eyedropper.co.uk goes into hibernation
April 20, 2008
Hello. Just a wee note to let you know that, like the Blue Peter tortoises, eyedropper.co.uk is going into a bit of a dormant state while I concentrate on the Big Food Map project I’m doing for Channel 4.
The odd thing might appear on my Flickr stream, but for the next seven months it’s out with the carbonite on eyedropper.co.uk as I’ll be posting a lot less than I all ready am.
I’ll take a moment to reflect here on my small contribution to the internet. I started eyedropper.co.uk on the 11th January 2004, have I contributed anything worthwhile? Here’s what the WordPress stats machine had to say about my all time top posts.
| 4oD on a mac | 4,907 | |
| Athena Classics: Tennis Girl | 3,737 | |
| 4oD on a Mac Part II | 2,427 | |
| The History of the Channel 4 logo and id | 1,336 | |
| Michelle wins the Apprentice.. what’s he | 763 |
So it seems 4oD on a Mac and the history of the Channel 4 logo were popular, along with photographs of girls, one scratching her arse, the other spent a few weeks working for Sugar.
What’s more the top five search terms that people used to find my blog are as follows:
| michelle ryan | 10,948 |
| drunk girl | 4,073 |
| 4od mac | 3,011 |
| michelle dewberry | 2,664 |
| spit roast | 2,416 |
Sigh. At times like this your with Leo McGarry’s view of the personal computer..’A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography? Where’s my jet pack, my colonies on the Moon?‘
Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed blogging on eyedropper, I hope I’ve at least made some of you not looking for Muchelle Ryan images or how to run 4oD on a Mac laugh along the way.
I’ll be back in seven months.
All the best
Andrew
UPDATE: If you want to get hold of me you can eee male, all 1 word, big food map at channel 4 dot com.
The work / blog balance
January 24, 2008
Nice Pen. The Pig’s Lipstick and Faces in Places work stuff out
OK slightly weird one this… I’ve just checked all my fellow ‘Channel 4 employees who blog’ websites, and none of them have yet written about the session we had this morning about how channel 4 staff handle their blogs. Maybe I’ve too much free time tonight?
Anyway, first a bit of history. Channel 4 has come a little late to the staff-who-blog policy thing. When I was at the BBC two years ago Nick Reynolds ran, in my estimation, a perfect example of how to come up with a staff blogging policy. He started a wiki, threw up some thoughts with a nod to HR and stuff, and asked us, the bloggers, to edit and tweak the guidelines. After a short debate consensus was reached and the whole lot put on a public facing page for the world to see. Nick was it that easy?
So this morning I attended a session about staff blogging for channel 4. There was a previous session which addressed the idea of an official channel 4 blogger attended by Press and Publicity, Marketing, Legal and Compliance and other interested parties. Of Channel 4’s traditional approach to media communications I will say this, and it’s an observation not a critism. Our set up, our DNA, is programmed to deal with the likes of the Liverpool Echo, not Cory Doctrow. There was talk about the channel 4 ‘line’, but the day a company of 900+ souls speak as one voice on a subject is the day we become bees. If my time at channel 4 has taught me anything, it’s that the staff actually care and have a huge range of opinions on our output, it’s just that in the past you had to go to the Barley Mow or the Greencoat Boy to (over)hear those views and that those views were drowned out by ‘the line’. This isn’t the case anymore and there are parts of the organisation that have no frame of reference for this; It could be described as the introduction of rats to a previously perfectly balanced eco-system of flightless tropical birds. Just how does the channel respond to people who blog about our content, and staff who blog about… well as it turns out, all sorts of things.
Some topics that came up from the session, and maybe my fellow workers can fill in the blanks.
Public vs Anonymity: anonymous blogging is ok, it’s often how many of us start. But hiding behind anonymity for the sake of being controversial is not very good. Many of us, myself included, hid behind a nickname or moniker. Which makes us all sound like American truckers “Cowbite this is eyedropper you got your ears on good buddy 10-4?” Let’s face it, we’re not whistleblowers, using annonymity just to be bitchy is.. well it’s a faux pas.
Say it loud: I think there’s loads of brilliant people at channel 4, with knowledge and skills and tips and experience. Everyone should feel they can talk about what they do, not matter what their dept or job title.
