Robert Townsend: The Future of Television, Importance of Social Justice, and Working With Committed Collaborators

Robert Townsend: The Future of Television, Importance of Social Justice, and Working With Committed Collaborators
by Aymar Jean Christian

AJC: What led you to the web?

Robert Townsend: A gentleman out of DC named Rey Ramsey. He approached me about creating content for the web. I was shooting a movie in Toronto and he said, ‘hey Robert, you’ve run a television network before, and online/broadband/web series are going to be the future, so would you be interested in creating web shows?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know much about it.’ He started to tell me more. And as he started to educate me more about what was really going on the future, I was like, ‘yea, let me try it.’ And the first web series he wanted to do was about single mothers, because they go through a lot and their stories are never really truly being told. And that became our first web series, Diary of a Single Mom. Then I called on friends in Hollywood, everybody that I thought would be right for the part, and everybody that I asked came aboard, like the legend Billy Dee Williams, Richard Roundtree, Leon, Monica, Diahann Carroll.

What is One Economy?

One Economy is a non-profit out of Washington, DC., and one of their missions is to get minorities online. Historically it’s been documented that minorities are the last to, you know, jump on board with technology. So Ray’s vision was to create a show that had a multi-ethnic cast, and give them quality programming – ‘spinach,’ stuff that would make their lives better.

Was it hard to shoot the series?

When you shoot something, it’s the same muscles and energy it would take to do a feature or a TV series. For the web, the only difference is we’re doing 12 to 14 minute episodes, but when you average it all together, we’re really shooting a small feature. It’s the same discipline, we’re using the same cameras that you’d use on any other production. We just had to figure out how you tell a really tight story in 12 minutes or 13 minutes.

What do you think works best about the show?

I think the production really just comes together on all levels. I think the acting is really fine. Cheryl [West] is an incredible writer. As a director, I just stay out of the way, because when you’ve got a good machine and a good team, we all work all together. We didn’t do it to win awards, we didn’t even know there were awards out there for web shows. We were just trying to create the best series we could and all of a sudden we’re nominated! So I think for us the spirit in which Ray envisioned the series is what it is. And I think people respond because it’s authentic. There’s a place where Cheryl writes from because she’s a single mother as well.

A lot of that authenticity seems to stem from Monica Calhoun. You want to root for her character, Ocean.

Oh my God, do you want to root for her! I’ve re-watched a lot of the episodes, and I just finished mixing season three. We’re supposed to be in there listening for sound problems, and we’re in there crying! Monica’s going through so much. You really feel like a voyeur going into this world because it feels very real. She’s at the heart of it. Ocean and Monica are at the heart of the show.

Read the Full Interview @ Televisual

Why Black Americans Should Care About Net Neutrality

Why Black Americans Should Care About Net Neutrality
by Aymar Jean Christian

Everybody loves YouTube. Whether you’re into Miss Jia, Kingsley, or that guy who impersonates Obama, the Google-owned site is still a place for regular users without big marketing dollars to showcase their talent and style.

So you’re forgiven if you greeted the hand-wringing over Google and Verizon’s net neutrality pact with an impassioned “who cares?” With the Twitterati voicing “Google is now evil,” and countless articles threatening the death of the Internet, it may seem like much ado about nothing when you can still watch the latest Kanye West video on Vevo’s YouTube channel.

But don’t be fooled: a lot is at stake. What is net neutrality? Simply put, net neutrality is a principle calling for all Internet traffic to be treated equally. This means every website, portal and application is given the same access to bandwidth: Yahoo runs just as fast as Bing. Most cable providers, like Verizon and Comcast, would like to charge companies for bandwidth access. Google pays Verizon for faster YouTube, in a nutshell. Google and Verzion’s pact is halfway between net neutrality and full-on market competition: for now, it calls for most of the web to stay the same but says traffic on mobile devices should be an exception, where some content is faster than others.

