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Outreach Journal: Press Play Productions--Bridging the Gap Between the Classroom and Pop Culture

Published on April 30, 2008

In today's television landscape, as has been the case for several years now, reality-based fare is ubiquitous. The Reality TV World site displays hundreds of titles of shows based on what people will dare to do when there are cameras around.

Jenna Arnold.
Photo by Kevin Vargas.

Jenna Arnold and Ryan Golembeske love to sit and watch shows like Project Runway and The Real World just as much as the next guy. But when the spark of an idea was forming in Arnold's mind many years ago about what she wanted to do with her life, her thoughts turned more to, what she calls, "edutainment." Their company, Press Play Productions, created a show called Exiled (Rites of Passage was its original title), which was recently greenlit to go into production and is premiering on MTV this spring.

"I kind of always knew it was going to work and that it was going to sell because I never felt like we were the true creators. Rather, we were just the people that put all the puzzle pieces together," Arnold said. "I just feel like a messenger delivering this idea to its rightful owner—the American public, kids in particular. This show started developing when I was 12 in my eighth grade social studies class."

William and Ryan had a special bond. This is the first time William had photos of himself.
Photo by Kevin Vargas.

By tuning in each week, audiences will get to journey around the world, from Europe to South America, from the African continent to the outer reaches of Mongolia, in a show where MTV's popular Super Sweet 16 girls will experience a Survivor-type experience—in other words, there's sure to be loads of drama and lots of tears. In each episode, a spoiled Sweet 16 diva gets dumped into situations where she encounters life with indigenous populations up close: living with them and participating in some of their coming-of-age rituals which, usually, do not involve mansions, BMWs, cell phones and designer wardrobes. And while certainly meant to be entertaining, Arnold and Golembeske hope to enhance these escapades with some real learning and active outreach on the part of the youthful audience that tunes in every week, for that is the overriding ethos on which they founded their production company, now with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and a recently-opened branch in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

I caught up with Jenna, a former Education and Media Specialist at the United Nations, in the midst of preparing for yet another location and production scout for their show. Among other things, we talked about the challenges she and Golembeske face as young executive producers working with one of the largest media conglomerates in the world.

Pamela: How do you find navigating the massive corporate landscape of Viacom?

Jenna:Look, the advantages of working with MTV are obvious: they're in 179 countries with a viewership of over a billion people. An extremely high percentage of young people around the world watch or know of MTV. And that includes young people that are surviving on less than a dollar a day. This is where our audience is. We have an opportunity to reach that 16-year-old in Kansas who doesn't turn off the water when he brushes his teeth, who just doesn't know about how wasteful that is, and probably doesn't really care.

The challenges, of course, have been learning to play by corporate rules. It's a multi-billion dollar corporation with an extensive system already in place and that has to be honored. It can be difficult when you're trying to go into the depths of the Amazon. There are a lot of security precautions and you have to account for that in the production of a television show.

They've been very supportive in wanting to do the whole education outreach approach. They are committed to, and totally behind, the public affairs component, to provide youth with a viable platform to make a difference. They recognize the hold they have on this demographic and I don't think they take that responsibility lightly. Neither do we. Pop culture and mass media have been the common mode of exchange all along, really. Policy gets tripped up in other things that have nothing to do with helping people or keeping people inspired. Hope is really an important incentive for people to keep getting up every day and working towards their dreams, wanting something better for the next generation.

Mama Josephine watching a trailer from the original shoot on Jenna's iPod, the first time she saw herself on video.
Photo by Ryan Golembeske.

What keeps you inspired and motivated to keep moving forward with your vision?

I've always been passionate about educating people about global issues. And I've always been wowed by the power of media. A few years ago, Ryan and I had been discussing ideas for television shows right before the words "Press Play Productions" fell out of my mouth. They were all, essentially, for and about kids, these concepts. We wanted to also show the power of compassion, the power of friendship, and in particular, highlighting what might get lost in translation between cultures.

What's your current association with the UN and how do you plan on utilizing that in the work you're doing now?

The UN is helping us develop the outreach portion for each episode. Potentially, for future episodes, they'll help us identify locations and stories and assist us in getting into certain spots on the globe more easily than if we were on our own. My relationships there are with the senior chief officers and they're very interested in becoming involved with this. They've spent the past 30 years writing policy and legislation and, at this point, they're not convinced that it's working. I'm bringing a strategy to the table that may not really work, either, but they're interested in continuing to be involved to see where it might lead.

How will Exiled's viewers be able to engage in the issues? What kind of an impact, realistically, can a television show have, even one on a major network?

The idea is that kids watch the series and if they decide they want to learn more or they want to know how they can make a difference in some capacity, there's a whole online component which will exist on the Think site. There will be 25 NGOs (Non-governmental organizations) that are working on an issue that's raised in a certain episode. For example, for the pilot episode that takes place in Kenya, the audience will learn about girls' education and how vital that is; they'll learn that there are many communities lacking a sufficient drinking water supply. That, in turn, brings up the worldwide water crisis looming before us.

But, of course, what the network really wants is a short episodic project that imparts some information in an entertaining way. "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." Yes, they'll be entertained, but at the end of an episode they might also discover that they've actually learned something! You have to entertain to maintain an audience—that's elementary. It's to educate, also. And, hopefully, inspire an impulse to do something.

What do you hope to accomplish in the new media landscape of today and how do we need to change the ways in which we engage young audiences?

The long-term goal for the television series is to help young audiences identify with peers that live beyond the American border. To my mind, both our national and international security depends on that, to be blunt. Having worked at the United Nations headquarters here in New York as an education officer for two years [Arnold was the youngest officer working there at the time of her tenure], and having sat in on many meetings about policy and legislation, I was never convinced that that was the direction of peacemaking. I see it happening on places like Facebook and Myspace and YouTube. We use media because it's influential, much more influential than international ratifications or laws or policies. It's definitely more influential when it comes to capitalizing on the nation's youth, their interests and motivations. There is this genuine sense among younger people that they want to help, that they want to make a difference, but they don't know how. Oftentimes, a seed has been planted inappropriately, whether it's in a classroom or in the mainstream media.

What I want this show to do is help plant a seed that will make kids realize there's something beyond their own existence. There are people just like us all over the world; they just have different problems.