Diane Ferenczi
Diane Ferenczi
Television is an odd business. But, alas…I’m in love.
It all began for me in the 80’s in New York City.
I had graduated from Villanova University and was taking film classes at NYU over the summer, killing time before graduate school would begin.
During one steamy weekend, I realized that I had never had an internship in my chosen profession and that the experience might provide an accurate glimpse of what the television business was all about.
So I sent out hundreds of resumes (resume! I can’t imagine mine contained anything an employer would consider even remotely appealing) and somehow found myself heading for an interview on 45th Street and 5th Avenue at some place called the Arts and Entertainment Network. Arts and Entertainment. I had never heard of it.
Remember…in 1984 most people didn’t know much about cable. Yes, lots of folks had set top boxes…but it was mostly to increase reception. HBO was the only big content provider anyone really recognized and they just ran movies.
But there were lots of small channels starting…as the big media players tried to get involved with what was then an unknown commodity and the Arts and Entertainment Network was one of them.
Anyway…back to me walking through the door on 45th Street and 5th.
Since I was volunteering to work for free…it seemed I fit the bill. And after about 5 minutes…I was hooked. I knew immediately I wouldn’t be going to graduate school.
I was now in the “working world” and I was determined to work hard and find a way to find a place for myself in this business.
Of course, I wasn’t actually getting paid. But everyone seemed so mature.
Nevertheless…cable was a new industry and I was in on the ground floor. Things were looking up.
I spent my first few months boxing dusty ¾” tapes and walking 1″ master reels to the A&E library across town. And learning everything I could about the cable business; production, post production, programming…and who did what at a broadcast cable network. In those days, the Arts and Entertainment Channel ran 4 hours of programming a night. Needless to say, we had nowhere to go but up.
At the beginning, all our programming was acquired; old performing arts recordings of ballet, opera and stage performances mixed with public domain films and assorted British documentaries and comedies. From this oddball yet brainy mix of programs, we slowly grew the network.
And my opportunities and experiences grew right along with the channel.
I was obsessed with the edit room (in those days, on-line not avid editing). I spend hundreds of hours formatting everything from “Stage”, hosted by Stacey Keach, “to The 20th Century” with Walter Cronkite.
As we began producing original programming, I moved into documentary production and eventually was managing the production of our “Biography” series, hosted by Peter Graves.
As the years ticked by, I was involved with shaping and creating our production department. I handled everything from live broadcasts, long form documentary series, network specials, original drama’s and off-net acquisitions.
I also took over talent relations; booking stars, managing their contracts and producing the wraps, promotional shoots or programs I had booked them for.
I’ve worked with everyone from Gregory Peck to Angelina Jolie. But of course, my favorites were our network hosts…like Peter Graves, Bill Kurtis, Jack Perkins and Harry Smith.
The Arts and Entertainment Network grew every year.
Eventually, we rebranded the network as A&E.
Budgets increased, programming changed to serve a larger audience and it was time to figure out how to utilize the programs that no longer fit our target demos. So we created The History Channel. Then, the Biography Channel and History International. Who knows what will be next.
My titles and responsibilities changed over time. From production assistant to production associate, associate producer, producer, managing producer, supervising producer and eventually, Director of Production for both A&E and the History Channel.
It was a wonderful ride. But after 20 years, it was time to try something new.
I resigned from AETN in 2005 and took a job at a midsized company called Creative Group.
The company was the largest HD post production facility on the east coast and was just beginning to exploit the intellectual properties it had acquired.
When I started at Creative Group, I was drunk with the freedom of not having to work within the guidelines of network corporate policy. Creative Group had no rules at all.
But soon, I was trying to create order where none existed.
In the blink of an eye I had transformed from network rule breaker to company disciplinarian.
It was quite a shock–life playing tricks on me.
The programming at Creative Group was an ever changing mix: everything from a 40 episode, animated children series for PBS called “Nate the Great” to a hidden camera series called “Gotcha Girls”.
I handled production management, budgets, day to day operations and production development.
Everyday was different. We launched a broadband network for “Fangoria”, a horror brand the company owned. Magazine publishing (“Fangoria” and “Starlog”), conventions, run-and-gun production for various clients, movie deals, comic book production…every day a new surprise.
But something wasn’t quite right. I wasn’t quite right.
See, for the longest time, I realized something was really wrong with TV. Where was the content rich programming I remembered from the past.
Since way before I started in television…I was in love with the medium. TV introduced me to people, places, ideas…and opened my eyes to good things and bad. But during my last few years at AETN and Creative Group, I realized something was really wrong with the medium I had loved so much. Frankly, TV was a mess. Too much flash and polish…not enough meaning. Too much lowest common dominator…not enough programming for people looking for growth, big ideas…and transformation.
Maybe it was time for television’s part two.
OK, so before I get to televisions next incarnation, I must make a small detour to my own transformation.
It started with a meeting an incredible woman named Sandra Martin. Sandra is a force of nature–a woman with really big ideas and the gumption and smarts to make things happen. And believe me, Sandra has done it all. She was a literary agent who published the biggest names in the mind/body/spirit/consciousness/transformation genre.
And if she didn’t publish their books, she produced television shows in the genre for Discovery Channel, PBS, Wisdom Television…you name it.
She has friends everywhere. From IONS to Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. She knows researchers, doctors, scientists, psychics, healers, futurists, authors, movie stars, television personalities…everyone connected with the genre.
But most amazing of all…when I met Sandra she was taking meetings in NY with various big whigs with the intention of creating a television channel that would focus on getting transformational and mind/body/spirit programming broadcast nationwide and eventually, around the world.
Wow.
Just the kind of TV needed for television’s next incarnation!
Sandra took me on a whirlwind tour of the country, meeting with all the brightest lights in the genre. Amazing people who’ve dedicated their lives to discovering life-changing information about who we are, how we fit into the universe, the evolution of human thought, cutting edge medicine…information that can transform our lives and the world we live in.
And I fell in love again.
This time I feel in love with the innovators, pioneers and translators of this transformational genre.
We needed to get this info out. We needed a television channel.
While Sandra and I were touring, we were putting together that channel.
Paraview TV.
Television part two.
Broadcast and cable executives know viewers will get their television in a different way in the not too distant future. Viewers will cut through the clutter of the mass-market networks and find the niche networks that provide the kind of targeted programming they want to watch.
And advertisers will want to target their dollars by advertising on channels that have very specific audiences. Paraview TV will offer advertisers access to a very dedicated, educated viewer whose numbers are growing every year–the New Progressives and the Cultural Creatives.
And Paraview will allow advertisers to reach this audience at a very competitive price in comparison to the traditional network or cable channels.
So that’s it.
Television plus Transformation.
Paraview TV will be a different kind of television network.
It’s programming will help transform lives…and broadcast big ideas to seekers looking
for a richer life experience.
A new home for mavericks, entrepreneurs and big thinkers.
Televisions new home for original thinking.
Paraview TV. Transformational TV.
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