TELEVISION AND VIDEO CULTURES

PROGRAMME TITLE:

2 Continents: 7 Time Zones in 10 Days

INTRODUCTION
“I took the road less travelled and it has made all the difference”

said Robert Frost and the Trans-Siberian journey have got to be the road

less travelled. The Trans-Sib is a wonder because it’s built in 1891 as

ordered by Russian’s emperor Nicholas the First and the total 62,000

miles railway is the largest as well as the busiest railway in the world.

The railway passes a total of 88 cities, the world’s deepest lake;

Lake Baikal, the world’s biggest country; Russia and the biggest lake in

the world; the Caspian Sea and Russia is the home of the first man in

space; Yuri Gagarin and a lot more. Russia is indeed the land of wonders.

However, the route isn’t your average, conventional route but a rough

and messy route where anything is possible.

What was once called on idiot box is now considered a modern

storyteller that engages and enchants its audiences as well as a medium

for disseminating culture said Cohen (2008) and according to Gerbner

(1994) television should either inspire, educate and entertain. According

to Hill (2005) television is a versatile medium and genres can be

collaborated to create new hybrid genres.

 GENRE

The genre of the television programme is documentary-travel and

it mainly contains historical and cultural elements to engage its

audiences. Documentary films span from Super Size Me to Michael

Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 while lifestyle shows are about educating the

audiences on culture and are rampant in shows like MTV’s Real World as

mentioned by Arthur (2005)

Documentaries generally appeal to the masses because they’re

true to life and it narrates the story of one’s life experience according to

Cury (2002) while travel programmes appeal because it portrays the way

of living of another culture.

THE PROGRAMME

The television programme is titled 2 Continents: 7 time zones in 10

days because the television programme hopes to show the audiences

that the world is full of possibilities including the experiences of going

through 7 different time zones. The beauty of the world from the traveller

using the road less travelled. The programme is about an upper class

young adult who travels from Beijing, China all the way to St. Petersburg,

Russia using the Trans-Siberian Railways.

The reason the title was chosen because no other form of travelling

will enable the traveller to travel through 2 continents, 7 different time

zones in 10 days. There is also a possibility for a second season to

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document the travel from Russia through Europe using Eurail to discover

countries such as Cyprus, Belarus, Albania, and others.

The programme is a cross between The Simple Life (Paris Hilton

and Nicole Richie), A Long Way Down (Ewan McGregor and Charley

Boorman) and Globe Trekker (Megan McCormick) because it incorporates

the awkwardness of two rich socialites in an environment that they aren’t

used to as well as the adventures using unexpected modes of

transportation such as a motorcycle and the exposure to new

experiences, culture and adventure.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Demographics that might enjoy the programme would be young

adults between the ages of 18 to 30 years old, middle to upper class,

educated, adventurous and enjoys travelling. Most likely to be in a gap

year and those who have just started working and with limited funds but

just enough for a holiday. These people generally want to see the world

before finally deciding to settle down. It will also appeal to the upper

class society because they might connect with the host and would like to

experience a lifestyle different from theirs.

Abercrombie (1996) stated that women spend the most time

watching television especially those who are employed. They spend an

average 103 minutes watching television than anything else. Ever since

women are more educated, they are delaying the time to settle down and

instead focus on themselves first. These women have the money, time

and are hungry for the experience. The female audience will be inspired

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because women generally don’t believe in roughing it out and are more

vulnerable to threats compared to a male.

The appeal to the target audiences, the hosts of the programme

has to be two female from the upper class that has not experienced life in

a train or the desert. People enjoy watching the hosts suffering and that’s

why shows like Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmern have a huge fan base.

To accommodate the target audiences, the programme will be

aired once a week between 10pm and 11pm because these women are

either working or studying and they generally a very sociable group

where they’ll only get home at night after dinner with their friends or

from work.

Since the nature of the programme is travel and lifestyle based,

television networks that will be interested in the programme would be

cable television and on Discovery Travel and Living since similar

documentary lifestyle programmes such as Globe Trekker and America

the Wright Way.

PILOT AND EPISODES

The television programme spans 10 episodes excluding the pilot

and it technically documents the Tran-Siberian journey from Beijing,

China to St. Petersburg, Russia. The journey starts from Beijing to Ulaan

Baatar to Vladivostok to Khabarovsk to Irkutsk to Novosibirsk to

Ekaterinburg to Moscow before finally arriving to St. Petersburg.

