The concert with folk rockers David Broza, Shawn Colvin and Jackson Browne was already going when the sun rose over the Dead Sea. (Photo: Shahar Azran/Polaris.)
For December pledge driveOriginally published in Current, Aug. 13, 2007
By Katy June-Friesen
Bigness, once-in-a-lifetime experiences — they’re enduring ideals for pledge specials that can astound viewers with striking vistas, passionate music and legions of instrumentalists and dancers.
WTTW in Chicago is editing one of the outwardly biggest for December pledge drives. Produced at a cost of $2.4 million, the concert special David Broza at Masada will have high-def helicopter shots of Israel’s Jordan Valley, making it clear the performances are taped atop the mesa of the ancient Jewish fortress, Masada.
Yet despite the monumental backdrop, intricate lighting and sprawling Judean Desert below, the program doesn’t have an orchestra to rival the one Yanni commanded at the Taj Mahal. For most of David Broza at Masada, only three folk musicians hold the stage, and the dominant sounds are guitar and vocals.
Executive Producer Nicolette Ferri, a producer for WTTW’s Soundstage, met Israeli guitarist and singer David Broza at his Hanukkah concert a few years ago at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. She says her jaw dropped during sound check, and she wondered why she’d never heard of Broza before.
Largely unknown in the United States, Broza is a Springsteen-like pop star in Israel who sings in Hebrew, Spanish and English, often in favor of peace and reconciliation between Israel and Palestine.
Ferri learned that Broza had been giving concerts atop Masada for 14 years. The mountain is a symbol of Jewish pride, where, during the first Jewish-Roman war, a group of Jews jumped off the fortress rather than surrender to the Romans.
After deciding to pursue a pledge special with Broza, Ferri showed his performances to a focus group with about 30 people of varied ages and backgrounds, she says, and everyone liked his music.
WTTW National Productions added American folk-rockers Shawn Colvin and Jackson Browne to appeal to the PBS audience. To cover the costs of shooting at Masada, WTTW brought in a range of underwriters including the U.S. health products company HoMedics Inc., Israel’s Ministry of Tourism and Ikea Israel. WTTW partnered with The Angel Group in London and well-known music producer Julia Knowles to film the program in July.
The shoot required hundreds of feet of cable, 10 HD cameras and enough lights to illuminate one side of the mountain, says Ferri.
The tech crew runs fiber cables to high-def cameras. At right: Ron Yergovich, engineering v.p. from WTTW. (Photo: Shahar Azran/Polaris.)
Producing at Masada in July meant battling the desert’s formative elements — wind, sand and heat.“At any moment this show could have gone south,” says Ferri. The temperature exceeded 80 degrees by 5 a.m. Hurricane-like, sand-blasting winds are what break the heat, and on the night before production, the winds began.
By the time of the 3 a.m. shoot, the wind had moved by eight inches the tent containing the only HD master control setup in the country, damaging a camera. But the heat also broke. Nearly 1,800 people from across Israel arrived before dawn for the concert and ascended the mountain.
For Ferri, watching Broza perform during sunrise as the Dead Sea appeared in the distance was “like a spiritual experience.”
Is David Broza at Masada big enough and novel enough to mesmerize viewers? Broza doesn’t have long locks to shake or an orchestra behind him, but he is handsome. Perhaps his music—more grit than sap—could resonate with people younger than the average PBS viewer. After all, as former PBS programmer Gustavo Sagustume observed recently, “Bon Jovi will be a pledge special pretty soon."
Web page posted Aug. 30, 2007
Copyright 2007 by Current Publishing Committee
EARLIER ARTICLE
PBS execs said in May 2007 they aim to produce pledge specials that public broadcasters "can feel good about airing."
LINKS
Websites of folk-rockers David Broza, Shawn Colvin and Jackson Browne.
About Masada in the Jewish Virtual Library.
For March 2008 pledging, Egyptian-born Canadian pop diva Chantal Chamandy announced she'll perform in front of the Sphinx and the pyramids, accompanied by the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. Executive Program Services is the U.S. distributor.
Speaking of spectacles: The Three Tenors staged concerts near four World Cup soccer matches, including one at Rome's Baths of Caracalla, AP reported. Yanni staged concerts at the Taj Mahal (YouTube video), the Acropolis and Beijing's Forbidden City.
David Broza in a 1998 concert with Sting.
