TV formats #2

Last week, I wrote about TV formats. Today I had the opportunity to talk briefly on the phone with a guy that works for a Swedish television production company that both develops its own formats, and produces formats licensed from other countries.

I told him about why I was interested in hearing about how such formats are documented; that I have the feeling that software development, juxtaposed with other creative businesses, has a tendency towards the uncreative and stale. Software people tend to want rules and rules by nature are uncreative, since creativity means solving problems by finding good solutions to them. If creating and following precise rules was the answer, then that would imply that there actually aren’t any problems to solve. All problems have already been solved and we only have to look up the proven solutions in a giant cookbook.

When it concerns documentation, following the rules is likely to overlook more effective ways of documenting a particular system within a particular context. Some systems are more easily understood than others, and some contexts demand more documentation than others.

The documentation for a television format consists of two things. First, a plain-text description of the format, without any illustrations whatsoever – something that he called “the bible”. Second, they actually use the shows as documentation. If I understood him correctly, formats aren’t created on speculation – first the shows are produced locally, and then they might be turned into formats and made available for licensing by other television companies (in other countries). In addition, they often send a consultant to assist the production company in “implementing” the format – someone with experience from the original production, I guess.

In other words, the formats are documented in a very straightforward way: A relatively brief text and tapes with the original production is considered to be enough – and if it shouldn’t be, the format developer will simply send someone to function as a mentor to the producers.