Interactive online teen dramas like The Cut will be, er, cut.
The BBC’s new strategy has taken a bit of a media battering today, which is not surprising given its announcement that it plans to axe two much-loved music stations – 6Music (the digital embodiment of the spirit of John Peel) and Asian Network. It also intends to halve its web content, and give a quarter of its website staff the shove.
The news wasn’t well-received, and it was delivered even more badly. Web editors staring into the black hole of recession-era unemployment were given the verging-on-bitchy explanation that the BBC now wants ‘justified and purposeful’ web content rather than the ‘extraneous or encyclopedic’ guff that it’s overspill web staff apparently create at the moment. That’ll make them feel better.
Ok, it’s sensible to kill off some of the BBC’s digital deadwood. There are plenty of programme-related microsites that do little to enhance the corporation’s web output, and trimming these off from the core site could do it wonders. But what role will the site play in multi-platform content in the new age of Quality?
A lot of the multi-platform has stemmed from teen-focused digital services Switch and Blast, both of which are unfortunately to be closed. Mark Thompson has decided that Channel 4 should do all that teenage stuff (in which case, shouldn’t Channel 4 be given the relevant percentage of the licence fee? That’s if the licence fee still exists after the next election…).
When it comes down to it,‘Putting Quality First’ actually seems to mean ‘putting TV first’. There is no talk of creating innovative, high-quality, multi-platform content that utilises the various strengths of the BBC’s different service platforms. Instead, there’s a sense of, ‘what are all these websites doing here? Get rid of half of them, then there won’t be so many, and we’ll have more money to spend on TV dramas’. It’s hard to see how the BBC intends to face the digital future armed only with ‘Enders and Moyles.
Apollo bars would definitely be on David Thomson's multiplatform wish list. Clues to help the audience decipher the story are engraved on the chocolate inside. Image by Colin Rego
The digital salad that film, TV, animation and other ‘media’ students find themselves tossed into after graduation could seem unfathomable. They’ve learned their trade and they just want to get on with it, but now a whole new set of demands – for multi-platform content, a social media element, and a digital consciousness – is being put in their way.
But the ever-changing world of the broadcast industries offers plenty of opportunity. As part of the crowdsourcing experiment that I did to research a talk to a group of students, I asked some movers and shakers for their advice to new graduates. Here are 5 of their best gems of wisdom.
Keep your options open and your interests really wide. Multi-skilling is increasingly valued and any career in broadcasting/digital content production will undoubtedly take you in directions you could never begin to predict. Carole Dunlop, TRC
Play with things, get your friends involved and try to make some projects which people really enjoy online. There aren’t many people who are good at this. Antonio Gould, Executive Producer
Transmedia [is] about connecting content via artifacts – for example, a character who’s a writer actually publishes a book (e.g., there would actually be a real book called ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ by Hank Moody from Californication). David Thomson, Denki games designer and screenwriter
Don’t feel restricted by not being able to do everything. Find people with different skills to your own and work together. Me, Rebecca Thompson
If you have any other tips for students, please let me know. Or, if you’re a student and want advice on something in particular, drop me a question in the comments box below.
Multi-platform programming is the holy grail of broadcasters. When it works, it elevates an idea to a previously-impossible level of purposefulness and/or engagement. When it doesn’t, well, we’re not interested. It’s a tough old media landscape out there and we only have so much time to spend with our screens.
There’s a nice twist in the educational Routes games – instead of lecturing the user about the dangers of sneezing into each other’s faces, it encourages you to run riot, infecting as many kids, adults and old people as possible. It’s the same info, but it’s always more fun to be a little bit evil. Thanks Carole Dunlop.
9: The Big Personality Test – Child of our Time
The BBC should be great at mustering up masses of resources for huge events like this. In depth online questionnaires aim to map the personality of the nation as part of a 20-year project to find out more about who we are. I love the scale of it, but I’m not sure how its parts fit together yet. It’s like a huge unfathomable dinosaur viewed from very close range.
8: KNTV / Slabovia
Enter the world of Slabovia and cast reality aside. This web, TV and iPhone project from Tern Digital seriously ticks multi-platform box – it even released a record. With plenty of active users and some great UGC, the KNTV definitely made its mark. Plus, it sold potatoes on eBay. Cool.
7: Sexperience
Antonio Gould picked Sexperience as his favourite multi-platform project of the past year. He was impressed by the extent to which it handed over editorship to the users. Not just users, but sexually-preoccupied teenage ones. It’s a gamble that payed off; there’s plenty of excellent content in there.
