The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 12, 2007 Page: 8 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER
Jfo
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2007
THEATER
SCENE |
$
Thresher editors' 3
recommendations for §
arts and entertainment £
around Houston through F
January 19, 2007
Orange Lemon Egg g
Canary Auditions |
>
Tonight at 7:30 p.m. and |
tomorrow at 2 p.m. Will Rice £
College will hold auditions ^
for its spring play, Orange 3
J)
Lemon Egg Canary. Four parts 3
>
are available. No experience 5
required. Contact Michael §5
Rog, rog@rice.edu or Josh °
Levin, josh.levin@rice.edu for |
>
more information. a
O
z
FILM
The Grapes of
Wrath
The film The Grapes of Wrath
shows tonight at 7 p.m. and
again Sunday at 7 p.m. at
the Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston. The Grapes of Wrath
is directed by John Ford
earning him the Academy
Award in 1941. Tickets cost
$6 with a Rice ID.
Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston
1001 Bissonnet St.
www.mfah.org
ROCK
Pink Floyd Laser
Spectacular
Tomorrow Pink Floyd will be
played the way is was always
meant to be played: with
lasers. Doors are at
7 p.m. and the show starts at
8 p.m. Tickets cost $24-$27
at www.livenation.com
Verizon Wireless Theater
520 Texas Ave.
RTV5 serves up fresh fare with new
Top Cocktail show kicking off lineup
by Matthew McKee
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAEF
Television sets across campus
may have avoided the local cam-
pus station lately, but the staff of
RTV5 has announced new reasons
to put down the remote while Chan-
nel 5 plays.
The staff of RTV5 is implement-
ing a new set of plans to increase
campus awareness of the station
and encourage more students to
create and submit their own video
recordings. RTV5 managers will
also begin producing more of their
own shows, such as the new series
Top Cocktail, which shot its first
episode last night.
"The idea is just to get content
flowing in as fast as we can," Station
Manager Daniel Derozier said. "I'd
rather have the problem of too much
content than too little."
A hard year
In the last year, RTV5 produced
little content of their own and re-
corded fewer than 20 campus events,
Derozier, a Hanszen College junior,
said. Complaints came in about
the lack of new content, and group
membership dwindled to about half
a dozen active members.
Programming Director Brett
Snider said the station's current
leadership had to recover from
the loss of several seniors who
graduated last May. This cost the
station many members and their
invaluable experience. Further, the
Video On-Demand system, through
which viewers can make program
requests online, had many glitches
that needed attention.
"Last semester we spent a lot
of the time trying to build up mo-
mentum," Snider, a Hanszen junior,
said. "[We] spent time taking the
reins, buying the new equipment,
and now that that is all taken care
of, we're at the stage where we can
start producing a mass amount of
new content."
RTV5 began broadcasting
on campus in 1998, and 11 om 2001-
2003, the station had almost
a dozen active members
and shows that aired
weekly, Senior Tech-
nical Advisor Will
Fischer said.
Fischer, a Will
Rice College
sophomore, said a
weekly show re-
quires at least
six hours to com-
plete each episode. With
more members, RTV5
can have shows that ap-
pear more frequently.
Now, the station is pushing to
have a semblance of that former
membership with many fresh ideas
coming in.
"If we want to film something,
it requires all of RTV showing
up somewhere and then we're still
undermanned," Fischer said. "Peo-
ple aren't interested because they
don't know we're even there.... We're
not widely known on campus. It's
really unfortunate."
TV 2.0
To entice viewers and potential
members, RTV5 has announced
that anyone can borrow the station's
new cameras to film campus events.
Individuals or clubs can borrow
equipment for their own needs, and
the station will put
the content on the
air and on DVDs,
free of charge. This
shifts the respon-
sibility of record-
ing from RTV5 to
the students and
clubs, the same
approach taken
by "Web 2.0," the
buzzword used to
DIANA YEN/THRESHER
RTV5 brings the college back to college television as it becomes a host space for new user-generated programming.
describe user-generated content,
and social media.
"When I'm looking at YouTube
and what other uni,r -sities are do-
ing with their pro,' us, it seems to
be a pretty commcu shift," Fischer
said. "People would rather view
their own content than something
we do."
Derozier said the station will air
absolutely anything it receives, from
Powderpuff practices to full-scale
productions of the Rice Players. He
believes this will give RTV5 more
content and create an effective
record of the Rice community. To
encourage the user-
generated content,
RTV5's increased
visibility will al-
low it to become
a resource for unsure
O students.
/ "People put
on events all
the time, and
they put a lot of
work into them,"
Derozier said.
"We really want
it to be known
to all clubs and
individuals that
we will work with them
on absolutely anything. We are a
resource not only for our own ends
but for theirs and for the entire
university. Our goal is to give people
the opportunity to record and watch
everything that's going on."
Snider said he thinks most of
the recording made by students will
relate to the residential colleges,
including college nights and parties,
and he believes the risks that might
come with those events are worth
the benefits.
Content generated outside RTV5
has been encouraged but not actively
assisted in the past because of equip-
ment worries. In order to lend out
cameras, the station had to change
its constitution and bylaws.
"We trust the Rice students to
at least be responsible if [an equip-
ment issue 1 arises, so we're not
altogether worried about that right
now." Snider said.
Other small college television
stations with the manpower issues
of RTV5 could easily turn to canned
content made by other colleges or
sold by other distributors. Derozier
said he believes doing this would be
a disservice to Rice and a slap in the
face to RTV5's mission.
"It's really important, I think,
that everything that airs 011 Rice
TV be uniquely Rice, and so that's
why I think that everything that
goes on on our campus is worth
being on the air," he said. "It's Rice
or nothing."
New line-up
In addition to pursuing content
from the broader campus community,
RTV5 will also introduce a scheduled
line-up, Derozier said. This will de-
emphasize Video On-Demand in favor
of set programming. It will also allow
the station to aggressively advertise
its programs instead of forcing it to be
at the mercy of online requests.
Yesterday, RTV5 also filmed
first episode of its original series
Top Cocktail. Iliis new project imi-
tates shows like Top Chef and Iron
Chef. In Top Cocktail, contestants
and judges will be people from the
Rice community. Each episode will
have three judges and two contes-
tants. One mystery ingredient, re-
vealed at the beginning of the taping,
will be used to make two drinks from
a well-stocked bar. Judges will
evaluate the drinks using categories
such as taste, aesthetics, preparation
and originality.
RTV5 staff members have high
hopes for this series, and they
plan to get the word out to the
entire community.
'People would
rather watch their own
content than
something we do.'
— Dan Derozier
RTV5 Station Manager
Hanszen junior
"I hope it becomes the new
campus craze," Fischer said.
"I hope it goes up on YouTube
and everything."
Derozier and Snider echoed this
excitement and expressed their
own optimism.
"I have a feeling it will be popular,"
Derozier said. "We're actively seek-
ing contestants and judges."
Sec RTV5, page 10
New Daily Schedule
7 p.m.
to
10 p.m.
"It's prime time, so you probably aren't
watching us" block
10 p.m.
to
2 a.m.
New Content
2 a.m.
to
6 a.m.
"You're probably drunk, so watch this"
block
6 a.m.
to
10 a.m.
"Why are you awake?" block
10 a.m.
to
2 p.m.
Campus Happenings
2 p.m.
to
7 p.m.
Daily Theme Programs
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Brown, David. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 94, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 12, 2007, newspaper, January 12, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443068/m1/8/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.