Andrew Marr, host of the excellent Start the Week and former political editor for the BBC doesn’t like bloggers. While I see his point about abusive, nonsensical and and angry commenters, his outright dismissal of new media as a legitimate medium is laughable at best.

More to the point, it’s the typical elitist broadcasting reaction to a democratized media world. The playing field, while still imperfect, is much more level than ever before, and traditional broadcasters do not like the fact that they now face competition from all corners. Some of that competition is indeed “pimply, aggressive and single” but that’s always been true. The larger point is that the self-appointed position of cultural curator has been snatched from the hands of broadcasters and put into the hands of the people. It might not be pretty, but it’s reality, and no amount of bitching from upper-class talking heads will change that.

Having worked in broadcasting myself, I completely welcome this change. Broadcasting has its role and will continue to provide a valuable service, but it’s long past time we were able to create our own content, express our own opinions, and transmit our own shows. The expansion of mobile into every corner of our lives will only accelerate the process. And if Andrew Marr doesn’t like it, tough.

When I worked at Superchannel in the mid-90′s, I pined for the day when cheap hardware and software would allow anyone to start up their own television station, free from the restrictions of both the CRTC and TV execs who continually aimed straight down the middle at the lowest common denominator. THere weren’t any shows that seemed to address what I was interested in, and no way to use my talents to cover interesting niche topics because there simply wasn’t a venue for that kind of content. Remember, this is before Youtube, when Realplayer was as good as it got for online video (ie. terrible.)

But there was one exception to this rule, a show produced in Vancouver called the Electric Playground, made for gamers by gamers, and at the time the only media in the mainstream that treated gamers with respect instead of derision. At the time I vowed that one day I would work for the show….and against all odds, one day I actually did just that.

The road to EP involved Macworld, working with Leo Laporte and a bunch of other details I won’t go into, but suffice it to say I got to write, produce, edit and occasionally shoot for some really cool projects. But within a year I quit to form my own company. Sound odd? Well, it all has to do with what I see as a radical change in the media.

In fact, I should go back to Leo, because his decision to leave “The Lab with Leo Laporte” was part of why I decided to strike out on my own. Leo had worked for decades in broadcast, particularly the ill-fated Tech TV, but big media wasn’t really allowing him to concentrate on technology. At the same time, he was finding increasing popularity online via podcasting, and as of mid-2008, he decided to strike out on his own with the TWIT network, a move which has paid off in spades.

At any rate running my own business has had its share of ups and downs, and at the same time I’ve been freelancing for gaming sites like Eurogamer and Gamepro. I figured it made sense to head down to E3, THE game industry conference of the year, and make as many contacts as I could.

But once I got there I soon realized that the games industry is Ground Zero for the sweeping changes in media. There were kids (literally, in some cases) all over the press room, all of them reporting for gaming blogs, and many of them toting broadcast-level video gear.

Now, this either means a lot of rich kids have an expensive hobby, or there’s some sort of business model to the madness. The most stark example of the shift from professional media to so-called amateur was at the Sony press conference, where the broadcast riser was choked with cameras from websites from all over the world…and a few tv stations and EP in the middle.

Looking at this forest of cameras, it occurred to me that it doesn’t even matter if all these websites were staffed by wealthy dilettantes. The fact is, the media could once rely on being the only voice for news and event coverage, and right there in front of me was the proof that this is most definitely no longer the case. All of this information is going directly to the same people (including myself) who used to rely on television, and it’s not coming back. THere won’t be a grand consolidation or some sort of rollback, because that just isn’t how information technology works.

More to the point, this sort of thing is happening with gaming and other edge-case nerdery right now, but it’s only a matter of time before it happens to any area of interest. The tools will get a little cheaper and easier to use, and all of a sudden Fashion TV or even niche sports networks will have something to worry about.

And I for one am all for it. Within the TV industry, nothing’s changed from the days where I sat in Master Control. No-one in charge wants anything to change, even as their entire industry morphs around them. At least in this changing media ecology, I stand a fighting chance, which is more than I can say for my prospects under the old order.

