Re: when dinos ruled

[carlo godel <regiaero@gj.net>]

instead of writing to each other and lamenting the paucity of information on the
TV we should be writing to the producers of the programs letting them know what
we expect from them.
Carlo

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. wrote:

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> > Sherry Michael
> >
> > While paleontology is a very generous science compared to many, we can do
> > more. Instead of bitching about how innacurate these shows are, spread
> > *good* information however you can. Donate a good dinosaur book to school
> > library. Speak to the public as much as possible. Open up the
> > doors a little
> > bit.
> >
> > -Sherry
> > (off soapbox)
>
> Me, hopping on...
>
> By my observation, paleontologists in general and dinosaur paleontologists
> in particular are exceptional in getting to the public, speaking at
> everything from local rock clubs to universities to big museums.  My
> colleagues who work on petrology and hydrology and such do not seem to have
> the opportunity for such presentations.
>
> What galls me is that we DO give as much good data to the documentaries as
> we can!!  When you see thirty seconds of a "talking head" on a show, that is
> distilled from a much longer interview, sometimes hours long.  On top of
> that, plenty of faxes and fedexs are exchanged to provide accurate
> photographs, drawings, diagrams, etc.
>
> Then, via the magic that is filmmaking, this gets chopped up into the same
> hash that is always presented...  Professional actors are hired to narrate,
> who somehow go about mispronouncing our names (Cathy "Forrester"?) and the
> names of our favorite critters.  (Yeah, okay, I would imagine that
> documentary narration is a LOW priority for most actors, and they probably
> did it in just a take or two, but they could try).  Instead of seeking to
> educate, the emphasis is on entertainment, and those who do seek to be
> educated by these shows can be misled (as witnessed by email on the list
> earlier this week).
>
> Yes, by all means, make the shows entertaining.  Yes, try and bring the
> public up to date with some of the latest discoveries.  I personally had no
> problem with the *concept* of the show: it was a great idea.  The problems I
> (and from their postings, others) on the list have with the show was the
> *execution*: it didn't have to sacrifice accuracy for entertainment.
>
> No documentary will every be perfect, and all of them "cheat" to a certain
> degree to produce something interesting to watch.  However, there are
> documentaries on other topics on PBS or TLC or Discovery or Animal Planet
> which are both fun and accurate.  Let's hope that future dinosaur
> documentaries will try to achieve this goal.
>
>                 Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
>                 Vertebrate Paleontologist
> Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
> University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
>                 College Park, MD  20742
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
> http://www.inform.umd.edu/SCHOLAR/programs/elt.html
> Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
> Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796