Robin Scullin, C-SPAN  202/ 626-8797
SallyAnne McCartin  860/ 435-6464

AN INTERVIEW WITH C-SPAN'S MARK FARKAS

Q: What will viewers see when they tune in on March 31st?

C-SPAN American Writers II: The 20th Century will launch in Harlem on Sunday March 31, 2002 at 3 pm ET for a 2-hour live program about the Harlem Renaissance Writers—Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston will be a large part of the discussion and we will also focus on other writers of that era. We'll talk to our guests and viewers about the writing and meaning of the Montage of a Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes and about Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. As with all American Writers programs, part of the discussion will be the historical context of the time period. With the guidance of a C-SPAN moderator, guests will discuss Harlem Renaissance writing, the ideas presented in their works, and the influence they had on America in the 1930s. With our last series, American Presidents, we were creating biographies; American Writers will be more of an interplay between writers and their time. This is an American history series, seen through the words of writers.

Q: Why does the series air live?

We produced our last three historical series live, and while it poses technical challenges, what it offers viewers far surpasses that of taped television programming. Live programs allow real-time connections between our guests and our viewers. Viewers can join in the conversations through telephone calls and e-mails. We want these programs to be a dialogue between our experts on location and our viewers at home—about American history and the writers who shaped our nation with their words. And live television is just more real. Doing live, multi-camera shoots week after week is a big technological challenge for our crews. A new production truck, built for our coverage of last summer's presidential conventions, will help make these productions easier for us.

Q: What role do viewers play in these series? Do their calls affect what goes on in a particular show?

C-SPAN viewers are in some ways the 'fifth guest' on every show—we rely on them to be part of the dialogue. We found during our American Presidents series that viewer calls often reshaped a program. We had not always predicted accurately what was going to be the most interesting discussion points for our audience. Having that engagement with our viewers made some of the programs not only more exciting, but we also learned a great deal about the way our viewers think about issues—and which ones mattered the most. As a network, we are also very responsive to audience reaction to our series. We will solicit comments from our viewers and reflect some of what they have to say about the production as the series progresses.

Q: Since this is a historical series, why did you decide to shoot it on location—couldn't you tell the story of these writers in a documentary way?

C-SPAN's mission is to cover events and policy decisions in the way that they happen—unedited, unfiltered. A documentary is shaped by producers' opinions and editing decisions before you see it. We're going on location to give our viewers a richer experience with a historical site and a topic. There is a deeper understanding of the writer and the times when viewers see where they wrote their work, or how they and their peers lived day-to-day. Shooting on location also allows us to break out of Washington, and to go beyond the beltway into the cities, town, and villages that reflect our cultural heritage.

Q: How do you prepare for a two-hour live broadcast from a historic site? How many people are on hand?

We visit the site at least three weeks before the actual broadcast to get a feel for the layout, to see what artifacts or documents are there for us to use in the broadcast, to work out the technical aspects, and to see what other activities we might want to consider adding to the broadcast, such as taping at a local school. The crew begins arriving for the actual broadcast between two to four days beforehand. Around 20 C-SPAN staffers will be on hand in each location to build the set, run the cameras, send out the signal, and to coordinate with guests for the live broadcast. Teams of technicians and producers will rotate between the 15 live site assignments. And, remember, some of these places are not on the usual flight paths—we'll be heading to places like Salinas, CA, Northampton, MA and Mecosta, MI. We'll also be sending C-SPAN community outreach staff into these towns to work with local schools and libraries.

Q:  What do you think will be the most challenging aspect of the series?

We have 15 weeks of live programming covering 18 writers. Keeping up the momentum for 30 hours of live programming 3 months is no small challenge; finding a good mix of cultural commentators and experts is another of the most critical tasks we have in front of us; and, I think it's going to be intriguing to see how our viewers react to the writers we've included. It's an interesting mix and one that will undoubtedly be debated. And since the show is live, we can never predict what might happen to make us work a little harder: weather, equipment issues, etc

Q:  What kind of guests will you have on the show to talk about these writers?

Ideally, we look for good balance among our guests. We'll want well-known cultural commentators, historians of the featured period and experts on the writers themselves. We'll be looking for those who can provide background and critical perspective on the writers. We also hope to find guests who are good storytellers, who can bring our writers to life. Every single one of these writers have personality and a life story that influenced what they wrote…we hope to bring that to our programs.

Read a biography of Mark Farkas

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