Mountain Lake PBS Productions

Colin Powers reflects on PBS programming for the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain, & Quebec, public broadcasting, and the future of media distribution.

Mountain Lake PBS Productions header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'PBS'

Appeals Court Hammers the FCC on inconsistent indecency rulings

July 16th, 2010 · No Comments · Future of public media, PBS, Public Affairs, Public Media

Today the States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision that found the the FCC’s 2006 decision to punish broadcasters for Cher and Nicole Richie’s “fleeting expletives” was based on vague and inconsistent standards. It is likely that this decision and possibly the upcoming decision on Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” in the [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:·····

Vivian Schiller announces One Big Online Platform for Public TV and Radio

June 14th, 2010 · No Comments · NPR, PBS

Vivian Schiller of NPR trumpeted the new “one-stop” platform for your public media fix every day… I’m not sure how this will relate to individual station sites or feed visitors back to them… we’ll see. I don’t see myself going anywhere but NCPR for the In-box, nor anywhere but MLPBS for the latest Mountain Lake [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Producer’s Resource: Writing a Better Treatment

June 4th, 2010 · No Comments · Filmmaking, PBS

Below is an invaluable tool for anyone seeking to write a pitch document for a grant, private investor, foundation or broadcaster. I’ve been referring to it for several years and re-read every six months or so. I’d add to the discussion several key points:
1) Describe (early in your treatment) what [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:

CPB/PBS Producer’s Academy Take 1 – Gaming a social issue Doc

May 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Documentary, Filmmaking, Multi-media, PBS, Public Media

I’m thrilled to have been selected to attend the 25 person “CPB/PBS Producer’s Academy” at WGBH in Boston in late June. As students we have already been assigned quite a bit of homework and have learned who are classmates are. A very accomplished lot!
Here is a short video about the most recent work of Chelo [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:·····

Content Accesibility Project: Why bother?

May 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · Future of public media, PBS, Public Media

I went to a fine workshop at the PBS annual meeting where a hard-working group presented a lot of practical information and findings on how to help our viewers find our shows, be less frustrated and feel more connected to our station. Things like keeping our program titles succinct and specific, creating short episode descriptions [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:···

Let’s Put the ‘Public’ back in Public Broadcasting

May 20th, 2010 · No Comments · Future of public media, News, PBS, Public Affairs, Public Media

I usually try to shorten reposted blogs, but this Gwen Ifill/Jay Rosen dialogue has really caught my interest. I’m convinced that public media needs to be looking at itself HARDER and with more real concern than we are. Because the tidal wave is about to wash over us… (for more background on the Ifill/Rosen story [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:······

Lobby group wants to make docs a priority for Public Television

May 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Documentary, Filmmaking, Future of public media, Multi-media, PBS

This group is looking worldwide, but I wonder how PBS might respond to this group’s plea.

Lobby group wants to make docs a priority for PSBs

by Kelly Anderson
At the recent Hot Docs festival, MercuryMedia CEO Tim Sparke took the opportunity to announce the launch of the Documentary Distributors’ Association, a group [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:·····

Ouch! “Need to Know” takes one for the team!

May 12th, 2010 · No Comments · Future of public media, Multi-media, News, PBS, Public Affairs, Public Media

Washington Post Critic takes on PBS for replacing Moyers with Need to Know:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/10/AR2010051005113.html
I’m not sure it is really deserved. Watch here and decide for yourself: http://video.mountainlake.org/program/1458405365/

via video.mountainlake.org

[Read more →]

Tags:·······

How Much Oil Has Leaked Into the Gulf of Mexico? | PBS NewsHour | PBS

May 6th, 2010 · No Comments · PBS, Public Affairs

How Much Oil Has Leaked Into the Gulf of Mexico?

By: Chris Amico

via pbs.org
I was trying to explain this crisis to my six-year old son yesterday… images from the ‘net helped, but this counter really hit me in the solar plexus.

[Read more →]

Tags:········

PBS Revolution Discussion Continued…

May 5th, 2010 · No Comments · Digital Television, Documentary, Educational Programming, Future of public media, Local stories, Mountain Lake Journal, Multi-media, News, PBS, Public Affairs, Uncategorized

Below is a thread that began several weeks ago (as reported here and here) on Revolution PBS, an anonymous blog. I’m picking up the thread mid-stream. If you haven’t seen the beginning, you can start with my post linked above and then the “Spoonful of Sugar” post picked up here.

I’ve added my comments [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:···············