88 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
88 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
A one-minute course on how to do T.V.
|
|
|
|
by Richard Freeman
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
A SHORT TIME BEFORE I DROPPED out of Anthropology, I was regaled with what
|
|
I now think of as suburban legends. The one I still remember concerned a
|
|
tribe somewhere that was shown, perhaps on a bedsheet hung from a tree limb,
|
|
their first motion picture. No one in the tribe knew what to make of the
|
|
action. Instead, they all followed a chicken that was in one of the scenes.
|
|
I wonder (not only what movie had a chicken in it but whether this story
|
|
could possibly be true).
|
|
|
|
What makes me wonder is my experience producing television programs. I've
|
|
helped set up a TV station in town for almost no money at all, and I've
|
|
watched fifth-graders learn to use all the equipment in under 15 minutes -
|
|
and go on to do their own shows with interviews and trivia contests and
|
|
music. Either the technology is very simple or we are watching a miracle.
|
|
|
|
Whenever I teach someone how to use a TV camera, I always feel like
|
|
apologizing that it wasn't more complicated. That there isn't more to learn
|
|
and more to say. The only trick is learning that it is this easy. What stops
|
|
most people, I think, is the idea that TV is terribly technologically
|
|
complex and expensive ... whereas all that you need, if you have cable
|
|
access, is a camcorder and about $500 worth of sound equipment. Anything
|
|
else is gravy.
|
|
|
|
First you need to live in a small town with a cable access channel that
|
|
isn't being used. I assume there are lots of towns like mine - Yellow
|
|
Springs, Ohio - that have that cable capability but haven't used it yet.
|
|
|
|
Certainly the equipment needed is simple. For the audio, we use a Radio
|
|
Shack control board (the under-$100 model works fine) which allows us to
|
|
plug in three microphones, a cassette deck, and a CD player. Add a small
|
|
pair of $50 monitor speakers, some wire, and a telephone and you can go on
|
|
the air as a radio station.
|
|
|
|
To do just radio (over the TV), all you need to do is plug a connection cord
|
|
from the board into the tuner that's hooked up to the cable modulator.
|
|
|
|
The next step is to produce TV. To do this you need a camcorder and a
|
|
tripod. It too plugs right in. Kids learn to handle the camcorder in under a
|
|
minute (all there is to learn is what button to push to zoom in and out).
|
|
Another five minutes will be enough to show everyone how to work the control
|
|
board. They already know how to use cassette decks and CD players.
|
|
|
|
Kids have watched enough television (unlike those poor tribesmen) to know
|
|
exactly how it's done. Whatever else needs to be taught, they'll teach you.
|
|
Our studio is a basement room in the village building. Though most of it
|
|
still looks like a combination of Castle Dracula and junk storage, one wall
|
|
has a gray rug hung on it. With a table in front of the rug and a couple of
|
|
home-made spotlights, we have a set that looks great on TV.
|
|
|
|
The trick to producing television seems to be to teach the kids how to use
|
|
all of the equipment as quickly as you can and then, the same night, let
|
|
them do their shows. When an audience shows up to watch, you can teach them
|
|
as well. And there is an audience. Our kids get 80 phone calls in a
|
|
half-hour trivia contest.
|
|
|
|
I find it particularly funny that I can produce TV and use a computer while
|
|
I don't know how to drive a car. In 1962 only a few people could do the
|
|
first two and I felt completely out of things not being able to do the
|
|
latter. This century is just full of such jokes.
|
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
|
|
|
|
Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm)
|
|
|
|
& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845
|
|
Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649
|
|
Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766
|
|
realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043
|
|
Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102
|
|
|
|
Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives,
|
|
arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality,
|
|
insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS.
|
|
|
|
Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are,
|
|
where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother.
|
|
|
|
"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
|
|
|
|
X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
|