The pilot episode will focus on the hosts informing their families

that they’ll be going on a Tran-Siberian journey and facing conflicts from

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their parents, friends, boyfriends, colleagues and relatives. An excerpt of

the pilot episode’s script would be something like this.

Set in the mansion of the host with their parents.

Host: Mom, Dad, I’ll be going on a Tran-Siberian journey.

Parents: What’s a Tran-Siberian journey? Where are you going?

The pilot will technically show the hosts packing, getting over the

issues that travellers will face and travelling to Beijing, China where they

will begin their adventure. The pilot also shows their brief time in Beijing

such as Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven and maybe

even the Bird’s Nest Stadium.

There will be 3 episodes on the lifestyle on Gobi desert which is

Asia’s largest desert region and Lake Baikal where the hosts will spend 2

days riding camels, diving into the deepest lake in the world, sand

surfing, living in a tent on the desert, eating desert food and just

following a nomadic desert family’s lifestyle and travel 1200 years back

to the time of Genghis Khan to temples where they worshipped the sea

and the sky.

ECONOMY AND SPONSORSHIPS

Since the programme aims to educate, inform and entertain the

audiences about the rich history and culture of Russia, Mongolia and

China, sponsors will be the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and

Heritage of all three countries as well as the Trans-Siberian Railways. This

programme will portray the cultural heritage of each country as well as

promoting the food, lifestyle and language of all three countries.

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 Besides that, advertisers such as Eastpac Backpack, Sigg

Waterbottle, NIKE or Adidas shoes and maybe 100 Plus would be

interested to advertise during this programme because these products

are essentials for such trips. The hosts will definitely need to lug a

backpack and a water bottle as well as durable shoes and isotonic drinks

to refresh themselves.

LEGAL AND ETHICAL

In legal terms, as long as filming doesn’t depict and enforce the

stereotypes of the country and the people it shouldn’t be an issue.

Besides that, filming shouldn’t touch on the politics or the current political

situation of the country and hosts will not use discriminatory words to

refer to the country, people, food, culture, language and no profanities

shall be used in respect to the media law of the countries.

Ethically, the hosts will follow customary rights especially in Russia

where it is conservative in certain parts. They will adhere and respect

local customs and values.

Altogether this programme is a combination of Cameron Diaz’s

4Real where she travelled to South America, Ewan McGregor and Charlie

Boorman’s A Long Way Down, Megan McCormick and Ian Wright’s Globe

Trekker and Samantha Brown’s Passport. Such programmes are very

popular because it helps the audience to plan their next adventure and

they know what to expect. Ratings for programmes such as travel

documentary especially Globe Trekker has an estimated audience of 30

million according to CNN.com.

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 In Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, he stated that, “The

world’s my oyster” and one can never think that the world is boring or

tire of it. The world has so many fascinating things to do, people to meet,

stories to tell and that is why the genre of travel documentary has its

allure. This programme isn’t about trying to sell just another television

programme; it’s selling an adventure and inspiration. It shows the

audiences the wonders of the world, the possibilities of travel and most

importantly, to live and appreciate life even more.

1469 words

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abercrombie, N. (1996) Television society; Polity Press.

Arthur, P. (2005) Extreme makeover: The changing face of

documentary; Cineaste; Summer; 30, 3.

Cohen, J. (2008) What I watch and who I am: National pride and the

viewing of local & foreign TV in Israel, Journal of Communication; 58,1.

Cury, I. (2002) Directing & producing for television 2: A format

approach; Focal Press.

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 Gerbner, G. , Gross, L. , Morgan, M. & Sinorielli, N. (1994) Growing

up with television: The cultivation perspective. In J. Bryant & D. Zillman

Media effects: Advances in theory and research, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hill, A. (2005) The rise of reality TV; Reality TV-Audiences and

popular factual television, Milton Park; Routledge.

VIDEOGRAPHY

Globe Trekker: RUSSIA (2004), Tracy R. West, EFP.

The Silk Road: An Ancient World Of Adventure (2000), Graham

Loveridge, EFP.

A Long Way Down (2009), David Alexanian, EMI.

4Real (2007), Sol Guy, Haddock Entertainment.

APPENDIX

4REAL is a show hosted by Cameron Diaz when she visited Latin

America.

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 Real life actors Ewan McGregor & Charlie Boorman travelled around
the world in their motorcycle.

The hosts will be 2 best friends from the upper class society that
are used to the luxurious lifestyle.

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