Hello, and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers.
I'm Liz Waid, and this is Adam Navis.
Hi, Adam.
Hello.
And we are here to discuss well, a spotlight program, this week's program, and it is about a subject that I really enjoy.
Sort of as a whole, and that is television.
I'm sure you knew that about me, Adam.
But this week's program is about a specific kind of television called slow TV.
Is that like streaming TV, but when your internet is slow?
No, that is not it.
It is not an interrupted signal TV.
It is purposefully slow television.
But we'll get to that.
If you have not heard this program or seen this program on YouTube, maybe just pause this video.
Go over there, listen to it.
You can visit our website at wwwspotlightenglishcom, where you can follow along with the words and listen to the program.
Or you can watch it on YouTube or listen to it as a podcast in those different places.
And I do want to give a little plug.
So mention it.
And we will talk about this later.
But I want to give a little plug for YouTube memberships.
And if you want to learn more about becoming a Spotlight member, you can go to our website to learn about it there.
Or you can go right to the source and go to YouTube.
Click the little Join button under any video and learn more about it there.
And we have a special perk for members this week.
And that is our very own Spotlight Slow TV video, which is really cool.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah.
But we'll talk about that a little bit later.
So what did what did I miss?
So we're going to we got to talk about memberships and yeah, we can get into it all.
Yeah, I did it all.
So, Adam, you know, I love TV and I really love like science fiction TV.
But all of the TV that we usually watch, even if it's well me maybe, even if it's like a reality show, maybe like a cooking show, all of those things are edited together.
So somebody takes a camera and they they shoot.
I don't that's the word for like, yeah, yeah.
So they shoot a bunch of video.
They might watch a process from beginning to end in a reality show.
They might follow a couple different people about what they're doing.
Or in just a normal TV show, they might shoot one scene and then go to another.
Then an editor right well, and even I was gonna say everything is very there's people behind the scenes that we don't even see planning.
I always think about that in those cook you mentioned cooking shows, where they take out the finished product because we don't have the time to wait to watch it bake.
Right, someone had to make that and make sure people setting up microphones or you know, watching the script and things like that yep, and then so once all of that footage comes together, it goes to an editor and and that person takes out all the boring parts.
They might.
If they're making a um, a tv show, they might look at the script and see what needs to be cut out or what the you know actors said and and put all that in order.
Or if you're watching a reality show, like a reality cooking show, they might cut out the parts where you know you're waiting for something to come out of the oven or um maybe, maybe make it seem like there's an argument between two people, depending on how it's edited.
Um, but this is a whole new kind of tv, this slow tv right, do you want to tell about it?
So yeah, so if you've listened to the program, you know that it, i think, um As a thing.
You used to call it a new thing.
It started in the country of Norway.
Yes.
With...
I don't know if ... Who got this idea?
Well, we know that public television in Norway is very well supported.
Right.
They had this idea to put a camera- Yeah, I think it was just two guys.
Yeah.
Two guys had this idea.
Right to put a camera on a very long train ride so you'd be watching as if you were Not kind of on the front of the train.
I mean, I don't know if this is a... Yeah, like sitting in the train.
I think there were maybe like two or three cameras in different spaces.
Yeah.
So it was like you were riding the train the entire way.
And hours and hours.
Whereas what we were talking about... It was seven and a half hours.
Yeah.
What we were talking about a moment ago usually is either 30 minutes or 60 minutes.
This was seven plus hours of just this one thing.
No uh, editing.
No, there were no drama.
No uh, you know, like dramatic music to keep you engaged?
No, just the sounds.
Just the sounds of what?
Although There were some times that the train went into a tunnel and then it would just be black right.
So the TV station in Norway that made this program, they had some, I think, historical footage that they would just put in like a little, you know, picture in picture.
So you had something to watch.
Not just be staring at a black screen.
Well, what was exciting about when I was reading this and learning about it was that it's a counterintuitive, which is a big fancy word.
That just means it goes against what you would first think.
So everybody would say, go faster.
You know, TikTok is very popular.
So it's like short and fast.
But this is long and slow.
This is like the anti-TikTok.
That's what we should call it.
Yeah.
That's going to be on our video description.
Liz and Adam discuss anti-TikTok.
Yeah, exactly.
It is, though.
But people loved it.
People tuned in.
And they just started to watch it.
And then they made more.
Then they made more.
Why don't you tell about the next one they decided to do?
Well, I think there were... Okay, so the one that we talk about in the program is a boat ride.
The boat ride.
And I'm not sure if it was like the second one they did or if it was just like another one they did.
Yeah, but this one was five and a half days.
Five and a half days just constantly on the um on the tv, and i actually um, we put a link to that video in the program of on our website.
So if you want to check out, if you have five and a half days that you want to watch every minute of that boat ride, there is a link on our website.
You can do that.
Um, but yeah they, and it was so popular that i think at one point half of norway was watching.
It was the most watched show in norway ever.
Well, that leads me to two questions first, why do you think it was popular?
And second, do you think liz, you would enjoy watching slow tv?
Okay, so yeah, those are two different questions, right?
I don't know, because I feel like there's a lot... Well, I'll tackle the first one.
