It’s The Community, Stupid!
 The old broadcasting model does not really cut it anymore In two weeks we’re starting our 2008 round of Travel Channel Academy sessions. We’re going to train and empower more than 1,ooo people with cameras and laptops and...
Read moreHOW MORGAN FREEMAN MADE BARAK OBAMA POSSIBLE
A few years ago, I read a fascinating book by Neil Gabler entitled “An Empire of Their Own, How The Jews Invented Hollywood” The Hollywood Studios were founded by 7 Jews, all of whom ironically came from a 50...
Read moreTHE CUL-DE-SAC OF CULTURE
Although we like to credit Gutenberg with the printing press, the concept of movable type actually originated here, in China. During the Ch’ing-li period (1041-1048), an alchemist named Pi Sheng conceived of the notion of movable carved blocks for...
Read more"WHAT’S YOUR TRIP?" IS BUYING
on our mac-inspired set As the new year starts, we are kicking off another round of “What’s Your Trip?” with Andrew Zimmern for The Travel Channel. The show is a platform for independent VJs and would be Travel Journalists,...
Read moreNOTHING HAS CHANGED
Despite the tall glass towers and Armani Casa shops that line the main streets of Shanghai, there is a great deal of Communist China that has remained untouched. The first thing that remains untouched, apparently, is the censorship. While...
Read moreScripting Without Paper – 3rd in a series
“Writing” a script for a video or television piece is inherently destructive to the quality of the storytelling. I know this may sound heretical, but it is true. We are working in a medium of picture and sound. We...
Read moreAt the Heart of the Matter
I don’t normally write about personal things, but first, how much can you write about VJs? Then, I had an interesting visit to the doctors office yesterday. I tend to approach medicine as though as I were a Christian...
Read moreMcGraw-Hill Magazines & VJs
Steve Gruskin explains ‘over-write’. This week, we ran our first ‘bootcamp’ for journalists and managers from McGraw-Hill’s magazines. Highly experienced print journalists, with years of experience, took to video as an adjunct to their story-telling and reporting skills. It...
Read more"Do You Ever Read The Books You Burn"?
Some years ago, on the heels of the success of Trauma, Life in the ER, we began shooting other ‘reality’ shows – Paramedics, Police Force, Breaking News and so on. One we tried, without success, was Fire Fighters. We...
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