Edward R Murrow: Still Relevant as Ever

Murrow, at CBS. Public domain.

“The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.”
—Edward R. Murrow

After watching Good Night and Good Luck again recently, I dug up some of Edward R. Murrow's pithy insights on media, politics and public responsibility. (EdNote: With help from Wikiquote and ChatGPT.) 

Murrow (1908-1965) was a major influence in the early years of broadcast journalism. He cut his teeth as a war correspondent and was highly respected amongst his peers. His influence grew with the influence of television in the 1950's, due chiefly to his courage and his integrity.

Like Mencken, Chesterton and many others, his observations remain wholly relevant and timeless.

* * * 

 

Is it not possible that an unruly head of hair, an infectious smile, eyes that seem remarkable for the depths of their sincerity, a cultivated air of authority, may attract huge television audiences regardless of the violence that may be done to truth or objectivity?

--Murrow, Saturday Evening Post, 1949

* * * 

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained. --1959

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“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”

A reminder that questioning authority or mainstream opinion is often a sign of civic strength, not betrayal—a message that resonates in polarized times. This quote brings to mind Bertrand Russell's "Free Thought and Official Propaganda" speech from a century ago.

* * * 

“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”

This is a warning against complacency and blind obedience. It speaks directly to issues of media literacy, discernment and civic engagement.

* * * 

“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends.”

From his famous 1958 RTNDA speech about television, it is equally applicable to the internet and social media today.

* * * 

“The speed of communication is wonderful to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.”

A prescient observation about the dangers of viral misinformation, decades before the internet and social media.

* * * 

“To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.”

A framework for journalism, leadership, and public discourse—especially vital in an era of “fake news” accusations. Sadly, the lack of credibility of mainstream media was on full display in its coverup of Joe Biden's mental decline. How many times were we told he was "sharp as a tack"? The phony "weapons of mass destruction" justification for overthrowing Iraq in 2003 ought to have taught us something. Are we required to believe Iran is on the verge of having nukes just because our government and media tell us so?

“Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.”

This is a reminder that passivity or inertia in the face of hard challenges—like injustice or censorship—won’t be vindicated by future generations. I think here of the Proverb, "The complacency of fools destroys them."

“Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really understand the situation.”

Murrow's dry wit was a hallmark of his reporting. Here he challenges us about the complexity of global or national crises—encouraging humility, not apathy.

“Good night, and good luck.”

Murrow's trademark sign-off.  Simple, sincere—and a quiet call for integrity in uncertain times.

Related Links
Edward R Murrow's "Wires and Lights in a Box"

Edward R Murrow Wikipedia page

Crossing Over Into The Twilight Zone

"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."

* * * 

"You're traveling through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's a signpost up ahead: your next stop: the Twilight Zone!"

* * * 

"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into... the Twilight Zone."

* * *

My hand has not yet recovered from my stroke seven weeks ago, so I've been seeing a physical therapist who has given me exercises to do. This week I latched on to a new routine. While doing my finger exercises I've been watching episodes of The Twilight Zone, the original black and white show that began airing in October 1959. I was seven years old at that time and when I reached episode 4 the other day I was surprised that I remembered it. Perhaps it was the subject matter, a man who was somewhat obsessed about books and reading.

I have also been surprised at how dark these stories are. The mood conveyed by the narrator is one of impending doom or heartbreak of some kind. And like O. Henry's famous twist endings, Rod Serling's tales likewise end with a startling twist. 

More than 150 episodes, 80 of them written by Rod Serling, creator of the series.

One episode that I watched this past week was titled "Time Enough at Last." Here's the opening: 

"Witness Mr. Henry Bemis, a charter member in the fraternity of dreamers. A bookish little man whose passion is the printed page, but who is conspired against by a bank president and a wife and a world full of tongue-cluckers and the unrelenting hands of a clock. But in just a moment, Mr. Bemis will enter a world without bank presidents or wives or clocks or anything else. He'll have a world all to himself... without anyone."

It turns out that Mr. Bemis decides to take his coffee break in the bank's vault where he be alone with his book. Unexpectedly, his world is shaken by a nuclear war outbreak. When he emerges from the vault, most of the town's buildings have been destroyed. He is the lone survivor.

To his delight he finds the public library still standing and he proceeds to stack piles of books to be read during the months ahead. And no one will ever again criticize his love of reading.

SPOILER ALERT

Besides his passion for reading, one other detail from the opening scene stands out. He wear glasses with coke-bottle lenses. The twist at the end? As he bends over to pick up his first book, with all the tme in the world now available for reading, his glasses slip off and shatter on the concrete sidewalk. His "heaven" suddenly turns to hell.

