Your Iconic Image : BTS of TV Production
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Christine Johnson has worked as an Associate Professor with a specialty in TV Production for The State University of New York for fourteen years and at Western Kentucky University for two years. Before her academic work, Christine was a Producer/Director in the TV industry for over fifteen years, producing live sports entertainment programming worldwide, first for WWE and then for AOL/Time Warner. In addition, Christine had several other opportunities, producing packages for: The Jay Leno Show, Extra, and the feature film \\u201cReady to Rumble: starring David Arquette and Oliver Platt.
During her tenure at The State University of New York, she produced two video projects in conjunction with the Geology Department that was recognized and distributed to conservatories nationwide. In addition, she ran the University Television Station for 12 years.
In the summer of 2015, she had the privilege of working as a Field Producer with the Les Paul Foundation for their red carpet event, \\u201cThe Les Paul 100th Anniversary Celebration," at the Hard Rock Caf\\xe9 in Times Square. The project and Christine were awarded a Bronze Telly. (https://vimeo.com/133774005)
She has served as an advisor to the National Broadcasting Society Chapter for nine years, and during that period, her students won over 80 Regional and National Awards. In addition, Christine served as Marketing Director for the National Office of NBS and, in 2014 and 2018, was awarded "Professional of the Year."
Christine has established and continues a trusted relationship with various recruiters/department heads of different national television companies throughout the years. As a result, many of her students have benefited and secured positions with these production companies as full-time employees or interns.
Education
MFA\\u200bReinhardt University\\u200b\\u200bIn progress
\\u200b \\xa0 (Creative Writing)
MA\\u200bTexas Christian University\\u200b2003
\\u200b \\xa0 (Media Arts)
BS\\u200bTexas Christian University\\u200b1988
\\u200b\\xa0 (Radio/TV/Film)
Teaching and Research Area
Basic and Advanced TV Production\\u200b\\u200bField Production
Television Station Management\\u200b\\u200bTelevision Station Operations
Producing\\u200b\\u200b\\u200b\\u200b\\u200bDirecting
@thechristinejohnson
@ihaveathingforshoes
www.marlanasemenza.com
Audio: Ariza Music Productions
Transcription: Vision In Word
Marlana: Christine Johnson has an impressive resume and TV production, producing live sporting events, packages for the Jay Leno Show extra and a feature film. She was also a field producer for the Les Paul 100th anniversary celebration, serves on the National Broadcasting society chapter board, among other things, and has helped many students go on to have careers in the industry. Welcome, Christine!
Christine: Thank you, Marlana.
Marlana: So, here\'s the thing, a lot of people think TV production, movies, all that kind of stuff, it\'s got to be a glamorous world, is it? Are you going to burst our bubble?
Christine: I\'m going to burst your bubble, it\'s glamorous that you get to travel. But unfortunately, my travel kind of was hotel, arena, airport. There were occasionally, we got to go in early, I would go into like San Francisco early so I can visit my friend Allison, and my brother lives there at the time. So, there were like some perks to it, but two productions very hard, very long hours. We\'re talking 12 to 15 hour days, and you know, you\'re crawling around on the floor. Well, in my case, if you\'re at an arena, like you\'re crawling around trying to find places to shoot. So, it\'s definitely not glamorous, I can kind of sum it up the way my mom used to say to me, why don\'t you ever buy nice clothes? Because I crawl around on the floor and get dirty while I\'m not. So, I\'m not getting nice clothes.\\xa0
Marlana: When you first started out, what about the industry surprised you? And were there stuff that you weren\'t really prepared for?
Christine: I would say the majority of it, I wasn\'t prepared. I mean, I absolutely love my alma mater, I have two degrees from there, but they did not prepare me for what this industry was like at all. You know, it was like, Okay, we know it\'s a lot of work, but they didn\'t really get into what happens, like if you\'re not agreeing with people, you\'re working with people you don\'t care for. You\'ll work three weeks without a day off, and you\'ll get treated not well sometimes. Gosh! I started in the late 80s in production, and I basically became a first woman that produced professional wrestling. So, for me, it was kind of different because nobody prepares you for being around all men. Not that I was like, oh my god! I\'m the only woman around all these men, but they don\'t really prepare you for what kind of an environment that would be, let\'s put it that way.
Marlana: Was it difficult to establish , you know, as a producer, this is kind of your domain with all these men that you\'re working with?
Christine: Difficult to establish? Um! yes and no. I mean, I think you always have people that you work with that, you know, are very nice and professional, then you have people that you work with that are the greatest people and basically, they just treat everybody like crap. So, for me, that was an eye opening experience because there was a lot of kickback that came my way because some of the boys didn\'t really respond to a woman telling them what to do. And you know, it\'s still a good old boys world, it\'s male dominated. You really don\'t see a woman working in that unless on the ring.