Staff safety: Channel 4 has a duty of care to its employees. Jon Gisby talked in he opening gambit that the ‘do right by the company and the company will do right by you’ culture is a good thing. Some of our staff are at the front line of user interaction or work in some very sensitive or controversial areas. They must be careful how they conduct themselves in the digital world because of the implications.
Other things: Channel 4, indeed broadcasting itself, has gone through a crisis in the past year. Our users - not viewers - are having the debate on our output and services. To remain silent is dumb, literally. We should engage with the debate, not in an attempt to win over anybody or fight fires, but to put our point across. People might not agree with what we say, but at least we’ve said it.
Here are some of the points we came up with.
- Rule 1. Help us write the other rules.
- It’s the internet, try not to make a tit of yourself.
- Don’t smoke cigs in your school uniform.
- Don’t ask managers, ask peers.
It was a really enjoyable session.
iPlayer goes to 11… and why BBC Four beats More4
January 6, 2008
Since they made it web based I’ve been watching more and more of the iPlayer on my Mac powerbook so much so that the ‘other flat screen monitor‘ in my house has barely been on. The other day I noted that who ever designed the interface made the volume control go to 11 in a Spinal Tap homage stylee, well it made me laugh. And I read somewhere that you don’t need a licence fee to use the iPlayer, so anyone want to buy a telly?
Talking of music I’ve been particularly enjoying the recent repeats of the BBC Four sessions, Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne etc. If they could dig up Jeff Buckley and get Tom Waits in, I’d be truly happy. Back in late 2005 when I was at the BBC I remember speaking to the BBC Four editorial team when More4 launched, and there was a feeling that More4 was what BBC Four could and should have been, after all it had all the intellectual aces and big guns - West Wing etc.
Three years later and I have to say the tables have turned. BBC Four has soooo got it’s shit together and worked out who it is. It has in effect quietly slipped into the space left by bits of BBC Two as it went after BBC One, a media version of Maynard Smith’s ‘sneaky fucker theory‘. The *.Britannia series’ have been fantastic, furthermore it’s exactly the sort of long shelf life content that lends itself to VOD. More4 on the other hand seems to have ran out of commissioning and financial steam, having said that it’s still put up ‘Iraq - the Bloody Circus‘, ‘Death of a President‘, ‘Ghosts’ and the China Rising season. However it’s still had to resort to showing the like of Jamie at home, Father Ted and Grand Designs. Come on mo’ fo’… sort it out! I want the UK’s intellectual channels to have a queensbury rules style scrap… for the good of the viewers obviously.
Meet the new boss..
December 5, 2007
Rambo’s Kitchen Nightmares
November 11, 2007
What would happen if a certain foul mouthed but popular TV chef met a monosyllablic one man killing machine post-traumatic stress disorder suffering Vietnam Vet. Needless to say the language is ‘choice’…
click for bigger version
PSD to follow
The History of the Channel 4 logo and idents
October 19, 2007
On the 5th of November this year Channel 4 will be 25 years old, as part of the celebrations, C4 is screening some of the classic programmes that made the channel famous - and infamous - on C4, More4 and they’re also all available for free for a month on 4oD. We’ve also constructed a special 50ft 4 outside Horseferry Road, but more on that later. First, let’s have a look at how that 4 has changed throughout the years.
First up, the classic multicoloured 4 that the channel launched with and kept for over 13 years. It worth noting the choice of colours, which as the widget on this page demonstrates make up the light that comes from your TV. Red, blue and green, and then purple from red and blue and yellow from red and green. Of course if you add all three together you get white… but more on that later. If you look at late 70s and early 80s TV sets from makers such as PYE you see their logo often features the primary colours, the take up for colour sets back then, indeed technology in general, wasn’t as fast as it is today, and the bright new channel no doubt wanted to show if its full glorious colour credentials.
The original exploding then reassembling motion was called ’round and back’, (see it in motion here) accompanied for most of those 13 years by David Dundas’ (now Lord Dundas) iconic Fourscore theme tune, which was actually four minutes long - though only the final few note made up the piece that went over the ident. Dundas retained the copyright to the ‘parps’, and at £3.50 for each use, the Channel was reputedly paying him over £1000 a week for ten or so years, nice work if you can get it Dave. There’s a nice non-youtube history of the logo’s here at TV Twirl as well as loads on youtube.