* * *

Here are a couple other episodes that offer viewers the flavor of this show.

"The Silence" In this episode, a wealthy man bets a poor man a million dollars that he cannot keep silent for one year. It turns out that the rich man was not rich at all and did not have a million dollars, while the poor man had cut his own vocal cords in order to win the bet.  {I hear an echo of Chekov's "The Bet" here.}

"To Serve Man" Nine foot creatures from space descend on the UN and leave a book. The title is decoded to read, "To Serve Man". Thinking that this title illustrated the creatures' noble goals, Earthlings begin migrating to their planet. They soon find out that the book was a cookbook.

* * * 

There's a sense in which this year's presidential election circus feels a bit like an episode from The Twilight Zone. We'll soon see what kind of twist ending has been written into the script.

Is It AI Art? Or Just My Television Reception in Parma?

No, it's not AI Art. Nor is it Photoshop.

It's nothing more than poor reception.

I thought it was cool, though.

Chuck Connors Was Branded: Dealing with a Stained Reputation

All but one man died.
There at Bitter Creek.
And they say he ran away.

Branded, scorned as the one who ran.
What do you do when you're branded,
and you know you're a man?

Wherever you go, for the rest of your life
You must prove, you're a man.

source: Lyrics on demand

* * * 

When I was a kid I had a good friend who really liked Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain, The Rifleman. As a writer, one of the most interesting parts of writing fiction is creating characters and giving them names. Lucas McCain is intriguing. The four Gospels of the New Testament are written by men named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Lucas is the formal full name for someone nicknamed Luke. The "Mc" in the last suggests a Scottish origin, "Son of Cain." The firstborn of Adam and Eve were Cain and Abel. Cain lost his temper and killed his brother out of a jealous rage. The implication is that Lucas McCain is a good man with a complicated heritage in a complicated world.

The show ran from 1958 to '63 after which time the tall, lanky Connors got a new role: Branded. In Branded, another 1880s Western, Connors plays the role of Jason McCord, as West Point grad who has now been court-martialed and shamed for having survived a massacre at Bitter Creek.*

One thing about television, it can really sink a jingle into your brain when put to music. For more than 50 years that line has stuck with me, "What do you do when you're branded and you know you're a man?" 

* * *

There are actually several takeaways here. The first that comes to mind is the notion of Reputation. A good reputation will open doors for you in the marketplace. A bad reputation will hurt you on many levels. Trust is the basic foundation of most relationships and loss of trust is detrimental. All kinds of sayings affirm this. "He's as good as his word," is the first that comes to mind.

Another saying along that line, "It takes years to build a good reputation and minutes to destroy it." Your reputation is your cred. It is more important than many people realize. 

A second takeaway is how this story dovetails with a common emotion that people have at times, the feeling of being misunderstood. I don't think many of us have been in the same circumstances as Jason McCord, but most of us have experienced the pain of being misunderstood. Hence the popularity of the 60s hit from that same time period, "Oh I'm just a boy whose intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood."

A third takeaway here is the challenge we have regarding our stance toward others in the community. That is, how much can we reveal and how much must we conceal regarding who we are. This has become especially disconcerting on social media. When we were children life was "live and let live." Now we have to give more thought to how we say things. On one level that it's OK to be circumspect and thoughtful with our speech. On another level, it seems sometimes that communication today has descended from trying to understand one another to trying to pin people down, with no mercy.

* * *

Those early days of television were very different from today. Westerns were the rage. Maverick, Bonanza, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke and Have Gun, Will Travel are just a few of the dozens that of Western-themed shows. What really interesting is how many actors who came to enjoy later success were either stars or guest characters in these shows. Clint Eastwood, James Garner, Michael Landon and Richard Boone were just a few who used starring roles in Westerns to springboard to broader careers on the silver screen. 

* * *

Related Links
The One Who Gets Things Done: Have Gun, Will Travel
Cowboys and Aliens 
Branded at imdb 

* When I was 15 and 16 I caddied at a country club in New Jersey. One of the caddies was a fellow who had been court-martialed. He had low self-esteem and I could see it weighed on him. He was mocked privately behind his back, which I didn't understand at the time and felt bad about.

Have You Ever Wanted to Work in Media?

We're less that four weeks away from the first Duluth-hosted Catalyst Content Festival, a potentially much bigger event than most Northlanders have yet to realize. It's actually been years in the making in a pair of ways.

