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Debating Dubrovnik and Making TV

Our TV show on “Dubrovnik and Balkan Side-Trips,” which debuts this month on public television, is one of my favorites of this new series. The editor’s cut came in at more than two minutes too long. Here’s an e-mail exchange I had with our team on the painful chore of cutting it to size. It’s between me, Steve Cammarano (our television editor), and Cameron Hewitt (co-author to my guidebook on this region and this episode’s co-writer). The reference to “kill your babies” is the slang editors use when writers can’t part with something adorable, even though it doesn’t fit the structure of an article, book, or script. It’s graphic, but to writers, it almost seems appropriate. This exchange, while a bit wonkish perhaps, gives a peek at the debates that go on behind the scene as we make these shows ‘ and also illustrates how fortunate I am to work with such talented people.

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To: Rick and Cameron

From: Steve

The “Dubrovnik and Balkans Side-Trips” show is ready for you to view. It is running 2:30 long, and nothing seems obviously cuttable. So, since it’s a “kill your babies” decision, Simon [the producer] and I thought we’d let you decide which of the little babies to slaughter. (We’ll nickname you Herod afterwards!) Let me know what you think. After you get a chance to look at it, I’ll give Cameron a file or DVD so we can get his comments too and consolidate all cuts/changes.

Thanks, Steve

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To: Steve

From: Rick

Here’s the Dead Baby Cemetery. Cut these sequences to save the necessary time:

[8 OC] Locals consider themselves a unique mix of Slavic and Roman culture. When Dubrovnik was just a small town in the seventh century, this main drag was a water way. Romans fleeing from the invading Slavs lived on this side, which was a fortified island. And eventually, the Slavs settled on the mainland. In the 11th century, the canal was filled in, the towns merged, and Dubrovnik’s culture blossomed.

[11] The Sponza Palace is the finest surviving example of Dubrovnik’s Golden Age in the 15th and 16th centuries, combining Renaissance and Venetian Gothic styles. Stepping into its stately courtyard takes you back to that illustrious age.

[13] In the Middle Ages, the city’s monasteries flourished. Today tourists escaping the heat explore these peaceful, sun-dappled cloisters and their modest museums.

[14] Religious art and fine reliquaries stand as evidence of the town’s importance in its heyday. Paintings from the “Dubrovnik School” show the Republic’s circa-1500 answer to the art boom in Florence and Venice. This canvas shows old-time Dubrovnik ‘ looking much like it does today.

[18] We’re staying at a small guesthouse at the top of town. Throughout Croatia, sobe ‘ that’s rooms for rent in private homes ‘ are a much better value than big hotels. Ours is run by Pero.

[19 Pero sound bites: walnut grappa, the war, six month siege, no food, no electricity, house bombed, 200 years in family, couldn’t just walk away, rebuilt, made guesthouse, now the tourists are back.]

This was really tough but I feel Dubrovnik is a well-worn topic and what we did in Montenegro and Bosnia was really ground-breaking. I really like Cameron’s presence in the show and wouldn’t cut a word of that. By cutting this, by my count, we save 2:25.

Other comments (not related to our time concerns): Could we include one more painting of a ship in a storm to make that bit more vivid? When the script says “gave the place its name ‘ Montenegro” I envision the mountain-ringed basin looking inland with the craggy rocks and the inhospitable expanse. Do we have something like that to consider? If you think the woman is inaudible for #69 I could read the VO for the park-turned-cemetery. It might save time too. I miss the map of the Serb Republic within Bosnia-Herz, and I miss the cruise ship reality bit. But there just isn’t time. Again, nice work.

Thanks, Rick

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To: Rick and Steve

From: Cameron

Thanks for sending this list, Rick. I discussed with Steve and took a careful look at the show/script. Here’s my take:

First, this is yet another fantastic show. Gorgeously shot by Karel and artfully edited by Steve. I wasn’t sure how we’d cram so much interesting content into one package and still let it breathe, but Steve pulled it off. The sequence near the end, juxtaposing the church and the mosque crowd over pensive music, is about the most powerful thing I’ve seen regarding this conflict. The show succeeds in grappling with the realities of war head-on, without glossing over painful truths, while still being entertaining, easy to comprehend, and a lively travelogue…all this and even-handed, too. Great work, everyone!

I agree with most of Rick’s suggested cuts. The Sponza Palace can definitely go; the monasteries are also optional, though I find them more interesting/important/pretty than the palace. If we cut both, however, the sightseeing content in Dubrovnik gets very thin; it’d be nice to save one or the other.

