What is Slow TV?

What is Slow TV?

Slow TV can be understood in a number of ways. Trying to define it could be perceived as semantics, as playing with words, but it helps to give clarity as to why it is different to other forms of TV.

First and foremost it is a long recording or broadcast of a subject done in real time. No jump cuts, no editing out the bits that may be less interesting. Whatever happens, happens in the time it would take to happen – very literally real time. So that could be an animal, journey or event. This tends to make longer sequences and in turn a longer program. It could be ten minutes or five and half days.

That is not to say there is no selection of image for the viewer to watch or construing the parameters of the recording. Anything put on TV and any producer / editor will have criteria to filter a production accordingly. This will ensure that the viewer will have something which matches the goals, values and criteria of a Slow TV program.

The subject of a Slow TV program has got to be something which would not ordinarily be broadcast in real time. Cricket, football - many sports events would be Slow TV otherwise. While sports do hold that attribute of Slow TV, they are not.

Similarly, marathon broadcasts such as BBC Children in Need, State weddings, funerals, election coverage, waiting for vote counts and other national events could be Slow TV, but they are not. Slow TV can become a national event on occasion though.

Real time is it. The most basic, fundamental ingredient. Past this understanding Slow TV diversifies in its production values depending on broadcaster, on its medium, whether live or prerecorded, whether pre internet and social media if indeed Slow TV as we now have it existed before the internet became popularly accessible. Even the live events can be very different in their character.

The Slow TV which emerged from NRK (the Norwegian state broadcaster) since 2009 – is described as "Minutt for Minutt" - literally minute by minute. The time the recording or transmission takes is what the viewer sees. This is the undergirding principle of Slow TV, at least as far as the Norwegian incarnation of it is concerned - and Norway has been the only country to really plumb the depths and possibilities of Slow TV so far.

Being live gives an edge which prerecorded shows may lack (though any show can only be live just once). A broadcast on television so that people can watch it on their TV sets (not just laptops and handheld devices) during primetime sends the message that ‘this is important’ and invests a sense to the audience that the ordinary subject coming in to their television is being treated in an extra-ordinary way. Therein lies some important chemistry.

TV2, Norway’s main commercial channel produced a high quality web based Slow TV broadcast in May 2014. The continuous leg of a prerecorded journey was broadcast without commercial break via the broadcaster’s website with edited highlights of that leg being transmitted via the TV signal later that night. A blend of different media platform used to fit the mold of commercial TV. In contrast to TV2,  NRK do broadcast their Slow TV online, but it is live and a supplement to the TV signal; the internet broadcast is not the principal broadcast.

A better way of understanding Slow TV is to take a peep at the history of programs and projects which could be and have been described as Slow TV. See here for more.

Typically it is rich in visual aesthetics, often a relaxing scene, but not exclusively so. Subjects have included the beauty of the Norwegian landscape, but with lectures, knitting and singing making content, nature is not the only dynamic. Even in shows where nature is the centrepiece of the broadcast (such as the ferry trip, Hurtigruten), there may be a few hours of the cameras focussed on the dockside.

This camera ‘idle time’ introduced another dynamic during the ferry broadcast; it provided a platform for members of the public which was neither invited nor populated in content by the broadcaster but was the catalyst for spontaneous dockside events of music, dancing and plenty of hand and flag waving.

Viewers at home also interact via social media, online chat; and it seems that Slow TV may generate different ways of interaction in the viewer-medium relationship which other TV formats do not. That will be pondered and unpacked as this blog unfolds. "Slow TV reaches the parts other formats do not", one could say.

First published 7th October 2014, first revision published 13th November 2015.

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Slow TV - Defining the boundaries

It may seem existentially odd to define something by what it is not, however, it is a necessary exercise sometimes to make things much clearer. Especially when it is as new a format as Slow TV linked by similar characteristics to material which is not completely the same. I appreciate it may come down to being pedantic, perhaps, though it helps to give definition. I would like to offer the below observations.