First, there have been years of investment in making Duluth the remarkable place it's become. After the collapse of it's industrial base, it took quite a while for the Twin Ports to find its footing. Over time, with much investment, Canal Park, Downtown and Lincoln Park have been transformed.

Second, ITV Fest's first 13 years enabled it to find its own footing as regards what it is and how it fits into the new media landscape. Now in its 14th year and bearing a new name, Catalyst has come of age. In short, for a variety of reasons it appears to be a perfect marriage.

Friday night St. Scholastica hosted a Catalyst Content Preview Event in Mitchell Auditorium. The room wasn't as packed as when Low or Trampled By Turtles performed, but it was a healthy, appreciative crowd. Clearly, something special is coming to town.

We were welcomed by St. Scholastica marketing director Ira Pavala who shared a few remarks including, "We're proud to be a part of this." St. Scholastica is a two year sponsor and will he home to the Storyboard Academy beginning January. "The aim is to lower the barriers to entry into this industry," she stated before introducing Catalyst executive director Philip Gilpin.

Philip Gilpin

Gilpin was upfront that the aim here is jobs, and helping people to find their place in this massive industry. Where do you fit in? We're all familiar with the actors and extras who appear on the screen, but part of this event is helping people see the scale of infrastructure and staffing needed to bring stories to the screen.

In addition to story developers, directors, producers and casting, their are all kinds of other roles and needs to fill. A few of these categories include:
Props, Set Direction, Locations, Art Department, Camera, Grip, Lighting, Production Sound, Special Effects, Transportation, Greenery, Paint, Craft Services, Catering, Publicity, Music, Post-Production, Picture Editing, Visual Effects.

Greenery? Well, yes. For example when Marlon Brando was chasing his grandson through the garden in The Godfather, somebody had to be taking care of the plants, someone with a green thumb. That's greenery.

To see the full range of jobs required to make movies and shows, visit GetInMedia.com

Mitchell Auditorium Friday evening.

Here's a surprising detail. Last year, more films were shot in Georgia than in Hollywood. Why? Because they have the infrastructure in place for all these various needs.

Part of the Catalyst Festival is simply bringing people together, and part of it is training so that there is more talent in the industry. A third part is simply having fun for a week, sharing ideas and watching films.

Gilpin stated that there were 800 submissions for this years festival from all over the world. 60 to 70 films will be screened during the five day fest. A requirement for the selected films is for the film makers to be present, so we can ask questions, get to know them and their motivations.

How We Got Here

Gilpin shared how he met Riki McManus last year in October. Riki’s and others’ work has made this possible. Duluth has much to offer and was selected because there was a sense that with the industry at an inflection point there might be more rapid growth than their Vermont home could accommodate.

As has been noted here in the past, Minnesota believes in the arts. There's an infrastructure here that believes in and supports the arts. The City, the County, the people, the sponsors… "It's a town with great energy, which makes something like this possible."

He also cited the five year commitment the Abrams Artists Agency has made to Catalyst. There is a hunger for narrative episodic content, but with technology advances  costs have been greatly reduced, making it possible to produce quality material for pennies on the dollar compared to the big budgets Hollywood must fork over.
 
Six months ago when this event was first announced, it had an air of unreality about it. Could it really work? Could they really pull it off?

Today, as we stand on the threshold, it's apparent that a lot of work has preceded this moment. It's not a misty phantom but rather something firm, solid and really taking shape before our eyes.

Have you ever wanted to work in media? This is a great opportunity to see what it's about.

Related Links
Catalyst Home Page
Festival Schedule
ITV Fest Re-Branded as Catalyst
Sign up to as a Volunteer
Unremembered Histories: Six Stories with s Supernatural Twist
(I included this last link because I believe some of these stories might make thought-provoking and entertaining short films, with the title story a multi-year episodic series.)

Industry Veteran Cirina Catania Talks About Making Movies, Sundance and the Catalyst Film Festival

(L to R) Riki McManus, North MN Film Office Director,
Festival Director Philip Gilpin, Mayor Emily Larson
and Cirina Catania.

This coming October, Duluth will be hosting the Catalyst Content Festival, a gathering of independent media developers, producers, directors and visionaries. Sponsors include St. Louis County, Monaco Air, HBO, and the Abrams Artist Agency, among others. In my effort to learn more I have been interviewing various people and sharing their insights here.

This past weekend I had an opportunity to speak with Cirina Catania, one of the co-founders of the influential Sundance Film Festival. Ms. Catania serves on the advisory board for Catalyst, offering a unique perspective on what Catalyst is striving to accomplish, and why Duluth is an ideal home for bringing the festival to a new level.

