{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Alaska's Anti-Reality TV Entertainer with Rob Prince - TAS #6","description":"This week on The Alaska Show I sit down with Rob Prince, Associate Professor of Documentary Filmmaking at University of Alaska Fairbanks and the founder of Dark Winter Nights: True Stories from Alaska. Rob and I discuss documentaries, how DWN was founded from his experience with reality tv, who controls Alaska's image to the world, and what makes a great story. As a special bonus we include one of the great stories from DWN at the beginning of the program! Go check out the show wherever you listen to podcasts or go to DarkWinterNights.com and get tickets to a live show! Next one is tentatively planned for the Saturday before Thanksgiving in Fairbanks. (0:55) Intro (3:27) Dark Winter Nights Story (13:59) Rob Prince Interview Interview Notes   Robert Prince is the Associate Professor of Digital Journalism and Documentary Filmmaking at University of Alaska - Fairbanks He was interested in video as a kid and he was amazed he could make a living making videos. As he got into college he took some tv criticism classes that opened his eyes to the power of television to be a force for good in the world and how it falls short. He wanted to make a difference in the world through his field. He liked being able to entertain and educate people at the same time. He also likes it because it\u2019s a form of filmmaking you can do almost single-handedly. To get into fiction you have to convince people to act in the film and make them good at it.   Are documentaries journalism or entertainment? They\u2019re both. It\u2019s like paper journalism, it\u2019s whatever you put on it. It can be long-form journalism which is why he\u2019s in the journalism department. There are programs like Frontline on PBS that are great examples of documentary journalism. Then you have fun baloney documentaries and some that are downright evil. In the best way it\u2019s both.   Alex\u2019s favorite documentary is Queen of Versailles.   The dream of most documentary filmmakers is to have things unfold right on-screen. Queen of Versailles is a combination of luck and hard work.   Rob\u2019s favorite documentaries depend on his mood. One of his favorites is \u201cFlag Wars.\u201d It was produced clearly by someone who was new at it. Some of the best documentaries are made by people that are not great filmmakers, but are just passionate about a subject. It\u2019s the story of gentrification of a historically African-American Baltimore community by the homosexual community. Great documentaries leave you with more questions and things to think about.    Rob also likes anything by Errol Morris. Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control and Thin Blue Line are both fantastic. Errol Morris - 90% of his stuff is awesome. On Netflix \u201cDirty Money\u201d is a thing he likes. Rob doesn\u2019t love True Crime because he doesn\u2019t know if it makes him a better person. He can\u2019t let go of horrible crimes and true stories. He started watching a documentary about priest abuse and the murder of a nun. He was waiting for the story to get to some point of justice but he couldn\u2019t.   Rob\u2019s biggest problem with True Crime is \u201cMean World Syndrome.\u201d The theory is the more tv you watch the more dangerous you think the world is than your neighbor. His concern of people who watch tons of true crime and news is it will warp their sense of how dangerous the world is beyond reality and lead them to do things they don\u2019t need to do. If there\u2019s a vote in the city for more policing vs more funding for schools, people who are afraid will vote for more policing. For example it would be hard to be killed by a serial killer even if you tried. It\u2019s like being a police officer.   Alex loves business documentaries but thinks there are very few good ones. Often they\u2019re a little too heavy-handed. Some are almost messianic biographies of people which is insufferable. He loves business documentaries like Silicon Cowboys on Netflix about the rise of Compaq computers out of Texas. How these guys founded the company and overcame IBM. Why are business makers so hard to make?   The key to a good documentary is access. There aren\u2019t more because what disgraced CEO wants to invite a filmmaker in? If it\u2019s an uplifting story that might be a different story, but billionaires don\u2019t necessarily want to let people in like that. Rob tells his students he votes with his time and dollars. If you want more business documentaries watch the heck out of what they have and they\u2019ll make more.   Frontline has great business documentaries for free streaming at PBS.org   The other documentaries Rob likes are those that change people\u2019s lives and impact the world like Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock. It had a sweeping effect on McDonald\u2019s and fast food. Another example is Blackfish and how it stopped the breeding and showing of Killer Whales at Sea World. It will entertain you and change the world at the same time.   The subject can be so good that the documentary works. Nature documentaries are a good example. All you need is good footage and some facts and a good voiceover.    You are learning all the time whether you want to or not. Rob\u2019s students think that just because you are watching something student you aren\u2019t learning, but you\u2019re always learning. TV doesn\u2019t always tells you what to think, but it tells you what to think about. When you watch a nature documentary you are thinking about the planet. When you watch reality tv you are thinking about super rich people and their lives. When you watch tv you are basically surrendering your current thought process over to whatever that topic is. What do you want to be pondering in life? That you aren\u2019t as rich as you want to be?   