I was contacted out of the blue a little while ago about a show called The Stagers on HGTV. The powers-that-be had read Freyburg.com (yes, I was as surprised as you are), and asked me if I’d be interested in posting something about the show. Being the gearhead that I am, I wanted to know what kind of cameras and editing equipment were used on a reality show, what the workflow is for cutting this sort of program, and how one goes about writing a reality series. You might say “but Freyburg? This isn’t your usual Watchmen/Apple/Obama rant!” and you’d be right. But I figure it doesn’t hurt to find out how a show I normally wouldn’t know anything about gets made, if for no other reason than the fact that it shows how any show can get made, and certain aspects of production can be adapted to more DV Rebel pursuits.

Cal Shumiatcher, the executive producer of the show, was good enough to answer my questions. He first explained how the idea for the show came about, and how they take the idea of a stager, who is essentially an interior designer who rapidly takes an average home and spruces it up so that its not only presentable but desirable to a buying public, and make it into dramatic, compelling television.

“Staging is the perfect confluence of design and drama.  Who knew?  But when you want to make a design show, and you want it to be dramatic, there’s no subject as compelling as staging.  These folks have to completely rework the look and feel of a home in about five days with virtually no budget and no staff.  The stagers we follow work on pure adrenalin under intense creative pressure and it makes for great TV,” he said.

Part of the process, he said, is casting homes as you would actors. The staff looks for homes that have serious design challenges and a ridiculous schedule, and then go from there to find strong character moments, such as home owners with unique needs, or realtors with a specific agenda. Though the show is a reality program, a lot more writing goes into it than you’d think.

“The ‘writing’ of our shows is really about blocking out scenes, or ‘beats’ in a dramatic fashion.  For example, let’s say we know we need a scene that sets the stakes for the home owner who has just been transferred to Calgary and needs to sell.  So we’ll write down, in note form, the points that we want to hit in this scene, and this becomes a ‘beat’.  We then ‘beat out’ our entire episode prior to shooting any tape.  Of course things change during production and you need to be able to react when the really great material starts to unfold before your eyes.  This unforeseen drama is almost always better than your original ‘script’ so you go with it. “

But Shumiatcher also pointed out that he considers Stagers less of a reality series and more of a lifestyle/docusoap hybrid, though he conceded that could be viewed as mere semantics.

But what about the gear, you ask? Well, it turns out they shoot the show on Panasonic HDX 900s, a shoulder mounted workhorse that pumps out 1080p. The production also uses Nikon stills cameras, one with a D300 body and a 12-24 DX lens and another with a D700 body and 14-24 2.8 lens. The cameras are tripod mounted to get “before” and “after” shots that match up and in order to create time-lapse dissolves. On bigger homes, the crew brings in a jib arm for “before and after” crane shots.

Editing revolves around Final Cut Server (a system I’m familiar with from my days on EP Daily.) Assistants log and load each shot and describe the location and action in a database that the story editors, directors and editors can access. I know that when I cut together a show Final Cut Server was very useful, as you could just type search terms into it and, provided everything was tagged correctly, the footage you needed would just appear. It also made for easier editing, as you were essentially cutting over a network, and all the footage sat in an array of drives in some other room, making it easier for everyone to access everything. And Shumiatcher agrees.

“This process includes lots of screening and arguing and usually takes about 3 weeks.  This cut is ‘sent’ to the broadcasters.  It’s actually just an email inviting them to log on to our approval website and view the cut – this saves time and $$ as our broadcasters are in Toronto and New York.  When we’ve all locked the show, our on line editor can simply open the sequence in high def and start the graphics and colour correction.  Having our entire system in house is really the key to a great post process – I can hardly imagine how we ever worked any other way!”

The Stagers: Season 2 airs Wednesdays on HGTV Canada at 8:30 pm ET / 10:30 pm PT, but if you’re as netcentric as I am, you’ll probably end up checking it out online.

Here’s the demo reel for my video production company, Freyburg Media. Just a sampler of the stuff I’ve worked on and the skills I can bring to a corporate video, podcast, or broadcast television segment.

Freyburg Media 2008 Demo Reel from Warren Frey on Vimeo.

So I’ve been busy for the past couple of months with my day job, working as a writer and editor for EP Daily, the new, daily version of the long-beloved Electric Playground.Basically, I get to make stories about video games, sci-fi movies and TV, and comics, all of which makes me extremely happy. Here’s a taste of the show, which you can see on G4TechTV…