Slow TV:

• is not looped material played repeatedly. The material in the loop may have qualities of Slow TV. It can be similar content played out over a long time but there will be obvious or subtle changes to that content which does not make different moments identical.
• does not consist of timelapses, hyperlapses and changes in frame rates such as slow motions or. Slow TV does reveal something to the viewer which 'regular' TV does not, but does not use methods speed ups. These techniques do have their obvious aesthetics which reveal something usually unperceived and often beautiful, but they relate a different time frame than which was used in filming. 
• does not use jump cuts; productions with a large budget, several cameras and reasonable crew will select the image which best suits the moment, but there will be no jump in the time of the event being portrayed.
• is not sports events, long themed broadcasts, charity fund raising marathon broadcasts, royal or state events (weddings, funerals, anniversaries etc), rolling news channels. All of these happen, but do not use long held sequences from the same perspective. There will be near continuous commentary on such broadcasts.
• usually does not rely on the need for continuous commentary when there is 'nothing' happening. In Slow TV, the view, the sound and the music (if selected) are enough; they are the subject which takes the viewer on the journey without being ‘presenter driven’. There may be times when there is a commentary but when it is said, it is said - no awkwardness of silence as you can get when a rolling news channel realises it has nothing to say mid-flow.
• is not Slow Cinema. Slow TV is for, well, television - or in these days, other small screen devices. If you want to know more about Slow Cinema do visit this excellent blog, The Art(s) of Slow Cinema.
• is not art for art's sake. Maybe. It may draw on artistic ambience but is not arty or abstract for the sake of it. Maybe. The Tokyo Reverse could be an exception. Andy Wahol’s films “Sleep” and “Empire” while having an aesthetic of Slow TV were neither for TV nor shown in real time. More here (content coming soon). 

Previously I had not included the Australian SlowTV (notice the brand contraction of of SlowTV into one word) channel as being Slow TV. I now include this – reasons being 

• Slow TV is about content being shown in real time, no jumps. SlowTV’s content is real time without jumps. It allows the content to unfold. 
• NRK produced the 24 hour lecture on significant aspects of Norway’s history in 1814, as well as 200 years in 200 minutes lecture. Both these match the SlowTV channel in their ethos. The Australian SlowTV channel posts "interviews, debates, conversations and public lectures about Australia's key political, social and cultural issues" - in full length - not reduced to 8 second soundbites as news media tends to. Hence the 'Slow' label.

Thanks to interaction with Alice Scheerer of www.slowlifelab.de for stimulating a think again on this last point.

This is a revision of what Slow TV is not; I was not entirely happy with the first version, which I have left in place here.

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The Future of Slow TV

The future of Slow TV looks very promising. 

NRK in Norway are set to produce the occasional Slow TV event with production values in keeping with their standards thus far. Their standards are part and parcel of the format which NRK sells through a global distributor, Digital Rights Group (DRG). In November 2013 DRG sold the format rights to California based reality TV production company, LMNO Productions. A search reveals a belief from LMNO that the format will stand out in their marketplace.

In the former UK Head of Commissioning for documentaries on BBC1, BBC2 and BBC4, Emma Willis was reported in Broadcast and The Daily Telegraph in June 2014 as being very interested in the Norwegian format and believed there was something in it for the BBC. Emma Willis left the BBC in autumn 2014, but in March 2015 the Channel Editor of BBC Four, Cassian Harrison announced a series of commissions which would form part of a Slow TV themed week in June.

The South Koreans have been very interested in Slow TV, too. A documentary team were present at the NRK Minutt for Minutt event 60 hour hymn book sing through in Trondheim in November 2014 as part of a documentary about unusual TV formats. Whether or not that translates into their own Slow TV remains to be seen - or if they just continue to enjoy what the Norwegians are doing.

In April 2014 Norway's main commercial channel, TV2, announced its 3 week long broadcast of 5 to 6 hours of helicopter flights over Norway for what appears to have been a well received show in May and June. Even with the worldwide interest in Slow TV during the month following with British Airways buying up NRK's Bergensbanen, English speaking press and media did not pick up on another Norwegian broadcaster producing a lengthy live Slow TV event. Now that a commercial broadcaster has more than dabbled in Slow TV one would expect the channel to ponder other suitable related projects as well as other non public service broadcasters to follow suit.