The Channel 4 logo’s always been up for customisation and alteration, or what nowadays would be described as a mash-up. Here’s a Hamlet cigar parody of it which appears genuine, but I can’t find any credible info in it. In the early days the logo was adapted for special programmes, especially the alternative sports brought to the UK in the late 80s and early 90s. Below are the idents that preceeded coverage of Sumo, NFL football and Football Italia.
There was also a Horse racing one, that turned the logo on it’s side to look like a horses head complete with bridal, but I couldn’t find that one. It’s strange that nearly all the sports got custom logos, with the exception of that Mongolian horseback game which used to use a goats head, and of course Kabaddi - the Indian breath-holding game of tig/British Bulldog. An episode of Kabaddi is available on 4oD. I remember watching the sumo coverage and loving the ceremony behind it all. Of course channel 4 doesn’t really cover minority sports anymore which is perhaps a shame as it introduced teh UK to some really interesting alternatives.
There was a move in the early 90s to what was called the ‘Tapping’ campaign, which saw different people tap the screen, the multicoloured block logo is still present in the corner however. This ran for 15 months and from ‘93 onward featured our on screen talent… and zig and zag.
As well as sports, the logo has been transformed for one off special weekends and seasons. Here’s one from the mid 90s for Sci-Fi weekend.
It’s interesting in that it features the exterior of the Horseferry Road headquaters, completed in 1994, which the channel probably wanted to show off. Even our own website describes it as being in one of the more charmless parts of Westminster. One of the urban myths around Channel 4 is that the Richard Rogers ‘owns’ the copyright to images of the building, much like the city of Paris ‘owns’ the copyright to shots of the Eiffel tower at night.I wonder if this is true?
Eventually in 1996 after paying Dundas a ton of cash rather than perhaps buying the score outright in the first place, the channel evolved the logo and score away from the iconic 3D blocks and into what was called ‘Connections’. This was produced by the design agency Tomato, and met with general apathy. It is perhaps the design equivalent of a second album.
It’s main contribution however was knocking the colours from the logo, as perhaps now colour didn’t need trumpeting quite so much as it did in the early 80s. The circles were displayed in various combinations, sometimes forming a four, sometimes not. It also introduced the idea of a back ground scene of modern Britain, though a guy washing his car was a bit dull.
But who’s this future teen popstar and time traveller? Why it’s a very young Billy Piper in a ident for 4Schools from the mid 90s.
It was soon replaced in 1999 by ‘Bars’ which has tonal bars shifting around over a white inverted four tile.
By 2002 the bars had evolved to be things like areoplane trails and such. Also the web address appears directly under the tile.
Here’s an interesting one from TV Twirl that preceeded childrens cartoons in the morning. And here’s a Christmas one that went in front of Children’s drama - Dinotopia. Also at Chirstmas channel 4 asked B3TA do design/mash up/fuck with it’s logo, and here’s the results.
It’s worth noting that ‘Bars’ started the whole thing of placing the 4 tile on the left in the middle, and in the middle is where the logo appears to this day, on stationary, staff passes as well as on air.
On December 31st 2005 the Channel launched it’s current set of ‘drive by’ idents.
Diner
Tokyo
New York?
Dubai?
As well as a bowling one, hay bales, flats, market. etc (all on Flickr and youtube) In a way I feel these are a combination of a return to the exploded 4 mixed with the scene from somewhere background that was first put forward in Connections in ‘96. The drive by implies that there’s many view points on a subject, but at one point and one point only there’s the Channel 4 one. And that’s our remit really, to approach subjects in a Channel 4 way, and offer a different viewpoint. Channel 4’s 25 now, it was once fresh, young and crazy, it’s grown up now, it’s part of the broadcasting establishment. What’s more it’s had kids, tearaway E4 and clever clogs More4, as well as its online and +1 services. I think they’re all on their way to standing on their own two feet. So where next for 4? Well, Kevin Lygo’s outlined what he sees as the future at Edinburgh, and it’s downsizing, back to smaller more interesting things perhaps?