Make a conscious decision of what you watch.   In the 70s advertising had to cut from 60 seconds to 30 seconds, so advertisers didn\u2019t have the time to practically convey their product vs another one. Once you shifted to 30 second short ads they don\u2019t have time - all they can say is \u201chere is how my product makes you feel.\u201d It was no longer about the quality of the product anymore.   Our attention spans are shorter. Nobody reads anymore. Rob doesn\u2019t read anymore. You can convey so much less information in a debate or talk or documentary vs text. People can only take it in the first time. They\u2019re not going to rewind and hear it back again. In a book you don\u2019t have to do that.   What\u2019s the value of education in a creative field like media\/journalism\/entertainment? Rob doesn\u2019t look down on people who don\u2019t have college degrees, but it depends what you want to do. These days with the competition it\u2019s something that\u2019s going to be important that separates you from the crowd. It\u2019s not always about what you learn but who you meet and know. You\u2019re more likely to hire someone you know and trust that you have a relationship with rather than someone off the street. College is tribal - it\u2019s a social club. You can use that time and take advantage or not. In creative fields it will accelerate your learning dramatically. Rob was mostly self-taught.   Rob is the founder of Dark Winter Nights. It started because Rob was frustrated how Hollywood was showing Alaska. This was 2012-2013. We gave over the reins to Hollywood to control their image.  A production company in LA called Rob and were looking for people living in a dry cabin to do a house hunting show. He was used and never credited and was frustrated. He was a big fan of radio programs like This American Life.   The way he approached it was he knew the world of podcasting was saturated. His idea was to build a local audience, raise awareness, and use it as a launching pad to show folks outside Alaska. He needed it to resonate with Alaskans before it went to the outside world.   The live events have way more tangible payback. If anything they almost \u201cforgot\u201d about the podcast and have focused on live events. Last November they had 900 people. They have about 1600 podcast subscribers. He\u2019s gotten distracted by the live audience side of it. This spring was their 6th year. They can do that now because of income from live events.   The other thing he wants to do is go on tour because he thinks people in the Lower 48 would eat it up. There are a lot of logistical issues. His ultimate goal is to share the real Alaska with the world through podcasts and maybe a tour. His goal for the live events is to be the best dinner party you\u2019ve ever been to. Real people are telling true stories in a natural way. It\u2019s not a Ted Talk, things aren\u2019t planned out to the millisecond.   There\u2019s a reason we love stories, we learn stuff from them. They\u2019re entertaining, but it taps into our empathy. We can put ourselves in others\u2019 stories. Horror movies are so scary because you feel like you\u2019re a character in that film. It\u2019s a body-snatching thing in a good story. Stories are bad because they can\u2019t put themselves in others\u2019 shoes.   What makes a good story? Most people can tell a story and with some coaching they can tell it a lot better. After 45 minutes they can make great progress on their story. There are some people who are inherently not great at storytelling. They can get better but they take more work than others. The process is not that hard. There\u2019s the element of making sure the audience can see what you see. One thing people forget is the audience doesn\u2019t know what they know. The audience can\u2019t picture it. What year was it? What season? You have to convey these things. How old were you? What did the environment look like? Things need to get more and more interesting until the climax, and then the audience needs a moment at the end to bask in it. Any story will be ruined by being too long. He aims for stories to be in the 15 minute range. That\u2019s kind of the magic number, but they\u2019ll range from 3 minutes for kids up to even low-20s. It\u2019s enough time to settle into the story and feel a connection without being so long they get bored. A good 15-17 minute is Rob\u2019s favorite.    The most cliche way to wrap a story up is have the storyteller say what they learned. But it usually always works. Stories can be over-practiced and start to sound scripted. It\u2019s kind of like a Ted Talk. Their job is to convey information in a very polished way. Rob can struggle with telling a story too many times. You\u2019ll come to a part of it that you\u2019ve perfected too much. At that point you\u2019re acting, you\u2019re doing a bit, your not telling a story. Rob doesn\u2019t want people to write the story out because we don\u2019t write the same way we speak. Maybe an outline, but not too much. He\u2019ll meet with storytellers two weeks out so they have some time to practice but not too much.   The consolation prize for doing something stupid is having a good story to tell.   Go to DarkWinterNights.com the fall show is typically the Saturday before thanksgiving in Fairbanks. ","author_name":"The Alaska Show","author_url":"https:\/\/www.theakshow.com\/","html":"