So, What's On TV?

                                                   So, what’s on TV?

Unless you have just recovered from a three-month coma, the soap operas continue, but the tweets, facebook comments as well as all social media consists of angry comments, personal attacks and  accusations being hurled in attacks from individuals to others wishing to be ‘chosen’ to be our next leaders. It’s an election year!

 Constant repetition of improbable promises become stressful when repeatedly presented to the public. Many will be relieved when this process is completed and calmness is heard once again.

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Remember an American “artist” named Andy Warhol? In the 1960s, Warhol was a controversial figure producing images of “Mushroom Clouds”, “Electric Chairs”, and Soup Cans while writing books as well as dabbling in film-production of anti-social leanings. One day, Warhol phoned his close-friend John Giorno who, after work, had been sleeping. Warhol decided to film his friend as he slept at a later time. His film consisted of  a combination of close-ups, profiles and facial expressions for over five hours on film. Labelled an “Anti-film”, the production was called ”Sleep” and was edited to 40 silent minutes of Giorno’s rest.         Five hundred people were present for the film’s premier.

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'Sleeping'

It didn’t take long before viewers became restless and several  started to walk out  after only seven silent minutes. At a camera close-up of the man’s head, someone who had seen enough, ran up to the screen and shouted in the ‘sleeping man’s’ ear. ‘WAKE UP!!’  Warhol had pushed “calm” a bit far! However, the point of ‘calm’ and resisting the 1960’s period of social unrest was made.

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Perhaps, we need some ‘calmness’ in our time.
 If we were in Norway, we might tune in WPIX and NRK, Norway and enjoy Norwegian slow television.

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 Norway has taken Warhol to a new level.

 Slow television, (Norwegian: Sakte-TV), is a term used for  live "marathon" television unedited coverage of an ordinary event in its complete length. Its name comes from the long endurance of the broadcast as well as from the natural slow pace of the  program's progress.

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The idea for ‘Slow TV’ was born over lunch at NRK Hordaland in West-Norway in 2009, the year that “In a world where everything moves so fast, it was refreshing to find something so captivating that you did not want to look away from it.” said a  senior VP of development.”We are constantly looking for very loud, distinctive formats and characters, and we believe we have found just that with the Slow TV concept.” A train-ride became an early hit !

The 'Bergensbanen', or The Bergen Line, (a train that runs from the capital of Oslo to Bergen, one of the other largest cities in the country) celebrated its 100th anniversary.This film became so popular, Norwegian viewers wanted more.

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The Hurtigruten "Nordnorge."

In June, 2011, one of the well-known passenger and tourist ferry Hurtigrutens  steamed on it's standard voyage from Bergen to Kirkenes, near the Russian border before returning to Bergen. Filmmakers recorded the northern leg of the voyage  as cheering coastal villagers greeted the ship's passengers. When later viewed on TV, the ratings increased as the voyage film progressed. For this 134 hours of film,     3.2 million viewers tuned in to enjoy the broadcast.

 

This concept of calm, meditative and commercial-free TV viewing has been well-received by Norway’s TV viewers. Every sakte-tv production has drawn at least 1.2 million viewers of Norway’s population of over five million people.

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Since 1966, when an experimental  weekend-long showing of a Yule-log burning in a fireplace with 

A sweater in the making..

Christmas music playing in the background, all productions have been well-received. There were three such broadcasts in 2012, three more in 2013, one of which featured  “Knitting a sweater from the start to the finish”. Twelve hours of non-stop knitting with the goal of breaking a Guiness Book' knitting' record.

 This has to be the epitome of  ‘calm’!

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NRK  has been working on the possibility of satellite coverage to transmit these images from Norway’s far north to the rest of the country. A test run is planned for this spring to see if this is possible. Soon, we may be able to view productions such as footage of a train-ride in Northern Norway. On this trip, a camera is

North of the Arctic Circle

positioned on the front of the train as it travels through tunnels and over bridges through a landscape that changes from snow to grass. Occasionally, the voice of the conductor is heard announcing the next station, but normally the scenes are repetitive.1.6 million Norwegians watched at least a portion of this unedited five day broadcast.

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Norwegian National Hymnal

On November 28–30th in 2014, NRK aired the 60-hour broadcast, Salmeboka – minutt for minutt”. Utilizing 200 choirs  plus soloists, musicians performed the entire contents of the Church of Norway's national hymnal from cover to cover. Most of the performances were done live at a church in Trondheim, while recorded performances came from other sites as distant as Karasjok in northern Norway and even Decorah, Iowa. The Norwegian church was open throughout the filming,  and more than 16,000 visitors came in to view the performances. Totally, 2.2 million viewers watched the TV production at some time, with an average of 87,000 at any one time. All 899 hymns in that hymnal published in 2013 were done by 3-4,000 singers of choirs and soloists invited from all over the country.

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Slow-TV has been getting international attention. Television viewers have accepted the phenomenon to the point where  Slow-TV (‘sakte-tv’) has become a natural part of Norwegian vocabulary. Sakte-tv was even named “new word of the year” by The Language Council of Norway in 2013.

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We may be missing something! Time to relax, meditate, maybe read a good book...

Stay calm...