MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment is pulling all hands into a new
project with Nashville Public Television
and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of
Fame, bringing faculty, students and the college’s dean together to create
a weekly TV show that premieres Saturday, Jan. 28.
“The Songwriters” will air at 8:30 p.m. Central on
WNPT’s second digital channel, WNPT2, and on Comcast Digital Cable channel 241
and Charter Digital Cable channel 176. WNPT2 is available over the air on
channel 8.2.
The
program will re-air Sundays for Nashville viewers only at 9:30 a.m. CST and
again statewide at 4:30 p.m. You can see a preview at http://youtu.be/QcG_Mz6MtIs.
Hosted by
media and entertainment dean Ken Paulson,
the first season comprises 18 episodes of conversations with Hall of Fame
members discussing their creative processes and what inspired some of their
greatest songs, as well as behind-the-scenes stories and rare performances.
Guests
for the first season of “The Songwriters” include Hall of fame members Bill Anderson, Gary Burr, Steve Cropper, Sonny
Curtis, Tom Douglas and Ray Stevens.
The crew also was able to sit down with songwriting icon Guy Clark before his untimely death last year.
“We're
honored to partner with the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, bringing
together some of the world's greatest songwriters with a new generation of
media professionals,” Paulson said. “The songwriters’ insights about their art
and inspiration make for truly compelling television."
Students
in MTSU’s Department of Electronic Media Communication, who produce
live and taped performance broadcasts for national entertainment, athletic and
documentary projects, are handling the lion’s share of “The Songwriters”
episodes, lighting, filming and editing the shows alongside Department of Recording Industry
students providing their audio production expertise.
EMC
professor Bob Gordon is directing
the MTSU-led episodes of “The Songwriters.” Gordon, who teaches multicamera TV
production classes at MTSU, has coordinated the university’s live coverage of
the annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival since 2014 and has independently
produced network entertainment specials such as “The Chieftains: ‘Down The Old
Plank Road’ for PBS, "Cinemax Sessions: Chet Atkins and Friends" for
Cinemax, "Alabama: Christmas In Dixie" for TNN and several GMA Dove
Awards for GMC and the Family Channel.
“The
Songwriter series had three video recording sessions,” Gordon explained. “The
first was recorded at the historic Columbia Records Studio A, known as the
‘Quonset Hut,’ with a full MTSU student crew. The most recent session
was recorded by MTSU students in the College of Media and Entertainment's
Studio 1 (in the Bragg Media and Entertainment Building on campus).
“All of
the sessions were edited at MTSU by EMC students. We are discussing a new
session of new episodes on campus.”
Up to a
dozen students were involved in each of the MTSU sessions, Gordon added.
One of
those students, junior EMC major Isaac
Shaw of Lebanon, Tennessee, edited the shows with Gordon. In addition to
this project and his studies on campus, Shaw runs instant replay for EMC
Productions’ MTSU basketball games for ESPN3 and is an editor for the MTV Live
series "American Supergroup.”
“Simply
put, I was responsible for making sure all of the different video and audio
elements came together to form one cohesive story, and I think we have done
that,” Shaw said of “The Songwriters.”
“This project has been a little different than
other multicamera-based productions that I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part
of. The majority of the shoots, whether … doing ESPN sports or in the studio
developing shows, have been strictly live. This project has been a much longer
process, where the above-the-line team has been refining the story of these
episodes to chronicle the history of these songwriters in a short format — giving
them a voice, so to speak.”
Pat
Alger, chairman of the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame Foundation, said
the shows have captured the personalities and the stories behind the music
that’s streamed from car radios and stereo speakers for decades.
"Just as these conversations have inspired
professional songwriters like me, they will have a tremendous impact on anyone
interested in how great songs were written and the people who wrote them,” Alger
said. “The show is as entertaining as it is informative. The intimate
performances and the witty dialogue will stick with you for a long time."
Shaw said he’s excited that viewers will now hear
and be inspired by the tales he and his fellow students heard during
production.
“The public will get to hear the stories of not
necessarily the stars that perform the songs they know and love, but the
creators of music classics that have been loved for many years,” Shaw said.
“People who aren’t songwriters will still get
something out of this series, too. Creative types in general will find a gold
mine of nuggets of wisdom interlaced with real life stories. One of the main
themes in the show is how these songwriters stayed true to themselves and
persevered through life.”
Cropper
is the guest songwriter for the Jan. 28 premiere episode. The inaugural
season's guests also include:
- Episode 2: Guy Clark.
- Episode 3: Ray Stevens.
- Episode 4: Bill Anderson.
- Episode 5: Tom Douglas.
- Episode 6: Sonny Curtis.
- Episode 7: Jim Weatherly.
- Episode 8: Allen Reynolds and Jerry Chesnut.
- Episode 9: Dickey Lee.
- Episode 10: Bob McDill and the late Larry Henley.
- Episode 11: Gary Burr.
- Episode 12: Roger Cook.
For more
information about the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, visit http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com.
For more information about MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/media. You can learn
more about Shaw's work at his website, http://www.shaw-studios.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment