Electronic Field Production

Course Description

Electronic Field Production offers students an opportunity to advance their field production skills in videography, audio recording, and lighting, and requires students to practise advanced non-linear production skills, graphics creation, producing and directing.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, RTV is the Radio and Television prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, offered fall and spring, with RTV1000 and RTV1510 as prerequisites and RTV2540 as a corequisite, giving approximately 60 contact hours at the prefix convention.

⚠ RTV2534 and RTV2540 are each other's corequisite — a genuine mutual pairing rather than a lecture-and-laboratory split. The two courses cover the two halves of production practice, field and studio, and the programme requires them together so students work in both environments in the same term. Plan for both, and note that a transfer bringing one may not be able to satisfy the other's corequisite.

This is the capstone field course: not learning to operate a camera, but producing finished pieces end to end — conceiving, shooting, directing, editing, and finishing them yourself.

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

• Plan and execute a field production from concept to finished piece.
• Conduct a location scout and produce a technical and logistical plan.
• Apply advanced videography: exposure control, lens selection, and movement.
• Shoot consistently across multiple setups and locations.
• Design and execute location lighting for interviews and scenes.
• Control contrast and colour with gels, diffusion, and negative fill.
• Record high-quality production audio in uncontrolled environments.
• Select and place microphones appropriately for the situation.
• Manage wireless audio and troubleshoot interference.
• Direct talent and contributors on location.
• Conduct and shoot an interview to professional standard.
• Gather sufficient B-roll and sequences to support an edit.
• Manage a small crew on location.
• Manage, back up, and log field media reliably.
• Perform advanced non-linear editing on field material.
• Create graphics and titles appropriate to the piece.
• Mix and finish audio to broadcast standard.
• Apply colour correction and match across setups.
• Export and deliver to a specification.
• Obtain releases and location permissions systematically.
• Work safely on location, including electrical and rigging hazards.
• Manage a production schedule and meet deadlines.
• Critically evaluate your own and others' field work.
• Produce portfolio-quality finished work.

Optional Outcomes

• Operate multi-camera field setups.
• Apply drone or aerial cinematography and describe Part 107 requirements.
• Work with cinema cameras and log or raw workflows.
• Apply advanced colour grading.
• Produce documentary or long-form field pieces.
• Develop a professional demo reel.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• End-to-end field production
• Location scouting and planning
• Advanced videography
• Consistency across setups
• Location lighting design
• Contrast and colour control
• Production audio in uncontrolled environments
• Microphone selection and placement
• Wireless audio and interference
• Directing on location
• Interview shooting
• B-roll and sequences
• Managing a location crew
• Field media management
• Advanced non-linear editing
• Graphics and titles
• Audio mixing and finishing
• Colour correction and matching
• Export and delivery
• Releases and permissions
• Location safety
• Scheduling and deadlines
• Critical evaluation
• Portfolio-quality output

Optional Topics

• Multi-camera field production
• Aerial cinematography and Part 107
• Cinema cameras and log workflows
• Advanced colour grading
• Documentary and long-form work
• Demo reel 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

⚠ The field gives you what it gives you — competence is producing good work anyway

• Control what you can and adapt to the rest. The studio hands you consistent light and quiet; the field hands you an air conditioner, a window that changes colour temperature by the hour, and a subject with fifteen minutes.
• Scout properly, and scout at the time of day you will shoot. A room that is workable at ten in the morning may be unshootable at four in the afternoon.
• Listen to the location before you look at it. Air handling, traffic, refrigeration, and fluorescent hum are the problems that make footage unusable, and they are the ones people forget to check.
• Bring more than you think you need — batteries, cards, cable, gaffer tape, and a second microphone. The kit you left behind is the one that fails.
• Build in time for setup. Lighting an interview properly takes far longer than students expect, and rushing it is visible in the result.
• Respect people's time and property. Contributors are doing you a favour; leaving a location as you found it is why you get invited back.
• Shoot the safety version first. Get a usable take in the bag before attempting the ambitious one.
• Review on location before you wrap. Checking focus and audio while you can still reshoot is the difference between a problem and a disaster.

⚠ 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.

⚠ Media management — the footage you did not back up is the footage you lost

• This is the discipline that separates people who finish projects from people who tell stories about losing them. Cards fail, drives fail, and they fail at the worst possible moment.
• Follow 3-2-1: three copies, on two kinds of media, one of them off-site. A second folder on the same drive is not a backup.
• Offload before you leave the location where practical, and verify the copy before formatting anything. Confirm the file count and the total size, and spot-check playback.
• Format cards in the camera, not on the computer, and only after the footage is verified in two places.
• Name files and folders systematically from the first day — project, date, card number, and scene. Renaming after the fact breaks the link between your edit and your media, which is a painful and entirely avoidable failure.
• Keep the camera originals untouched. Edit from copies or proxies; never let an editing application be the only thing that knows where your footage is.
• Log as you go. Notes made on the shoot day cost minutes; reconstructing them from four hours of rushes costs a weekend.
• Label and rotate cards so a full card is never mistaken for an empty one — a reversed card is how footage disappears.

⚠⚠ 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.

⚠⚠ Florida is an all-party consent state for recording — know this before you record an interview

• Florida Statutes § 934.03 requires the consent of all parties to record an oral communication where the participants have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Many states require only one party's consent; Florida does not, and this catches visiting crews and students who learned the rule elsewhere.
• Violation is a criminal offence, and it also creates civil liability — this is not a formality.
• The practical protection is simple: get consent on camera. Roll first, then ask "do I have your permission to record this?" and keep the answer in the file.
• The expectation of privacy is what governs. A public street where a person can be plainly overheard is different from a private office, a home, or a telephone call — and the closer to private, the more clearly consent is required.
• Telephone and video-call recording needs consent from everyone on the line.
• Consent to be interviewed is not consent to be recorded unless you asked about recording specifically.
• ⚠ This is a fast-moving area and the details matter. Journalism carve-outs, one-party states, and multi-state calls all complicate it. Rule 11 applies — verify the current statute and get legal advice for anything consequential rather than relying on a course guide.

⚠ 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.

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.

RTV2534 is 3 credits and approximately 60 contact hours, offered fall and spring at Daytona State, with RTV1000 and RTV1510 as prerequisites and RTV2540 as a corequisite — the two are taken together.

Assessment is typically finished field pieces judged as portfolio work. See this repository's RTV2540 guide for its paired studio counterpart.