Marlana: Right! In general, how do you think things have changed for women in the world of television production? Or have they?
Christine: Gosh! I really can\'t say because I don\'t think it\'s changed in some ways. I still think women are definitely singled out. We have to work twice as hard. Boys will be boys\\u2019 attitude still seems to prevail, which is very disheartening. So, I think in that way, things have gotten a tiny bit better with the need to movement but not where we should be, let\'s put it that way. So, in wrestling I\'ve been backstage a couple of times since I was fired because our company was sold. So, there you do see women backstage, I\'m not really seeing a lot of women in the upper tiers of that. So, as far as wrestling goes, I\'m not really sure. I mean, I think it was two years ago, NHL had the first all women crew. Why did it take that long for it to happen? 2019? So, stuff like that is, when you see things like that, and you\'re like, Oh! Well, this is the first all-woman crew. Why didn\'t that happen before? Why does it take until 2019 for that to happen? It\'s that whole thing, like girls don\'t know sports, So, In that way, I think it\'s starting to change, but it\'s changing in a way that\'s like, Look what we did, so it\'s not so much. We\'re trying to progress and we\'re trying to better ourselves, it\'s like, we\'re trying to put a band aid on it as quickly as possible. So that people will say that we\'re being progressive.
Marlana: Because I know you\'ve dealt with a lot of students over the years and things like that. Have most of your students been men wanting to get into the industry? Or has split?
Christine: No! For a while, I think it was like 60-40, and then it kind of evened out, and then it was like a little bit more women than men, and then it kind of went back to the 60-40. So, I also think in university, it depends on what teachers you have. I think if you have teachers that are discouraging women to go into the industry or to be in production and that kind of stuff, that kind of sets the tone. And I think for me, I\'d have to say I was a little bit harder on the women in my class because we would have talks like there\'s no crying and TV, we don\'t do that, if you\'re gonna do that, go do it in the bathroom, because men perceive that as weak. I\'m not saying crying as a weakness, because it\'s not, I cry when I get frustrated. I\'m like, Okay, I\'m done. So, when we were carrying flats around and stuff, I would tell the girls like, Don\'t tell me you\'re gonna break a nail or anything, because we don\'t want to set that precedent. We don\'t want anybody to have any kind of, you know, hold every so to speak. Like, don\'t play the oh! I\'m a girl! I am not lifting anything. So, in that way, I have a lot of really, really successful students, which is amazing. I mean, I have Emmy Award winners, and I have kids that have started their own production companies, two that have their own ESPN radio station, I have a student I taught that\'s going into the Olympics for the fourth time. One of my girls just dropped her first single. So, that was kind of exciting, and she did her first music video. I have another student that for the first time I taught he works on Broadway and has works of this Shubert Theatre. So, I have a lot of students, they were very, very driven, which was amazing, and it was great to work with them. But I think the thing that they always appreciated even though I was really hard on them, they would always say, but we knew that you were hard on us because you cared about us, and you wanted us to succeed because I always tell them "I\'ll never set you up to fail". That\'s just a bad teacher to do that.\\xa0
Marlana: And I think that especially back in the day, I can\'t speak to it so much now that what you were doing was actually a service to them because I feel like more stuff got thrown at us as women. At what point we would break?
Christine: Absolutely! When I got promoted, it was almost like oh, well she\'s starting over again. So, we have to test her again which to me was just like soul crushing. I\'ve been doing this; I\'ve been working my ass off. Why am I at this point once again? So, that was icky feeling, because then you start to question the relationships you have with people, like, Are these people really my friends? Or are they just sitting here waiting for me to fail? And when people are waiting for me to fail out, I\'m bound and determined to prove them wrong every step of the way.
Marlana: So how did you navigate all of that?
Christine: I cried in the bathroom. I have a very strong mother who unfortunately hurt a lot of the stuff that I went through. She didn\'t hear everything, but she heard my tales of the road when I was on the road, I needed somebody to talk to. So, I had a good support system with that. There were a few females on the road, that we can kind of commiserate, kind of go off on around and do our own thing. So, when I was in WCW, if I need to just get away for like, 10 minutes, I\'d go hide in the girl\\u2019s locker. The Knights or girls are like, Oh, okay, you just need a rest from it. I\'m like, Yeah, I\'m just gonna sit over here. They\'re very sweet. So, for me, it was more like I was in constant survival mode, and that I was in constant survival mode for about 15 years, which took its toll on me, and it still does. That\'s something that I battle with, because you\'re in that fight or flight constantly, you\'re always waiting for the other student drop, or you\'re waiting to come back at somebody who\'s making some nasty remark about you. It was like a crapshoot; you just didn\'t know what was gonna happen from one day to the next. So, it\'s really a lot of rolling with the punches and that puts you in that fight or flight, you have to survive. I\'ve always been a survivor. So, I think whether that was good or bad, I don\'t know.\\xa0
Marlana: So, if women are going through that now, what would be your advice to them?
