Authorship in TV Issues - Essay Example

Given this argument, it follows that the identification of the technical competence of the director would enable critics and viewers alike to determine the quality and artistic value of the TV program.

Auteurism however has been criticized in its application to film and TV show making because the creation of a film or show involves a lot of people in its production process it would be difficult to say that a certain individual was solely responsible for the authorship or creation of the film (Moran, 1999). Moreso, in a Hollywood setting where a multitude of people had to work and collaborate to create a film. We can cite for example the film The Big Sleep (1946) which was a product of collaboration with different filmmakers. It involved novelist Raymond Chandler who wrote the novel which was the basis of the film, Howard Hawks, screenwriters William Faulkner, and Leigh Brackett, and actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (Lev, 1988) all were distinguished artists in their own right. It is also important to note that the film made a last-minute revision in January of 1946 invites discussion about authorship because it clarifies when and who decides for the change of the film indicating ownership of the film (Lev, 1988). This is an important notion of auteurism because it highlights the complicity in according authorship in a film as argued by the critics of auteurism.

In a contemporary setting in creating a TV program, various creative people are involved to complete the production. It involves the Director, Producer, Creator, Executive producer, Assistant producer, Researcher, Star, and Writer, all of which have creative inputs to complete the production of a TV program. If we are to determine authorship in the strict meaning of the word, it would be difficult to assign it to a single individual because no individual can complete a TV program by himself. We can however infer from the experience of the movie The Big Sleep in determining ownership of the film despite the multitude of distinguished people who worked on the project. In The Big Sleep, while the contributions of Raymond Chandler William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and actors Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are generally recognized in the film industry, the official auteur of the movie was Howard Hawks. The credit went to him because it was he who proposed the idea of The Big Brothers to Warner Brothers as part of his “third film to be made under the non-exclusive contract” (Lev, 1988:4). While assigning Hawks to be the single author of the film is highly debatable, his collaboration with Warner Brothers explain the circumstances why a single individual was credited for authorship for a work that was done by many people which could also be applied in a TV program in determining ownership despite the many talents who made the program.