Big Day

May 29, 2008

Today was a big day – Dorothy and I spent the afternoon at TVO, taking part in the in-house discussion of the programs being launched this fall…. And of course, the Get Involved documentary series has to be represented. We’re nervous – these are all TV pros; people buying movies and drama and nature shows and educational programming and documentaries from top homegrown and international producers and stars. Steve Paiken! Allan Gregg! Bette Midler! Woody Allen! Salman Rushdie! The BBC’s Sir David Attenborough! (For heaven’s sake!) Us! (Eek!)

Unlike the other people pitching the fall season’s upcoming shows, we’ve got a 2-part presentation to make. We’ll be telling them about the documentary series, showing them clips from already-finished episodes, followed up by a description of the web – how it fits in with the docs, the underlying purpose…. the membership, the profiles, TVO’s presence and the potential for connection. The web piece is going to take some telling, because everyone gets the TV part… but they need to really get the web part. We want TVO’s passion and participation as much (or more) than virtually anybody’s. We’ve planned about 15 minutes of talk and 5 minutes of video – and we’re presenting dead last. Once again. Eek.

The audience was really receptive – and very nice. They seemed to really love the inspirational nature of our documentaries and they sounded very enthusiastic when responding to the concept of the web site. Our counterpart over at TVO (their web whiz Christine McGlade) has been working with us supportively all along… offering advice, making suggestions about our beta launch, telling us how we’re going to be hooking up with the TVO online membership – a really smart, involved bunch by all accounts – and generally helping us align our priorities in ways that will truly benefit both the documentaries and the web site.)
It’s over. Applause. We’re both incredibly thirsty… so we go for a glass of wine – CHEERS!