Rick’s on-camera about the filled-in canal is also somewhat deletable, though I like it. I’d try to keep it unless it’s essential to cut.

On the whole, when you add up all of your cuts, it seems like Dubrovnik is really being gutted. In your version, Dubrovnik ‘ which, after all, is the title and main destination of the show ‘ really gets short shrift. You mention that Dubrovnik is well-worn. Well, maybe for those of us who’ve traveled a lot. But in terms of the TV audience, this is your one and only shot at it, and it’d be a shame to do it halfway. Paris and London are well-worn, but they still deserve to be covered in a TV show as if for the first time.

So I’d lobby to keep Pero. I think that sequence is very effective. Pero comes off as likeable and articulate. And it’s very powerful to see the two of you standing in a formerly destroyed house holding a mortar.

More importantly, big picture: If we cut Pero, we throw off the delicate balance that this show has achieved. When you think about the local people you “interview,” we’ve currently got a Croat, a Montenegrin, a Serb, and a Muslim. I think it’s critical to afford each group a voice. Including Pero offers a powerful symmetry to this show: We see the gorgeous town of Dubrovnik, then hear about the war from someone who lived through it; later, we see the pretty town of Mostar, then hear about the war from someone who lived through it. If we leave out Pero, the only real talk of Croats is as the aggressors in Mostar. I think it’s essential to also show a Croat (Pero) as a resilient victim. Pero also personalizes the war in Dubrovnik in a pretty dramatic way.

So what’s to be done? It’s clear to me that ‘ both in terms of the quality of the sequences, and in terms of the overall balance of the show ‘ the most expendable bit is Cetinje. If you simply cut everything after the explanation of the name “Black Mountain,” it’s a tidy transition out of the country.

I really like Stefan, and I’d be very sorry to see him go. And, Rick, I know you have an affection for Cetinje. But let’s be honest: Cetinje is neither particularly attractive, nor historically interesting. At best, it’s a depressed, once-great town that gets a quirky footnote in history. And the church/monastery Stefan guides you through pales in comparison to the one in Trebinje. It feels like one Orthodox church too many (especially right in a row). I’d rather have an articulate, philosophizing priest explaining a gorgeous Orthodox church than a tour guide explaining a hokey artifact in a blah one. If you’re trying to flesh out a thin show, that’s one thing. But we have the opposite problem. If anything should get short shrift in this overstuffed show, it’s Montenegro ‘ not Dubrovnik.

Getting back to the issue of providing balance: If we take out Stefan, we’ve still got a Croat (Pero), a Serb (Father Drazen), and a Muslim (Alma). That feels right to me, as you promise in the opening OC, “We’ll get to know three major groups of the former Yugoslavia ‘ Croats, Serbs, and Muslims.”

If we cut Cetinje, it should get us closer to the time we need. We could also cut some of the Dubrovnik bits you suggested. I’d also nominate selectively trimming some of the interview sections. For example:

–Father Drazen is great, but one question/answer that could go is the one about “pluralism.” I found his answer too pat (“sure, sure, sure!”) and frankly unconvincing; his response to the next question, about “Balkanization” is similar but far more revealing (“we have to work hard at it”), and does the job better than the pluralism answer.

–The section with my lines conveys a lot of hard-to-digest content and is pretty dense. But we could cherry-pick a few lines in there to cut. For example, the explanation of why these wars happened (age-old hatreds vs. manipulative politicians) is an important point, but difficult to convey succinctly. It could go.

–I can see where it might work to trim down Alma’s talk in the cemetery, if you want, and cover some of that with your voice-over.

Rick, I feel strongly about the Cetinje issue. I really think cutting Cetinje would make this a more powerful show ‘ and a more balanced, nuanced, and thought-provoking one.

I hope this helps. I might give the show another look to see if there are any (minor) factual bits that need to be tweaked.

Thanks for listening, Cameron

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To: Steve and Cameron

From: Rick

Thanks, Cameron. You’d make a good lawyer. OK, I’ll buy keeping Pero. But I’d like to cut all the other proposed bits from Dubrovnik. That means we still have to cut something to make Steve’s time needs. I agree that the kid in the Cetinje church is cuttable, and the bit about pluralism. So, please, cut all but Pero in Dub, cut the church (only) in Cetinje, and cut just the line about pluralism. What does that leave us, Steve, for further cuts needed?