The more we talked the more impressed I became in two regards. First, that she had been involved in Hollywood for more than three decades without becoming jaded, with a generous spirit and genuine warmth. Second, because she wore that mantle of cred that comes with experience.

We had a good first "meeting" and this is a portion of what we talked about.

EN: Who is Cirina Catania, besides being a Hollywood insider who has been involved in more than 100 films?

URSA Mini Pro%2C Sony Still%2C Zeiss %26 Canon 

Cirina Catania: I’m a creative person. I have both a left and a right side of the brain that work.

I spent quite a few years in the studio system in Hollywood. MGMUA and then at the new UA (United Artists) where I was managing up to $200 million a year. I had final responsibility for all the budgets for marketing, PR, research. I have this other side of me that is creative and wants to do fun things with my brain. And doesn’t like to be put in a box.

Before I got into elementary school I was playing with drawing, and got a Brownie Instamatic Camera and I loved photography, which became a way for me to express who I am.

I loved how you could put five people together looking at the same thing and the creative rewards of what they are looking at are going to be completely different. Don’t you love that though? It’s sort of what makes the world go ‘round.

I’m also a mom and a grandma and a family person. I was lucky that I had children when I entered the studio system. It kept me grounded. I had to go to the parties, and get into the limos with the actors and actresses, but it didn’t matter to me because at the end of the day I was going home to my kids. That was more important. I had the best of both worlds.

EN: Among your many other activities you’re also affiliated with Catalyst. What attracted you to what is going on here?

Philip Gilpin

CC: I met Philip Gilpin a few years ago when I interviewed him for my radio show and I was very impressed with him. He and I then stayed in communication and when he was doing town hall meetings in Vermont and legislative lobbying there, he asked if I might be interested in speaking with the local community about what it takes to start a festival because of the Sundance connection.

We met with the governor and did a couple town hall meetings. When the festival moved to Duluth I was really excited because I think the Duluth community is a much better fit. The people in Vermont were awesome and I met some beautiful people there, but they didn’t have the ability to expand to the extent the festival is going to expand.

One of the goals of the festival is to put money in our pockets in this community. And I think it’s going to happen. I’m on the Advisory Board, offering advice and being a cheerleader to help make it happen.

One of the things I’ve been trying to do at this stage in my career is mentor younger people and mentor film makers in the Heartland of America who are always asking, “Should I move to L.A.? Can I make a living here? Will I be happy staying here in my home town?”

I always tell them, if you can make it work, and stay close to your family and friends in your home town, why not? This is a beautiful country.

Cirina shoots a BMCC Zeiss 70-200-2PC B%26W

EN: You recently came to Duluth to do a film making workshop.

Catania & Gilpin flank Patty Mester, President and GM of WDSE/WPRT

CC: We just did this 2-day master class in film making with WDSE-WRPT. It was a way for me to share what I’ve learned from working inside Hollywood.

I used the example of a non-scripted reality show, like the films I have worked on with National Geographic, and what do you have to do at the end of the filming and in post-production to make sure you are delivering what the network needs in order to meet the contracts that have been signed.

We also invited a group to come out from L.A. They really believe in the local film maker so we brought in people from the “We Make Movies Smart Phone Studio,” Aubrey Mozino and Sam Mestman, helping the creative people in that room to play. I wanted to take the equipment out of the equation. It was thrilling how the teams went from quiet in the beginning to fully engaged and excited by the end.

I have learned so much over the years and so lucky with my career that as I mature although still working I’m thinking more about paying back, giving back to the creative community.

EN: So, tell us about how Sundance got started. You were there right at the beginning.

Cirina shooting Black Magic camera
@Mosquito Creek

CC: I was associate director of Utah State Film Commission working under Governor Scott Matheson (1977-1985). John Earle was director of the film commission. It was our mandate to try to bring more film making into the state of Utah.

We did location scouting and produced a book of all the crews and resources for acquiring equipment. We were having dinner one night with Sterling Van Wagenen, John Earle and I, going over some business things, and we started talking about how the governor had contacted us and asked what else we could do. And the light went on and I said, “Let’s start a film festival.”

But then everybody we subsequently talked to said, “No, there’s already one in Texas. We don’t need another film festival. What do you want to do a film festival for?” This was in 1978. We didn’t listen, and as I told you I don’t listen, and so we did it and it was probably the hardest I’ve worked in my life.

Sterling directed it the first year. The festival went into debt. The board was thinking about disbanding it. They didn’t know if they could continue. Local merchants were owed a little bit of money—not a whole lot. We had no money in the bank, no offices, no furniture. And we wanted to do the festival another year. So Governor Matheson called me and said, “I really want to continue with the festival and if I give you a six month leave of absence, paid, will you take over the festival and direct it?

