Pointing the camera backward

“ER” isn’t likely the first show that comes to mind in terms of props and special effects. But it’s the most labor-intensive program he’s worked on, says veteran prop-master Richard Kerns, who has “China Beach,” “Sisters” and “Viper” to his credit.

His job and others such as editing, production design, cinematography and makeup will be the focus of “Journeys Below the Line.” Aimed at college students and others interested in entering the industry, it’s the first plunge into the DVD realm by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.

If the budgets of these films are bare-bones ($80,000 for each), on-screen participants include some of Hollywood’s busiest professionals. The project, they say, is a way of injecting a dose of reality into academic classroom curricula -- an ingredient lacking from many of their courses as they were coming up.

The first installment, “ ‘24’: The Editing Process” documents the distinctive way in which Anne Melville, the show’s script supervisor, oversaw each scene in last season’s finale, as well as the role of the editors and postproduction personnel. The popular Fox series was a natural, the filmmakers suggest, because editing is a strong suit. (Orders are now being taken online at www.firstlightvideo.com and the disc is due in stores by year’s end.) The second in the series, “Propping ‘ER’,” went before the cameras last week and will be available online in October.

Below-the-line jobs are crucial to production, says Kerns, but frequently overlooked.

“Film school graduates entering the business generally want to be producers, directors, writers,” Kerns says. “Even if they make it, nothing irks a crew more than someone who lacks practical knowledge of what goes on in the below-the-line jobs.”

The timing is right, foundation Executive Director Terri Clark says. New DVD technology allows for 40 minutes of bonus material, such as an interview with “24” co-creator Joel Surnow about the show’s editing and another with Penny Johnson Jerald, who played the first lady, about the influence of editing on acting. The format, Clark says, is more conducive to classroom use than the old fast forward-rewind approach employed on videocassettes. The series comes with a faculty curriculum on a CD-ROM, including a glossary of terms and script supervisor forms used by Melville.

“As a nonprofit, we’d love to make our costs back, but, first and foremost, this is about developing professionals,” Clark says. “In one focus group, a student said ‘I didn’t know what a script supervisor was -- and now I want to be one’ -- exactly what we want to hear.... Though we’re looking at four, we’ll be charting our course as we go along, and a boxed set isn’t out of the question.”

The idea is the brainchild of Emmy-winning director Bruce Bilson (“Get Smart”), who developed the DVD series with his producing partner Michael Gallant, producer of shows such as ESPN’s “The Junction Boys” and the upcoming David Mamet feature film “Edmond.” Both are former chairmen of the foundation’s educational programs and services committee and one-time members of the board of governors of the academy.

“The DVD makes it possible for students from Hawaii to New Hampshire to get into the editing room and follow the process step by step,” Gallant says. “Someone in the academy called it an ‘all-access pass’ -- a rock term -- into the television industry.”

In the summer of 2003, the academy’s budget review committee agreed to split the cost of the first two DVDs with the foundation. After Venice-based First Light Media agreed to distribute the program, the filmmakers knocked on the door of “24.” Director-executive producer Jon Cassar gave an immediate “go,” and star Kiefer Sutherland agreed to introduce the 30-minute project. The shoot took place one night last spring. CTU, the counterterrorist unit, was in a Metro station, chasing a man carrying a virus.

Editing, by all accounts, is the signature of that show -- an area in which it has won three Emmys. “ ‘24’s’ style is unique,” Bilson says. “The show is edited for a certain tempo. And there are four or five different boxes on-screen showing different plotlines, simultaneous action.”

After six months of postproduction on the first DVD, the filmmakers approached “West Wing.” They hoped to use that program to explore production design in the second installment of the series. Because that show’s season was coming to an end, the producers referred them to “ER,” another John Wells project that would be shooting until May.

Arriving at 6 a.m. on Thursday, Bilson and Gallant captured six scenes of trauma -- open leg fractures, a crushed larynx and the like -- precipitated by the collapse of a balcony. To shoot a woman going into premature labor as a result of the shock, the properties department created a prosthetic pregnant abdomen. And the department supplied a Styrofoam barbecue and rubber beer cans to ensure that no one would be hurt in the stunt. In addition to traditional props such as incubation trays and ultrasound machines, the show features a host of ethnically diverse animatronic babies costing between $8,000 and $15,000 apiece.

Though time and medical procedures are sometimes compressed, Kerns says, accuracy on props is essential. “It’s rare that we have a scene without a dozen or so,” Kerns says. “And everything has to be seamless. We’re supposed to facilitate storytelling and character development rather than calling attention to ourselves. A union contract mandates that my name be on every show. But the DVD is a chance for my crew to shine.”

Cassar agrees that DVDs have upped the profile of TV folk (“Releasing a full season of a show would have been pretty impossible on cassette”). What propelled him to sign on to the project, however, was his own academic experience.

“I was a college student once -- and most teachers had little industry experience,” he says. “The people I really wanted to hear were the guests who knew what it’s like out here, because they were in the trenches.

“It was strange being in front of the camera during this shoot,” he adds, “but we’re getting used to it. No show or movie gets made these days without a DVD crew around.... A home video release is a great way of developing an audience -- after the fact.”

A rough cut of the first DVD was previewed by USC film and TV students in the spring of 2004 and then shown to Cal State Fullerton students and faculty last fall. In November, 20 media arts professors from around the country were also given a peek.

Lynne Gross, a radio-TV-film professor at Cal State Fullerton, designed the CD-ROM curriculum. Because few of her students have a sense of direction, she says, the project fills a void.

“After watching the DVD, 20 of my 60 students said they wanted to be script supervisors,” Gross says. “And industry professionals -- such as a still photographer on the set of ‘24’ who wants to explore editing -- are interested as well. While $79 seems like a lot to charge, that’s not bad for an academic DVD. Besides, academy members can get the DVD for 50% off -- and the cost will go down when it gets to video stores.”

Down the road, Bilson and Gallant are considering a DVD on cinematography, pegged to one of the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” shows, and another on the creation of characters through hair, wardrobe and makeup on “Desperate Housewives.”

The intent is to cull a show from each of the four major networks -- and cable, if the project takes off.

“We, at the academy, try to be neutral -- that’s why the Emmys rotate each year,” Clark says. “Still, it’s got to be the right cluster of professionals on the right show with the right internal champion, like Cassar and Kerns, who pave the way for it to happen.”