Interview about 'The Psychology of Slow TV'

Dr Adam Galpin reflecting on Slow TV in 'That Damned Cow'

During researching my documentary about Slow TV (That Damned Cow) it became clear I would need to interview someone who understood ideas around media psychology. Slow TV evokes a spectrum of interesting responses from viewers which need further research and understanding. Having initially sent an email via Derren Brown's website I eventually landed on an individual within my own university who was very suitably qualified to give some insight.

I interviewed Dr Adam Galpin who teaches the UK's first media psychology Masters Degree at The University of Salford. Adam gave some good insight into ideas and theories which may help explain some of the effects of watching Slow TV. As a follow up to my presenting my film about Slow TV at a Slow Media Symposium, Adam interviewed me for the media psychology blog and we hit around a few ideas about Slow TV. A short distillation of that interview can be seen here.

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

The Slow TV and 'Have I Got News for You' Connection

Guessing the news story... 
Slow TV introduced on 
Have I Got News for You

You can tell when something's getting noticed when 'Have I Got News for You' finds a moment to satirise and celebrate it. To my delight, last week it was the turn of Slow TV to have a couple minutes of gentle mocking. Good publicity indeed, and not many people would know this, but a 'Have I Got News for You' connection already exists for Slow TV. Though you might have guessed that from the header.

When NRK2 screened the first train journey program which came to be labelled 'Slow TV', over on NRK1, the Norwegian version of the British comedy format was being shown. "Nytt på nytt" as it's called in Norway, attracts over a million viewers each Friday evening.

Bergensbanen was 
from Bergen to Oslo....

It was at the end of the broadcast on 27th November 2009, as the train journey from Bergen to Oslo (not Oslo to Bergen as HIGNFY's script and graphic suggested) was well underway, that the host commented that if you turn over now, the train journey is now at such and such a station on NRK2.

"Have I Got News for You"
to "Slow TV"

With that, a good number of viewers switched over. This graphic, used courtesy of NRK in my documentary about Slow TV, shows the moment viewers switched over and joined the televisual journey of Bergensbanen. A plug from the show in Norway helped pique the interest of viewers in Norway; one may hope that (although several days later) HIGNFY helps push BBC Four's Slow TV Canal Boat out even further.

The episode is available until late May 2015 on BBCi Player.

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

The first proper Telescargot featured on a Slow TV Broadcast

Proper chuffed to see one whole minute of a static shot given to a snail going over a bench during BBC4's 'Dawn Chorus' production for the BBC4 Goes Slow season. 

Which way was the snail going to go? I thoroughly anticipated the snail to go over the front of the bench, but no, at the last moment, it turned along the bench. Why? Was there some juicy lettuce leaf put on the bench off camera? 

Welcome to drama on the Slow TV level.

Telescargot: A contraction of the French words 'Tele' and 'escargot' - meaning TV and snail, respectively. Would translate as "Snail TV" - which works as a phrase to apply to Slow TV. First used in discussing the French TV production of Slow TV, "The Tokyo Reverse".

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

Full cycle for my Slow TV film at the Slow Media Conference

In March a particularly pleasing moment happened in relation to my studying of Slow TV. Not the submission of my film (which as much as I enjoyed making it, it was a huge relief to get it off my shoulders). It was the opportunity to meet three of people involved in developing what has become Slow TV, having interviewed them in Norway last year for my documentary.

Arriving at the wonderful Corsham Court campus of Bath Spa University on the morning of the Slow Media Symposium I stopped to enjoy the spectacle of the peacocks, and was soon followed in by three NRK employees attending the day of talks around Slow Media (most of which was not about TV).

Arriving at Slow Media Symposium - bumped into the chief
of NRK2 and commissioner for NRK. Photo by Thomas Hellum.

Reminiscent of Wayne Manor (or The Xavier Institute in the X-Men), initial greetings were exchanged and before I knew it a mobile phone snap had been taken, popping up on my twitter feed a short time later as the talks got under way. My perhaps slightly manic smile was maybe down to the fact that what for me had started as 'just a university project for my masters degree' had taken me to Norway, filmed professionals who had made Slow TV, gone to a Slow TV production in Trondheim - here I was, about to present my film to a conference and a further opportunity to meet some of the folk from Norway again.

Later in the day I got to show my 29 minute documentary about Slow TV, which was a pleasing opportunity. The icing on the cake was the comments from Thomas Hellum, one of the innovators of Norwegian Slow TV, who had been my principal NRK contact for Slow TV for about a year, and had always responded well to what seemed to me to be to be an irritating flow of questions and discussion in that time. At least that had been my worry.

"Can I just say, for us in NRK it's been a real pleasure having Tim's eyes on our mainly practical view - making TV for the viewers, and Tim's research and questioning our work has been making ourselves more conscious about our work, and it's a real pleasure, so thankyou, thankyou Tim."

Well, thankyou too, Thomas and the number of other folk from NRK and Norway I interacted with in that year - I could not have worked on the project or produced my film to the levels I did without your helpfulness. It was a bit like coming full cycle on the project - from inception to its first showing to a group.
Tusen takk! Skål!
Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog

Screenings of "That Damned Cow - Just what is Norwegian Slow TV?"

"I think your film deserves the widest audience possible... I think BBC Four should be screening your film, too."

Carl Honoré, Author, 'In Praise of Slow'

Want to know more from the creators, commissioners, distributors of Norwegian Slow TV? Would you like to explore the surprising effects and questions around this format which engages culture, heritage and national identity? Screenings of "That Damned Cow" are listed below:

No confirmed dates at present; possible Liverpool date during Winter 2015/16

"Can I just say, for us in NRK it's been a real pleasure having Tim's eyes on our mainly practical view - making TV for the viewers, and Tim's research and questioning our work has been making ourselves more conscious about our work, and it's a real pleasure, so thankyou, thankyou Tim."

Thomas Hellum, one of the innovators of Norwegian Slow TV at the Slow Media Symposium, Bath Spa University, 26th March 2015.

Previous Screenings:

2015March 26th  - Slow Media Symposium, Bath Spa University
April 13th to 16th - In the Nordic Pavillion at MIPTV, Cannes
May 17th - Liverpool International Nordic Community at the Nordic Church as part of Norway's Constitution Day celebrations
June 11th - As part of a Ragged Talk at the Castle Hotel in Manchester

Slow Television - The Slow TV Blog