What does this mean? It means content hosted by big companies, from video to videogames, would get priority on cell phone devices, and the pact opens the door to discrimination on the web as well. Though unprofitable, YouTube will run fine. It has Google money. But its competitor Vimeo might not. Independent and smaller players would get poorer service and eventually lose its chance to beat out the big guys.

Already, a handful of independent black video networks are springing up, all within the last year or so. RowdyOrbit is already building up a small following as the “black Hulu” for independent film. Coming soon are GLO TV, set for release in Septemember and aimed at black gay audiences, and Better Black TV, Master P’s family-friendly web-only network. All of these sites are among the few aimed explicitly at black (and minority more broadly) content. They are still maturing their business models, and won’t be able to compete against Google’s YouTube-behemoth or increasingly successful Hulu.

Why should black people care? Because black Americans (alongside Latino, Asian, even gay and lesbian Americans) have historically suffered from a lack of media representation. Setting net neutrality aside would damage media diversity, which could then hurt black Americans looking to start a web business and make films for web distribution and, increasingly, mobile distribution. At the same time, you and I would have fewer choices for entertainment.

Read the Full Essay @ Televisual

Understanding Tyler Perry, the Phenomenon
by Aymar Jean Christian

Watching a Tyler Perry movie is a strange and ecstatic experience. Perry’s desire for shenanigans, inanity and heightened emotions always makes for an entertaining evening. But his films are in a strange in-between space: between melodrama and traditional drama, between alternative cinema and Hollywood style, and between black authenticity and pure elitism. Through it all, what vexes film scholars, especially critics, is how style, content, auteurism and culture clash and miss each other in Tyler Perry’s films. Understanding Perry now is crucial, especially as he embarks into new cinematic territory, most notably in next year’s adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

Are Tyler Perry’s movies “bad,” and, whether yes or no, why should we care?

If we believe Metacritic, and I think the site has a lot of merit, the short answer is: yes, Tyler Perry’s movies are bad. His average Metacritic score is 46.5, and it’s remarkably consistent. Perry’s films rest firmly between 40-60, Metacritic’s “so-so” range. He never goes above it, and only once has he gone below it. It’s clear (white) critics are divided, but mostly confused. Sure, he has perennial advocates, most notably Entertainment Weekly. But more “serious” publications like the New York Times appear startlingly ambivalent. The Times‘ review of Why Did I Get Married Too claims: “…it’s a Tyler Perry movie, with a little something for everyone, as long as you’re not expecting too much.” Neither do critics, it’s clear.

Tyler Perry is important; that’s obvious. What isn’t so obvious is if we should take him seriously. How do we even evaluate Tyler Perry? Who is Tyler Perry?

I’m going to propose four ways to evaluate Perry, ending up on the one I find the most useful: style, theme, marketing and culture. Perry is phenom, and he is neither savior nor demon.

Read the Full Essay @ Televisual

Vlogging While Black

Vlogging While Black
by Aymar Jean Christian
(from The Root.com)

For every breakout YouTube star such as Souljah Boy and Susan Boyle, there are thousands of would-be-video diarists, or vloggers, uploading away in obscurity. The lucky vloggers, such as “Fred,” gain more than 1 million followers. Played by 15-year-old Lucas Cruikshank, “Fred” banks six figures from major product placements and revenue from ads on his videos—short zany pieces with Cruikshank acting out his character, an ADD-afflicted 6-year-old too often left to his own devices. Ditto for Michael Buckley, another top user

A few black vloggers are beginning to make a splash on the scene. But it doesn’t mean it’s easy. “YouTube is very, very white,” explained Tonya, the blogger from TonyaTKO, who has 22,000 subscribers. With so many videos being uploaded, vloggers vie for prime placement on YouTube’s home page. “It’s very hard for black people to get seen on YouTube.” Like the many types of media that came before YouTube, the black vloggers who get noticed can often fit a stereotype. From the bizarre to the hilarious to the inspirational, here’s a sampling of some of the up-and-coming black vloggers and their winning formula:

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