Jamie Oliver: Schooldinners.Watched ‘Return to Jamie’s School Dinner’s‘ last night. On the one hand I think what he’s trying to do is grand (as I talked about first time round). On the other hand he’s divvy’d the blamed up between the School Governors, the LEA, the Government, the local pub who pulled out, and finally the parents for packing the kids poor lunches. The one one group he hasn’t actually blamed is the supermarkets. Yes he should lay in to the Sec of State for Education (liked the bit about the Iraq and the ‘handler’ stepping in), but it’s ignoring the elephant in the room not to address the supermarkets, where most of the parents do the shop. He could probably achieve a great deal more by saying to Justin King’s face “take crisps, pop, cheeze straws off you’re shelves or I’m off to see if Tesco’s will do it”. Jamie vs Sainsbury’s – Who’s the bigger brand? This ‘anti-Jamie’ (better coverage here) story is interesting for it’s total madness.
Archive for September, 2006
Jamie Oliver: Schooldinners
Published September 19, 2006 Channel 4 , Food , Television , media Leave a CommentThis morning I pulled up the blind of the bedroom window to see a Sparrowhawk ripping apart a Wood Pigeon in my back garden – cool!
Two Jays were making a hell of a noise trying the scare it (or me) off. I managed to get quite close to the Falcon with my D70 (max focal length – 70mm) Eventually it flew up to the tree and waited for me to grab a quick snap of it’s breakfast, before running off to work. Upper Norwood gets it’s name from the ‘Great North Wood’ and the whole area was once covered in woodland. Good to see that wildlife is still there, and nice to see birds of prey rather than the usual fox.
Bit of a ta-doo about this video in the Beeb at the moment. Natch the Daily Mail had a field day, but it must have been a hard call, choosing between slagging us off or condemning ‘political-correctness-gone-mad’, but I think we won by a nose, after all, the Mail can’t resists a pop at the beeb. Also most of the comments underneath from it’s own readers side on the ‘just a bit of fun’. My fave being “Look, I can’t stand the BBC, but this seems to be much to do about nothing. Don’t take it so personally. – M. Fernandez, Cpt, U.S. Army, Baghdad, Iraq
There’s been a lot of discussions between staff too. This weeks Ariel (internal BBC news paper) had:
page 1: “Bring back the fun says Peter Salmon”
Page 2: “Al-Jazeera spoof video is no laughing matter, says BBC”
Jeeeze, Someone also made a good point on our internal staff message boards.
Shame on the person that leaked it externally. Can’t people do a slightly dumb thing without it getting blown out of all proportion? And saying it’s licence fee money wasted. Come on. Does anyone seriously believe that has eaten up any licence fees? Also it’s, erm, how to put this politely? A bit rubbish.The British Army can do a better version than the mighty BBC!.
Indeed. Apparently some members of the top brass are furious. But is the problem the content, or that it leaked? Over lunch we talked about other BBC spoof videos. Here’s some pisstakes done by members of the public, the best being the slagging off of Grownups. Aye, and back in the day we really knew how to do PROPER PISS TAKES AND LEAVING VIDEOS OURSELVES! Check out this one featuring Suzi Quatro and the VT Christmas classic Legs & co.
Alastair Fothergill talks to Jana Bennett at the BBC
Published September 12, 2006 BBC Leave a CommentThis morning, as part of the BBC Storytelling Festival I went to ‘Alastair Fothergill, Series Producer of Planet Earth, in conversation with Jana Bennett‘. It was a fascinating look at just how something like Planet Earth gets made as well as Alastair’s thoughts on narrative as well as nature. (pic here)
We also got a sneak look at the forthcoming movie. On this Alastair talked about the rise of documentaries in cinema, and that people will still go and see a film after there’s been TV content. His Deep Blue film proved that, as it was massive in Asia. He went on to explain how with the advent of digital cinemas and shooting in HD, the gap between big and not so big screen is shrinking. Also how films like March of the Penguins and even the Al Gore movie are putting docs back. On MotP, he said, ‘it’s not a very good movie, in fact they even used some 16mm shots from my Life in the Freezer from 1993′.
