Skepticblog

The entertainment and media world is in a very sorry state. I have not been immune to that. While I share those issues with the rest of my peers, I’ve been working insane hours to make sure that the supporting production company for The Skeptologists, Truth Hurts, and other programs remains in good shape. I have had to allow this weekly task to fall away recently while I tended to those other matters. Of course you all have been in the greatest of hands without me.

I’m not the skeptical storehouse of information and vast material that my cohorts of SkepticBlog seem to be. My area of expertise is mainly in the world of production and media, so I honestly had begun finding it very difficult to find subjects that I felt would be entertaining or relevant to our loyal readers. Once I finished up my reflective journey about how we created and shot the Skeptologists pilot, I felt like I had just ran out of material. Rather than vamping on subjects that I know far less about, I decided to take a break and re-evaluate. Kudos to the other bloggers who have continued without fail through the year, they have steadfastly committed their much more precious time to their weekly penning.

Which brings me to where I’m at now: Looking towards the beginning of the new year, and some exciting projects and prospects.
I will continue to fill you all in on the journey as we build and promote The Skeptologists program and others. Right now we are in a time where it’s a lot of uninteresting review, re-hash and evaluation of opportunities, connections and possibilities, too numerous, and frankly, boring to bother with here. However, we are working hard on making good skeptically-minded television to the small screen near you.

We’ve come a very long ways with the show and we’ve learned a lot of interesting information about bringing a show like The Skeptologists into the mainstream market. It’s quite different than, say a reality-documentary series about NHRA Drag Racing (imagine that!) The show that we originally created simply won’t find a home on major network TV because the powers that control these networks are simply not willing to “take the risk” on a show like The Skeptologists right now. While I personally think that is a bit short-sighted, I’m also acutely aware that regardless of my or the audience “feeling” on the matter, we are dealing with a very large and complex business. I understand and also depend on that business for my livliehood. The Big TV business model simply doesn’t have a need for this service right now. As viewers begin to demand more reasonable or rational programming and support shows that are in some small way similar, the changes will slowly take effect.

Now this doesn’t mean that we’ve given up. Quite the contrary. It has provided us with valuable insight as to the types of shows that are in development, the direction that many networks are going, and also, how we can re-tool our program to have a better shot at landing a large network or off-air deal. I’m happy to see science and critical thinking becoming more and more a part of programming, though we have a long way to go.

In addition, we’ve begun in some new and exciting directions that may ultimately allow us the opportunity to produce a show that is less encumbered, shall we say, by the whims of TV execs that follow their wallet and not their brain. I’ll be able to share more details of all of that in the coming months as well.

I had been thinking about other ways I could connect with you, dear readers. It occurred to me that one of the ways I can provide expertise and connect it with skepticism is by using my understanding of the production of TV and film to help the average audience understand when they are being shown something that’s maybe not entirely there. Knowing the artifacts of computer animation, clever editing, compositing, wire-removals, etc. could be an interesting way to provide a sort of “production forensics.”

Put me on the case. What piece of video, what show, scene from a movie do you want to know about? I’ll venture my best, educated guess and we can jump in together to get to the bottom of the sweater of wool over our collective eyes.

Happy Holidays Skeptics! (and Believers too, …what the heck!)