6: Misfits and Peep Show on Twitter
Misfits and Peep Show get to share a slot here, for essentially doing the same thing – using Twitter in an intelligent and organic way that exploits the story and the style of the TV show. The Peep Show guys tweet using the distinctive personal point of view that characterises the show, and in Misfits, two of the characters reveal thoughts that are not available to on-screen-only viewers. For me, the latter would make for a compelling viewer experience.
5: A History of the World in 100 Objects
As a bit of an ancient world geek, I was pretty excited about this radio and web project by BBC4. It does a really effective job of helping the audience get a grasp of this enormous subject. There is some user participation, but what I really like is that the radio segments are fascinating stand-alone programmes, and also guide the listener to the website. It’s a very classy project.
4: Come Dine With Me Playalong / The Apprentice
These ludic funthings by Monterosa definitely make the list for helping lead the way in the field of play-as-you-watch experiences. Carole Dunlop from TRC picked the Come Dine With Me Playalong, but both games use Monterosa’s innovative Reac TV platform to provide the chance for casual play, whilst still focusing on the TV.
3: HBOImagine – the Affair
I just came across this really clever device by HBO, which was flagged up by Tern TV’s Jamie Gillespie. The four sides of a cube allow the web viewer to view the story – about an affair – from different sides in order to get the full picture. A slick web interface lets you flick from screen to screen, and there is also a physical screen-based version which can be set up in the street. The ultimate in ‘there are little people acting inside my TV’ magic, and definitely the starting point for a new type of storytelling.
2: The Lost Experience
If Lost had the ability to captivate and fanatacise its audience, then the Lost Experience, by Channel 4 and Hi Res! was able to take the most hardcore of those fans and offer them an immersive, personal and satisfying adventure. Secret html code hidden inside blogposts, hieroglyphs planted in the physical world – this project had the confidence to believe that fans would be dedicated to crack its codes and get access to the sub-plot. Denki’s David Thomson loves the way that it sneaks out of the digital world and into the physical.
Watch the video below for a more detailed explanation of the 3-stage project:
1: Embarrassing Bodies
Embarrassing Bodies, by Maverick TV for Channel 4, is a perfect example of how multiple platforms can be used completely intuitively to benefit the overall aims of a project, which, in this case is to prevent people from ‘dying of embarrassment’. The TV output is attractive-enough family viewing, but the online world of Embarrassing Bodies is brilliantly effective, and the mobile downloads allow those with particular concerns to go off and check their bits and bobs in the privacy of the bathroom. Simple.
Have a look at the info video about Embarrassing Bodies below, and be warned that it contains explicit medical nudity:
Did we get it wrong? Feel free to get us told in the comments box below.
I’m planning to give a talk at the CCA, Glasgow, this week as part of the Creative Loop initiative to a group of FE students who want to know more about multi-platform content and 360° commissioning, and I need your help.
I’m going to be talking about the movement away from TV-only programming, from both an audience and a commissioning perspective, and giving some examples of interesting multi-platform projects such as Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies and Skins, Rezzable’s Heritage Key, and Barack Obama’s ‘Obama 08‘ election campaign. The BBC’s crowd-sourced new series The Virtual Revolution might also get a mention.
I was thinking that perhaps the talk itself could be a little more talk 2.0, rather than the usual tired old PowerPoint presentation and Q&A affair. Rather than me, me, me, I’d like to crowdsource some research for the talk. So here we go. I (and no doubt the students) would really appreciate it if you could help answer these two key questions:
What is the most important piece of advice you could offer students hoping to work in the broadcasting media industries?
What are the best examples of multi-platform content?
If you can offer some suggestions in response to either or both of these questions, please post them in the comments below, tweet them with the hashtag #hottapcrowd or as a direct message to me, or email me directly. The answers will be used in my talk to the students on Friday, and listed here on this blog (with links back to their owners).
Thanks in advance from 150 eager young minds… and mine. Keep an eye out here for the results.
Aleks Krotoski, presenter of The Virtual Revolution, BBC2
Alex Krotoski was a surprising choice as presenter for The Virtual Revolution – what BBC 2 were surely intending to be the most complete, current, global and ground-breaking piece of interactive documentary ever created on the subject of the digital world. Despite being a PhD-certified expert on digital culture, government policy advisor, and well-respected speaker and Guardian blogger in the real world, in the world of TV ‘Dr Aleks’ (as she apparently now insists on being called), is still for many the smiley bouncy one from Bits.