Russian Yuri Grymov has launched a Slow TV package of channels. "Noise, Slow and Relax - aimed at those who wish to escape from the information stream, and includes a TV for psychological relief. The channels are made in the format of "slow television", which is popular in Europe... Content channels are videos of own production and the work of authors from around the world." Source here. Given that Slow TV has only been done by Norway and France in Europe, its European popularity needs a little qualification. Sounds like it may be more akin to British based Landscape TV which plays mainly aesthetically rich landscape montages with ambient, instrumental or classical music.

On the web many videos, segments and montages describing themselves as 'Slow TV' or "Minutt for Minutt" grow on such platforms as YouTube and Vimeo. Obviously they do not have the budget and tech of a large production company or state broadcaster, but these are very much embracing the spirit of Slow TV - a desire to slow TV down to a bit less drama and easier pace. There is an alternative (additional) way to do TV, there is a desire for it and a desire to make it.

The USA will also have its first Slow TV production, "Slow Road Live", on 27th November 2015. This comes in a good year for Slow TV. Having been largely confined to Norway to date, Easter sees German Channel ARD-Alpha with a Slow TV project, in June the BBC will have a week of "BBC Four Goes Slow". The developers and masters of the format, NRK will have another Slow TV transmission - probably in June - and then the first proper development of the Norwegian format outside of Norway, in the USA in November.

Just like winter in Game of Thrones, more Slow TV is coming. 

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Post Updated 1st April 2015

Effects of Slow TV

Slow TV is experienced on the whole like any other TV format, like any show, people experience it from where they are at in their own frame of mind and react from there. From this there will be a spectrum of ways in which people are affected.

Interestingly, there are at least two accounts of people being so absorbed into the viewing that they forget their immediate surroundings and become convinced they are in the environment being screened on the Slow TV transmission; eventually they are jolted back to the reality that they are in their living room.

76 year old Olav Øverland watched the entire Bergensbanen train journey of seven hours fourteen minutes; at the end he stood up to retrieve his coat from what would be the luggage rail and bumped his head; with that he realised he was in his living room. (1)

Knut Grimeland, 82 years watched as much as possible of the five and a half day Hurtigruten boat transmission with minimal breaks from his armchair. He remarks, "The time was around three in the night and the boat was going to depart Stokmarknes. When the boat blew the horn, I lived so much inside the trip I started running up the stairs to catch to get back on board the boat. It was not until I got up that I realized I was not on board Hurtigruten". (2)

Are these folk particularly suggestible? What would one say about the psychological suggestibility of folk immersed into that environment?

More commonly it is reported that Slow TV has a particularly calming, even hypnotic effect. Is this true? It seems commonplace enough for the Bergensbanen train journey to have been bought up by British Airways as a way of settling people into the flight after the preparation and airport checks.

Andrew Zolli's blog refers to "... Norwegians who told me about the Slow TV movement expressed considerable pride in its existence. One woman in her 20’s told me, “Everything moves so fast now, going slow is the new punk.” Another told me that the absence of a narrative allowed her to look – really look – at what she was seeing on the screen – and to notice details she would have otherwise missed. And middle-aged man told me he found the broadcasts comforting..." (3)

Slow TV has indeed had drug like attributes ascribed to it.

Temazepam TV: Referring to the drug-like hypnotic and calming effects which some have encountered while watching it. Seems to have been first used here by Time Magazine in July 2013 - but not the first time it has been likened to a drug. (4)

Valium TV: By sociologist Trond Blindheim - here at Dagbladet (5) in June 2011, in response to the Hurtigruten Minutt for Minutt becoming a national event. It's not the first time TV in general has been referred to as a drug - The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy had a track in 1992 called "Television - The Drug of the Nation". Video worth watching.

Admittedly more sources need to be cited here, which they will in time. Research is embryonic and very little has been done academically about Slow TV so far. To be continued...

-----
Just ahead of the BBC Four Goes Slow season, I gave an interview to the media psychology department at the University of Salford. A blog post from that interview can be seen here.

(1) http://www.nrk.no/kultur/1_2-millioner-innom-_bergensbanen_-1.6888505
(2) http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/06/23/nyheter/hurtigruten/innenriks/17046147/

(3) http://andrewzolli.com/norwegian-slow/

(4) http://world.time.com/2013/07/08/norways-slow-tv-movement-so-wrong-its-right/

(5) http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/06/23/nyheter/hurtigruten/innenriks/17046147/

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Slow TV - also known as...

