how long does it take for commercials and shows?

Question

how long does it take to make a commercial before putting it nationwide...and how long does it take for a tv show?

Answer 1

National commercial takes 30-120 days from inception to release. A lot depends on the advertiser. Some DEMAND audience reactions.

In the LONGEST of time periods they do a story board and then they film and and then the screen it at Preview House in Los Angeles and get a reaction.

If the reaction is good they shoot it and do another screening at Preview House.

If a particular actor gets thumbs up or down, they change what they are doing, re-cast if necessary and Shot it again and then do another Preview.

When I did commercials for a LOCAL small fry it was a six week process.

We went in and did some test shoots and showed it to them a week later. Then there was a writing session that took a week, then we got the go ahead and the following weekened shot it in ONE day at their location and it was a 15 hour day.

Then we got the work prints back and the following weekend did the editing session in which the client came in mid morning and saw all the takes and what we were doing and approved it and we put together TWO commercials from the footage we shot in a marathon 50 hour editing session.

The final print arrived at the end of the week, we screened it for the clients and it was on the air the following week.

We had some first day problems with it. I went to the stations and viewed it on their screen. I went to the lab and ordered a few color changes and print changes and a week later I put new prints into the TV stations and it ran for 90 days on four or five stations.

The actual shooting process for a Network commercial is genearlly a two day shoot and a week editing.

Auto commercials are done much faster. Usually in house. They write it, go outside with a truck, shoot it most of the day and then they take it back inside the office and edit it for a week or so.

It would be on the air in two weeks maximum, one week minimum.

I used to watch Needham come in to our offices with a concept for Toyota (or was it Nissan, whichever they represent) and they had already done weeks in work and talked with the company and they came to us for footage and in a month it would be on the air. So it was a 2 month lead time for a "Dealer" commercial, like the Toyta Tent sale.

The LONG time runs are for the CONCEPT commercials, like the Carls Junior IF IT DON'T GET ALL OVER THE PLACE IT DON'T BELONG IN YOUR FACE ones.

Those get tested and re-shot and tested and re-cast and tested for months before they commit to go with the plan.

As for a TV show it varies. Generally six months to a year or more.

We're talking NEW TV show

Existing TV show is five to eight weeks from story session to airing.

Existing TV show. It varies form show to show but usually ONE producer-writer handles a given episode in ROTATION from start to finish and then starts over again.

ALL the producers are writers.

They ALL get into a room, about 8-12 of them on a Monday and kick around a story idea for the next episode. The only exceptions might be one or two producers who are having problems with a show in production, but usally the Story Editors, Script Editors, Associate Producers, Producers, Co-Producers, Supervising PRoducers and Executive Producers are at the meeting and EVERYONE PITCHES or they give a PITCH done by a writer who came in for a PITCH session.

So the plots get pitched and the HEAD Executive producer picks the pitch he likes the best.

Then they, as a team, develope the story idea in six parts.

Prolouge, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, Tag (four parts for comedy there is not 3rd and 4th act).

They decide who will do waht and maybe even say what.

Then someone will be asked or assigned to WRITE the script based on the 4-15 pages story that a secretary has written down.

They have a week to do it.

The following week AFTER the story session they READ the script over the table, all the producers taking the parts. They read TWO scripts, the NEXT in production (2nd re-write) and one after that (the one assigned last week).

They pencil in changes. They ask for another re-write if necssary and if really required they assign another producer to re-write the other producers work.

Once a script is accepted or accepted with CHANGES it is punched up by a comic as required. Then it is gone over onThurdsay or Friday and given to the Director by late Friday who has ONE week pre-production to scout location, cast the guest stars and do a run through if ALLOWED (may not be allowed).

So week 1 story pitch
Week 2 First Draft
Week 3 Re-Write and Punch Up
Week 4 Scouting and casting
Week 5 Shooting
Week 6 Directors cut
Week 7 Producers cut and UPLOAD to the network for broadcast.

That's drama. Comedy is a little faster

Comedy

Week 1 story pitch
Week 2 First Read
Week 3 Second Read, Punnch Up, Casting, Cast Read
Week 4 Cast Read and blocking, shooting two times in FRiday.
Week 5 Directors cut
Week 6 Producers cut and upload.

After upload there is a 3-5 day delay for Standards and PRactises to make any comments, do a re-edit and re-upload.

So week 8 they air the drama and week 7 the Comedy OF AN EXISTING SHOW

They start writing in August, shooting in August or September and Airing in Mid Sept.

It's VERY fast procedure.

The WRITER is usually the lead producer on the segement and walks it through casting, pre-producting, production, post production.

It is NOT unusual for Writer-Producers to work 7 day 15 hour work weeks at FLAT pay (generally $5-75 K per week, depending on their contract negociations). They do not get paid extra for writing the script, but they DO get extra residuals in syndication. They DO get paid extra if they direct as well.

Outside script writers generally get 15K to 30K

On a NEW show it starts with the IDEA

My commercial producing partnerts sold an idea to Filmways. They walked in cold, blurted out the idea to an Executive who was holding her ears and shouting I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT (they were non-union).

She uncovered her ears invited them into her office. Pitched the Idea to NBC who liked it.

Weeks later my freinds had a contract with payment $20K split between the three of them and were to be Story Editors at $800 a week for the first season if it went to Network.

The Script was then written by the Emmy Award Winning writers for Welcome Back Kotter who got the CREDTED BY CREDIT (That is a $12K per episode for the run of the show payment, plus residuals, today it is more like $20-30K) they were also the Executive PRoducers. They RAN the show.

The pick other producers, they cast the show (Dezi Arnaz Jr got the lead), they picked the director (he gets $25-50K per new episode for the run of the show) it went to pilot it did not get picked up.

Total time from pitch to pilot was about six to eight months.

The Creator Producers were probably paid a FLAT rate to HERD the show, maybe $100 or $200K each and that was for the six months of work to pilot.

After that it would be a per episode fee for one or two years or whatever their contract called for.

That one sale got my assocaites into doors for years after that.

All they had to do was call up a studio or production company and say

"We brought a story that that went to pilot for NBC" and they got invited in to pitch everywhere.

They never sold another show after that.

One of them did some directing for Showtime and has a complete Avid rig at home.

Another is a Lawyer who does some video production work and pitches story ideas every now and then, must mostly does Lawyer work. Bread and butter lawyer work. Divorces, Bankruptcies, Ambulance Chasing.

Their pitch by the way was simply

A National Lampoon type Magazine gets bought up by Time-Life. Suits and ties have to learn to live with sandles and long hair.

Taht is what they got $20K for

Answer 2

I would say that to make a commercial, it would take about a week of practice, plus a few days of planning and editing.
A TV show, on the other hand, would be around a year.

Answer 3

if you mean from concept to broadcast, it could be a couple of years or more. the concept has to be sold, it has to be produced and edited and distributed and in the case of tv shows, it has to be sold after it is produced to the network.