What’s certainly not small, but is interesting is the 50ft high exploded 4 now standing outside Horseferry Road. It was unvailed last week by Culture Minister Margaret Hodge and will feature the work of three artist, Nick Knight, who work adorns it now, El Anatsui and Mark Titchner. I’ve been working with marketing on putting a webcam in the Greycoat hospital school opposite. You can watch a timelapse construction of it here and see the live webcam here . Anyway here’s some images of the launch.
More on Flickr.
And if you want to experience it in full high res 3D VR stylee check this, it’s ace!
http://sphericalimages.com/channel4/
Like all good logos, the 4 has stood for what the channel is all about. It changed over the years as we’ve seen, but it’s also grown, it’s not taken itself to seriously, and it’s tried to work new and interesting talent. And for the real design fans out there… here’s the C4 on air style guide. And if and GCSE design student cribs all this for your final thesis, you’ll have me to answer to!
Happy Birthday Channel 4.
(Did I mention I’m sooo glad I’m not at the BBC right now, or do you sort of get that…)
AOP awards and RTS Futures talks
October 9, 2007
I’ve not posted for a while as my personal life’s in a bit of a tailspin…
…consequently I’ve been seeking solace at various champagne fuelled receptions, talks and awards do’s. First up 4oD was nominated for a Association of Online Publishers awards last Wednesday evening, for best Launch campaign (The big talent-filled vending machine one) After a comedy of errors mix up with the tickets that saw no one wanting to go, then everyone wanting to go once the rumour came round that we’d won, our table was eventually sorted, and I, as feeder of images into the beast duly rented the cheapest tux the Moss Brothers had to offer.
I’ve been to the AOP awards before, it’s a right boozy affair, that normally sees News International lot boo the Guardian, and everyone boo the BBC perhaps rather unfairly. My ex-colleagues at BBC food were robbed by the current bun for best use of video. Anyway, Paul and I went up to collect the trophy which have to be the cheapest in awardland, consisting of a sheet of paper in a plastic clip frame. There’s also a sit down dinner, and the food was just as bad as last year. The starter was salmon and avocado, it was that sort of bright matt pink cold smoked salmon that makes you do the gag reflex, dressing was ok though. Next up the mains, a slow-cooked fall apart when touched with a folk piece of beef in sauce which was actually rather nice, run-of-the-mill dauphinoise and the obligatory squeaky green beans. Dessert was a pongy eggy apple soufflé. I then proceeded to get smashed, talk shit and tumble into a cab home.
A couple of weeks before this I went to the RTS Futures panel talk at Madam Tussauds. The panel was chaired by Hardeep Singh Kohli and consisted of the Ash Attila, Charlie Brooker, Victoria Coren, and Alex Zane. Much telly was discussed, and the points raised ranged from ‘hard work will get you there’ from Ash, to ‘Be nice to people’ from Victoria and Charlie. Alex Zane made a good point about the return to live TV. How with shows like The Word you never quite knew what you were gonna get, they had an edginess to them. There was some rather dull Q&A, with most young people saying things like ‘I’m being made to ask people trick questions so they’ll look stupid in the edit’ ‘my producer’s a bully and I’m doing this because if I don’t someone else will’ and ‘I’m not getting any training on anything’.
The panel very kindly stuck around for a drink and I cornered Alex Zane by the Hitler and Churchill figures. He talked about how shows like Friday Night Project and Charlotte Church should be live, how hosts now are too beholden to agents, PR people and marketeers, about how it’s ok to piss talent off once in a while (as his spat with the Enemy testifies). We talked about The Big Breakfast, Shaun Rider on TFI Friday, and about The Word some more. Alex Zane is probably too young to remember this, but there was a US glam rock band called Warrant in the early 90s who went on The Word to sing their hit ‘Cherry Pie’ as the credits rolled. Little did they know that the audience were planning to pelt them with real cherry pies. The singer stopped mid way through due to taking one right in the face and the whole thing ended in a farce. Live, naughty, edgy, it was obviously the talk of the 6th form common room the next day. It’s this that Alex, coming from radio, is on about. Not juswhat! And give up show business!t a tit flash or swearing, but the potential for things to go wrong, for celebs and guests to actually have to know what they’re talking about and be put on the spot rather than have their handlers shout ‘cut’.
