Emma TV is a voluntary organization that wants children admitted to the children’s department of the AMC hospital in Amsterdam to forget about being sick. The employees consist of volunteers and interns who enjoy working with children and making TV broadcasts.
EmmaTV
- General
- History
- The kids
- Footage and photos
- Finances
General
Broadcasts
The broadcasts are live and are broadcast 3 times a week on an AMC channel. Monday at 3:00 PM, Wednesday at 3:00 PM and Friday at 8:00 PM. The broadcasts are then repeated consecutively for a week. The broadcasts last 30 to 60 minutes and are filmed in a studio. There are also usually cartoons and/or short films of up to 6 minutes that are shown in between.
Teams
The broadcasts are made by different teams. Emma TV consists of a Monday team, Wednesday team and Friday team. There are also interns and volunteers who are present on two or three days, but most are there once a week. Each broadcast has a theme and sometimes guests are present. For example: Babbels (Wednesday team), Broadcast: Painting, Guest: Artist
Confetti (Monday team)
The different teams make broadcasts for different age groups. On Mondays we have a toddler/preschool group. The age here is from 3 to about 7 years old and the group is called Confetti. During this broadcast we often do crafts and drawing. There is always a presenter, a reading grandfather and a puppeteer. These are the regular items on Mondays.
Babbels (Wednesday team)
On Wednesdays we have children from 8 to about 12 years old. During these broadcasts we often make things, but there is also sometimes a guest that children can ask questions or who helps with crafts. There is often a cartoon in between and there are two presenters.
Tight (Friday)
Tight is for teenagers aged 12 and older. On Fridays there is always a guest who is known from TV. For example, a VJ, soap star, presenter of children’s programs, etc. The children on Friday will interview the guest, learn to act on TV, present clips and things like that. Many people work on Fridays who normally also work full-time at an audiovisual company. Experiments are therefore often conducted with a blue-screen or with autocue texts.
Cutscenes
Cutscenes are also sometimes used for the recordings. These videos are made on Tuesdays, Thursdays or during the weekend. The videos last a maximum of 6 minutes and have something to do with the theme of the broadcast.
History
Emma TV started in 1981 as an experimental project with the aim of providing children with a fun distraction. Patients were filmed with a video camera and they all watched what had been recorded on the television in the playroom. It was a big success. The patients had the most fun with themselves and each other. It provided the desired relaxation and brought the children into contact with each other. Based on these experiences, Emma TV has been expanded into a fully up-to-date television studio with no fewer than three live broadcasts per week for three age groups.
Emma Television: TV as medicine
Emma TV produces three live programs every week with more than fifty volunteers that children enjoy. With information, entertainment, excitement and sensation. Children can express themselves and forget for a moment that they are sick. Not only when they watch Emma TV, but also when they help make these programs. Emma TV wants to continue to offer this opportunity to children in the future.
The objectives of Emma TV are:
- Preventing the isolation of sick children;
- Encourage mutual contact between children in the hospital;
- Promote awareness of the hospital;
- The opportunity to forget about being sick outside the nursing department;
The kids
The Emma TV broadcasts are about allowing the children in the AMC hospital to do fun things and forget about being sick for a while. Everything is therefore calculated on the children and it often happens that the broadcasts are adjusted accordingly. There are days when up to 15 children come along, but it also happens that you make a broadcast with 1 or 2 children. It may be that everyone just comes along, but it may also be that you suddenly have to place 3 beds in the studio. At such times, the decor, camera angles and lighting must be adjusted again. And that has to happen very quickly because the live broadcast starts fifteen minutes later. There are also children who come every week because they have been in the hospital for a long time. But there are also children who only come along once and therefore do not know how everything goes.
On a broadcast day, a few people from the group always go to the children’s department around 11 o’clock. Here they talk to the department staff to see which children are there and which ones could be on the broadcast. This is always asked to the department first. If you do not do this, you may make a child very enthusiastic and he or she will not be able to attend later because he or she is being treated around that time or gets a rash from something. After the department has said who can, you go to the rooms to ask the children. They can really enjoy it, but they can also have a bad day so they don’t want to, or they have family visiting, or they just don’t feel like it. The children who do or might want to and can be written down.
The children are then picked up about 45 minutes before the broadcast. Sometimes it takes a while when children are prepared for wheelchair use or when children are taken along with their beds (the children’s department is on the 8th floor, Emma TV is in the basement). When the children are there, the presenters talk to them about everything. This will help children get used to the faces and if they are shy or nervous, it will put them at ease. There is also someone who welcomes the parents and offers them coffee or tea. The parents then go to the editing and coffee room while the children sit in the studio. There is a TV monitor in the coffee room so that parents can follow the entire broadcast.
After the broadcast the children are brought back. If there is a guest, the children can still chat and get an autograph, for example. Or children who have done crafts can still finish it. The children can also watch Emma TV for a week to see themselves.
Many children who come in unsure and shy can then be seen joining in with a nice laugh. That’s really nice to see.
Footage and photos
The children who come to Emma TV enjoy being in a broadcast and enjoy drawing, doing crafts, etc. They know that Emma TV is broadcast in the AMC hospital. But that’s it. The children are protected and have their private lives. The images from Emma TV cannot therefore be viewed outside the hospital.
If parents want a copy of a broadcast in which their child was in, that is not allowed. This is because the other children in the broadcast are also shown and that is not possible. The broadcasts are all saved but not passed on.
If a photographer comes to Emma TV, the child and the parents must sign a contract if they agree that the photographer takes photos of the child. If the photographer takes photos of the broadcast, the contracts must be signed for all children.
Finances
Emma TV works with one paid employee and only volunteers. This means there are almost no personnel costs.
Emma TV works with various sponsors. Emma TV has also acquired a lot of equipment from audiovisual companies. The equipment that is left over or no longer good enough for TV ends up at Emma TV. This sounds like Emma TV has to do everything with bad equipment, but that is really not the case. Emma TV, for example, has a very large studio camera on loan. And all recorders and devices are built-in and well connected. The sound, switch and light panels are very large and have many options. Actually everything is very professional. But Emma TV also needs money. That is why they are always looking for sponsors who want to help sick children forget about being sick.