I said, “Sure.”

So I went around town—very similar to what Philip [Gilpin, Catalyst Director] is doing—and met with all the merchants, told them what we want to do. A lot of them believed in us. Some provided offices, some provided furniture.

Whatever it takes to get the shot. (Photo by John Heino)

I remember climbing down into the basement of Utah Bank and picking out used furniture. The president of the bank said, “You can have anything in this room.”

In our second year, 1979, we actually made a very small profit. And it was pretty much clear sailing from then.

It’s not easy to do a film festival. It is very time consuming and takes a lot of dedication. But let me tell you, I have seen that in Duluth. You go to an event, any event that’s creatively motivated like a theater like the Zeitgeist, and there are lines outside the door. People attend lectures to talk about photography, to talk about art, to talk about whatever it is, they are so involved and so enthusiastic.

It's not this way everywhere. I think that Duluth is the perfect home for this festival.

When we did this 2-day workshop I could see it. I could see the excitement in peoples’ eyes. The willingness to try something new. Their willingness to work together in teams. And to play. The joy of creating something. And I’m hoping the festival will be like that for people.

Related Links

MASTER CLASS: BUILDING YOUR SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN FILM
https://www.wdse.org/masterclass

SAMPLES from the Workshop
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnAsrW7oNh5SWoKLBvTmlURkTcuUfl1SP

Catalyst Content Festival
https://www.catalystcontent.org/schedule

TIME Magazine – 2010 History of Sundance
http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1956952,00.html

Television's Third Golden Age: What Is It and Where Is It Going?

One of the events we host during Duluth Dylan Fest each year is a Dylan-themed Trivia Night at Carmody's, a pub in downtown Duluth. The event is usually well attended and sometimes even packed.

This year's Trivia Night was different. The place was nearly empty. Why?

As it turns out, it was the last night for this season's Game of Thrones, which averages over 25 million viewers every Sunday night for HBO. Zounds! This incident speaks volumes about the power of series television.

* * * *
In the mid-90s, when Michael Crichton spoke to the National Press Club he declared that because of the Internet, television would be a dinosaur in less than ten years.

What really happened was the emergence of what many are calling the Third Golden Age of Television, characterized by season-long stories year after year. The innovation and long-form story telling combined with multiple methods of streaming media has generated a wide range of new opportunities for creative expression.

This past year I read the book Difficult Men by Brett Martin, a deep dive behind the scenes a deep dive into the inner workings of television characters and storytelling, and cultural influence, in what he terms the Third Golden Age of Television. The book's aim is to examine the elements and era "that made it okay for intelligent people to like television again."

For most of my adult life I've avoided television. Privately, however, I became immersed in the show Mad Men, following it through six seasons via DVD.

One of the big surprises in this era of series television is how big screen stars have been swimming back to this form of storytelling. It used to be that television was where you started, hoping to be cast as a "big name" on the silver screen. Today there's no disrespect for assuming roles in series television.

Some, such as French scholar Alexis Pichard, prefer to call this the Second Golden Age. All agree that the Fifties was an explosive golden era where producers relentlessly explored the possibilities of this new medium.

I asked Hollywood insider Katie Strand to weigh in on all these thoughts.

EN: What's your take on what's happening in Hollywood today as regards series television?

Katie Strand: I’m very curious to see how the film and television industry evolves considering how drastically different things are than they were – not only since the 50s, but even since the late 90s when the internet became ubiquitous.

Almost everything is related, and nothing evolves in a vacuum. Television's changes are directly related to the invention and rise of increased internet speed and bandwidth. It’s also related to the advent of video tape, making television a more affordable medium, accessible to creators and consumers.

The entrance fee to make a project went from tens of thousands (for the camera, film stock and processing), to thousands (for the more affordable consumer video-cameras, tape stock, analog and digital processing/editing), to now being able to shoot and edit a project with a device that fits in your back pocket, that you already own for other reasons, and then stream it directly online! It’s unprecedented! Never in human history have we been able to directly and quickly reach this large a worldwide audience with our visual ideas and stories.

The actors making the move to television, or episodic projects, may not have all of this in mind, but they’re certainly doing what artists throughout history have done…

You’re correct that actors used to take TV roles to gain notoriety so they could act in films. Now, we see many movie actors working on series projects. People like Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts and Billy Bob Thornton, who were pretty exclusively film actors on movies that played in movie theatres, have all made the transition to work on streamed and episodic projects.

