We have produced 2 one-hour pilot TV programs to test our ideas and various
TV programmers' interest in our material. One program is textual and low budget,
and the other involves more production and interviews. The two productions
offer two different budget levels and approaches as models.
After 15 years of arts programming, FREEWAVES understands that the best way
to get to know artists is by spending some quality time with them. For that
reason, FREEWAVES' first ever TV pilot will follow 3 LA-based artists, as they
take an audience through the intimate journey of producing an art work.
Familiar in tone and disarmingly human, "INTER-STATE" will reveal
that art practices, much as an any other profession, relies on instinct, personal
histories, and well... a bit of stubbornness and hope.
For the first time in television, audiences will be able to see through the
eyes of an artist, and understand the often hidden purpose behind an art work.
Demystifying, personal and illuminating, "INTER-STATE" is the first
true TV art show of the 21st Century.
The 2nd program concentrates on artists' videos with unstated rules or parameters
that reveal a surprise narrative at the end.
This TV pilot will deconstruct each video during a second showing to focus
on specific poetic or physical elements.
Their rules will stand firm yet ask viewers to reject or replace these rules
with their own set.
Watching will be a unique, purposefully engaging TV experience.
The two pilots will be shown in Los Angeles on municipal and public TV as
they were funded by the NEA, City of LA Cultural Affairs Dept., LA County Arts
Commission and California Arts Council.
During 2005, we will offer the pilots simultaneously to HBO, Sundance, Trio,
Australian TV, Art, Channel 4, ZDF, Canadian Broadcast TV, Link TV and others.
Depending on the response of these TV channels, we will begin the process
of exploring the financial possibilities of creating a regular TV program and
contracting with artists.
# Some important issues remain unresolved: how can we contract to show videos
with trademarks
# appropriated unlicensed footage
# sexual content
# offensive to some language
Creativecommons.org has some of the answers.
We are developing an international curatorial process for the festival that
we can later use to program an inclusive media arts show.
Through our festival, we will be developing audiences through
* video streams
* blogs,
* festival programs highlighting different themes, technologies and continents,
* touring programs
|
January 2002 – June 2003
LA Freewaves presented 9 panel
discussions which brought together alternative media voices,
arts and culture stakeholders, technology experts, and media
academics laying the conceptual and technical groundwork for
a Culture TV Channel. They elicited a collective vision about
the following questions:
Can we have a culture channel on TV - distributed internationally
via satellite (vs. cable or www)?
Understanding
For TV, there is a triangular relationship among (A) the type
of programming, (B) the size and interests of the audience,
and (C) the funding sources. All three must be confluent.
Can we have a culture channel on TV
- composed of art, animation, experimental docs and stories
- from across the globe
- programmed thematically (vs. hourly)
- by a revolving international committee
- run with a nonprofit/for profit financial structure
- funded by subscribers, grants, underwriters, foreign sales
- distributed internationally via satellite (vs. cable or www)
- for a diverse art appreciating audience (who are they?)
"Arts and Mass Media"
January
31, 2002 - MOCA, Los Angeles
- Where are the arts on TV?
- Can the arts be mass distributed?
- Is it possible now to start a nonprofit culture TV channel?
- Can the Internet be a viable alternative or complement?
Panelists
* Doug Chang - KCET Director of Programming, former PBS producer
for "Egg" (segment producer) and "POV" (Supervising
Producer)
* Deedee Halleck - Co-founder of Deep Dish TV, founder of Paper
Tiger TV, media activist
* Titus Levi, Moderator - faculty at USC Annenberg School of
Communication
* Larry Namer - founder of E! Entertainment, Steeplechase Media
and Comspan
* Neil Sieling - Consultant launching WorldLink TV, Exec. Producer
of "Alive from Off Center", and Exec. Producer of "Figures
of Speech"
"WEB vs. TV"
September 29, 20002 1:00pm – 3:00pm
- LA Central Public Library
- Why Can't That be on BROADCAST TV, but on the Web?
- Where is the line between TV and the WEB?
Panelists:
* Glenn Kaino - artist, Creative and Technical VP of pressplay
* Erik Loyer - artist of Chroma web site and marrowmonkey.com
* Axel Roselius - pioneer in interactive TV, digital TV channels,
satellite broadcasts
* Holly Willis - editor at Res magazine and iFilm, moderator
"TV vs. ART"
September 29, 20002 3:00pm – 5:00pm
- LA Central Public Library
- Where are the lines between high vs. low culture, pop vs.
fine art?
- Is the avant-garde just a niche market? Is it just a matter
of class?
