Studio Television Production and Directing

Assistant Directing and Directing

Assistant Directing

The responsibility for managing the technical requirements of a live television newscast falls primarily to the Director. A large part of the job of directing is “knowing what to say and when to say it.” Therefore, the Assistant Director's (AD) contribution to the process really is significant in terms of figuring out “when to say it.”

Show time

The AD (or Production Assistant) is responsible for timing the show— forward and backward. The AD must be able to announce, at any given moment, how much time has elapsed into the show, as well as how much time remains. For example, the AD might announce, “We are 10 minutes 10 seconds into the show, and we have 19 minutes 50 seconds remaining.”

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