The same is true behind-the-scenes. Many Directors, Producers and DPs (Directors of Photography) who only worked on theatrical films are switching to episodic projects. What do artists do? Myself included!? We go where the work is… Where we can not only make a living as an artist, but also (hopefully) do our best work. We’re looking to thrive. We’re looking to explore and evolve in our creative work, expression and collaboration…

The talent and workers are…. Going where there’s work. Right now, that’s in “television,” or episodic projects, the majority of which are available streaming immediately or shortly after their premiere.

Additionally, I’ve experienced and heard from industry colleagues and friends that many of the newer streaming platforms (though they’re currently being bought-up by bigger entities, for example Disney’s purchase of Hulu), give creators more freedom. Netflix is notoriously more hands-off on the creative process.

One of the chief complaints of creatives working on network projects is the “notes” from the executives to change their story, dialogue or characters… Most creative view these “notes” as a nuisance, from uninformed and uninspired “suits” or banking-type-businessmen who “don’t know the first thing about storytelling or filmmaking.” (Here I’m using filmmaking as a generic term for any TV/film medium.) With some of these new “networks” (“streaming platforms” is a more apt title, henceforth SP) like Netflix and Amazon, the creator’s experience seems to be less protracted and disrupted, with these SPs being more hands-off, fluid and supportive when there are “notes.” These SPs who don’t have traditional corporations or production studios, but have a platform and direct-to-consumer distribution, have become big-players in an industry that was extremely difficult to be any kind of “start up,” being that six major companies (like Time Warner and Comcast) essentially own the multitude of cable stations and media outlets.*

What all this means is: we may not only be in the Third Golden Age of Television, we might be experiencing and witnessing a whole new ballgame as far as the production of image-plus-sound-based storytelling and how those stories get to our viewers.

I remember as a child being fascinated and curious about many things, but especially my senses and storytelling. I longed to smell what Julia Child was cooking and touch what Bob Ross was painting or pet the squirrel he rescued. I wanted to go on a field trip with Mr. Rogers to smell the wood and hear the sounds of the pencil factory. I wanted to raise my hand and ask Carl Sagan questions about stars and planets and the Cosmos. I wanted to be in the scene in the Wizard of Oz, singing and dancing with Dorothy and the munchkins… It’s worth noting here that we were a PBS-household when I was a kid – our TV perpetually stuck on the local WDSE. My parents rules and TV time-limits didn’t apply to PBS shows!

I thought we’d have smell-a-vision by now. For anyone living in a cave (how are you reading this?), we don’t! We’ve had virtual reality and 3D video systems for a few years and 360° cameras, but they haven’t taken-over the way streaming “shows” or episodic projects has… The future of Hollywood and television is exciting and multi-faceted and we probably can’t fathom how it will all evolve. Perhaps there will eventually be smell-a-vision. Perhaps with virtual reality we can experience things (way) more exciting than one of Mr. Roger’s field trips. All I know is, I remain curious, and largely grateful to be a part of an industry and time in history where we’re seeing such rapid and monumental changes and shifts in our creative communications and storytelling.

* https://www.webfx.com/data/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-all-media/

* * * *

Katie Strand is a member of the Catalyst Festival team. This year is their 14th annual event, October 9-13 here in Duluth. For information about how to participate or get involved visit the Catalyst website here.

HERE IS A LINK to the PRODUCTION GUIDE Page that lists the kinds of skills and needs they want to have listed in the guide, as well as contact information for Katie Strand, Riki McManus and Keely Gelineau. https://www.catalystcontent.org/production-guide

Related Link
New York Times: 20 Best TV Dramas Since The Sopranos

Can Duluth Become the Next Sundance? Red Herring Meeting Showed How It Could Be Done

Everything starts somewhere. Ideas are planted, and if the soil is good and conditions right, the garden will bear fruit. It begins with a seed, which must be nurtured.

Saturday afternoon Katie Strand and Philip Gilpin of ITVFest. the Independent Television Festival, hosted an informational meeting at the Red Herring Lounge for the purpose of planting a seed in the hearts of a cross section of influential Duluthians with media connections. The concept makes sense, actually: to create a Mecca for independent television producers.

According to Philip Gilpin, "There are thousands of film festivals out there, but there is only one festival that focuses exclusively on independently produced episodic programming, and that’s ITVFest."