So why would people watch this show?
I think that lots of people like to have something on in the background.
It's not something I particularly enjoy, but I do think people like to sort of feel surrounded when they're alone.
It's why a lot of people listen to podcasts or podcasts.
My neighbor always has a TV on.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
Just always.
Yeah, exactly.
And you know you might have on a story that you've watched a million times, a television program that you've watched a lot so that you don't really have to pay attention to it.
Um, or reality TV where again, you don't really have to pay attention to it.
Um, I think that might be one reason.
Another reason I thought was interesting to me that we did talk about in the program is that it allows you to travel to different places.
Know that I do actually enjoy watching travel videos.
Sometimes you know to see how houses are different or or just a thing is made and I think it could here's a nice idiom for you scratch that itch so you know something that if you wanted to go travel, you could do it through there, especially in COVID times.
Yeah.
What do you think?
I think another and this is similar to what you're saying is it's calming in a way that even the train track or the boat, it's rhythmic and it's soothing in ways that I think is appealing to people in a life where it's always I go from this thing to this thing, to this thing, to this thing.
At least that would be the appeal to me.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
It really is something that you could sit and just maybe do some handiwork to it, like knitting or making something or painting, and just having something beautiful on in the background.
Because many of these slow TV videos that you can find really easily on YouTube are they're shot very beautifully.
Yeah, they include very beautiful scenery, so it's kind of like a piece of art that moves.
Yeah yeah, exactly so.
Would you watch one of these?
How would you?
I was just gonna answer that um i, i don't know.
I don't know if i would.
I really i really do enjoy tv quite a lot um, but i also really love story and character And I think it would be really difficult for me to feel like I was involved in something just watching slow TV.
I don't know.
Yeah.
What do you think?
What about you?
I get very, here's a word that maybe our viewers don't know, antsy.
It has nothing to do with the insect ants, though you can make connections.
But if I have to sit too long, I'm like, I want to do something else.
I like to do a variety of things.
So maybe you could have it on in the background.
I could, but I don't know.
I might try it.
There is something really beautiful to me about slow TV, though.
Even though I don't know if I would personally enjoy it, I think there's something there that I can understand.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
Well, let's talk.
I mean, I made this slow TV video and let me, so let me tell you, uh, you can check it out.
Uh, it's a video, it's about 30 minutes, which is pretty short for slow TV, right?
Right.
Well, right now, uh, members can check it out.
Oh yeah, that's right.
Members of the advanced level and above.
So again, I'm going to put a little plug there for membership.
You know, click that join button below.
Learn a little bit more about membership and then yeah, be able to have access to those videos and and scripts as well, right so?
Uh, so let me, even if you you haven't done that.
It was very interesting, so i took a camera.
I have a little uh, forest woods area near my house and i walked my dog and you can follow the path going through the woods and you can hear the footsteps crunching on the gravel and the leaves and you can see the wind and the sun is rising and um, it was nice to as someone as making it, because I had to look at things differently.
And when you have a framing of a screen, you only look at that one thing.
Now, you can have a very wide shot, but you're still only looking at that one thing.
And it really helped me, like, what am I pointing the camera at?
What am I paying attention to?
So I think it was interesting.
Yeah.
I was going to say I really like that aspect, that part of it, that you kind of see what the camera sees but you choose what to focus on.
Right.
So you know, when somebody has a camera in a program, like in a typical TV show, where you're either a reality show or scripted television, they're showing you what you should look at for the story.
That's true, sometimes they come in very close to just you only see a person's face, right exactly.
But if you are and especially um, in this video that was produced by the norway television uh, public television right uh, you know they went past a whole uh group of people waiting for this boat On this five and a half day trip.
Right.
And they don't zoom in on people.
They just show everyone.
So what are you going to look at on that?
Or when the boat goes back on the water.
What side of the boat are you going to concentrate on?
Where the camera is?
I think that is kind of appealing because I am a bit of a people watcher.
Oh, sure.
People are fascinating.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I think, if you're watching this, and let us know if you think you would like to either make slow TV, what would you make a video of?
Or would you watch it?
Go check out the videos.
There's lots on YouTube.
You can let us know if you have a favorite.
I was going to say, if people make slow TV, they should know that they can make slow TV about anything, anything anything.
It's about any sort of subject that you are maybe doing or or making or anything like that.
So yeah, that's really interesting.
Um yeah, so if you want to check out any of these programs, we have a, we have a classic version, a no music version and an advanced version.
You can watch any of those depending on what sort of challenge you want.
And you can find it on our website, www.spotlightenglish.com.
You can find us on Instagram Twitter, Facebook and on YouTube and anywhere that you find your podcasts.
I do want to say, if you would like scripts delivered once a week, on Monday, every Monday we have a very low-cost option for you to get the script PDF every week.
It is about a dollar a week and you can check out how to get that on our website at where it says a little button says scripts by email.
And we would love to see you there.
Yeah, thank you for joining us in this conversation.
Give this video a like if you can.
Subscribe, that really helps us out.
And tell other people about Spotlight.
Answer the questions below in the comments.
That's a great way to practice your English.
And until next time, listen, watch, practice, learn.
Spotlight out.
