How we went from a pilot to 100 episodes

We’ve been producing A View From The Terrace for 5 years now and as we head into a 6th series, it’s incredible to think it all came from one opportunity to make a pilot.

Yep, pilots are an actual thing - you get to make an episode of a TV show that a few important people will see, and now it’s morphed into an award winning show and a cultural cornerstone in the Scottish football landscape.?

We’ve grown massively as a show and as people who make the show - at the start we learned a lot, by the mistakes we made in producing it and by joking about Jordan and myself going to Telly school for the first few seasons. I'm not sure we’ve graduated yet, but maybe we are into our final year! We started out with a principle to?make a show you really want to make, not what you think would get commissioned, as we might need to make 100 of them. Would you know it, we will be producing our 100th episode in this series.?

Being Series Producer on the show, I'm super proud of a number of things?- on screen, it goes from strength to strength. ??

The panellists have developed and grown into their roles as informed fans while still retaining the energy and enthusiasm of the first episode, and crucially having that chemistry of a group of friends having a laugh and inviting you in. This year we are going to be adding in a lot more fan voices from around the country to really cement ourselves as the fans' show, which is a really exciting evolution.?

We are going to be taking the show on the road, for a few select ‘as live’ recordings and getting around the country. This is a huge undertaking from a production perspective, to seamlessly go from a safe studio space into a venue and staying within our tight turnaround - as topical TV waits for no-one! But it shows the ambition of the show to get in front of an audience after two successful, sold out live shows. It keeps the format fresh and adds excitement for everyone involved in it, to take this all around Scotland and connect with our amazing fanbase. All this happens with great partners and Edit123 - our post house have stepped up and we’ve redesigned our workflow to incorporate cutting edge technology to make this, essentially, a real time edit, sending rushes back via a server into their base. It’s not been done in Scotland before, an OB without an OB truck.?

Behind the camera, we are really proud to give opportunities to people to step in - or step up - in the industry.? We were given an opportunity to make this show and it’s changed the lives of Jordan Laird , Ian Greenhill and myself, so we always want to make sure we give opportunities to people. This year, we are delighted to offer Michael a route into the industry - partnering with PACT to give people from underrepresented backgrounds a chance to get a foot in the industry. He’s gone from flippin' burgers at McDonalds to being a production assistant on AVFTT, and it’s a game changer. We are partnering with Edinburgh Napier to get their 4th year students to complete their Work in TV module on the show in production and editorial teams, and get actual TV credits. We are working with new directors in the VT world, who want an opportunity to tell human interest stories and build up some TV credits. ?

My mantra is work on things you care about, with good people. Always be nice, always be useful. ?

I'm as hungry as ever to go into this series, I'm learning all the time and I'm excited for the future of the show.?

It’s hard work, every second counts and the hours are long! But it gives me purpose and I know I am part of a show that, for some people, is their favourite telly show in the world.?

You can’t really ask for more than that.?

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This article was written by Andy Maas , Studio Something's Head of Production. We are on a mission to make Something people genuinely like; be that a TV show, piece of branding or a new format no one has thought of. We like to come up with the right solution, not the easy solution for our partners. Give us a follow and tell yer pals we exist.