Viktoria Capek from Fox21

The first Duluth ITV Festival is already inked, so Gilpin and Strand were not selling the October event. Rather, their aim is to awaken Duluth to the possibility of becoming to independent television what Park City has become to independent film. There are seemingly countless film festivals, but since 1978 Sundance has become the most prestigious. The aim was to enable creative film makers to gain support outside of the stifling Hollywood film industry. The goal of Sundance was to showcase strictly American-made films and highlight the potential of independent film. Indirectly, the festival increased visibility for filmmaking in Utah.

In the same way, there are creative people working on television projects that just can't get past the "suits" in their Hollywood screening rooms. Having just finished reading a book about the Seinfeld show and how it nearly got the axe because the decision makers did not understand it, it's easy to see why there is a need for a system outside the system. (The book is called Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything.)

I've been to Park City a few times on business, and what you see there is a town that feels both quiet and quaint, un-sullied by the success of its film festival. Sundance may be internationally known, but it has not altered the character of the town. A lot of wealth has been generated, but no visible scars to the community.

* * * *

Katie Strand (L) and Philip Gilpin, Jr.

The "Aha" moment for me during this presentation was when Philip Gilpin noted the sea change that has occurred in media. Hollywood once held all the cards because they had the distribution channels nailed down. This is how they once controlled the movie industry. With the emergence ofYouTube, that has all changed.

All this has been turned on its head with the advent of the Internet. This is why Netflix has budgeted 7 billion dollars to produce movies in 2019, not just distribute them.

Just as Craigslist killed classified advertising in local newspapers (the damage from this revenue drain has been enormous), so has YouTube altered the media landscape. "There are currently 3 TV festivals in the U.S.," Gilpin stated. "YouTube has been a Hollywood disruptor in a very real way.

Major names are now creating innovative work, outside the Studio system. It’s a new era in television. If Duluth wants it, they can be what Park City is," he said, adding, "A major agency wants to invest a million dollars toward this."

At this point, Katie Strand presented,  beginning with a brief overview of her career. Strand noted that she is originally from Duluth and has spent the last 15 years in L.A. in television production, with production manager credits for Trading Spouses (2004) and producer for the show Nanking (2007). She's has a half dozen other impressive credits for various roles in the production of other programming including producer of the Ella Fitzgerald documentary for the Universal Music Group.

As a Hollywood insider, she began to notice that more and more work was being outsourced. Because of the competitive nature of the business, she reiterated a point that Gilpin said was being addressed in St. Paul. "Tax incentives are needed."

Duluth has much to offer. We have the talent and we have that invaluable Midwest work ethic.

Interested parties were scattered throughout the Red Herring from 2-4.

"Television is essentially about telling stories," she said. "Duluth will become the vetting system for television."

One of the first needs will be to create a resource guide so that television producers can use for calling in talent. Movies and television are created not by stars but by the 97% who are working behind the scenes.

Another facet of the project will be the creation of a Television Training Institute. Key pieces for implementing the vision include an infrastructure census and funding.

Mr. Gilpin indicated that ITV was created 14 years ago based on the conviction that television and the Internet would merge and become one. Hollywood became slow to adapt, hence the rise of independent television.

* * * *
The audience at Red Herring consisted of a virtual who's who of people involved in media in one capacity or another. Karen Sunderman, Brian Barber, Joellyn Rock, Blake Reistad, Andy Blessing, Bodhi Werver, for example. Emma Pardini (Great Lakes Aquarium) and Haley Hedstrom (Lake Superior Zoo) were among the many others with tangential interests. Richard Hansen, passionate founder of the DuSu Film Festival, SOLVE and original co-founder of the PROVE Gallery, helped promote this informational meeting on behalf of the community.

Viktoria Capek of Fox21 was on the scene early to capture footage on the event. (Trivia: Ms. Capek is new to our town, from our sister city Duluth, Georgia.) It's 22 below as I write this so that right now I've got Georgia on my mind.

The ITV Festival will be an interesting story to follow this year. One facet of this year's planned October event that wasn't mentioned, though alluded to, was the road construction taking place on Superior Street in front of the Zeitgeist. Mother Nature will have her say with regards to how complete the disruptive road project will be.

Certainly the other pieces look like they're in place. The community has much to offer. I will keep you posted.

Related Links
Duluth Snags National TV Festival
StoryWorld 3.0 : Topics, Talks & Titles — Philip Gilpin, Founder ITVFest

Is This Really the Third Golden Age of Television? Stick a Fork In It.

I once threw a television set off a bridge. I called it an art project at the time. The authorities would've called it littering. Had I been more into the showmanship aspect of this conceptual expression I would have gathered an audience. As a college art student I was making a statement, I believed. I was also going for a certain explosive effect that I was anticipating as the glass onion hit the rocks.

