Television interview about Theremin Club at Madrid

Posted: 3/7/2005 12:54:47 PM
Oscar

From: Madrid, Spain

Joined: 2/19/2005

A journalist from Telecinco, a major Spanish TV channel, has contacted us ( The Theremin Club at Madrid) to record us on our first meeting...

So I guess this is a good exposure for the instrument at the whole Spain.

Does this give anyone ideas of the potential of building his/her city's theremin meetup group?

The theremin meetup groups: http://theremin.meetup.com

Madrid Theremin Club: http://theremin.meetup.com/1
Posted: 3/7/2005 2:33:15 PM
Jason

From: Hillsborough, NC (USA)

Joined: 2/13/2005

Excellent!! What a wonderful opportunity to expose people to the Theremin!

Please note - journalists have a tendancy to focus more on the novelty of the theremin than the true musical potential. If you have any say in the matter, I respectuflly request that you try to steer the conversation towards the serious aspect of the theremin and away from alien sounds. :)

As for building up your theremin meetup group, I'd suggest going to local music stores and putting up flyers on their bulletin boards. I've used this to find theremin students in the past and it works pretty well. Try to break into any musician circles and spread the word. Coffee houses, clubs, music stores, instrument shops, etc.

Let us know how this goes and when folks in Spain could see the segment air on television. Good luck!
Posted: 3/7/2005 5:37:12 PM
Oscar

From: Madrid, Spain

Joined: 2/19/2005

Thanks Jason.

Of course, I will try my best in avoiding the Theremin to be taken as an "alien toy", I'm thinking (but still not sure by now) on a little mini-concert with a singer an a guitar, to make it feel like a real instrument, focusing on its violin-like sound. But remember- it will be a meeting, and it will be people trying it for the first time... anyway, I will serve to demonstrate also the difficulty of playing it.

About going to stores, rehearsal places and so on to make the Club bigger and more visible, I will surely do it before...but I am out of time for the TV.

What I will surely do for the event is to make and wear a T-Shirt with the name an a figure of the instrument. Possibly the spanish portal logo (BTW, I am the webmaster there, so... ;-) )

I hope this works. I will tell you all here.
Posted: 3/8/2005 3:14:17 AM
TomFarrell

From: Undisclosed location without Dick Cheney

Joined: 2/21/2005

Try to get someone who is good at speaking in public to give a 2 to 5 minute talk about the history of the instrument. They should use short sentences to make simple statements. The idea is, the TV station can look at that and realize they can clip out a number of prominent statements (like "The Theremin was patented in 1921 by Prof. Lev Termen") and assemble them to fill a desirable amount of time. Stations decide in advance how much time to give a story, and then decide how to break up that time between their reporter talking, you talking, and "action", so if for example they want 30 seconds of you talking and you give them a bunch of 10 second sentences, they'll use three of them. (On the other hand if you give them a bunch of 45 second sentences, they'll use none of them.) If you make it easy for them to do this, the station will like you and you'll probably get more information across.

Also, if you make the information simple and easily understood, their reporter will probably quote some of the information you said, even if they don't show you saying it.

This little talk should also be memorized, so you don't look like you're reading when they point a camera at you.

Also make a point to take the reporter and camera-person aside in advance and ask them how you can help them best get their story. (They may want, for example, to adjust your seating arrangement to show you more easily on camera, or they may want to suggest that you do or do not look at the camera, or to interview you before or after the meeting.) By helping them, you give them incentive to portray you positively. And so they understand your perspective, tell them honestly what you want to get out of it - exposure for the instrument as an actual instrument, not as a novelty sound effect. It's okay for you to have goals, as long as you're honest about it. Your goals don't have to conflict with theirs - as long as they can see you have nothing to hide, they can report it honestly and it can also serve your purpose.
Posted: 3/8/2005 8:31:24 AM
DiggyDog

From: Jax, FL

Joined: 2/14/2005

Great advice, Tom...
Posted: 3/12/2005 11:22:14 AM
Oscar

From: Madrid, Spain

Joined: 2/19/2005

Yes, you all are completely right.

Finally, the journalist old me that there were not enough meetup.com groups at Madrid available to make the report. That was going to be just a part of it.

But even better...

She told me She is still interested in the Theremin itself, so She will try to re-orientate the report and make it exclusively about the Theremin. It all depends on her bosses, but hey! If everything goes well, it will be even better!

Maybe this could be the Theremin Year at Spain.

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