Continuity Database for TV Production Units
Image database for network TV shows
This may always be my favorite project. Not only did I get to go on set fairly regularly, but also because it gave me the confidence to try a new career path. When I started this project I knew very little about television production and even less about standing up an online relational database. By the time the TV shows were cancelled 9 months later, I knew quite a bit about both. I’m not exactly DBA-level, but I figured out a solution that worked.
The challenge in short, was that separate production units at different filming locations needed to know what the other units had filmed the previous day in order to preserve continuity between scenes. Since so much production was happening at once, video dailies weren’t possible. So they needed a web database where pictures from Script Supervisors and prop departments could be uploaded and viewed.
This is where I came in. I created unique websites for each TV show (six shows in total were filmed) and a unique webpage for each scene. I used a third-party database service to create tables that had a row of data elements for each scene, including a link to the scene’s unique html page. Then, as pictures came in, I would upload them to their scene’s page. The different production units could then use their show’s website to search certain characters, sets, or props to find the scenes and pictures they needed.
Are there now a lot of better ways to do something like this? Sure, but it was 2006 and I was only one guy with not a lot of experience. In the end, tens of thousands of images were uploaded, tagged, searched, and downloaded. Plus, I can say I’ve worked with an Academy Award winner (Tatum O’Neal was in Wicked, Wicked Games (Art of Betrayal); she won the Oscar for Paper Moon in 1974).
You can view the shell of the website, but the third party database has been disabled and the on-set pictures cannot be viewed.
What I Did
- Designed and developed website
- Uploaded images and videos from production units
- Maintained website and database