Rick

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To: Rick and Cameron

From: Steve

Rick, I’ll take a look at what that would mean time-wise for your revised, proposed cuts. After taking into consideration both yours and Cameron’s comments, I’d like to make my own case. I agree with Cameron’s proposal to cut Cetinje entirely for the reasons he states, and cutting just the church/relic sequence makes Cetinje even more unnecessary in the show. If we cut all of Cetinje we drop 1:25. In terms of Dubrovnik, I would cut the monasteries and art because I feel they are less than impressive and doing so would connect your previous on-camera to the walls of Dubrovnik better (the OC was about the period when Dubrovnik was growing/becoming prominent, and the walls are the most visible and impressive sign of that). Losing the monasteries and art would cut around another 30 seconds. And I also feel very strongly that we should keep Pero in the show. Finally, I agree with Cameron’s suggested trim of Father Drazen when he speaks of pluralism. Depending on where I cut it, that gets us somewhere between 15 and 25 seconds. That puts us right in the pocket, time-wise. I can probably get it to time after that with my usual final pass of trims and fine cutting. I think this would make the best show and get me where I need to be time-wise. I’ll look into where your proposed cuts would leave us in terms of show length, Rick. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks, Steve

———-

To: Steve and Cameron

From: Rick

Hello all,

Cutting Cetinje will come back to haunt you because I think we might actually have to return for an entire show. But, I’m clearly outvoted so I’ll go with that. How about this: Cut Cetinje altogether (1:25), cut monastery and art, cut pluralism. Does that get us to the goal line? I am ambivalent about the palace.

Why don’t Steve and Cameron huddle with this last input from me? The Dubrovnik thing is complex. Proceed from the starting point of what time we need to save without Cetinje and pluralism. Please tell me, without Cetinje and pluralism, how you propose to make it fit with just Dubrovnik cuts after that.

Thanks, Rick

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To: Rick and Cameron

From: Steve

Rick,

I’ve cut Cetinje and pluralism, and it leaves us 49 seconds long. Of your earlier proposed Dubrovnik cuts the OC about Slavs/Romans is 23 seconds, Sponza Palace is 14 seconds, and the monasteries and art are 30 seconds. Keep in mind that I should be able to get another 10-15 seconds of fat out when I take a final pass, so we could get most of the way by cutting one or two of these and find the remaining time in trims. We can easily figure it out after you get home. (I’ll begin working on “The Best of Cetinje” show after Oslo…)

Steve

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To: Rick and Steve

From: Cameron

Hey Rick,

Thanks for being open to our suggestions. It’s going to significantly strengthen an already stellar show! (Hmmm. I can see it now: “The Miserable Mediterranean: Cetinje, Gythio, and Genoa.” I’ll get working on a script…)

Cameron

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To see what ended up on the cutting room floor, watch this clip about Cetinje.

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Germans Ask America to Keep Hitler Out of Our Politics

It’s understandable that anyone wanting to make a political point will compare their opponent to Hitler. While obviously ridiculous hyperbole, it does push people’s buttons and can be effective ‘ especially to a simple-minded and easily frightened audience.

Recently, in my little town of Edmonds, I nearly got in trouble with the police over a Hitler incident. Some right-wing fringies were demonstrating against “Obamacare.” They had a poster of Obama with a Hitler moustache hanging from their card table. It angered me, so the poster ended up ripped up and on the ground. So that they wouldn’t press assault charges, I followed the policeman’s advice and apologized for denying them their free speech rights. The cop was right. I was wrong to react the way I did.

The episode caused me to consider the politics of comparing your enemy to Hitler. I love Jon Stewart’s Daily Show bit in which Lewis Black illustrates how Glenn Beck has Nazi Tourette’s. When discussing politics, I catch myself whenever I flirt with making a Hitler parallel. The last thing I want is “Nazi Tourette’s.”

As fascism is on the extreme right of the political spectrum and communism is on the extreme left, it seems more logical for leftists to insult their opponents with Hitler references. But lately in the USA it is the right-wingers who are calling people they fear are turning America into a “socialist state” fascist names. Right-wingers would more effectively impress anyone who knew anything about history, economics, or politics by comparing their opponents to Mao or Stalin rather than Hitler.

In my lifetime certain things have really pushed my button. My dad and I have sparred politically for 30 years. To me he’s too impressionable by the media. As he’s my own flesh and blood, I care how his brain is wired. I think that’s why I get really emotional when I say something like, “You can’t hug a child with nuclear arms,” and he responds with something like, “Nuke the whales.”

I’ve pondered why that Hitler moustache on President Obama pushed my button. Those people manning the card table at our town market were young. Their youth made their politics more poignant to me. And, while I can respect people for opposing health care for poor people on ideological grounds, to compare that with Hitler’s actions diminishes the horrors suffered by the victims of Hitler.