Christine: I would say, don\'t lose yourself, because I did. So, I think staying grounded as much as you can, and whatever people in your life keep you grounded. That\'s really the best way to go, you always have to remember where you came from. So, for me, I was always the PA, that got suit thrown at her and was called bench over the intercom system. So, I always remember that. I\'m not like, Oh! I\'m the life of Easter now. I\'m a big personal, I don\'t like to pull rank on somebody. A bad manager does that, that I think sometimes when it comes to the point where you\'re being disrespected, I\'ve done it twice, I think in my lifetime, and it doesn\'t make me feel good. So, because I don\'t feel like I really should have to do that, because I don\'t think a man would have to be like, Hey! Listen! I\'m producing this show. So, I hate doing that. I think it puts you in that hysterical woman category, which is horrible. So, I\'m saying that women are hysterical, but that\'s the word that men like to use as the head. Your head being hysterical.\\xa0
Marlana: I\'ll show you hysterical.\\xa0
Christine: Yeah, exactly.\\xa0
Marlana: So, what would you say are the best and worst parts of TV production?
Christine: Gosh! I think the best part as well, I didn\'t realize I was an adrenaline junkie until I started doing live TV. So, I guess I was not that I\'m going to go parachute out of a plane or anything, because I would never do that. But I think the best thing was the people because we were like a family, maybe like a highly dysfunctional family. But it was a family, I loved them, and they saw you at your best tonight, you\'re worse, and they loved you anyway, or they hated you, whatever week it was, you know. So, everybody was pretty passionate about everything. I think when I was working, I was always criticized. You know, "Christina" that\'s what they would always say on my review. Christina is extremely passionate about what she does. Is that a bad thing? Apparently, they thought it was, I don\'t know. So, I think I loved what I was doing. I didn\'t exactly like the content I was producing. I didn\'t even know anything about wrestling when I got involved in it. So, I liked what I did, I liked travelling, that was really awesome. I met some awesome people that I\'m still friends with, which is amazing. The cons, there\'s very long hours, you have no personal life, I was on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day. It becomes obsessive and takes over your life. And was the only job I allowed to do that, and I will never do it again. So, I think the good thing I learned out of that was saying, "No", I think that\'s a powerful word to learn. And I still struggle with that sometimes because I always want to help everybody. So, I\'m like, Sure! I can help, but so, the best thing was, I got a degree in TV and film, I got to actually use it. That was fantastic. I did it for 15 years, I travelled all over the world. I think that was amazing. It was a creative outlet for a while, I did special projects for a while where I basically went out and shot packages and put stuff together to kind of build a character\'s persona. So, I liked that part of it. I didn\'t like going to the airport every week. I mean, I would be so exhausted, literally, I would cry on the way there. Or sometimes I\'d be like, I just want to stay home. But I think anybody gets frustrated like that with a job. So, it\'s like a love hate relationship. That makes sense.
Marlana: Tell us some of the things for people that don\'t know, what\'s the difference in producing, let\'s say a live thing for TV versus a taped something?\\xa0
Christine: Well, if we\'re talking about live events, period, so from my experience, we did live to tape, which of course, they don\'t use tape anymore, but we still call it that. So, I have to say, it\'s like film, we use filming, we\'re alive today, if you\'re just shooting it in the order that it\'s going to appear, and then you\'re leaving holes so that you can plug stuff in. So, I did one show that was live to tape. And then I did pay per views that were live. I think anyway, I mean, the live to tape is like, Okay, if something screws up, I can go fix it in editing, hopefully, even though that\'s the evil word to use fixing editing, you can\'t fix everything in editing.
Marlana: Same thing with photography.\\xa0
Christine: Exactly! Whatever is there is there. I think in that way, live to tape is a little easier when it\'s live, you\'re on the hot seat and anything that you screw up, it\'s like, well, your walk out of the truck, you\'re like, I\'m done. There\'s nothing you can do about it; you just have to keep rolling with the punches. So, I think I was good at that, because that\'s kind of the way I lived my life. So, I was just like, okay, you know what\'s coming next. So, for me, I enjoyed it, and it was definitely something I
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