For any Generation Net readers, Bits was Channel 4′s magazine review show about games, presented by a fizzy bevvy of 3 lovely girls in tight t-shirts, occasionally tied-up together in the style of a teenage Dungeons and Dragons geek’s sexual fantasy; it fizzled out fairly quickly at the end of the nineties. Was it a mistake to stamp the show with such an old-media personality? Dr Aleks is certainly interested, intelligent and qualified enough, but it’s difficult to get excited about all these claims of revolution, democracy and a global voice when they’re presented by what could be perceived as the ghost of TV past.
The old experts being interviewed on camera, the shots of the presenter strolling through fields and typing away at one of those portable computers on a park bench, the stock presenter-led format, the fact that they sent that presenter all around the physical world to report on the virtual world, in fact the fact that’s its a TV show… the whole idea of having a presenter at all smacks as being very old media. In a BBC series about the global online community, shouldn’t we be the presenters?
We-Speak?
The first episode, called The Great Levelling?, which aired tonight, featured a stella lineup of interviews with web heavyweights such as inventor of the internet Tim Berners-Lee, YouTube boss Chad Hurley, and Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington. It focused on the idealistic beginnings of the web before its corruption at the hands of a young Bill Gates (portrayed through still images of Mr Microsoft as an alternative version of Mick Jagger who could still jump and shout, but who worked hard at business school and took different drugs), and featured some 3D graphics which explained how Napster used to work, and why eBay, Amazon and Facebook are the only sites that really count (Twitter is already aflame with disgruntlement about its exclusion – surely it deserves a graphic of a bingo ball suspended in The Matrix too?).
Clips from the show were made available online prior to broadcast, which is fantastic, and users were encouraged to download these assets to make their own documentaries, with a competition rewarding the best mash-up. It’s a nice idea, and site shows the short-list of the entries.
The producers also claim that the programme was shaped by web users ‘from Teeside to Taiwan‘. The source of this input seems to be limited to comments made on the BBC website – could the programme have reached out to the world wide web rather than demanding that it came to them?
The multi-platform element of The Virtual Revolution is otherwise limited to blogs, forums, twitter, and not-yet-launched resources such the 3D Documentary Explorer and What Species of Web Animal are You? – both of which sound pretty interesting. The blog accompanying the programme is written by a small number of core authors, including Krotoski and Dan Biddle, and is generally really good. The posts are intelligent and thought-provoking, and attract real debate in the comments boxes.
Overall, this is a thoughtful documentary series full of relevant, important questions, and the promise of some influential experts to help answer them. The series aims to examine how the web is changing our world, but it doesn’t explore how it could change documentary-making. It’s a very worthwhile programme which makes a stab at community engagement, but in terms of its delivery, there’s not really anything that is either virtual or revolutionary so far.
Tim Berners-Lee Interview, courtesy of BBC 2
YouTube Boss Chad Hurley Interview, courtesy of BBC 2
Queue for the first iPhones at a store in SoHo. Image by Johnny Vulcan
The new ‘build an app’ service offered by iSites promises to democratise the app industry in the way that early build-your-own-website online software opened up the internet in the nineties to, well, all kinds of nutters. I decided to jump right in and turn my wordpress blog into an iphone app pronto.
Signing up and logging in was a simple, friendly, and pleasant experience, and I was launched straight into their ‘build your own iphone app’ function. Their promise? Instant, simple iPhone or Android app.
It’s actually a pretty cool site. The dashboard is simple, functional and intuitive, and you can customise the design of your app. Functions include a nifty exact shade colour selector for banners and text, although for splash screens you have to submit all the artwork to the correct dimensions, colour settings etc. You can also go back and tweak your design until you’re happy.
In fact, it is possible to have spent a fair while on the site before you click ‘publish’ and get the following message:
Temporary hold on new apps activation and payment
Thank you for choosing iSites to build your self-managed App. We want to remain the preferred choice for building professional quality apps at a very affordable price.
Currently we have been inundated with new app requests. Hence we have decided to temporarily stop activating and accepting payments for new apps until all currently paid apps are submitted to Apple for final review. Please note that you can continue to create new apps and publish – but will not be able to activate and submit it for review.
