The market for film and television moved online years ago. Movie theaters are empty, jacking up their prices on even a chocolate bar to $5. Cable companies are lacking clientele, moving their assets into online forms. So the question for producers ends up being publish online or in traditional forums?
Recently, the British television show, Black Mirror was faced with the same choice. Despite the millions Channel 4 put into the show, they opted to go with Netflix for distribution. Personally, I'm in agreement with this choice. Few people pay for cable prescriptions anymore for one. In addition, you're more likely to reach a larger audience through online distribution.
For example, I share an account with family members. Within just my family, the "Shows You Might Like" is reaching a 50-year-old, a 26-year-old, a 22-year-old and and 18-year-old all in vastly different parts of the United States. Not to mention the friends they may share those Netflix accounts with. On the other hand, a cable subscriber is reaching whoever their clients happen to invite over to watch TV.
The Guardian recently made a great report on the deal between Netflix and Black Mirror that's worth a look.
A LOT (hopefully you read the title). The Newsroom
isn’t the typical show when it comes to its content. Actually—if I do say so
myself—it’s reasonably atypical. For those of you who have never watched the
show, it’s basically about a news station and all of the stories the station
reports on, along with the individual plots it follows regarding the show’s
characters, but that’s not the important part. The important part is how the
writer of the show, Aaron Sorkin, manages to somehow put on at least one complete
news broadcast every episode while actually doing a substantial amount of
research (many of the news stories have been real-life occurrences or have been based on ones) for each of these broadcasts.
Have you ever seen a news broadcast? Well I'd sure hope so. If you haven't, you, sir/ma'am, are a caveman. Anyway, a whole lot of different things go into an average news broadcast. There's the talent, the crew, the equipment--and yes--the story. Here's the thing. Putting on a broadcast is a lot of work. Having done this in classes (on a much lesser scale, of course), I know this to be a fact. You know what else is a lot of work? Shooting a field project. Now, imagine putting on a broadcast...while simultaneously shooting a field project. Now imagine incorporating said broadcast into said field project. Sound easy? Nope.
For every single episode of The Newsroom, there is AT LEAST one news broadcast is incorporated into the show. While the scene is taking place in the station's control room, the broadcast is being shown on the monitors right in front of the actors. The show is clearly happening right in front of us--but guess what--so is the news broadcast. Whether viewers realize it or not, an entire news broadcast is going right in front of them as well. Basically, two shows are being shot for the sake of one show. Cool, right? Yes. Yes it is.
Think about this. For every broadcast that's made in the show, at least one of the stories discussed has, at some point in our recent history, occurred. Such stories as 9/11, Occupy Wall Street, and the 2012 Presidential Election have been covered in The Newsroom, and each of the topics would require a large amount of research to make sure they were portrayed correctly in the show. Well guess what. The proper research was clearly done. While watching the show, it's evident that enough research was done to make sure the show portrayed the events as realistically as possible, and to make sure the stories were reported as accurately, if not more so, than they were in real-life broadcasts.
It's simply amazing to think about the extraordinary amount of work that must be put into each and every episode of Aaron Sorkin's, The Newsroom, and I truly hope that there are more shows like this one to follow soon.
