Penn State Berks lecture examines 'The Science of TV'

Jon Wellner and David Berman will present The Science of TV
Credit: Photos courtesy of IMBd and Wikipedia

The CSI franchises "Bones," "The Blacklist," "Rizzoli & Isles," "Rosewood" and "Lucifer" have a combined worldwide audience of more than 300 million viewers. They have radically changed the landscape of popular culture and have brought hard science out of the dark recesses of the laboratory and into the zeitgeist of mass entertainment.

In this unique presentation titled “The Science of TV,” actors Jon Wellner and David Berman will detail the exciting process of how procedural television is created, from the story’s conception in the writer’s room all the way through post production and finally to your television screen at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. This lecture is free and open to the public.

Wellner and Berman have more than 15 years of on-screen acting experience and their company, Entertainment Research Consultants, has played a crucial role in consulting with more than 20 popular films and TV shows. These shows have brought chemistry, biology, mathematics, the law, and a wide array of forensic disciplines such as odontology, entomology and DNA analysis, out of the laboratory and into a new period of mass entertainment.

This unique presentation will explain how popular shows and films use hard science, distilled into easily digestible plot points, in order to tell their stories. The presentation will explain how science and information are incorporated into each episode and some of the differences between real-world settings and on-screen crime labs.

Penn State Berks reserves the right to limit the photography and/or recording of any program. The permitted or prohibited activities during a particular program will be announced at the beginning of the event and/or included in the printed program. All media requesting interviews and/or access to photograph and/or tape any program must contact the Office of Strategic Communications at 610-396-6053.

This event is sponsored by the Penn State Berks Arts and Lecture series. For more information, contact the Office of Campus Life at 610-396-6076.