When caring citizens, on the left or the right, compare their opponents to Hitler and the Nazis, I fear that ‘ rather than elevating their cause ‘ they are diminishing the Holocaust and blurring the evil of Hitler himself. This accelerates the fading into history of the lessons we should have learned from the nightmare of the last century. The request of the victims of the Holocaust is that we never forget…not that we cheapen their loss with silly references and comparisons.

These thoughts were affirmed and crystallized quite succinctly in a recent op-ed that shares the German take on this. The piece ran in Der Spiegel, the German equivalent to our Time magazine.

I think anytime people equate their political opponents or their policies to Hitler and the Nazis, they illustrate a simplistic anti-intellectualism that is dangerous. It is tempting for me to fall into that same trap and to say that this kind of simple-minded demonizing and fear-mongering could actually lead us down the same path that led Germany astray. But I won’t.

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Pathway of Love No More…

In our parents’ generation people asked, “What were you doing when Kennedy was shot?” In ours, they ask, “What were you doing on 9/11?” I was recently asked that and collected some thoughts. While this would be ideal for a blog entry next 9/11, it’s ripe and ready, and I find it poignant…so I’ll share it now.

I was in Italy’s Cinque Terre on 9/11. I was filming. I figure the first plane hit the North Tower just when we were filming the romantic Via dell’Amore, the “Pathway of Love,” which is a lovers’ meeting point between the two towns of Riomaggiore and Manarola. So for me, the Via dell’Amore is no longer the “Pathway of Love”…it’s the “Pathway of 9/11.”

Hiking with our TV gear into the next village, we found a tiny bar packed with people as if it were a makeshift theater. Everyone was staring jaw-dropped at the TV. I saw the smoldering tower and thought it was some kind of a disaster movie. Then people told me the news. My crew and I gathered outside and decided the only thing we could do was to keep on working. We went into a restaurant across the street and filmed my favorite pasta dish ‘ with seafood, cooked in foil, so when you opened the foil, a lovely genie of fragrant steam enveloped you. I remember opening the foil, camera rolling, inhaling the ultimate pasta experience of Italy’s Riviera, and considering the tragedy unfolding in the US, the human loss, and inability for anyone to know the extent of that loss ‘ or the long-term consequences. The steam fogged up my glasses. I inhaled the wet, delicious, tempting steam, smiling hungrily and contentedly, knowing the camera was filming ‘ but thinking about the turmoil coming from this tragedy. Now, a decade later, every time I watch that segment of that episode, I remember the newscast on Italian TV in that bar, and the confusion and sadness that accompanied the opening of that foil.

We had a Rick Steves tour group in Vernazza that day. That night, all the Americans were huddling together, wondering what would happen next. There was a line at the town’s one public phone booth. There were two distinct camps of travelers: those who thought, “It’s tragic but there’s nothing we can do, so party on”; and those who couldn’t continue with their vacation ‘ but also couldn’t get back home. My enduring memory was of solidarity ‘ Americans caring for each other and locals caring for Americans. All the people of the Cinque Terre were Americans with us; they cared for us and did what they could to help us out during that disturbing time, when no one knew what was coming next.

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Discovered Vernazza — Conniving to Get into a Guidebook

The Cinque Terre ‘ a string of five remote and ramshackle port villages along Italy’s Riviera ‘ was once an undiscovered paradise. It’s still a paradise, but these days you can only call it “undiscovered” in a relative sense ‘ compared to, say, Venice. And I suppose it’s partly my fault. When I first described and recommended Italy’s Cinque Terre in the late 1970s, there was almost no tourism there. Now it seems to be on the list of almost every Italy-bound tourist.

Going from “sleepy” to “popular” changes a place, and every year we need to update our guidebook listings in the Cinque Terre. This is one gig my researchers don’t enjoy. They prefer leaving this region to me. Locals are too aggressive and scheme to get into the book. They orchestrate email campaigns to fake positive feedback. And, I assume, they create negative feedback about their competition.

When I drop someone’s listing from the book, they’re dark and brooding to me the next year. Others camp out at the station, asking me, “Why you don’t put me in your book?” One year, all the B&B owners wanted in. Then the notoriety of being in a guidebook became a red flag to the local tax police, and the next year those same B&B hosts ‘ or at least the tax cheats among them ‘ insisted on being taken out.

My friend Sergio, who seems to be more urbane and modern than most Cinque Terre locals, is my research “bodyguard” for my three-day visits. It’s when his cell phone rings like never before as people figure they must go through Sergio to get to me. He says, “Suddenly my enemies become my friends.” People hang out in front of a hotel I may be visiting, then when I exit, they just happen to be passing by. They say, “Buon giorno,” make their pitch, and give me a business card.

