Original Programming

July 2011 I wrote about how we watch TV, the title:  I Don’t Have a TV.  I recently read Outside the Box, by Ken Auletta in the New Yorker, an article I highly recommend and decided it was time to revisit the topic for a bit.

 

We know that “TV” has changed.  What has changed as well, is who means what when they use the word “TV”.  That’s what my blog post from nearly three years ago was mostly about.  This time around, I’m more interested in the programming aspect of TV; that is content, not context.

 

Television today faces two major threats: advertising models and streaming services.

A Case for Social Media, Outreach, Marketing and Distribution Producers

The first time I heard of a 50/50 film budget, I was like, yeah, right, like I’m going to spend 50% of my production budget on M&A (Marketing & Advertising).

That was the fall of 2009 after having spent all but $1K of my budget on MAKING a film. The remaining 1K was earmarked for festival submissions.  Not long after I started spending my own money to cover outreach and marketing expenses so the film would meet some deserving eye balls.  Not including my labor, 20% of the production budget for distribution seemed about right.  But then I started factoring in my time and realized how long an outreach, marketing and distribution process lasts. 50% now was very reasonable.

Context - Part 3

A guest post Leadership Unplugged on Brian Solis’ site (yes, again) started out being about leadership and then went into context and content.  Written by Roland Deiser and Sylvain Newton the article makes some very relevant points about an ‘unplugged’ and less perfect leadership style in a fast changing and moving world.  What struck the nerve for me were the following paragraphs:

Content Delivery

Back in 2011 I wrote a post about owning a TV.  This week my friend Gary Delfiner posted an article about the future of program delivery and I agree with all he observes, but that the water cooler effect is gone. It’s not it’s just different.  And before ANY water cooler talk with colleagues about a TV show you do have to set some spoiler alert rules; that’s all. I actually found it very helpful to be a season behind with Scandal in a recent situation as it gave us a much needed opportunity for a bonding moment when I finally caught up to the final episode of season two (OMG!). 

Context – Part 1

After posting Part 2 before Part 1 – I should get with the program, so eight months later, here’s Part 1 with some more general thoughts about context.  It’s really about content within context. 

 

I think content and context are intrinsically linked. We watch plays or listen to an opera today with the understanding that when they were written there were other times. We take them as a social comment on their times and within that context they become understandable. Of course there are the great classics that tell us truths that hold true to this day. And I take the word truth in its broadest sense, as there is no absolute truth as we so well know (or should know).  

Context - Part 2

(In case you were wondering: no, you did not miss out on part 1 – I just thought I’d jump to part 2, because part 1 takes a lot of deep thoughts and I’m not done sorting them out yet as I’m busy with my life and having a good time)…

 

My mother and I visited the Jeff Koons exhibit at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland this week. Two years ago we had the privilege of visiting Koons’ studio on the west side of Manhattan, thanks to an artist friend of mine who works there.  Our trip to Basel was a great full circle experience to our studio visit.