SFPL "Main Stage"

This is a fun and relatively easy production. Well... at least now it is.

http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=57

Covering San Francisco Public Library events isn't really in the mission of SFGTV. We wanted to do the program, but had to find a production model that would justify it.

First I wrote the complete proposal of how the project would operate. This isn't as hard as writing a grant application. You just need a two-page brief of your project-
The Library books the guests and the guests drive the content (so pre-production is minimal).
The Koret Auditorium stage is pre-existing (no set construction, no lighting/dressing/teardown hours).

The key to Main Stage was keeping labor costs down. I wrote the first-ever internship ads for SFGTV and advertised online. Sean Mitchell, the new Media Internship coordinator at SF State, was a huge help.

The admin of a start-up show AND a start-up intern program was a little high. Interviewing candidates and establishing library contacts took time. Equipment training took time. Using an intern to create the graphics package was a chokepoint in the process.

After the summer interns came through: Main Stage is complete, on the air and everybody's happy. It now has institutional support, established work patterns and a new piece of technology has come along- the Anycast system from Sony. (More on that later...)

I like the show. It could be better (install lighting, audio feed upgrades, more crew, rehearsals) but for the cost of production I think its great. This is the kind of content that niche narrow-casters, i.e. PEG channels and podcasters, are going to be relying on.