Troubled by reports from my readers that my recommended B&Bs were price gouging in busy times, I’ve struggled to impose some order. One year, I tried to establish the “Nuova Etica” (“New Ethic” in Italian). I would (with Sergio’s translating help) explain to B&B owners that they must charge no more than what’s listed in the book. I promised to encourage readers to report on any B&B host that gouged them. The owners would agree to my plan ‘ but this is Italy. The next season, all of their rates went up, and I really couldn’t drop them all. For my latest edition, I’ve reluctantly dropped the notion of a new ethic and just encourage travelers to shop around for the best deal on a room.

Things are changing here. The big trend in the Cinque Terre is elderly apartment owners moving into the big city for a more comfortable place to live out their golden years. They hire Eastern Europeans to manage their Italian Riviera apartments, renting to tourists who come in with each train. There’s a fascinating tourism metabolism here: The train brings locals their livelihood as reliably as the tides bring nourishment to barnacles.

On my first visit to my favorite Cinque Terre town, Vernazza, I couldn’t afford a good restaurant meal. But I met a gentle restaurateur named Lorenzo. I’ll never forget how he said, “Sit. You must be hungry. I’ll feed you.” I did. And he did. He died of cancer shortly after my visit. For 20 years, his daughter Monica has been my best connection with Vernazza. She has Lorenzo’s same love in her piercing eyes. And I’m happy to bring my tour groups to her family restaurant.

I wish I could say the Cinque Terre is a restful stop for me but, when here, I’m just too excited with the research challenge to relax. Still, it’s perfect as a break in an intense vacation. In fact, for two decades, the Cinque Terre was the “vacation from our vacation” on our Best of Europe in 21 Days tour. Like a seventh-inning stretch, our tours arrived here around day 14, just after we’d hit the biggies (Venice, Florence, Rome) and were in the mood for no museums. After our break on the Riviera, we’d be energized to do the Alps and finish with a climax in Paris.

While I rarely enjoy a free day in the Cinque Terre, I do savor a leisure hour at the end of an intense day of research here. My favorite time is at about 11 p.m. Like me, the local chefs have been scrambling all day. Now that the last guest has left, we’ve both finally finished our work day. They sit at a bar with tables for one facing the sea, and have a strong drink and a cigarette. I take a slow walk without agenda, camera, or notepad, just being in the Mediterranean town of my dreams. All of us are savoring the place we work hard to share with travelers…a place that we love season after season, as much as any of its countless guests.

I hope that, on your next trip, you can enjoy my favorite stretch of Mediterranean coastline (and get a fair deal on a room while you’re there).

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Friend Mugged at Knife Point — or Just a Scam

I received this email last night. It's from a friend who works as a tour guide for us.

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From: Mary S. (********@gmail.com )

Date: October 13, 2010 6:16:30 PM PDT

Subject: My Plight

I’m writing this message to you with sadness. I traveled to London for a short vacation and unfortunately for me. I was mugged at a knife point last night at the park of the hotel where i lodged and all cash, credit cards and cell phone were all stolen from me, I have reported the robbery to the police but they are yet to find the muggers. My flight leaves in less than 18hrs from now and i am having problems paying my hotel bills. The hotel manager won’t let me leave until i settle the bills. Please, I need a loan from you to return back home and i want you to get back to me if you can help.

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At first I was caught up in emotion and eager to help her. I could only imagine the nightmare she was going through. I replied with an email and received instructions on where to wire the money ($1,500). Then I realized I was falling into a crude, if clever, scam. (Re-reading the email text, I noticed that her name, my name ‘ anything that could have made the message truly personal ‘ was conveniently missing.)

Then I thought I should at least let the real Mary know that her email and contact list had been hijacked, so I sent her a message through Facebook, instead of her gmail address. An hour later I got a reply…stating that the email was true, she really was stranded in London, and she desperately needed my help. But again, the wording was generic, with no mention of anything familiar that she or I would know.

Apparently, Mary’s Facebook information was the actual scene of the crime, giving hackers everything they needed to pull off their scam. I un-friended her.

One of the best ways travelers can help one another is by being armed with good information…like which scams to be on the alert for. Our Travelers Helpline at ricksteves.com has a long thread dedicated to a scam like this one, called: Scam “I’m in Tears!!!” Our emails were hacked into!!!.

Have you received any travel-related scams like this? Any advice for protecting one’s self?