TV one more time
David Hopkins
hopkat
Thu Sep 10 20:51:28 EDT 1998
Well, that was a lot of fun to read on my return from a few weeks away!
Don't want to gloat about "winning" my challenge, but do appreciate comments
that quality does matter. After all, we don't have to make excuses for
studying great movies (art, books, music, etc.), only for the weaker ones.
I'm more of a generalist than many on this list (and I also don't give a
tinker's dam about my academic reputation) and I wanted to comment on the
interesting fact that the lack of quality on TV due to commercial facters is
anomalous in mass/commercial culture because there is no "minor league" for
TV. Major record companies can and do make small quantities of interesting,
high quality music, major publishers can put out books that are great but
won't sell, magazines can search for niches, etc. Even late night TV doesn't
offer this chance.
In the early '90's I was part of a series of music video magazines (Oh!
Moro) that we made with one camera, one editing deck, no scripts, and a
staff of three. (no pay, of course) A fan at KTV Osaka wanted to do a
similar thing for a late night documentary. This was with no sponsor, but
still KTV provided a staff of about ten! Including a writer, two 3-man
camera crews, makeup, all sorts of stuff. Incredible waste of money and
manpower, for a late-night show with no sponsor. We all got paid. (This can
be seen in a bootlegged version at some alternative video shops in the US.)
The felt need to script the damn thing was a big hindrance to content. I
think this shows the skewed values of the TV world in Japan. They really
didn't have a clue how to make a simple documentary about underground music,
even after watching one. Overstaffing and underconceiving.
"Good" means well-conceived and well-executed (and well-finished).
Professional staff execution isn't necessarily good execution, but poor
conception is the kiss of death. Unfortunately, the business is run by
making proposals to a committee of businessmen for approval of allocation of
budgets. Music business is only like this at the bestseller/big-promo-push
level.
Pretty rambling, sorry. I'm just having coffee now.
I thought about TV more. Hotch Potch Station is a good TV show in Japan.
Inai Inai Ba is also quite good. And, as everyone said, there are good parts
here and there.
David
PS You got to be brave to admit in front of all these intellectuals that you
watch Mecha Ike!
I'm far too conservative culturally (not politically, though) to be able to
stand the lowjinks.
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