The Q&A was interesting as someone asked “The show seems very clippable. How do you both feel about clips of Planet Earth appearing on YouTube?” Cut to nonplussed Fothergill.. ” I don’t even know what YouTube is..(Jana explaines)….ah, I’ve spent to long in the desert”. Jana went on to say that it shouldn’t be there… but as long as it’s intact and not mashed up, that’s a lesser evil, if it brings people back to the beeb. And as the comments below the clip above show, people really loved Planet Earth. Hopefully this is exactly the sort of thing that iPlayer will address. In a what’s the point of ripping it, it’s on bbc.co.uk in HD anyway sort of way.
Other points… he talked about Planet Earth brought in people from all backgrounds “a personal best for me was a write up in The Listener and Nuts magazine in the same month” (Having checked this I think he meant the Radio Times as the Listener went bust in 1991)
He also made a point about how some of the stuff he been shooting has actually altered the way scientists and biologists think about animal habits and behaviour, and that the BBC is well trusted in the academic community. You say you’re from the BBC and people don’t hang up on you, they say ‘ I use your clips in my lectures’. He went on to make a sly reference to getting scientists onboard through proper investigation, rather than ‘sitting on crocodiles’.
In other nature news, it seems some very sad and sick people have been taking revenge on stingrays down under. And though I personally prefer Fothergill’s rather than Irwin’s approach to wildlife. I’m pretty sure Steve would in no way approve of this.
P.S. Planet Earth returns in week 46 I think… And the homepage will no doubt do it’s bit and go into HD/panaramic/widescreen/ mode.
BBC NEWS | Magazine | The meaning of ‘lite’
Published September 7, 2006 Uncategorized Leave a CommentLink: The meaning of ‘lite’.
hahahah, the irony – talk about the errosion of the quality of language. This must be one of the worst written articles on bbc.co.uk. Paragraphy 12 is a direct copy of paragraphy 5! and ““Lite” has been around for years but has had a resurgence in popularity in recent years,” uses the word years to near each other. “Not that long ago words [sic] such words would have been viewed as too American for any of the group’s titles, now they are making it into names.” doesn’t make any sense either.
It appears to be written in ‘Metro English’, short choppy sentences you can read on a hurtling tube train, where points D,E and F are rehashes of A,B and C and simple facts are stretched out.
“Pot to Kettle, requesting colour check, over” But eyedropper, your spelling and grammar are crap too? Sure are/i but then I ain’t no jouro.
The Sun has just relaunced it’s website with a greater focus on video and pictures. The Guardian, lifting straight from the press release no doubt, says The Sun Online redesign should allows readers to find blogs and podcasts more easily.
Pity those blogs are some of the poorest mainstream media blogs I’ve ever seen. Very few have comments, the only one that does is Trevor Kavanagh’s, perhaps he’s picked up tips from our very own Nick Robinson. No permalinks, no calendar function, No one links to anything; These aren’t blogs, they are reporters diaries. Mind you the BBC’s done some really shit ‘blogs’ in it’s time. Check this ‘blog’ about..wait for it.. a guy reading a book.
Still at least Deidre’s casebook has embraced the digital age and gone all video. In a moment of Muybridge clarity Deidre said “I’m just thrilled with the way you see the photos come to life.”
Link: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Germaine Greer: ‘That sort of self-delusion is what it takes to be a real Aussie larrikin’… And I totally agree. Chris Packham was on Breakfast this morning echoing the same sentiment, while still maintaining an appropriate level of respect. I bet he was dying to say something more akin to Germaine’s tone. A lot of the obits I’ve seen in the media are along the lines of ‘he got young people interested in animals’. It’s worth remembering however that Packham came to fame with the Really Wild Show, that did an excellent job and getting ‘young people interested’. Me, I think Irwin was a bit of an arse really.
Link: BBC NEWS | Magazine | Discord over guitar sites.
