MANILA, Philippines -- It had not been staged for nearly two decades but Anak TV nevertheless managed to put together the much-awaited children’s TV production workshop.
With the generosity of Goethe Institute and Prix Jeunesse, Filipino children’s TV producers, writers and directors from various stations viewed and discussed for two days after Easter an assortment of programs for children from all over the world. They scrutinized what afflicts the Philippine TV landscape for kids and how to attract a wider, more enthusiastic audience.
The children’s TV group in the Philippines is often regarded as a ragtag bunch of heroes on local TV. They are known for their selflessness, zeal and devotion to the cause. After a senior graduates from Mass Communication, and lands a neophyte’s job at a station, he or she invariably gets posted at the children’s TV department, if there is such a section in the network. It is a worthy and ideal assignment. It is in children’s TV production that a beginner learns the ropes and discipline of the craft. After all, the most difficult and demanding audience to produce for are children.
A children’s TV staff member is expected to understand the entire range of work related to it because there are usually very few people in the department. Everyone else would have graduated to news and public affairs, entertainment or special coverages, features and others. They would have all been through the rigors of children’s TV production by then, making the exposure their veritable training ground for everything else in the station.
The poor struggling beginner can be assigned to any or all the aspects of production, including research, writing, design, stage management, technical work, sometimes directorial assistance and camera operation, lighting and editing or scoring. Over and above this, he or she is expected to understand how a child’s mind operates. Hence a little training in child psychology and education will greatly help.
Ultimately, it is the production person who went through the rudiments of production in a children’ s TV setting that easily makes the ascent in television because he becomes the most well rounded, better disciplined and consistently-honed staff.
Alas, despite children's TV being a rich training ground, very few ever return to their roots. The biggest losing audience? Our children.
By MAG CRUZ HATOL @ mb.com.ph
