The Making of Journeys Below the Line

The series, Journeys Below the Line, was the brainchild of Bruce Bilson, longtime TV director, Governor of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and Chair of the Academy’s Educational Programs and Services (EPS) Committee. His respect for artists and craftsmen he has worked with over the years led him to develop this program to inform aspiring students of the many creative and gratifying jobs that exist in television today.

In 2003, he proposed the idea to the Educational Programs and Services Committee (EPS), which overwhelming approved it. He then brought on producer Michael Gallant, a member of the EPS committee and one of its previous chairs, who prepared the business plan to present to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation (ATASF) Board for funding. Once funding was approved, ATASF contracted with Gallant Entertainment (GEI) to produce the project. GEI had previously produced movies such as the Harlem-set musical Stompin’ at the Savoy.

Bruce and Michael then met with Michael Bennett, President of First Light Video Publishing regarding distribution. Once the funding and distribution were in place, Bruce brought on Steve Fisch, another committee member and a legal and business affairs executive and former producer to handle legal affairs. Bruce and Michael then asked Lynne Gross to be the Associate Producer. She had also been a previous chair of the EPS committee and a Television Academy Governor and is currently a professor in the Radio-TV-Film Department at California State University, Fullerton.

With that team in place, preproduction went into full swing. A group of principals and actors for the Fox network show, 24, made a presentation for all Academy members, and after the presentation Bruce approached them and together they set the wheels in motion to use 24 to illustrate editing. Bruce, Michael, Lynne, and Steve visited the set of 24 on April 19, 2004 to meet the people who would be directly involved, to put finishing touches on legal forms, and to get a feel for how the show is produced.

Michael sought out talented technicians in the educational/documentary field and hired a crew headed by Christopher Gallo, Director of Photography. On April 22, the first shooting for Journeys Below the Line began. It was coverage of material shot in a subway station in downtown Los Angeles. The group concentrated on taping script supervisor, Anne Melville. Michael produced, Bruce directed, and Steve and Lynne took the photos you see on this page and others.

The next Monday it was back to the studio to tape the editors at work on the scenes that had been photographed, using Anne’s script notes as a road map. The group also interviewed various cast and crew members about their perceptions of script supervision and editing.

The final phase of production for the main program took place on Saturday, May 1 at the facilities of the University of Southern California. The major people involved with editing and script supervision participated in a panel discussion with students in the audience to ask questions.

Later the heads of the script supervisors’ guild and the editors’ guild were taped so that their input could be part of the bonus features.

Once all the footage was taped, Bruce and Judd Maslansky edited the main program and bonus material and Bruce brought in Television Academy Governor, Ray Colcord, to compose the music for the video. Lynne worked on other supplemental material, and various members of the group met with Michael Bennett, President of First Light, to determine how all the material needed to be delivered. Academy staff members and Journeys principals held several meetings to discuss promotion and publicity for the project.

One of the major challenges was the program opening. A number of brainstorming sessions yielded a variety of ideas that were considered and discarded. Finally, the producers realized they had gold in their own backyard. Lead actor Kiefer Sutherland had been very supportive of the program idea and had already given an effective interview, so the producers came up with the idea of asking him to introduce the show, which he graciously accepted.

That left the opening credits, which were the subject of much discussion. To design both the print and animated version of the Journeys logo, the company BLT (Chicago, Spiderman, Saving Private Ryan) was hired. Michael had established a previous relationship with BLT when they designed the poster for his ESPN film The Junction Boys. Bruce and Michael met with the BLT team headed by graphic artist Bruce Schluter to create an image that would summarize the goals of Journeys Below the Line in ten seconds or less. The final, approved concept was of a rolling filmstrip embedded with job titles moving across hills as a projector light dissolved into a rising sun.

Next Lynne headed up testing sessions by showing the program to both faculty and student audiences. They gave it high marks and also had some excellent suggestions for improvement. Bruce and Judd took the program back to the editing room for some tweaks and then it was shown to various Television Academy members and staff. The program was taken to Laser Pacific for color correction and titles, to Todd AO for audio sweetening and mix, and to Captions, Inc. for the closed captioning that makes the material accessible to the hearing impaired.

Meanwhile, Scott Slaven of the Television Academy designed the DVD jacket and Brian Stewart of First Light, designed the look of the DVD with help from Ryan Ashfordand. Brian Gross at eggmedia created the design for the web site and CD-ROM . Once the masters were developed, First Light had them duplicated for distribution.