I was watching community channel and though why isn't there a program for windsurfing?

It's a good idea.

I thought about this some time ago, however you need a willing editor (maybe a film student) and possible GoPro footage at AVCHD format..... would be able to at least make a 15 minutes quality segment.... maybe local musicians backing it.....

There used to be a TV series on the Gold Coast about this dude running around on his longboard skatie and he'd go interview all the water activites - and always had his meter maid girls with him - very entertaining. Similar style would work.

OK...let me put my TV hat on...
I have produced a few programs for CH31 and sat on the committee for Southern TV for a few years. Ch 31 normally requires a commitment to at least 13 part series and the minimum slot is half an hour.

To make a decent, quality 24 min (broadcast half hour) program takes about 2-3 days in production, with 2-3 days in post, so to get a good program up you need to commit to it full time...average production costs are between $1000-$2000 a day for production and post. So even if you can trim it down to 3 days per episode, you still need to find about 50k....if we can find someone in the windsurfing industry who wants to part with 50k, then I am all in!

The only other alternative is slave labour!!! If you can find someone who is prepared to work 5-6 days a week for 13 weeks for free, you're on the way. But the problem with finding someone who is cheap/ free (ie student) is that you end up with a quality which doesn't show our sport at its best....

The other critical thing is we are not always going to get good breezes on a weekly basis. Therefore you have to stagger your production around times when it is firing. This would cause massive headaches as you would need to have a backlog of content to fulfill the broadcast commitment.

The movement towards the "Broadcast Yourself" model- ie Go Pros, means that there is content being captured all over Australia, but there's only so much on board that you can watch, and there's only so much footage you can obtain within a tight timeframe.

The alternative would be to piggyback onto existing Ch 31 content (eg provide a weekly 5-10 min wrap up to a surfing program etc) but once again, there'd need to be a budget to get it off the ground.

In the back ground we have being trying to get windsurfing on TV (in my case Ch 31). My cusson is the female TV presenter (Victoria Shaw) on The Big Jack show. A sports show on Ch 31 Friday nights. Victoria co-host with John Elliot and she has been trying to get more windsurfing focus within Ch 31 for the past 6 months. She will continue to try while she is still working with Ch 31.

Mick's right though we need video material. If someone has some footage that is suitable for TV then we may have a better chance. I've shown Victoria Mick's DVD on Sandy Point speed sailing which they like and passed on Mick's contact details, but regular footage to tag onto a sports show would be better for Ch 31.

What about a learn to windsurf series of shows. Showing an instructional view of how to start windsurfing. Stating with Introduction to windsurfing and gear and uphauling, the finishing the series with Jumping and some freestyle. Go from beginner to advanced in 13 eps. Like a locally made beginner to winner, taking into account the bay locations, local heros etc....

Oh yes money.... eh... ok I got nothing. But perhaps this can be sponsored by one of the windsurfing schools and a board and sail manufacturer?

Getting sponsorship for filming will be hard. Sponsorship still needs returns and a couple of minutes on a community television station does not provide much return for a windsurfing sponsor.

For us windsurfers any windsurfing on TV would be great. The 80s and 90s Wide World of Sports had windsurfing on nearly every few weeks. So far the Windsurfing Movie has been on 3 times over the last few months. 2009 Lancelin Ocean Classic has been on and a kids short clip about windsurfing. There may have been more recently, but I'm not aware of it and my PVR has not picked it up either.

What we need to do, to satisfy our hungry for windsurfing on TV and to help promote local windsurfing is to get some video footage from each of our events. We really need a volunteer to film from the shore and to do some film editing from their and other windsurfers own footage. This was an idea a couple of thought about early in the season, but we didn't have the time with everything else. The first attempt was from Cup Weekend, but this did not include all the footage from the weekend. It turn out real good. The only other short video was from the Family Day.

The instructional video idea is also good to.

so are we talkin a 'classic resto's' format? who's gonna be fletch?

I'd watch it. Maybe get rid of one of the the goddam fishing shows thats on all the time.

There's a PWC show for budda's sake! Even my kids know PWC rule now.

Just don't call it an itchybutt production or any derivative.


I think we just watch too much tv.

You could just get Rad Lad to present 24minutes of Go-pro video clips off seabreeze.

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jermaldan said...

What about a learn to windsurf series of shows. Showing an instructional view of how to start windsurfing. Stating with Introduction to windsurfing and gear and uphauling, the finishing the series with Jumping and some freestyle. Go from beginner to advanced in 13 eps. Like a locally made beginner to winner, taking into account the bay locations, local heros etc....