Sepia mode on: It’s 1991, and a 16 year old eyedropper has spent the summer working in a chip-shop in Lyme Regis. He’s returning up north with a ruck sack of dirty washing and a wodge of hard earned cash… cash that is to be spent on a guitar! Weaned on rock and metal during the dancey ‘E’ Madchester rave years he’s fired up as grunge takes the UK by storm! He spends £200 on a Tanglewood Les Paul copy and and a Marshall Valve-state amp! Plugs it in, runs a finger across all dails up to 10, and let’s loose a right racket. So how do you play this thing?
When I was learning guitar we didn’t have the internet.. so we’d either try to work it out by ear, get a book out of the library, or shoplift one – any of these options doesn’t really get the publisher any money. Nowadays budding axe boys and girls can learn they’re favourite songs in a jiffy… This move is perhaps the single most stupid thing I have heard yet. (Up there with shutting down Harry Potter fans sites.) Yeah kick fans in the nuts you money grabbing tossers. Anyone who’s ever used tab is reading that whilst listening to the song they already own.
So, on to bit-torrent with tabs then. And to see that Beautiful Day by U2 is one of the artists being deprived on anymore money is gauling, like they need the cash. If you’re in NYC on sept 26th you might like to meet a member of the lawfirm representing the NMPA, Moses Singer, at a talk Gideon Rothschild is giving entitled ’2006 AICPA Briefing on Tax Planning for Wealthy Clients’. Says it all I reckon.
I wouldn’t mind if music publishers had a decent digital alternative, or put the tab/sheet music on the damn CD – bang problems solved – but, no, there’s none. And to only just come round to this when Olga’s been around for over a decade is shameful. Once again it’s us, the fan/consumer getting it in the bum. Google however, has 292,000 results for U2. btw If anybody cares it goes – A –> Bm –> D –> G –> D –> A. So keep on rocking in the free (tabs) world kids, or – and this is a better plan – sod them and make your own better music.
Furthermore, the BBC has massive music output, yet I don’t think we’ve ever done a ‘learn to play guitar’ style offering apart from this, which is soooo BBCy it would make any kid worth his plectrum vom.
teeth for show, poisoned barbs for a pro…
Link: FT.com – Transcript of Ashley Highfield’s speech.
Here’s a transcript of Ashley’s speech he gave at the Edinburgh TV Festival last weekend. He also emailed it around to the entire division. I’ve been thinking about it for the past couple of days, reading between the lines. So let’s have a look.
Good opening statistic, contrast this with the Comment in this week’s broadcast from Editor Conor Dignam “People around the globe will still gather around the TV in a way they never will around a web connection” Well Conor it seems our own stats prove otherwise, yes cup finals, Royal weddings and perhaps first man on mars might get into double millions, but not much else. (but more of Conor later)
Second paragraph, the youth. As a development producer said to me last week ‘my 15 year old doesn’t watch telly, I have to beg him to come and sit with me on the sofa to watch Lost’. The young look at TV like we look at writing letters, to them, it smells of wee. No more awful memories of something rude coming on telly when watching it with your mum and dad?
eeek, bit of a cringy seqway into the ‘windows’ metaphor. But yes, this week the iPlayer began it’s Public Value test phase (sigh). You could say that the PVT is a polite way of saying to the wider market “100, 99, 98.–>.. 3, 2 1. Coming, ready or not!” And woe betide any of those commercial dolphins who can’t move out of the way of the Beeb oil tanker.
The long tail references. Freeing up our archive has been an idea that’s been kicked around for ages, Greg spoke about it 3 years ago and it’s still not happened fully. Still, the player should be the best way of finally put that in the out tray. The thing is, as this line shows “But in the TV business, the share of viewing to long tail programmes was, even as late as September 2006, negligible.” The long tail is known in TV land as ‘repeats’ and it’s something that people really hate us for when it’s not on their terms. No one ever said “oh goodie, repeats!”. But as DVD sales show, people lurve old content. And we’ve got 1.2 millions hours, or to rephrase that, 136.8 years of it.
“You’ve been mashed” idea. I don’t think ‘Telly’ will ever make a show like this, it’s just tooo slow. Mashups and silly attachments are the mayflies of content, done and dusted in a lunch hour. TV just ain’t fast enough.
