Fearing for the future of quality local TV.
I have this one filed under “Toiling in the Pixel Mines,” where I usually comment about work, only it’s really not about my work, which takes us into a whole other area. I’m a big proponent for the democratization of the media, even though every once in a while the democratization of the media brings us something like Bumfights 3. I think the internet and the MP3 format have begun to level the playing field where music and other audio content, such as podcasts, are concerned, and that’s a good thing; now I’m waiting for the democratization of television. “Cable access” has really become something of an illusion in most communities, and so once again, the internet and broadband will be the deliverers of new televisual talent.
Now, in order to be taken seriously, people need to learn how to make TV work for them. Granted, if we’re talking about stuff that’s going to wind up on an iPod’s screen, maybe there’s a point where you can back off on production values. But data compression does stuff to video that we’ve gotten past with most audio (as I was reminded rather harshly tonight when I posted the latest addition to my work blog). Video for the web and portable platforms is a whole different animal from videotape. But people are still taking the camcorder aesthetic – which really came and went in the popular media with Blair Witch – and applying it to stuff. And there are people who are putting together their own local TV commercials.
It’s this last bit that has me bugged of late. On the one hand, having been a commercial production manager at one of the local stations in the past, I cringe at the thought that what some business owner thinks is going to be a “cost-cutting” measure, bypassing the cost of having someone else produce their spots, is going to wind up backfiring and putting a laughable spot on the air that’ll do more harm than good. I’ve literally seen one local spot that looks like it was shot with someone’s webcam (with no more light than was available from the overhead lights in the room), edited on their PC, and voiced right next to the CPU fan of that PC. The customer testimonials, which are supposed to be heartfelt, wind up looking like they were culled from terrorist ransom tapes. It kinda winds up looking like Manos: The Hands Of Fate 2000.
Message to the business owners of the world: doing stuff like that hurts your message more than it sells it. Trust me. The people running the production departments at your local stations were hired for those positions for a reason. Please, avail yourselves of their knowledge and expertise. Yes, it costs a little bit of money. But it’ll do more for your business than putting something on the air that looks like the last known film of Bigfoot. We might be getting accustomed to stuff on tiny screens and highly compressed web video, but, to be frank, crappiness still shines through.
Trust me on this.… Read more