- What are the effects of commercial image on art and art on
commercial image?
- Young artists and designer blur genres/distinctions; Post-modernism
has after-effects and hip hop crosses all lines
Panelists:
* Tony Cokes - artist producing pop culture commentary
* Katherine Lee - MOCA Communications, who are art audiences?
* Marita Sturken - Visual Literacy, USC Annenberg School of
Communication
* Steve Kazanjian - Executive Creative Director and Partner
at The Content Project
"What If?"
November 2, 2002 1:00pm – 3:00pm
- LA Central Public Library
- If The Arts Were on TV, How Would They Look/Sound?
Panelists:
* Laurence Andries - writer and producer of TV series 6 Feet
Under and Boomtown
* Tom Leeser - Program Director of Integrated Media at Cal
Arts, TV with the web
* Patti Podesta - production designer of film & video,
Memento , faculty at Art Center,
* Lynn Spigel - Northwestern University faculty, Film and Critical
Studies, historical examples of art on TV
"Can Equal TV Representation Be Demanded As A Next Civil
Right?"
November 2, 2002 3:00pm – 5:00pm
- LA Central Public Library
Panelists:
* Vince Cheung, TV writer and producer, part of Rice & Beans
comedy team
* Erin Aubry Kaplan, columnist at LA Weekly
* Lisa Nakamura, author of Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and
Identity on the Internet
* Chon Noriega, media historian at UCLA Film & TV Dept.,
Director of Chicano Studies
* Garth Trinidad, DJ of KCRW's Chocolate City, moderator
"Is It Just Coincidence: Web, Globalization, Digitization,
Multiculturalism, Multimedia, Postmodernism?"
April 3,
2003 - MOCA
Panelists:
* Jennifer Gonzalez - Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art
and Visual Culture at UC Santa Cruz. Her writings on art,
technology and the body have appeared in The Cyborg Handbook,
The Cybercultures Reader, and Race in Cyberspace
* Laura J. Kuo - Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department
of Art and Art History and Women's Studies at Pomona College,
examining the intersections between art, advertising, and feminism
on a transnational scale
* Fatimah Tobing Rony, Moderator - UC Irvine Film Studies,
filmmaker, author of The Third Eye: Race Cinema and Ethnographic
Spectacle
* Christopher Holmes Smith - Visiting Assistant Professor at
USC Annenberg School for Communication, now exploring relationships
between race, entertainment, and discourses of financial speculation
* David Trend - Studio Art at UC Irvine, Director of University
of California Institute for Research in the Arts, and author
of Reading Digital Culture
"What's LA's Cultural Role
in a Globalized Economy?"
May
1, 2003 - MOCA
- Is the world merely the audience for LA's media?
- How can independent and minority media makers connect with
alternative audiences internationally?
- How can a global independent cultural network benefit from
LA's media resources?
Panelists:
* Oliver Boyd-Barrett - Professor of Communications specializing
in global media economics at California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona
* Carol Crowe - President and co-owner of Apollo Cinema, a
Los Angeles firm specializing in the marketing and international
distribution of short films of all genres
* Aleim Johnson - curator, Deputy Director of the Institute
for Cultural Diplomacy, and former Associate for the Film Program
of Sundance Institute
* Gary Phillips, Moderator, writer of screenplays, novels,
op-eds and articles regarding race, politics and pop culture
* Chris Wicke - an independent videomaker and founding member
of RegenerationTV.com, an indie online media collective organization
"Can the Arts Be Mass Distributed?
Worldwide? How?"
June
5, 2003 - MOCA
Questions:
(A) Can the Programming be:
- composed of art, animation, experimental docs and stories?
- from across the globe?
- programmed thematically?
- by a revolving international committee
- who is in communication online?
(B) What are the estimated media audience sizes drawn from
- festival attendees (artists and designers)
- media students (high school through graduate school)
- marginalized social groups (ethnic, gender, sexual orientation)
- members of estimated 300 media organizations
- alternative youths
- web surfers
- cultural audiences (national vs international)
(C) Can the channel be run with a nonprofit/for profit financial
structure?
- funded by subscribers, grants, underwriters, foreign sales?
- with investors in for profit part of business
Panelists:
* Jay Levin - founder of LA Weekly and Planet Central TV, chair
of Media Challenge!, president of Share with Other LA
* Shari Frilot - Programming Sundance Film Festival
* Kim Spencer - President, WorldLink TV
* Carmi Zlotnik - Executive VP, HBO, Creative Operation & New
Business Development
* Anne Bray, Executive Director of LA Freewaves, moderator |
