Let’s break this down. The persona non grata works for a living in the entertainment business. It’s what pays his bills. It’s not a hobby, it’s a livelihood.
Most folks, if they are lucky, end up with a profession they enjoy. Hobbies alone can and do absorb loads of time and energy but they don’t pay very well. That’s why they are called hobbies. Jobs are what pays the bills. Sometimes you get to combine both and that works out nicely UNTIL they don’t work in harmony. When there is a conflict, the JOB has to take first priority. That doesn't mean for one second that anyone's integrity is compromised. It means the scope of the project has to change and be made into something reasonably saleable.
Lynda
Lynda,
Pardon the late response to this mass-deletion situation as I just got back from the West Indies. I have enjoyed and liked your posts, but I would caution against your attempt to continually pontificate and justify the actions of this entire Tumlinson narrative, or how it has been handled right from the start.
This persona non grata you refer to, (let’s call him PNG), is by no means experienced or qualified in any sense of these words as far as how you are attempting to frame this whole endeavor as a “noble attempt” to bring the Tumlinson story to the “big screen.” While “entertainment” is a broad, encompassing term, a background in model photography does not by any stretch of the imagination, qualify one with the right to ride roughshod over a community in an attempt to bring forth and taunt the community with “new information” which “cannot be revealed at this time.”
Not just all the information, links, and pictures, but a lot of good and informative posts that were written by other people, were also mass-deleted on the other site and I find this highly irresponsible and disrespectful to the DH community, as these forums serve as a community for sharing information. It also goes against the spirit and policy of the other site as well as this one. Not only was an entire forum just about deleted, but a well-known poster was by force, publicly shamed and humiliated. What purpose does this serve?
Now let’s consider this project and the target audience. The target audience is young adults to senior citizens. Outside of diehard Dutch Hunters, the average viewing audience does not have a frame of reference for this legend. And; believe it or not, they don’t have the patience or inclination to set through the time it would take to gain one.
So………there is only so much data and supporting evidence that can be “sold” (in great detail) as a made for TV production. An hour show provides about 27 minutes of story line. If you don’t capture the attention and get buy in from your target in about 7 minutes (or less) you are done. Click….gone to another easier, lighter material, entertainment piece. You must present your premise from the 5000 foot level, put it in context, and move on to the more drama/adventure type narrative. It’s an entertain product not a thesis for a doctorate.
Using our 27 minute per episode, it would take about three one hours shows, or three weeks, to provide all the background, factual data, introduce characters into the story line, and lay out the history leading up to ……….ta’ da……..”Travis Found the Stones”………. It’s a loser on holding the target’s attention and patience just to get to the basis of the show. No production company in their right mind is going to sign on for that kind of production.
Let me knock you down a few pegs here. What you’ve written above is a perversion of an understanding of how entertainment really works, and what it takes to engage an audience. It’s all about what leads up to that click, not what happens when one is clicking through the channels. You build up the buzz that leads to the click, and in order to do that, you build up an audience, you build expectations. And what better place to do that than here? The DH community is small, but it’s a good way to start the buzz and get the word out. It’s a good place to start the discussion, a good place to get feedback.
More importantly it’s a good place to receive constructive criticism, to make sure the story works and is accurate. So when someone like Joe questions things and starts poking holes in the story, you go back to the story and work on it instead of throwing a temper tantrum or taking things too personally. Any well-known TV critic will just do the same thing Joe did, but the consequences will be much more devastating.
As far as PNG has handled himself throughout this entire saga- he got himself banned here, and did the equivalent of kicking down a sand castle on the other site and stomping away. That’s not how you build a brand, that’s not how you build an audience.
Data, new info, evidence, do we have it? You betcha. By the cart loads. Interesting stuff. Is there supporting information or historic evidence for every new twist? Yes, there is. But it won’t be dissected at the level you would like on a made for TV reality/mini-series/documentary. That’s why you are seeing different formats discussed. The “show”, when aired, will have a different twist, new information and focus than those that have come before. But; the detail you seek will not be presented there. It can’t be. That level of detail and give and take will be discussed here, and I can’t wait to be a part of that discussion.
Pre-filming discussions on our part didn’t go over well. Unfortunate but; that’s understandable. We weren’t able to give you all the pieces of the story and that was not fair OR productive. But; that will change. If the production sells we can discuss it from now to forever. If it doesn’t sell there is still a ton of information collected to be dissected. That includes all the parts that would drive the average viewing public to tears with tedium and redundancy.
Once the “show” is in the can, we can spend all the time your heart desires discussing the minute details of every new piece of data or twist to the story and how they fit (or don’t fit). There will be a water shed of information and evidence, and something for everyone and every position on the story. But; you have to keep in mind our discussions here are not main stream. The fact that we actually enjoy spending weeks discussing the minutest of details puts us in a relative small group. Who knows, but I suspect it (the project) will add new enthusiasts here and perhaps in Apache Junction.
That's not a sell out, that's seeing reality and working with it. You either produce what the public wants, in the dosage they find acceptable, or you hide your message under a basket. Its a start on a new twist but by no means will the "production" be the full and complete story. Can't be. But; I'm sure the "hang em high" contingent will spin that reality in a negative way. So be it. There is plenty of space in this for the light attention group and those among us that want a little more meat with the potatoes.
Again a perversion here. It’s all about one simple premise: does the story have teeth? Does it have a concept? Does it engage your emotions and move you? What the public wants is a good story to bite their teeth on. They want to feel like they have their one or two hour’s worth. If I told you I had this idea of making a hour and half TV show simply about penguins walking on ice, you’d think I was nuts.
Yet someone did, and the show was called “March of the Penguins” and it grossed $77 million and won the Oscar for best documentary. This someone found a great way to create a gripping narrative.
Now, as far as selling the Travis Tumlinson story- it’s going to be a good challenge because as we all know, Travis never found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. However, I’m sure there are certain aspects to his story that an audience may find appealing, indeed sympathize with him, but we’ll never know what appeals to people unless you discuss the elements of the story with a test group, and this forum and the other site would have been the best way to obtain feedback, and still could be, that is, if the bridges haven’t burned down at this point.
