]]> http://samgoldwater.com/wp/?feed=rss2&p=243 0 http://samgoldwater.com/wp/?p=240 http://samgoldwater.com/wp/?p=240#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:00:41 +0000 admin http://samgoldwater.com/wp/?p=240

For a couple of weeks at the start of July I sparked on Third Film’s latest drama short. It’s called Compulsion, directed by Andy Mcvicar.

Working in the real world with the real daylight and all those other novelties has got me thinking about live action…

We came to our first session of the day armed with visions for the future of daytime television. Some members of the Entertainment division of BBC Scotland sat amongst our circle. Others stood at the whiteboard, wearing sandals, red marker pens at the ready. Our teams took turns laying out quiz show ideas. There were ‘Blag it!’, ‘The Grid’ and ‘Truth or Judas’. Our mentors folded arms and furrowed brows, scribbled key phrases on the board.

“What is the win condition?”

“Who are the audience?”

“What will the staging look like, exactly?”

We looked to each other for answers. “Why don’t you play it out towards the middle?” “You could make it more family orientated!” On the Department Calendar were scrawled items, “Duncan Bannatyne MEETING: 2:00 PM”, “Joe Street, THURSDAY”. Across the air hanger office space towards spotless glass walls people sat at computers sending emails and planning the future of children’s interactive education.

The Entertainment team heard all our pitches and whittled them down to the three most promising. They cite obscure daytime quiz formats, long since left to archive dust. The etiquette is twenty years off air before a premise can be recycled and updated for broadcast.

The talent manager Bill Ward met us in the PQ lobby for a tour of the building. On the set of the quiz show, Egg Heads we stood behind the camera while the day’s contestants introduced themselves.

“Hi, my name is Michelle and I am currently unemployed”

“Ok Michelle, let’s try that once more, but let’s have ‘I am looking for work’”.

“Great, more of a smile this time please, Michelle”.

There was a round of applause when the director, operating remotely from the van outside, gave the OK on Michelle’s fifth take.

Later, Gerald Strother introduced us to the software pipeline for the modern producer.

“Most people self-shoot these day,” he said. A bespoke iteration of Avid called Newscutter has been tailored to the needs of the BBC producer, providing meta data input and rudimentary edit tools. This stage cuts down the expensive time in the suite with Final Cut and Pro Tools.

There is an almost pious, reverential hush over the sandstone Atrium of Pacific Queys. The towering Escher office seems to dissolve the sound of corridor chatter, of producers and projects and public interest.

The first full day of the Gen Up North program was straight down to business with BBC ‘Black Belt’ executive producer Colin Savage.

“Meta data,” declared Colin “was best described to me as the wrapper of a Mars Bar – it is the packaging that tells you everything you need to know.”

Two digital media seconds later (shorter than your human seconds) we were talking about status games.

“What is your passion, Alan?”

“Chilling with friends?”

“Cool. Love it, but what’s your passion?”

Tawfiq’s passion is to learn as much as possible, we learned, and Jamie’s is Liverpool United.

“Asking people questions can level out their status, makes them more human to us,” said Colin. “You will see it in the boardrooms of any office in the world – there will be the characters leaning back on their chairs, making others wait for them. These are status games”.

In our office that day we levelled our statuses with some improvisation exercises, pointing at objects and calling them other objects.

“Those of us who find this hard,” announced the black belt “may feel their status in the group is at stake.”

Before lunch we were tackling the problem of creativity. Colin presented us with some research conducted in the late 90s by Stanford University that proposed a framework for the construction of ideas.

We were taught to establish the objective, research the issue, identify problems and then source ideas with brainstorms and random association. In an hour the group was tackling the marketing challenge of selling chocolate to men and re-branding the TV show, Football AM.

Colin had the group take it in turns to facilitate the session.

We were advised, “write people’s ideas in direct quotes, and don’t miss any out – or they’ll get grumpy.”

That afternoon we briefed in the art of pitching. Need, Approach, Benefits, Competition and a Call to Action like “How about we schedule a meeting to discuss the project further?”

We each attempted the format, addressing the room with varying success. Anthony put the rest of us to shame with an expert rationale for a suicide prevention iPhone app.

Suddenly it was five o’clock, and with our live brief for BBC3 assigned, we were free to wander the sand blasted Salford quayside in search of inspiration for what was promised to be an ‘intense’ day tomorrow.

Still Here