Ann
Thompson
Campaign for America’s Future
Dear Ann, March 20, 2007
It was a genuine pleasure to speak with you at length on the phone a few
days ago. You asked me to send you an e-mail describing my ideas. You
can read my brochure, which should explain the basic concept of sponsored
TV at www.earthtelevision.org. It also includes several previous write-ups
I have sent to other groups.
BROADCASTING THE CONFERENCE. I am sure your upcoming
Take Back America Conference, June 18 – 20 in Washington, D.C.,
will bring together excellent presenters, offering cutting edge insights
and proposals. The catch is that even the most successful event will rarely
reach more than 500 people. This content ought to touch many other targeted
individuals and groups, plus millions of members of the public.
My production company has a thirty-year history making fifteen-minute
presentation tapes for civil society groups based on their live events.
I am not in that business anymore. As Chairman of Earth Television Public
Education Foundation, I am instead proposing to non-profits who are holding
a major event to view their live happening as raw material for a well-promoted
television broadcast after the fact.
RESTRUCTURING CONFERENCE EVENTS. I have many suggestions
for how to improve audience members’ experience of your gathering.
Most of the time, they are only asked to sit and listen to celebrity presenters,
with time for just a few individuals' questions and answers. All attendees
could use a chance to formulate a personal response to what they have
heard. Then too, few participants actually meet up with other activists,
even during breakout workshops, because there is little provision for
this to happen. Every speech could instead begin with the M.C. asking
people to introduce themselves to the folks around them, then to pair
up with someone s/he does not know, and to share briefly where each is
at now regarding the listed topic. After the talk, these pairs can hook
up with another pair to review their reactions. If there is time, a few
representative spokespersons can provide feedback to the whole.
My ideas for restructuring the Conference will also make for better TV.
You could restage your planned panels as talk shows, with the moderator
guiding a cumulative conversation on a living room set, rather than as
a series of individual speeches delivered at a lectern or behind a table
that then proceed to random audience questions. This conventional panel
format rarely excites audiences and does not edit well.
If the panels used the time normally allotted to Q and A to instead have
groups of attendees gather around each presenter to discuss where they
collectively might go from here, audience members would see who else shares
their specific interests for follow up after the presentation.
Rather than wall-to-wall programming, which allows little actual time
for networking, you can provide space in the schedule for folks to meet
up regionally and/or by interest areas, such as universal health care,
election integrity, or ending the war in Iraq. Including trained facilitators
to keep such conversations on track and maintain participants' focus on
action results could really build the progressive movement, plus provide
attendees a lot greater satisfaction than I remember experiencing when
I came to the 2004 Take Back America conference.
PRODUCING FOR TV. If it is impossible to reconfigure
your event beyond speeches and panels, to secure television-friendly content,
you can set up an on-site studio and have knowledgeable hosts talk with
your presenters in groups of two or three. In either case, you need to
budget up to $2000 to edit a 60 to 90 minute TV program out of whatever
you videotape.
You might well find sponsors who would support a TV broadcast listing
their names or showing their work who would not otherwise pay for just
producing a video. Moveon.org, union education funds, and progressive
527s continually raise tens of millions of dollars to pay for 30 second
spots. Redirecting a tiny proportion of such funds to producing, airing,
and promoting alternative programs would provide them much bigger bang
for their bucks. We need more than thirty seconds to lay out a progressive
agenda, such as to make the case for peace in Iraq or public financing
of campaigns. Take Back America has the connections and the credibility
to finally start this shunt of the massive money drained away each electoral
season in counter mud-slinging.
Airing a two hour program of thematic Conference highlights on UHF TV
in the Washington area on Sunday late afternoon, with modest outlays for
advertising and promotion, can draw a viewership of 20 – 50,000.
The overall budget will require little more than $5,000. Listing your
800# and website address will bring in more contributions than you spend,
besides vastly expanding the reach of your messages. Other local groups
can readily rebroadcast this show elsewhere around the country, using
the same print ads and radio spots you develop for D.C.
You mentioned that you have an in-house videographer already planning
to cover the event. My extensive career as a producer has taught me that
the motivation of a near time air date is virtually a pre-condition for
raising the necessary money and focusing the organization’s attention
on getting to a watchable product quickly. Your experience with the yet-to-be-edited
footage from previous years should corroborate this observation. As of
now, the full speeches of each presenter from last year’s Conference
appear exclusively on your website, so people have to already know about
you to find this resource. Only the most dedicated will watch 45 minute
talks on their computers.
STEPS TOWARD MANIFESTATION. I was most pleased that you
wanted me to identify specifically the next steps we need to take together
to get these proposals implemented. A first move is to designate 1 –
3 staff members to work with me on both redesigning some aspects of the
Conference and preparing for the television broadcast. They and I can
readily outline the key parameters. I can talk with Politics TV or other
videographers you already plan to use about their production plans and
above all their post-production needs. Next, your team has to line up
sponsors to defray all costs, in exchange for promotion of their organizations
or policy proposals during the telecast. Then, at least one person needs
to be responsible for arranging for UHF air time, developing and placing
print ads in the local alternative weeklies, the Washington Post's "TV
Week" and the regional TV Guide, plus radio spots on NPR and Pacifica.
The PR firm promoting the convocation can add the TV program into their
publicity package.
MY ROLES. I am seasonally bi-coastal, living in the summer
and fall near Woodstock, New York with my fiancé, who is a therapist
in Manhattan. I move back to Los Angeles for the winter and spring. I
could be in Washington the week before the happening to coordinate all
these elements. I can work with the video crew to enhance their production
results and keep their attention on shooting to edit. I also have a lot
of experience as an on-camera host, if you want to use me in that role.
I stay well-informed on all the real political issues of the day from
a progressive perspective. A local production company should handle the
editing, but I can serve as a consultant as the program takes shape. We
ought to aim for a broadcast within a month of the Conference and plan
on multiple rebroadcasts soon thereafter around the country.
If you decide it is worth your while, I know how to help you make all
this happen. I hope you will call me at 310 795-4910 soon to move the
process forward.
Yours,
David Lionel
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