But on the way home I started to think about why any 20 year old nowadays would want to work in TV, especially at the moment. Most of the established names in TV got their in a different age. Working with most exec producers these days is like being in a band and thinking it’s ok to let your dad decided the musical direction. There’s talk in TV about ‘getting to the top’, about standing on the corpses of all the other media graduates to make it.. Well perhaps that was fine when broadcasting was based on a scarcity of spectrum and prohibitive costs, nowadays bandwidth, distribution, cameras and mates are cheap. To sum up, if you’re in your 20s nowadays and want to make programmes, get a camera and follow your mate’s band, or interview your family, go on nights out and film that, make the films and programmes no one else is making because they can’t. Sure you might fail, but you’ll have done something genuine and it’s sure better than fetching coffee for Loraine Kelly guests. There’s the old joke about the guy who cleans up the elephant shit at the circus, and when someone asks him why he doesn’t get a different job, he says ‘what! And give up show business!’
Victoria Coren made a good point. ‘Anyone who’s done anything ground breaking or revolutionary in TV has done it because they’ve managed to get it done under the radar with out anybody knowing or finding out’, or they’ve just found away to do it and got on with it I reckon. It’s not so much standing on the dead of your generation as fighting the saloon driving, villa owning generation in front of you. You’ve got to have a blinder of an idea mind. Coren went on to talk about Oz Clark and James May’s Big Wine Adventure - the premise of which is the expert with the sceptic - and how she fielded a phone call from someone at the BBC that went ‘Is there anything you really know a lot about and would like to share with someone, or conversely, is there a subject you don’t know much about but would like to know more?’ And you can bet it was some poor nervous untrained AP who they got to do it.
Jamie Oliver really does food pr0n.
August 23, 2007
These days everyone’s far to busy on Facebook and Youtube to actually sit down on the sofa as a family and watch a whole 30 minute linear TV show right?. So for those of you who like your media short, itchy, rude and consumed at your desk - and who doesn’t? I proudly present the ‘best bits’ of Jamie’s new series - Jamie at home - see the Pride of Essex guide you through an night of unbridled passion with not one, but two ladies. And it goes with out saying that it’s aurally, but not pictorially, rather rude. It’s hosted on my .mac account so give it a minute to load yeah?
There was a comment on the Guardian Word of Mouth blog the other day asking ‘is there nothing he won’t put his name too?‘ Well in his defense he’s no worse that the rest, and at least the products he endorses are sort of useful. I’ve never tried any of the foodstuff’s he promotes, but they can’t be any worse than Ansley Harriot’s cous cous, which tastes like it’s come from the bottom of the school hamster cage.
Enjoy!
BBC iPlayer launch: The first 14 days (and Mac Support)
July 31, 2007
BBC iPlayer launch: The first 14 days - currybetdotnet - 17 July, 2007
Martin’s tongue-in-cheek take on the first 14 days of the BBC great hope, the iPlayer. Bits on BBC News here, message boards aflame, particularly with regard to mac support. I was at Andy Grumbridge’s leaving drinks the other day when in walked Ashley Highfield, Director of Future Media. Paul, the 4oD editor (and also ex-flextech employee) and I got chatting with Ashley about 4oD and launch of the iPlayer.
Here’s what he had to say, on the record. Mac support, by the end of the year. Happening in one of two ways. option a: Streaming. Like the ITV model and like other BBC clips and news offerings, the content will be streamed (he didn’t say what protocol this would be done with). Option b: Working with Flip4mac to add MS DRM to that product.
Stay tuned… And then there’s always Kangaroo!
Post Chinwag - The most unproductive Friday
July 6, 2007
I’ll wager London’s new media creative sector (worth a great deal to the UK economy) is nursing a sore head this morning after all being squashed into the Imperial college stoodunt union to drink free booze and eat free burgers in the rain at Chinwag 07
Academic institutions, like hospitals, have that percuilar smell, part sweat, part tears, part cheap industrial cleaning fluid. There was a lot of flashbacks for most people, and the place did look utterly trashed by 10 when I wisely left, apparently it went on till the small hours.
