Viking Magazine - February 2016 - 46

Q&A
Slow TV Pioneer
NRK project manager Thomas Hellum discusses the power and
allure of real-time storytelling. BY CHAPIN BLANCHARD
T
hree key words can
be used to describe
Slow TV: Continuous,
live, long. What began as a
far-fetched lunchroom idea in
NRK's Bergen offi ce quickly
transformed into a cultural
phenomenon - uninterrupted
prime time broadcasts lasting
a few hours to a few days.
Educated as a technician and
media photographer, Thomas
Hellum began working at
Norway's public broadcaster,
NRK, in 1992 and has been
a part of Slow TV since the
beginning. From following a
herd of reindeer (keep an eye
out for updates this spring
during the test run) to debating
how to arrange logs on a fi re to
watching people knit for hours,
Slow TV fosters a conversation
and unites a nation. Viking
talked with Hellum about Slow
TV and its cultural infl uence.
Q The fi rst Slow TV broadcast
in 2009 was a seven-hour
train ride from Bergen to
Oslo. Were you surprised at
how well it was received?
A Defi nitely. It was a crazy idea
we came up with during a lunch
talk. A colleague of mine said
" why don't we make a radio
program to mark the day of the
German invasion in Norway
in 1940? " Some of us came
up with another story about
the the train that goes from
the western part of Norway to
the eastern part of Norway. It
took exactly the same amount
of time as it did in 1970. It's a
seven-hour-long ride and one of
us said, " Why don't we just fi lm
the whole thing and put it on
TV? " So it was just an idea in a
lunchroom.
Q How do you generate new
ideas for Slow TV broadcasts?
A We get many ideas from
social media, and we discuss
ideas amongst ourselves. The
main thing is to identify which
ideas put a smile on your face.
We also test the ideas on other
people. If they say, " no, you
can't put that on TV, " then it's
a good answer for us. It might
be a good thing after all to put
it on TV. The idea has to be
extraordinary and fascinating.
Q Do you have a favorite
Slow TV broadcast?
A I don't think many things
will beat the feeling of having
done the coastal ship for fi veand-a-half
days. It was the fi rst
time, and it was the biggest
live event in Norway. Also it
was fascinating working with
the Northern Railway - that
mixture between technical
challenges and making a 10hour
beautiful program.
Q What makes Slow TV so
appealing?
A I think that we have managed
to do something surprising. We
tell stories that are worth telling.
I don't think Slow TV is just
setting up a camera somewhere
and fi lming whatever you can.
46 VIKING FEBRUARY 2016 sonsofnorway.com
The stories we have made are
about journeys people have
some kind of relation to. Or it's
about something Norwegian -
like the wood fi re, the knitting
night, the reindeer migration. It's
a story worth telling in a new
kind of way. Plus, we are a noncommercial
channel, so we can
do it really continuously without
interruption.
Q Where do you see the
future of Slow TV going?
A When we did the coastal
ship, we thought that this
is something we can never
do again. And now it's been
six years, and we still think
this is something we can do
twice a year. We can be more
experimental than we thought
we could six years ago and tell
more aggressive stories.
Slow TV
Productions
Bergensbanen
train journey
Flåmsbana train
journey
Hurtigruten
coastal voyage
National Wood
Night
Summer
Entertainment
Show coastal
cruise
National Knitting
Night
The hymnal from
cover to cover
War in 200
minutes
Watch Slow TV
broadcasts at
nrk.no/presse/
slow-tv-1.12057032
Read more from the interview on Feb. 25 at sonsofnorway.com/blog and watch
Hellum's TED Talk at ted.com/speakers/thomas_hellum.
PHOTO BY OLE KALAND / NRK
http://www.nrk.no/presse/ http://www.sonsofnorway.com/blog http://www.sonsofnorway.com http://www.ted.com/speakers/thomas_hellum
Viking Magazine - February 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Viking Magazine - February 2016