Good idea Jez,
The thing is, there is dollars out there, if its packaged right. Sport and Rec Victoria and then Yachting Victoria all have Training and Development Budgets which will expand as the sports ramp up to Olympics. Unfortunately, windsurfing isn't linked to that bucket of money!

The main trouble we have is that we are hardly "critical mass", even CH31 has ratings and I don't think we'd get enough viewers to justify the production spend... Unless of course the series was attached to some type of massive event, which generated mainstream interest. (ie Spotty's 50 knots, or Kato's Distance Record)

I'm itching to do another local windsurf film and I've chewed the ears off a few of the Vicco crew about an idea for a doco series I have....The focus is more like something you'd see on Nat Geo Adventure or FuelTV. I've gone through the traditional methods to try and get funding but its a long and slow process. Stay Tuned!!!

You could do a low budget fly on the wall doco on the flipper twins. I think it would be an interesting watch at the least... call it "My names is Flipper" and just follow them around for a month. There is definitely a story to be told there. It would be like the Osbourne's but with a windsurfing theme.

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jermaldan said...

You could do a low budget fly on the wall doco on the flipper twins. I think it would be an interesting watch at the least... call it "My names is Flipper" and just follow them around for a month. There is definitely a story to be told there. It would be like the Osbourne's but with a windsurfing theme.

Don't tell me there's actually two of them (that is the same Flipper we all know well from Seabreeze?). At least RedBull could sponsor the production

Don't want to deviate from the flow of this thread and where its going, back heading back to Mick's piggy back idea, a small segment on a regular show would be a great start. The Bay Blasters segment or something like that. 5-8 minute rap up of windsurfing on the bay...

There used to be a show called "On the Water" which would have been a good platform - but think the program is dead now. The Cave Man used to MC it...... Shame its not still going....

But do like the Gorilla Doco style approach too..... Interesting personalities make for good docos (Exit the gift shop dude for example)...

You guys need to update your technology a little and start a windsurf.tv show.

Do it as a cross between a blog and a forum where you moderate it and store up material until you get a decent program to publish.

Kite Life do a video show and distribute on DVD through shops and magazines and subscriptions. Stance does the same but the result is a bit more professional.

I subscribe to a bunch of audio and video podcasts on iTunes. Some are outstanding. Some are a bit lame. Some are old but still pretty good.

A quick google search shows:

www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=itune+podcast+windsurf&gws_rd=ssl

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Gorgo said...

You guys need to update your technology a little and start a windsurf.tv show.

Do it as a cross between a blog and a forum where you moderate it and store up material until you get a decent program to publish.

Gorgo,
Having delivered to all platforms, I don't think the technology or the delivery platform is the issue ( ie web, DVD or broadcast)...the major drama comes back to time and effort (and of course dollars). Raw content coming in (ie go pro etc) would need to be edited and compiled... so it comes back to the original challenge of who is going to fund it, moderate the content, store it and polish it up into a decent program to publish?

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sausage said...

jermaldan said...

You could do a low budget fly on the wall doco on the flipper twins. I think it would be an interesting watch at the least... call it "My names is Flipper" and just follow them around for a month. There is definitely a story to be told there. It would be like the Osbourne's but with a windsurfing theme.

Don't tell me there's actually two of them (that is the same Flipper we all know well from Seabreeze?). At least RedBull could sponsor the production

Yes Flipper is two people (twins) using the same username. You never know which one you are gonna get!

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drift said...
... I don't think the technology or the delivery platform is the issue ( ie web, DVD or broadcast)...

The effort doesn't change but the time pressure can.

With web delivery you don't need to be bound by a schedule. You can publish individual items when they're ready, or hold back a collection and issue them all at once as a package.

The only thing that needs to be timely is news content and you can have a separate news stream for that.

The web delivery is a good one. We could use the new up and coming WV website. I will have to check with our webmaster.

BUT we will still need a volunteer to put together the content. Or a couple of part time volunteers. It could be a good project over the windless months.

For starters, maybe the various local copyright holders of existing movies could be approached to donate some viewing on ch 31 of their stuff?
Would that have a chance?

I'd watch anything about wind and water. Maybe there is scope for a show that features Victorian windsurfing, sailiing and kiting? Should be a fair adverti$ing market there I would have thought.

Unless I'm mistaken, Flipper's already been a TV show.

(think the dolphin's noises made more sense though)

But I'd love to see our Flipper build his ramp (he's an ideas man remember) tow it out at Ricketts in a 30 kt SE, down a couple of Red Bulls, saddle up on his 125 lt
excite-ride and trusty 5.4 Alpha.....
.....and see what happens!!

I'd watch that show.