I love slow tv
Things slow tv is good for:
helps insomnia by providing rhythmic reassuring noise, something relaxing to watch while awake, and soft flickering light while sleeping. The noise and light help mask ouiside noises that might disturb a light sleeper and the lovely views it usually provides are terrific to take your mind off things that keep you awake.
While visiting: I'm generally in need of secondary entertainment while visiting but not something that excludes conversation. One used to play cards or chess or such, but this habit is lost, so one sits yapping with no other activity unless it is on a screen. Gaming, music videos, or just watching shows together, all of the above interferes with the actual interaction. With a slow tv feed, you can talk about what is on the screen or gaze at it during lulls in the conversation, but it doens't interfere with moments when the topic takes hold and the chatting gets good.
While idling. Let's face it, some people never idle, others are forced to endure it far too much. Consider doctors and their patients. People dealing with government often wait about. Poor or ill people (often they're both) find themselves in waiting rooms a great deal, and every pet owner knows the boredom of a vet clinic. Slow tv on screens, even a single feed to all treatment tvs and the waiting room, would keep customers and some of their pets also engaged without requiring, again, defined attention to the display for a set time, like a talk show or sit com would do.
Types of slow tv: Currently there is pretty much trains and beaches, but it's only a year old and many of the videos are less than a month old! I'm loving the trains and the beach scenes could be quite delightful in the right places. I'd like a camera trained on a market in some large asian city for the whole day. Perhaps a spot on a building just overhead, or something low by a busy entrance.
Train rides anywhere, especially across canada.
Airplane footage. Strap that camera on under the belly of a passenger liner and let us watch the world spin away.
ISS footage, already exists, tune in via NASA.
More large boat rides. What does it really look like to sail across an ocean on a freighter? Keep the whole boat in view, like stick the camera in the bridge looking to the bow with a good wide angle lens.
Subway rides. Yes, and use a camera that can see in the low light. It's cool, it really is, and there's usuually plenty of city views interspersing with the wild tunnels. What's more, the average run is less than two hours so it's short videos by slow tv standards.
I'd like to watch an amusement park midway all day.
I'd like to sit in the corner of a pub all night.
How about a busy harbour? Vancouver's lion's gate bridge would be a lovely spot to film a day's traffic.
Journeys are better, and trains are the smoothest, I suppose, so lets get more train rides. Beaches of all kinds would work, both empty and busy. Ilike watching things happen or not happen, rather than just having a naked landscape sit there idle all day. I couldn't sit idle in the landscape let alone enjoy it on a tv. Sitting on a beach? Only to rest up from skin diving all day! I'd be IN that water, under it with goggles holding my breath and flipping the flippers on my feet. I might even lean to use snorkle in such a place.
scuba video certainly would make fascinating slow tv. Don't edit it, don't start and stop or piece together, just give us the whole trip in one slow take as you saw it.
helps insomnia by providing rhythmic reassuring noise, something relaxing to watch while awake, and soft flickering light while sleeping. The noise and light help mask ouiside noises that might disturb a light sleeper and the lovely views it usually provides are terrific to take your mind off things that keep you awake.
While visiting: I'm generally in need of secondary entertainment while visiting but not something that excludes conversation. One used to play cards or chess or such, but this habit is lost, so one sits yapping with no other activity unless it is on a screen. Gaming, music videos, or just watching shows together, all of the above interferes with the actual interaction. With a slow tv feed, you can talk about what is on the screen or gaze at it during lulls in the conversation, but it doens't interfere with moments when the topic takes hold and the chatting gets good.
While idling. Let's face it, some people never idle, others are forced to endure it far too much. Consider doctors and their patients. People dealing with government often wait about. Poor or ill people (often they're both) find themselves in waiting rooms a great deal, and every pet owner knows the boredom of a vet clinic. Slow tv on screens, even a single feed to all treatment tvs and the waiting room, would keep customers and some of their pets also engaged without requiring, again, defined attention to the display for a set time, like a talk show or sit com would do.
Types of slow tv: Currently there is pretty much trains and beaches, but it's only a year old and many of the videos are less than a month old! I'm loving the trains and the beach scenes could be quite delightful in the right places. I'd like a camera trained on a market in some large asian city for the whole day. Perhaps a spot on a building just overhead, or something low by a busy entrance.
Train rides anywhere, especially across canada.
Airplane footage. Strap that camera on under the belly of a passenger liner and let us watch the world spin away.
ISS footage, already exists, tune in via NASA.
More large boat rides. What does it really look like to sail across an ocean on a freighter? Keep the whole boat in view, like stick the camera in the bridge looking to the bow with a good wide angle lens.
Subway rides. Yes, and use a camera that can see in the low light. It's cool, it really is, and there's usuually plenty of city views interspersing with the wild tunnels. What's more, the average run is less than two hours so it's short videos by slow tv standards.
I'd like to watch an amusement park midway all day.
I'd like to sit in the corner of a pub all night.
How about a busy harbour? Vancouver's lion's gate bridge would be a lovely spot to film a day's traffic.
Journeys are better, and trains are the smoothest, I suppose, so lets get more train rides. Beaches of all kinds would work, both empty and busy. Ilike watching things happen or not happen, rather than just having a naked landscape sit there idle all day. I couldn't sit idle in the landscape let alone enjoy it on a tv. Sitting on a beach? Only to rest up from skin diving all day! I'd be IN that water, under it with goggles holding my breath and flipping the flippers on my feet. I might even lean to use snorkle in such a place.
scuba video certainly would make fascinating slow tv. Don't edit it, don't start and stop or piece together, just give us the whole trip in one slow take as you saw it.