Like so many others, I grew up watching “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and my favorite part was the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. That’s why I enjoyed learning more about The Fred Rogers Co. for this month’s Uniquely Pittsburgh.
It was interesting to hear about the journey of how the nonprofit has become the most prolific production company on PBS today, and in true Mister Rogers’ fashion a few business lessons revealed themselves along the way.
Lesson 1: Remember your audience
Paul Siefken, vice president of Broadcast and Digital Media at The Fred Rogers Co., says they work hard to be disciplined in the stories the company’s shows tell, especially those geared to very young children.
They might have a story that has a great joke, but he says they’ll choose to not do that scene, because while it’s really funny to adults, a 3- or 4-year-old — the audience — won’t get it.
“Any moment when you’re not engaging the child, who you really want to be talking to, is a lost opportunity,” Siefken says. “Making animation is an expensive endeavor, and we should take every moment that we’re spending our time and our money on to make sure that it’s dedicated to the mission.
“And that means doing things at the proper pace for children to understand it,” he says. “Doing things with the proper contextual elements that kids can relate to without trying to be too sophisticated or go too fast or tell jokes that parents might enjoy but kids won’t understand.”
In writing it’s called “killing your darlings.” Sometimes you have to cut away something that might be great if it doesn’t fit into the mission of what you’re trying to do and what your audience needs.
Lesson 2: Push the limits
“Daniel Tigers’ Neighborhood” pushes the limits with its Flash animation software.
The software isn’t known for depth and texture, but they find ways around that by scanning in fabric from a sweater to make Daniel Tiger’s sweater or scanning in images of carpet to create grass.
Don’t just accept the status quo of what has come before. Push the limits to get the results you need.
