February 2012

Local Program Initiative

Webinar IKickoff Meeting and Progress Report

Webinar 2

The Outline of the Plan

Enroll about a dozen stations as manageable group of “bright spots”

Begin the collection of local programs of various genres for study

Begin the process of selecting stations for case studies

Webinar 3

Original Plan: Production then Programs

We separated production techniques from programs themselves

We focused first on developing a module that stressed the foundations of editing and audience reaction.

Webinar 4

The Module: Formats and Eyeballs

Developed new software to analyze formats, audience appeals and 1st

Format/Program AnalyzerPrograms: Pawn Stars and Antiques

RoadshowThe Monday Night Fights

January 2012 Webinar 5

Problem: Its Complicated and Boring

The software and editing development took months

Like watching paint dry1,000s of screen grabsOrganized into 100s of pages Too muchThank god for Saturday Night!

Webinar 8

Problem: How to Summarize?

ARS has about 18 stories a show and about 1,000 screen shots

So we worked on segment/story summaries

Webinar 9

So One Idea: Summarize the Scene

Get a typical shot for the segment

Summarize the content

Draw broad conclusions

Look for the tropes

February 2012 Webinar 10

Still Not Quite Right

It is too static So we still need

some help from station techies

Release tool

February 2012 Webinar 11

Conclusion:Program Analyzer

The tools for analyzing programs are almost ready for prime time

Formats differ in technique and focusARS or Idaho Outdoors or Tennessee

Gardener Yet they share common “building

blocks” and common problems The preliminary findings have been

quite impressive and surprising

February 2012 Webinar 12

Example: It’s Biology Not Psychology

The deeper into production mores“Why do they shoot that way?”“Why do they edit that way?” “Why do the scenes always seem to be

the same length?” The clearer it became the viewer was

one key to the equation

Webinar 13

The Eyes Have It

February 2012 Webinar 14

What can eye tracking do for us?

Disney’s lab in Austin CBS’s old facility in Las Vegas Everybody is doing it for a reason Focus groups and surveys gives one

kind of data Watching watchers watch…

February 2012 Webinar 15

It All Started with the Movies

Cinema studies were light years ahead of TV studies

Movies don’t move and neither does television – persistence of vision

We see with our brains and not our eyes

January 2012 Biology of Pledge 16

Lesson: It’s Not Under Your Control

Eye’s orienting response – movement

Cutting hijacks your nervous system

Just about right – sweet spot

Continuity editing usually works best

January 2012 Biology of Pledge 17

Introducing…

Rule of Thirds

February 2012 20

Lessons from Thirds

Gaze controls our attention

Unconventional framing makes us work

Most of this is not conscious

Look and Lead

Gaze Plus Lead

February 2012 Webinar 23

Skim the Surface We developed more in depth

coverage of these and other topics We can study successful programs

learn how and why they work Many pleasant surprises

Local pledge programs! Invigorating local live production!

February 2012 24

Almost Perfect – Gaze and Texture

February 2012 25

Everywhere it’s in Thirds

February 2012 26

Sometimes It’s Not PerfectGaze overcomes the Framing

Webinar 27

The Outline of the Plan

Examine goals of local programming Local Goals Survey

Bright spot analysis at 3o,ooo feet Goals Survey

System-Wide Local Programming Assessment Written and webinar

Webinar 28

Components of Local Success

By Importance: Content Production Funding Genre Talent Scheduling Promotion

Webinar 29

The Plan – Phase II

Depth success story analysis

Viewer panels

Dissemination workshops