TV syndication cuts - Who makes the decisions?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by lugnut2099, Jun 28, 2013.

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  1. lugnut2099

    lugnut2099 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    I've always wondered about this. Who typically makes the call as to what gets cut from syndication prints of TV shows? It's always my go-to reference, but The Simpsons DVD commentaries talk quite a bit about their dissatisfaction with the cuts and how they had no input on what got cut out. Sometimes scenes that were rather key to the plot, or jokes that are cited as some of the best wound up getting chopped out. By season six or so they had started making the intro sequence longer than usual, solely for the reason that they thought the syndicators would take their cuts from there instead of from the actual episode... and they left the intro intact and cut from the show anyway.

    So who makes these decisions? Often they seem very poorly thought-out. If a show like The Simpsons which has (or at least had then) a contract saying the network wasn't allowed to give notes or suggestions beyond the standards-and-practices stuff still doesn't have any input over how the syndicated versions are cut, then do any shows?
     
  2. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    The head of the studio's TV post department generally hires a freelance editing crew, gives them specific directions: "these shows time out at 22:45. For syndication, they need to drop in an additional 2:00 commercial break, so cut two more minutes out of the show, create a new commercial position, and do it in such a way that you remove a minimum of jokes and story."

    If there was such a thing as a "do not cut down for syndication" contract, the show would not sell and would stay on the shelf.

    There's a variety of tricks they use to pull this off: 1) cut down the opening titles [even to as little as :10 seconds]; 2) time-compress the show, running it at 25fps or even 26fps instead of the usual 24fps; 3) cut very small snippets out of a hundred or more scenes, so that no one scene is completely removed -- only half a second 200 times. This ruins the reaction time, but what can you do?

    I can say that the good editors really sweat these changes, and I know of cases where they really, really struggled for a couple of days trying to cut the show down to a reasonable length. And I also know of cases where the original editor from the series participated in the process, voicing concerns when too much of the story had been eliminated. There are also sometimes producers involved who have to approve the cuts, but by and large, I think they just cash the check and ignore it.
     
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  3. P(orF)

    P(orF) Forum Resident

    And, depending on their immediate financial needs, your local station may do some additional surgery. Their contracts explicitly forbid making content revisions, but the syndicators don't exactly have an enforcement crew out making sure that WXYZ doesn't do their own time compression or (generally pretty clumsy) editing. Or, especially during a hot political season, they may simply add some time to the commercial breaks and rejoin the show in progress.
     
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  4. JAuz

    JAuz Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    Can the original editors simply produce a "protected for syndication" version of the show right off the bat? Given that this has to happen, why not let the best person for the job do it?
     
  5. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    No, the staff editors have no time. They're worried about this week's episode and next week's episode. And they cost too much to keep on staff to make them work weeks and weeks on cut-down syndicated versions.

    It's not unusual for a sitcom editor to work 50-60 hours a week, eight months a year, on one series. Double that for the hour-long dramas, but in some of those cases, they alternate crews so that they have more than 10 days to edit each episode.

    What I have seen happen is that the syndication department will hire the show's post supervisor freelance to work on cut-down versions years after the show was done, assuming it gets retransferred to HD and recut. Every studio is different, and it's fair to say there are no etched-in-stone rules on this stuff. They do whatever it takes to get it done, usually as economically as possible.
     
  6. lugnut2099

    lugnut2099 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Missouri
    This definitely happened when ION was showing The Wonder Years a few years ago. They were the syndicated versions already, but ION applied their own bizarre time-compression/speedup that was the worst I've ever seen. It wasn't consistent, but rather it might go into a high speed for 20 seconds and then back to normal, then speed back up a minute later. It was noticeable at any time, but especially so for scenes with music (which is obviously a lot with that show).
     
  7. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    About 15 years ago, Dolby Labs had a booth at NAB demonstrating a new time-compression box that fixed sound-related problems in speed-up conversions better than anybody had done up to that time. They were showing an episode of NYPD Blue or something as a demo, and boasting that they'd managed to get it all the way up to 12% "without major impairment." (This is going at roughly 27 frames per second, which is hideous compared to the correct speed of 24fps.)

    I took a long look at it, listened to the audio, and all the characters weretalkingrealfastjustlikethis, with no pauses between words or sentences, and they were moving herky-jerky, like a bad Keystone Kops silent movie. Sure, the pitch was fine, but godamighty.

    The Dolby rep asked me, "isn't that great? Don't you agree that this is effective?"

    I shook my head and said, "even if you solve the technical flaws, this ruins the show artistically and creatively." He shrugged and said, "we just give our customers what they ask for. What they do with the technology is up to them."
     
  8. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Hey, don't pick on WXYZ(channel 7 in Detroit)!
     
  9. P(orF)

    P(orF) Forum Resident

    Horrible, by any standards....except those of the station manager who's working for an owner who paid several multiples of revenue more than he should have to buy the place, leaving the manager with a revenue budget that would be unattainable without a direct act of divine intervention. Beset by plummeting ratings and stagnant demand, the manager might not be able to do much, but, by God, he can speed up the programs to chipmunk speech speed and increase supply, following which he reduces his spot rates to radio levels and dares the radio guys to air even less music. As if that were possible.
     
  10. aberyclark

    aberyclark Well-Known Member

    Are all closing credits required for syndication? Most shows here shrink them into the corner of screen and the local news gives an update. I could have sworn that some years ago, a station in Dayton shrinked closing Seinfeld credits over top of Frasier opening credits
     
  11. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    The IATSE, SAG, DGA, and WGA union rules all have a provision that the studios must enforce airing all union-made TV and movie credits. Unfortunately, the interpretation of how you air the credits is very fuzzy. I blame NBC for coming up with the idea of doing "next show" promos and shrinking the previous show's credits, which they started in 1999, calling the promo gimmick "NBC 2000." This has gotten totally out of hand in the last decade.

    Even when they show credits full-frame in syndication, they're typically time-compressed by at least 10% (or more), since there's little or no movement. My favorite show for absolutely ruining the closing credits is Entertainment Tonight, where the closing credit crawl lists about 120 names in 5 seconds or less, a mindless blur of 5-point type. It's rude and inexcusable to the hardworking people who toil on shows like this every day.

    Note that longtime producer Linda Bell Blue's credit stays up for a good solid 3-4 seconds. It's very readable.
     
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