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History of INPUT

The U .S. INPUT Secretariat is managed by
South Carolina ETV

 

 

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South Carolina ETV
1101 George Rogers Boulevard
Columbia, SC 29201-4761
Phone: 803-737-3545

United States
Call for INPUT 2012 Submissions
Deadline: Friday, November 4, 2011

The US INPUT Deadline for entries is earlier than the international deadline for submissions. All US programs have to be submitted to US INPUT Pre-selection to be considered for INPUT 2012 in Sydney, Australia on May 7 - 12, 2012.

Here's how to enter:

1) Please read Guidelines and Helpful Tips below...

2) Complete the ENTRYFORM and EMAIL to the US INPUT National Coordinator, Amy Shumaker at shumaker at scetv dot org.

3) Print a hard copy of the ENTRY FORM and submit with THREE DVDs to US INPUT at South Carolina ETV. You may include additional materials for the national panel such as a press kit, longer synopsis, press clippings.

Send THREE DVDs and Entry Form to:

Amy Shumaker
US INPUT/SCETV
1101 George Rogers Blvd.
Columbia, SC 29201

NOTE: Confirmation will be made upon receipt of package with DVDs and Entry Form. Must arrive to the office by Nov. 4. If you have any questions, please contact Amy Shumaker by email or call 803-737-3433.

Guidelines and Helpful Tips:

LENGTH: All lengths are accepted but keep in mind that it is challenging to program feature length films at INPUT. If you have a shorter version, we suggest that you submit the short version and send one feature length DVD as support material.

SERIES: Please submit one DVD of an episode of a series or mini-series. For example, if you have a three-part series on healthcare, choose the strongest, most debatable episode as your entry (THREE DVDS of that episode) and the remaining episodes as support material. Some series consist of uniquely different films that can be entered individually such as American Experience or POV.

FOCUS for INPUT 2012:
1. TV Cultural entertainment and Arts, Performing arts and popular culture, including programs about the arts, cultural magazines and history. 
2. TV Current Affairs and Factual programs - Research journalism television programming.
3. TV Fiction: Single TV drama, TV Series and Scripted Comedy
4. Cross platform/Cross media projects.

PLEASE NOTE: This does not preclude any other TV format or genre from being presented and discussed at INPUT.

What makes a good INPUT program? On the entry form, there is a space for you to write reasons why you are submitting your program to INPUT. This is a good place to suggest points that can be debated or discussed after screening your program. What are the broadcast issues surrounding your program? What is the role of the filmmaker? What makes your program innovative and thought-provoking? These are just a few ideas. Please read Judith Ehrlich's blog entry about INPUT in Seoul. If you've never been to a conference, she sums up the experience quite well.

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If you are wondering what INPUT is all about, please read this ITVS Beyond the Box blog post by filmmaker Judith Ehrlich:

Pub TV’s INPUT Festival is All Seoul

By: Judy Ehrlich

INPUT’s weeklong showcase of content from international media-makers ran this past week in Seoul, Korea. Among the many filmmakers in attendance was Judy Ehrlich, whose documentary Most Dangerous Man in America screened at the event. She offered BTB this on-the-ground account from the festival.

Four jam packed days, dozens of films, discussions, debates, brutal honesty, humor mixed with painfully serious subject matter, and a delirious evening of Korea’s top musical acts in an eclectic concert in our honor and broadcast live.

For those who have never had the pleasure of attending INPUT, it isn’t just another film festival. INPUT is a yearly conference exploring TV making with peers from around the world. It is a chance for public television staff, leaders, and independent producers to share their programs and debate ideas about the future of the medium.

It is a big tent for the best practices, the most innovative, controversial, sometimes the most annoying, and outside the box programming for broadcast and online from around the world.

Judy Ehrlich, Producer/Director of The Most Dangerous Man in America

I learned something new about my own film by watching The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers through the eyes of Koreans who have been subject to much more censorship. I was viscerally reminded that although we face many serious challenges to free speech, it is a privilege limited to greater and lesser degrees throughout the world.

INPUT is a chance to compare notes on such issues as well as questions of ethics and truth telling in documentary film. It is also a chance to make friends among colleagues from around the world over some Korean barbecue and beer.

My favorite moments from post-film discussions: INPUT is all about culture clash and aesthetic variance. What works in Denmark may be completely inappropriate in Indonesia. The Islamic young woman sitting next to me literally covered her eyes during the opening event, which included a rather explicit sexual how-to sequence.