In the time I've been researching Slow TV, I've seen it referred to as:

Wallpaper TV:  Something which is always 'there' while you're in the same place as it (obviously). The same kind of effect as a good screensaver which can be a pleasing distraction for a short while. I don't like this alternative so much as it links up with ideas of hanging wallpaper, or something to look at while you're bored. Which of course it can be, but it can be (and largely is) something to watch because you want to, not just happen to be looking at because you're not passively staring at something else.

Temazepam TV: Referring to the drug-like hypnotic and calming effects which some have encountered while watching it. Positive in linking to good effects, not so positive in associating with a drug which makes you sleep. While Slow TV can be calming, it is more about staying in a relaxed, aware and awake state. Seems to have been first used here by Time Magazine in July 2013 - but not the first time it has been likened to a drug. 

Valium TV: By sociologist Trond Blindheim - here at Dagbladet in June 2011, in response the Hurtigruten Minutt for Minutt becoming a national event. It's not the first time TV has been referred to as a drug - The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy had a track in 1992 called "Television - The Drug of the Nation". Video worth watching.

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.

Ambient TV: The best fit phrase for Slow TV, one could argue. Like ambient music, it could be watched actively, enjoying the nuances of the images which come your way, or kept on in the background continually, returned to when interest dictates. An augmentation to whatever mood or aesthetic the viewer chooses. It could be immersive or superficial, by choice or by the underlying frame of mind in which a viewer encounters it.

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What Slow TV is not

A revised version of this is now HERE.

It may seem existentially odd to define something by what it is not, however, it is a necessary exercise sometimes to make things much clearer. Especially when it is as new a format as Slow TV linked by similar characteristics to material which is not completely the same. I appreciate it may come down to being pedantic, perhaps, though it helps to give definition. I would like to offer the below observations.

Slow TV:

• is not looped material played repeatedly. The material in the loop may have qualities of Slow TV.
• does not consist of timelapses, hyperlapses and slow motions. Slow TV does reveal something to the viewer which 'regular' TV does not, but does not use methods which relate a different time frame than which was used in filming. 
• does not use jump cuts; productions with a large budget, several cameras and reasonable crew will select the image which best suits the moment, but there will be no jump in the time of the event being portrayed.
• is not sports events, long themed broadcasts, charity fund raising marathon broadcasts, royal or state events (weddings, funerals, anniversaries etc), rolling news channels. All of these happen, but do not use long held sequences from the same perspective. There will be near continuous commentary on such broadcasts.
• does not rely on the need for continuous commentary when there is 'nothing' happening. In Slow TV, the view, the sound and the music (if selected) are enough. There may be times when there is a commentary but when it is said, it is said - no awkwardness of silence as you can get when a rolling news channel realises it has nothing to say mid-flow.
• is not Slow Cinema. Slow TV is for, well, television - or in these days, other small screen devices. If you want to know more about Slow Cinema do visit this excellent blog, The Art(s) of Slow Cinema.
• is not art for art's sake. Maybe. It may draw on artistic ambience but is not arty or abstract for the sake of it. Maybe. The Tokyo Reverse could be an exception.
• This type of Slow TV is not to be confused with the Australian SlowTV channel which posts "interviews, debates, conversations and public lectures about Australia's key political, social and cultural issues" - in full length - not reduced to 8 second soundbites as news media tends to. Hence the 'Slow' label.

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Slow TV Recordings and Broadcasts

Recordings and broadcasts which could be described as Slow TV

Andy Warhol's "Sleep" in 1963 is cited as the first Slow TV recording. I am reluctant to describe it as Slow TV as it was not made for TV and as far as I know at this time, has not been screened on TV. The question of motive for making the film comes into play. Warhol is cited by wikipedia (yes, I know and am verifying the quote by other avenues!) as having made the piece as "anti-film"; it has neither been made to play out in a TV schedule nor made for a TV audience. For that reason while it has key aspects of Slow TV, I feel it does not fully qualify for the addition of "TV". 

The next entry into the Slow TV ancestry is in 1966 the burning log at Christmas - a looped segment of a wood fire burning with Christmas songs, broadcast continuous for two to four hours. Contemporary Slow TV does not loop footage.

