To give you an idea of what it takes to capture a season of Home Sweet Home with Superior Pools… We will first need to start by saying that last year’s season was pushed to this year due to Covid. Currently, we are in both the production and post-production phase of season four! TSM has produced episodes 401, 402, 403, and 404. Episode 401 aired on April 4, 2021. Season 3 of Home Sweet Home with Superior Pools was 10 episodes and season 4 is projected to be 10 episodes as well.
TSM working with Home Sweet Home by Superior Pools on episode 401.
Pre-Production – Planning A Season
When planning for a season-long show, we like to know when the entire season should be completed, aka the last show air date of the season. For Superior Pools, this tends to be the first Sunday of November. At this point, we can determine that the last production date can be no later than the second week of September. This gives our team enough time to make the necessary edits, revisions and deliver them to the network. That allows room for the network to add in the caption for the show before the actual airing date.
From this point, we essentially work backward. Spacing out both production and post-production timelines to create a buffer and to be fair to the TSM team, as well as the Superior Pools’ team. This rough timeline then gets torn apart and flipped upside down once, if not twice, before it is finalized. All to ensure that the audience has something worth watching.
Production of Home Sweet Home with Superior Pools generally starts in January of the year, with the first episode traditionally going to TV at the end of March or early April. Coincidentally, both seasons 3 and 4 will have the first episode airing the first Sunday of the month.
Post-Production – Editing and Closed Captioning
We would like to take a moment to share and educate those that are interested in specifically the closed captioning piece of the process. Broadcasters, cable companies, and television service providers must provide closed captioning for 100% of new content. If you are producing a show in any capacity we highly advise to ask these questions before final deliverables are being sent off. Networks can do closed captioning in-house, for an additional fee – but it must be done in order to air the episode. TSM does not close caption the content, we elect to have the network handle it as they are often better equipped to do so.
When we are providing a show to networks there are several variables for us to take into consideration. For one, resolution, 1080 HD is the gold standard but 4k is becoming more common. Can we deliver in 24 frames per second or is it going to be 30? Networks have their own transcoding requirements and must be known before exporting the final file and uploading them. Each network will have its own deliverables clearly written out on a pdf that they will share once it is known you are providing them with content. In the case of Home Sweet Home by Superior Pools, we deliver in 1080p24 to an FTP site with a specific file name. From there the show can be easily identified by their master control unit.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work!
Producing, shooting, and editing an entire season is time-consuming. We divvy up the responsibilities so no one person gets overwhelmed. It is very easy to be caught up on a Friday and behind by the following Wednesday. Within TSM Kevin co-produces with Danielle of Superior Pools, Ryan is the director of photography and Ken handles post-production. It is a somewhat standard set up but it is critical to ensure each phase continues to move forward regardless if storyboarding takes longer (one always will), or if a production date gets moved (one always will) or a show release date moves forward (again, one always will).
Well, there you have it! You just received some insight on what a televised production project looks like for TSM. Let us know if we can help you with an upcoming project.
Season 3 recap – https://vimeo.com/418328161