Thank you for trusting GENWI to help you self-manage an App via iSites. We also thank you for your patience and encourage your continued feedback to help us create the best app making and revision system any of us could imagine!”
Too Popular For Its Own Good
It turns out that everyone and their mum wants to build their own iPhone or Android app for $25, and the owners, GENWI, have had to temporarily shut down under the sheer weight of their own popularity. Who knows how long they mean by ‘temporary’, or why they couldn’t tell you this at the beginning of the process rather than right at the end, or how many eager, novice, mobile app developers like me were disappointed by the lack of instant results. But I’m willing to hang around a wee while in the queue to find out.
Has anyone else completed the process? Let me know what you thought of the end result.
Leave the mushrooms to soak while you have a bath and read Wired. Image by ex.libris
On dark chilly evenings like this, I like to whip up a hearty, filling risotto for the family. There’s something quintessentially autumnal about mushrooms and high-budget US-acquired drama series, and this is a satisfying dinner for carnivores and veggies alike. Here’s how you make it.
First, open a packet of mixed dried mushrooms. You want the ones with wild field mushrooms rather than the oriental types of mushrooms, and will probably need half a packet. Whack these in a bowl with some warm water.
While the mushies are soaking, join in by opening a bottle of white wine and taking a large glass of it with you into the bath (you can’t beat Radox – they know what they’re doing). Take the November issue of Wired with you and check out the ‘Pass it on’ article. Simmer over the golden rules of social network-based entrepreneurial brilliance outlined in the article, and then realise that there is only one rule of social network-based entrepreneurial brilliance, and that’s to have an obviously genius idea that nobody else has thought of yet. Try to think of one on the spot.
Image of Wired magazine, in a bathroom.
Cheer yourself up by laughing at the ridiculous full-page photo in Zest Magazine of a happy model jumping into an outdoor swimming pool in the middle of snow-covered mountains wearing – yes, a tiny bikini, and also….. furry boots!
By now, your kids will be asleep and your boyfriend/flatmate/life partner will be engrossed in Modern Warfare II (despite the new rules about dedicated servers), and nobody really cares any more whether you make this thing or not, but you’ve started so, get your arse out of that bath and get back into the kitchen.
Ok, finely chop a red onion and plenty of garlic, and sauté them in butter and a splash of olive oil over a low heat, then add Arborio rice and chopped fresh chestnut mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes, stirring continuously, and then add a big glassful of white wine. Any wine left over from this point on is yours for the drinking.
Boots in a pool - bikini in the snow - detail from Zest magazine
The dried mushrooms that you’ve been soaking should be nice and springy now. Grab a handful of them and squeeze them over the pan of risotto. The juices that dribble out over your hand will give your risotto extra mushroomy flavour, and make you feel like Nigella Lawson for a moment. Chop the mushrooms, and add them to the pan, along with the rest of the mushroom liquor from the bowl.
By now, the risotto should be simmering away. Time to whack in a load of chicken stock and go leave it to bubble away while you watch True Blood. With any luck you’ll see the crazy scene when Bill drags himself out of the ground naked to seduce his beau in the graveyard. In any case, you’ll be thoroughly entertained by an hour of thoughtful and slickly-made sexy shock drama and will start to wonder why we’re so incapable of this kind of entertainment in the UK?
Save your risotto just before it sticks to the bottom of the pan by taking it off the heat and adding salt, pepper and lots of grated parmesan. Serve with crispy grilled bacon and a poached egg, or if you’re vegetarian, stick some oven chips on to go with it. Done.
Don’t give up on UK TV drama just yet though – remember that you recorded that first episode of Cast Offs last night, the brainchild of one of the Skins writers, which promised to be “groundbreaking”, and stick that on while you eat your dinner. Pretty soon you will realise that Cast Offs is a dreary disabled Lost. But your risotto will be damn fine. Enjoy.
To make Wild Seasonal Wild Mushroom and Vampire Risotto you will need:
Arborio rice
Dried wild mushrooms
Fresh chestnut mushrooms
Zest Magazine
Wired Magazine
Bottle of white wine
Tonight’s episode of True Blood (substitute with any episode available)
Chicken stock
First episode of Cast Offs
1 red onion
Some garlic
Bacon
Eggs
Oven chips (vegetarian option)
Total preparation and cooking time, about 2 hours.
![Slabovia Hearts Pigs [11/04/08 The Potato]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/2368655738_562d38a3d6.jpg)