Recordings of train journeys have been widely carried out for TV, and fall easily into the Slow TV format. 1984 in Britain saw a film being made featuring the Settle and Carlisle Railway (but was it ever broadcast - or video only)? I am currently researching earlier possibilities and will update here as and when I have been able to check. Between 2003 - 2008, Bahn TV in Germany was broadcast, indeed, matches the criteria for Slow TV. 

More details and links on the Wikipedia page here.

It is since 2009 that Norwegian state broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK) has innovated Slow TV in a way which has energised and redefined the format, if there ever was a format for Slow TV before. These broadcasts are either of a journey or a themed event. NRK will continue to make Slow TV a couple times a year for the foreseeable future. These projects are numerous to date; to find out more click this link for more on the Norwegian projects NRK Sakte TV.

Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (YLE) has incorporated elements of Slow TV into two themed long broadcasts since NRK began theirs. On the 21st June 2012 a thirteen hour live marathon broadcast of the overnight train journey of almost 1,000 km from Oslo to Rovaniemi. On the summer solstice with the midnight sun, YLE incorporated events on and off track into their transmission. Called "JuhannusJuna" - meaning Midsummer Train, you can read their extensive blog here (Google Chrome will give a rough translation into whatever language you require) and here on the relevant Facebook page.

More NRK projects follow in the meantime, then on March 31st 2014 France 4 broadcasts the "Tokyo Reverse" - a 9 hour prerecorded show of Simon Bouisson walking in Tokyo - with a twist. He has perfected walking backwards, which he does during recording; however, when edited, the film is reversed so Simon appears to walk forwards and everyone and everything else happens backwards. Unlike journey or theme based Slow TV, this is much more about the concept. The Tokyo Reverse was transmitted on Dutch broadcaster Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO) TVLab on the 23rd into the 24th August 2014. The trailer and highlights are available on Vimeo here.

In May 2014 a commercial channel carried a Slow TV broadcast - the first time it had been done. TV2 - the principal commercial channel in Norway broadcast several hours a day of helicopter flights over the entire country, with a publicised route and timetable allowing real life engagement. Fly Med Oss (Fly with Us) lasted for three weeks, non-continuous broadcast and has more via the dedicated website here. English speaking media seemed not to pick up on this broadcast at the time.

Meanwhile, back in Finland YLE did another themed marathon broadcast on 18th June 2014 with aspects of Slow TV, themed around aspects of sauna culture, sauna building and a sausage competition. This was live from 6pm to midnight; some content remains here on the YLE website.

NRK, having developed a global reputation for engaging features with high production values, will be making Slow TV for many years yet. There was another broadcast in November 2014 (Salmeboka) - 60 hours of the Norwegian Hymn Book live. Severin is a different approach to Slow TV, not a marathon broadcast, but very calm, mellow and moments of stillness given by the occasional long held shot.

Coming up in 2015 is "Slow Road Live" in the USA - which comes in a good year for Slow TV. Having been largely confined to Norway to date, Easter sees German Channel ARD-Alpha with a Slow TV project, in June the BBC will have a week of "BBC Four Goes Slow". The developers and masters of the format, NRK will likely have another Slow TV transmission - probably in June - and then the first proper development of the Norwegian format outside of Norway, in the USA in November.

The future's bright. The future is Slow.

Updated 1st April 2015.

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The Purpose of this Slow TV Blog

This independent blog about Slow TV is here to bring together content related to Slow TV:

Press articles, broadcasts, podcasts, tribute videos or TV broadcasters as well as anyone interested in viewing or making their own Slow TV, Ambient TV or whatever one may like to call this genre. I want this blog to be the number one global resource for Slow TV news, reviews and pondering about Slow TV.

This blog will reflect on what it is that makes Slow TV, the different formats, alternative ways of framing our understanding of this format. Slow TV will become much better known so, understanding what Slow TV is and what it is not will enrich viewers' experience and expectations of Slow Television and inform popular perceptions of it.

Originally functioning as a hub for my Masters Degree documentary about Slow TV, "That damned Cow... Just what is Norwegian Slow TV?", The Slow TV Blog advocates Slow Television in all its forms and media about Slow TV.

Revised 29th April 2016

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