Research task: “Slow TV”

When I researched slow TV and watched samples of a few programmes, I noticed how there tends to be two types of slow TV.

There are films that are completely unedited. This is often the case when a camera is attached to the front of a train or a boat to film an entire journey. I watched a sample of such a film on YouTube that consists in recording a journey from Hawkeesbury River to Gosford (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg8Vh2Y0DwU). In this case, the movement of the vehicle means that the landscape is always changing even though the camera is fixed.

Other times, a film records an event in real time but several angles or cameras are used. There are two films on the Norwegian TV NRK website (about a National Wood Night and a National Knitted night) (www.nrk.no/presse/slow-tv-1.12057032) where several participants are interviewed and different areas might be filmed.

I wondered about the attraction of slow TV. It might be partly due to the fact that, because everything happens in real time, the viewer has the feeling of being present. When it is combined with the fact that nothing unexpected should happen, it can have a comforting effect.

The slow pace gives the viewer the opportunity to pay attention to details. There is a film on YouTube about a canal cruise from Crick Marina to Yelvertoft in real time (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSC7QU4Do4Y) and I found the comments below quite interesting. People talk about the sound of birds or splashes of water and how relaxing they find the experience of watching this kind of film.

There is an element of chance in such programmes. It is particularly true when only one camera is used to film a journey for instance. At times, the images are beautiful and full of contrast. It can be because of the landscape itself but also the continual change of geometry created by pillars, tunnels, rails and bridges. This can actually be quite inspiring.

In a sense, the viewer is the one who edits the piece by deciding how to interpret it. As Nathan Heller writes in the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/slow-tv), “Slow TV seems slow in part because, unlike our standard experience of the world, it’s unshaped by interior consciousness.”

There are many suggestions that slow TV is attractive because we live in such a fast-paced culture. It does contrast with fast videos on social media that means the viewer jumps constantly from one subject to another. Added to that, because of improving techniques and technology, the films and TV programmes that are available nowadays can be “extra” edited. In an article about slow TV on norwegianarts.org.uk (www.norwegianarts.org.uk/slow-tv/), the writer, Luke Slater, writes: “Slow TV offers something […] beyond instant gratification and the all-too-often bemoaned low-attention span inducing habits of the 21st century. Or, as NRK’s Thomas Hellum sums up in a CBS mini-documentary: “Much of life itself is boring. But in between there are some exciting moments and you just had to wait for them.” Here’s to waiting””.

However, although Slow TV can have some attraction for some viewers, we often want the edited version of an event because we can benefit from the knowledge of the expert who would edit the film and would know where to look and what to look for.