Billboard magazine on Embedded
It's an intriguing look at the thought process behind his charismatic onstage persona -- and it's all part of the debut episode of "Embedded," cable channel Current TV's hour-long music documentary program that airs weekly starting October 14...
In an era when networks are slashing production budgets in favor of cheaper, quick-hit reality programing and when informative TV music segments are rarely more than two minutes long, Current TV's "Embedded" is a throwback to a time of pre-YouTube attention spans.
Here's our little secret: It still doesn't have to be an expensive, big-budget production. Here at Music HQ we look at trade reports of big live concert documentaries or other cable network "vérité" programs with our jaws dropped.
Embedded is usually shot by a tiny crew (often only two producer-shooters working together in the field) and then finished by a small team in-house. It's the kind of bare bones, idea- and story-first ethic that has always been at the center of Current's TV making. Both our executive producer, Mark Rinehart, and senior producer Alex Simmons (our entire deployment to Japan to shoot Mos Def) came up through the ranks as VC2 (viewer-created content) producers. Mark was nominated Emmy for his work on our Burning Man coverage.
If we trade in anything—and if there's a lesson to be learned from Embedded for young filmmakers who are hardly all that much younger than our staff—it's access. Access is everything. Before he came to Current, our VP of Music, Davis Powers, booked bands for late night TV at Jimmy Kimmel Live. Other staffers have managed bands, are sought-after DJs, edited music magazines and generally spent their careers getting to know the bands and management teams of the artists they most respect. It's that mutual trust that unlocked hours and days with artists instead of the usual 15 minute drop-ins.
Or, as Billboard put it:
For the Mos Def episode of "Embedded," that meant spending seven days with him as he performed at venues in Tokyo and Osaka.
"When we're talking to these artists," Powers says, "the things that they don't think will be compelling are actually the things we hang on the most."