A comment following a screening: “Some people may enjoy your film. I don’t happen to be one of them.” And another harsh response, “Can you tell me why you made us sit through two hours of your film?” It wasn’t all negative by any means, one viewer commented, “You made me cry and laugh and wish I had made that film.”

Some personal favorite films: Village Without Women, a delightful film by Bosnian filmmaker Srdjan Sarenac, about a Serbian village made up of eight bachelor farmers and one brother’s desperate search for a wife in Albania — their former enemy.

Meghan Eckman, Producer/Director of The Parking Lot Movie

Independent Lens’ The Parking Lot Movie was a surprise hit. Director Meghan Eckman’s intimate look at a bunch of over-educated misfits working in a parking lot in Virginia was fun, but it reminded me that sometimes it is the most ordinary that elucidates the realities of modern life. 

There were excellent examples of films exploring the big sweep of history, like the haunting images of the Warsaw ghetto in the documentary A Film Unfinished (also from Independent Lens) or the plight of Palestinian refugees living in Brazil in Home Key.

As a teacher and student of documentary, I was looking for new ideas and I found plenty. Traditional filmmaking, like the Australian immigration story had dazzling art direction for their interviews, the sheer beauty of Joan Frosch’s biographic dance film Nora made me want more of this on public TV.

Some programs pushed moral limits, like the French offering The Game of Death. The conversation was heated: “Was it an ethical experiment?” “Why didn’t the participants react in rage to being manipulated into believing they may have killed a game show contestant?”

Several programs explored the online experience. I left wondering if we can present online programming in a linear projection setting and properly experience it’s intent?

Judy Tam, Executive Vice President, CFO of ITVS and President of the INPUT Board

And I also left with much food for thought: new visuals approaches to consider in storytelling; new thoughts about how to reach an international audience for our work; new ways to present interview material; and to use silence and innovative animation to draw in the audience.

Above all, I came away feeling privileged to have been invited by the hard working shop stewards and CPB to participate in this orgy of Public TV ideas and innovation.

Better get busy in Sydney — it’s going to be hard to beat the Korean hospitality for this year’s INPUT when you host the event next year. Luckily you’ve got great beaches but you may have to bring out plenty of Bondi Beach lifeguards and a few koalas to hug just to compete.

This year’s INPUT had real Seoul.

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Read Leslie Fields-Cruz's blog from Black Public Media about her last day at INPUT in Seoul and the presentation of NORA.

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U.S. Input Secretariat News

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• Join the U.S. Input and Input FACEBOOK groups!
  
  
• To learn even more about Input, read this article written by international Input shop steward coordinator Bill Gilcher for The Current.
  
  
• A Best of Input 2007 - 2010 DVD sets are available for Mini Input events. We plan to have the Input 2011 set ready by October 30, 2011. Please contact the U.S. Input Secretariat for more information. These collections are made possible in part by funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
  

The U.S. Input Secretariat has been managed by South Carolina ETV since 1984. SCETV’s primary responsibilities are coordinating and managing all U.S. activities relating to Input which include hosting Input pre-selection, and applying for and managing grants to send producers to the annual Input conference.

What is Input?

Input (the acronym is derived from INternational PUblic Television) is an annual weeklong television showcase where the rules of broadcasting are challenged and redefined. This event is the only international conference that focuses specifically on the innovative programs produced by public as opposed to commercial broadcasters.

The International Public Television Screening Conference, or Input, was created to promote the exchange of television programs, ideas, and production techniques among broadcasters around the world. Its goal is to challenge and motivate producers to improve the quality of public service broadcasting worldwide.

Input delegates have the rare opportunity to screen some of the most innovative and thought-provoking programs produced for public television around the world. Immediately after each program screening, there is a discussion session with the filmmaker to debate production approaches and subject matter in relation to public television's mission. This intense scrutiny of craft and dialogue among concerned television professionals on an international level makes Input an exceptional seminar for professional development.

There is no other seminar for program makers like Input within public television in this country. The insight and experience gained by presenting work to be critiqued by an international audience, as well as the exchange of program ideas and technologies, are invaluable to improve the skills of producers who are the creators of programming for public television on a local and national level. Learn about the history of INPUT.

For more information about Input, contact the U.S. Input National Coordinator:

Amy Shumaker
Voice: (803) 737-3433
Fax: (803) 737-3274
E-mail:shumaker@scetv.org