Television Is Golden - a podcast by Jai//Em

Links:
Lockdown TV: Netflix Dominates, News Surges and Bea Arthur Is Still Golden
Pharrell Williams - Compilation of Songs with Four-Count Start
If Beale Street Could Talk Trailer

Update:

Still in NYC, in Brooklyn, sheltering in place. We are still healthy, still not going anywhere unless absolutely necessary. I’m not going insane, but I’m not, not going insane. I like the working from home part, I don’t like not being able to go run an errand or easily, relaxingly be outside. Even when I take a walk I have such anxiety about... Where is my mask? Is it on right? Don’t touch your face, don’t touch anything. Be mindful about others not wearing masks, or disregarding the 6-foot rule. It’s so hard for me to relax and then I’m like, “Oh, f*%k this, I’m going back inside.”  But we are safe, we are surviving and I am making as best use of my time inside as I can, so I stay sane, and feel like I’m not getting behind for my goals for 2020. Let’s be honest, we thought this was gonna be 3 or 4 months, but this is going to be the rest of the year. Definitely the rest of Spring, into Summer.  I am probably going to be working from home for the rest of 2020. And that’s a different situation.

The idea of working out of my home office for a few months was fine. I prefer to work from home. I am very productive at home, doing my stuff— writing, podcasting, gaming, streaming, all the things I do for work, that fulfill me outside of my day job. And fine, my day job can come hang out in this office for a few months… But absolutely the f*%k not for the rest of the year. I don’t want this room to become my day job. Once I realized that was happening—first I panicked, then I got depressed. Now I am in the action stages, I’ve figured out a way to work in here without the day job stuff taking over the space. It has its own corner now. But knowing that the rest of the year is going to be some version of this. This no routine/new routine. I really want to make sure that I still accomplish some of the things I wanted to accomplish in 2020.

Main Show:

We are gonna talk about TV today. As you know, the world is watching a lot of TV.

The Coronavirus crisis has led to a worldwide spike in viewership in March. TV consumption was up 60% in the US for March with a spike in middle-of-the-day viewing and a decrease in primetime watching. And I read that India’s non-primetime viewing had an 81% increase. And this just proves what I have been feeling about TV consumption for all of my adult life. WHHHHHHY we gotta wait til 7, 8, 9 pm to watch the shows we love?! I think I may have mentioned this before, but I am not at my best in the evening. The evening is a time for me to be tired and generally unfocused and disappointed with life. I mean it— I am not in sync with my mind, body and soul in the evening. All the superpowers I feel starting around 5am, are gone by 6 pm. I used to watch Game of Thrones first thing in the morning on Mondays instead of Sunday night at 9 PM! Because THAT is when I was ready to truly experience the excitement, drama and bloodlust of Game of Thrones!

Anyway, all of this TV consumption, especially the daytime TV watching has been made possible by streaming services which allow you to watch your favorite shows whenever you want. First-time installs of the Netflix app on devices surged in Italy and Spain in March and the NYT reports that 74% of American homes now subscribe to a streaming service. That number went up by about 2.5 million subscribers between January and March of 2020.

What are people watching!? Everything! And that makes sense. If you’re stuck at home forever, you’re more likely to take a chance on something you wouldn’t normally watch. You don’t have to prioritize your viewing as much, you’re open to being surprised or disappointed, right? If you’re like me, you’re open to feeling anything other than the crushing weight of anxiety, and the overwhelming desire to get into a Best Buy or an Apple Store. I have NEVER in my life gone this long without sauntering down the aisle of a gadget store and it’s freaking me out. Ugh.

My point is, a lot of folks are opening up their viewership circles and trying some new stuff because they have nothing but time. People are also doing a lot of rewatching or as a Hulu spokesperson calls it, “comfort watching.” Did you know that 11 million hours of "The Golden Girls" were watched on Hulu in April? 11 million hours of The Golden Girls! That makes me so HAPPY! You know what else people are apparently confort viewing on Hulu, ‘cuz it has really high watch numbers right now?  "Law And Order: SVU." ‘Cuz there’s nothing more comforting than watching Oliva Benson capture sex offenders, rapists and killers.

All of this has got me thinking about what I want to watch again on TV.  So I wanted to talk about how we as creatives can use Repeat Viewing to our advantage. We can, with strategy, with intention, work on our creative observation skills as well as come to a better understanding of our own creativity, what we are and are not responding to, and what others are responding to.

First, you already know I am a big advocate for reading the same book more than once. And I feel the same way about repeat consumption in other forms of media. Watching a TV series, or movie, or experiencing any type of content multiple times is a great way to discover things you didn’t notice the first or 2nd time. And often the material will connect with you in different ways depending on the place you are in your life during that time. Something you didn’t even realize was happening when you experienced it at 15, will be very clear when you experience it again at 22, and the same thing will happen again at 45, or 60 or 80.

We respond to creativity and work based on who we are in the moment, based on memories from the past. So these things are always changing and evolving, and when you experience something multiple times you get a sort of check-in with who you are. A flag in the sand about how you feel about certain ideas, material, people, music, anything! You are experiencing it again for technically the 15th time, but in that moment, for the first time.