The next bit. “…including a resurgent ITV”. If the Edinburgh fest showed anything, it’s that ITV is in a right mess, and with top names dropping out of the running or declining to run for the top job, I can’t see them turning this around by 2008. Unless Ashley knows something we don’t? It’s taken the BBC four years to get to this point, and we’ve not got a product or a service launched properly yet, what’s more there’s still large parts of the business who either think ‘It doesn’t affect me” or “I’m not moving”. ITV will not have it’s own on-demand portal distributing content by 2008. Channel4 on the other hand will be going great guns by then I’m sure. I don’t get the hat tip to ITV, was it an attempt to show some commercial interests? Strange that there’s no mention of Channel4′s successful wade into on-demand broadband at all.
Ass kiss alert! The Jana Bennett reference, why Ashley you ol’ smoothy!! He’s putting words in her mouth, but the idea’s right. Trouble is, would Jana say that? The media industry is all about the new new new thing… offering people ‘Till death do us part’ episodes isn’t cool or sexy.
Moving on And now here we are in 2011, with Microsoft’s Digital Home finally working successfully, where it is now a piece of cake to throw video around the house, from PC to TV. Hahahah. Having only read this line rather than seen it delivered, I’m unsure of it’s meaning. I’d take the ‘finally’ in italics, as in, “we finally released Vista 1.1″. (I’d rather throw cake around the house!) Other companies will develop this bridge, not just Mircosoft, but I guess Ashley has to give them some love as it’s their DRM that’s underpinning the iPlayer. Apple could do it, (and do it better no doubt). And in Ashley’s vision its too early, more like 2015+
This for me is the last big dipper of the speech. The penultimate point about BARB figures is spot in Those broadcasters who had not created strong aggregator brands for themselves, nor bothered to secure on-demand rights, nor valued their archives, nor invested in the proper technology, have found themselves in serious trouble and wished they, back in 2006, had started to measure not just Barb overnights, but the long-term reach and value of their content. Amen. Then he finishes on the Martini Media phrase! Oh God how I hate that neologism! At first it annoyed me, then it grated, but when I read it in this speech I went ape.. but then something strange happened. I popped through the cloud cover of rage to a new brighter space. And here’s where I think Ashley and Mark have either been really smart or lucky in the selling of this concept. I’m from new media, I know the sort of technologies they’re talking about. But most people with positions of power in TV (at least at the BBC) are late 30s, or 40s. To call it ‘ubiqutious media’ or ‘pan-media’ or something is a no go, like telling them a webpage is HTML. No, far better to reference an ad campaign from the good ol’ 70s, something they know. After all you’re telling them that the overnights, the very slots they crave, the very device they know and love, won’t matter a jot soon. My only concern is it was originally used as short hand clue, the more I see it in print, the more I wonder if Martini’s legal dept will come a knocking?
When I first read this speech, I’ll be honest, I turned to a colleague and added ‘By Ashley Highfield aged 14 and a half’. Mostly because of how it was written, but then speeches are meant to be heard not read, so I”m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, I agree with the key points, that we’re looking at a new distribution model, via the internet. Furthermore we need to look at new forms of content. This isn’t just about putting liner telly on the net. It should be about weaving telly into the net.
And the more coverage I read of Edinburgh, the more I’m convinced. Let’s turn back to Conor’s editorial. “The Edinburgh International Television Festival should change its name to the Edinburgh International Media Festival said a number of leading industry figures at this year’s event.” ..and.. it seems that TV is no longer what it once was – and needs to be taken down a peg or two. But that doesn’t mean we should be in a hurry to relegate the status of what remains the most powerful, creative and compelling medium in the world. Yes it does! Creative for whom? Not for the viewers it’s not. We have had to eat whatever went in the trough for 60 years. It was what was on the specials board or get out. Well now I can even get a Whopper ‘my way’. He goes on We should not be so willing to surrender TV’s “special” status and allow it to be subsumed by a (new) media description.. Oh yes we should Conor, they days of media barons are coming to an end mate, we all want a go now.
