV1510 as corequisite — they are designed to be taken together, and the directing course assumes you are simultaneously crewing in the studio.

Assessment is typically directing live or as-live programmes with a real crew, evaluated on preparation, clarity of command, and composure.