Another great thing to do if you decide to repeat view something is to pay attention to how others are reacting to it. This is good because sometimes we get so tunnel-visioned about how we feel about something, or how we think the world should think about it, and we aren’t right all the time.  And when you watch something and you’re laughing but the people next to you are not, or you don’t understand it, but everyone else is really plugged in— that’s informative. That’s telling you about something you respond to that others don’t. It could be across race, across gender, it could be age related. These are interesting things to keep in mind as a creative-  Hmmm I didn’t laugh, but they did. I wonder why?  Watching something actively a 2nd or 3rd or 15th time, but with someone else (short of drilling them with questions and making the experience not fun) can you tell a lot. Otherwise  we often get in our heads creatives — What’s funny, what’s not funny, what’s gonna make them cry? You ask 3 people about the best part of a movie, often you get 3 different answers. So if you’re gonna repeat view something and you’re gonna do it with someone else, you might as well get a little intel while you do it.

The last thing I want to talk about— and this is sort of a deeper dive for people — but it’s something I do and I really like and I think you might too. It’s called Focus Viewing. You pick a theme, character, or behind the scenes role (like the set designer or sound designer) and watch only through that lens. If we are talking about TV, this can be educational because if you watch one character only through an entire TV series, you are absolutely going to learn more about that character because you are focused only on them. This is what led to my understanding that Betty White is the hardest working actor on the Golden Girls because I have spent countless hours watching that show focused only on her character Rose Nylund. And doing that helped me see that her character has to be whatever the other characters need her to be for that particular episode. That’s a whole different conversation for another time but when you do a focus viewing you can really put on your creator hat and draw some interesting conclusions about story arc, character traits, and overall creative inspiration behind the work. So the Golden Girls is just one example, but all TV shows, especially ones that were on for 3, 4, 5, 17 seasons are great for character focus viewing. Pick a character and watch the show focusing only on them, their strengths, weaknesses, faults, how others perceive them, what role they play in each episode — villain, shoulder-to-cry-on, comic relief. Even things like how often they appear in an episode, their catch phrase, or a word they use often. And if you do it right, you will start to see what the storyteller/show creators are trying to do with that character. You will start to see what the actors themselves are trying to do with their own characters and how it evolves over time.

Now for the movie enthusiasts and future filmmakers, focus viewing on the BTS (behind the scenes) stuff is where it’s at. For example — the movie If Beale Street Could Talk is an excellent movie to watch, focus viewing how costume, set and lighting designers use color. Barry Jenkins is a great filmmaker to consider focus viewing if you want to study color. His movies Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk use the color of the costumes, set and lighting to tells the entire story. Red and yellow comes to mind immediately when I think about If Beale Street Could Talk. Without any words and music, that story is still there because the color symbolism is so strong. And sure you can absolutely read about color theory and be taught how best to wield color to tell story. I suggest that you do that research, but there is nothing like experiencing it in different pieces of content, trying to figure out yourself how color is used to tell a story. The TV show Fringe that use to be on is another great candidate for this. If you watch that entire series focused on color and light you honestly will be able to predict what is going to happen sometimes. I am not kidding. The use of color on the show "Fringe" provided endless easter eggs for viewers in every episode.

And it doesn’t have to just be movies and TV — you can focus view anything creative. A series of art by one artist, studying their use of framing or subject. You can focus view a specific musician and how they use sound. Like Pharrell Williams and his signature four-count start that he uses in many of hit songs he produces. Don’t know if you know this but Pharrell loves to start his music with a four-count beat. You probably can hear it in your head for his hit song "Happy," but it's also there in music he’s produced for Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, Missy Elliot, Post Malone, Robin Thicke, not to mention a lot of the music he preformed with his group N.E.R.D.. The song "Milkshake" is a Pharrell produced hit from 2003 and it has that four-count at the top. Link in the show notes if you wanna hear all the four-count openings for all these hits produced by Pharrell. But it’s a cool thing to know.

What I hope you are understanding is that repeat viewing/experiencing creativity with your creator hat on and a focus on one specific element can teach you a lot. You could do a focus view of one dance move in a collection of choreography. You can do a focus view on the type of lines given to people of color or queer characters in your favorite shows or movies to research what works and what doesn’t. On how often women apologize in a script or book, how often women apologize in your own script or book! That’s something worth mentioning too. You can do a focus view of your creativity. How often do you use a certain color in your artwork or crafting? What mood or word continually pops up in your music? You can do this for any element of creativity you are curious about or want to learn more about.

Since we talked so much about The Golden Girls I would like to know who your favorite character is and who you think is working the hardest on that show. Obviously they were all working hard, and obviously the correct answer is Betty White, but I’d love to know what you think. :)  I would definitely like to know who your favorite character is. One of the best shows in the world. 11 million hours in April!!!!!

We are on Instagram or Twitter @Creative4evr. You can send me your favorite Golden Girl at hello@creative4evr.com.

Don’t forget to be creative, even if you just think about it. Later!

Further episodes of Creative4evr Podcast

Further podcasts by Jai//Em

Website of Jai//Em