I'm not trying to be mean. Television is an incredibly powerful medium, but as more than one person has noted -- David Foster Wallace most vividly -- it is a powerful distraction from getting other things accomplished. At its essence, network television is clickbait.

Google defines "clickbait" as "content, especially that of a sensational or provocative nature, whose main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular web page." It's an internet-era term that I think applies to TV as well.

Wallace notes that one major feature of television is that it's an effortless medium to imbibe in. He writes,  "Easy and undemanding, requires nothing of us, as a result we as a nation are mentally lazy. This is normal to avoid work, which is why few people strive to paint like Leonardo da Vinci or play piano like a virtuoso. We pretend to be philosophers but we really don't do the heavy lifting of philosophers."  

* * * *

It's in this context that I wanted to share a few observations, prodded by my recent re-reading of Difficult Men by Brett Martin. Martin's book is a detailed examination of the players and proceedings of what he argues is "the third Golden Age of television. His premise is that the original Golden Age (fulfilled in the 50s) and the Second Golden Age (a period in the early 1980's) has been experiencing a third, led by a host of influential HBO shows such as The Sopranos and The Wire. These story serials have taken viewers into new territories, producing cult-like fan followings. Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, and The Shield are premiere examples of the form.

Martin's book highlights the bold writing, as well as the manner in which exceedingly flawed characters are regarded heroically. It's heralded as a "raw realism."

The chief aim of Difficult Men is to put these groundbreaking scriptwriters on a pedestal and throw accolades.

But at certain points Martin shows too many of the cards in his hand. No question these scriptwriters are exceptionally influential. Are they making the world a better place?

Raw. Realistic.

What was the secret to HBO's success? Martin expressed the problem like this: How can we (HBO) make people pay for our content when they already get more than enough on Network TV... FREE? Well, the answer was not complicated. Show things that you can't get on prime time: breasts and the kind of language that is forbidden there.

From its racy beginnings more than three decades ago today's shows make early HBO look like grade school.

After reading Difficult Men I decided to test the waters a watch one of the series that got raves from the author of this book: The Wire. The story takes place in the inner city of Baltimore. Drugs, gangs, crooked cops, crooked officials higher up the political seawall... corruption and social cancer, all authentically portrayed with solid acting, interesting characters, etc. etc. etc.

As we're going along in episode four the script writers did something that made me roll my eyes. It's well known that Hollywood insiders love to see how much they can get away with. As in any field, people are competitive. So a screenwriter looks for an opportunity to get into the record books for something as meaningful as, um, "Let's see how many times we can get the F-word into a movie?" Yes, a noble pursuit that we all want our children to aspire to. The Wolf of Wall Street packed 506 of them into its 3 hour feast. There was such a buzz about this achievement that you knew ahead of time it was not "a family movie." 

But those screenwriters are competitive and that Scorsese film has been surpassed already with a 900 word F-bomb massacre.

What's the point? It's obvious. People are still watching and this confirms their cynical view of human nature.

Episode four of The Wire (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) takes a page from the Scorsese playbook with a bit of dialogue that is so unreal only a screenwriter could write it.

Remember, the main idea of writing fiction is verisimilitude. That is, the story needs to give the appearance of being real. What you don't want is for the reader (or audience) to have a mental pinprick that produces the thought, "Pshaw, that would never happen." Which is exactly what I experienced in the scene I am about to describe involving detective William "Bunk" Moreland played by Wendell Pierece and detective James "Jimmy" McNulty, played by Dominick West.

There has been a shooting at a residence. These two detectives arrive to check it out. The dialogue our screenwriters apparently provided went as follows. (I have mis-spelled the critical four letter word and replaced it with a euphemism.) Here's the dialogue, as delivered:

Fork
Mother Fork
Fork, fork, fork, fork, fork.
Fork, fork, fork, fork.
Fork
Fork
Fork
Fork
Fork
Mother Fork
Aw Fork
Aw Fork
Fork, fork, fork, fork, fork.
Fork.
Oh, fork, fork, fork.
What The Fork
Forking-A
Fork
Mother Fork
Fork me.

On paper this must have been funny to someone. Raw? I guess. Realistic? Do you think this would be how two detectives would talk for ten minutes when investigating a crime scene? Now I am not suggesting they do not us the F-word. What I am saying is... where are the in between words, like, "What happened here?" or "Oh man, like whoa... Is he still breathing?"

Maybe I lack the experience as a television watcher. The scene struck me as too stupid to be taken seriously. So much for The Wire.

Alas. No wonder our visions of the future are so dystopian.