#3

One step closer to the future

BBC TV programmes put on iTunes
Great to see the BBC doing something in online video ahead of the competition, it's been a while! One step forward to the future that we're moving towards.

And here is a glimpse of that future at www.locatetv.com the first site I've seen which combines EPGs for online, television and DVDs. This allows you to search for a programme, find out when it's next on TV (you can specify your TV provider details) and also find out where it's available to view online.

The results returned are variable. 4OD content doesn't appear while iPlayer content does, and you certainly notice the broadcasters which aren't making their content available online - how long can they afford not to be doing this? Locate TV is far from a fully formed useful product that people will use. However it works, is intuitive and shows how television and online video could exist together in the future.

An interesting aspect is how they're also pushing Movies and actors. Hmm.

Give it a whirl:


PS: Latest on the Max Gogarty Saga.

BBC Entertainment blast from the past

While doing some flash investigation I found myself at thetobe.com Looking around Toby's portfolio I found this image from a long time ago.

This is a BBC Entertainment Broadband service I developed, produced and ran back in about 2002. So long ago I'd almost forgotten about it. I was working for Tom of the Dolan at the time and the project was overseen by New Media Towers by Sara Watkins.

The service attempted to aggregate broadband video content from around the Entertainment departments of the BBC. I seem to remember that it was only promoted through the ISPs which offered broadband access. It was a little before it's time, but we learned a lot about increasing production values from narrowband to broadband.

It was also the first time we ever made short form video content formats specifically to be consumed as video on the web. Previously it was always just some clips grabbed off a VHS and thrown onto a streaming server.

Here we actually had an dedicated editor working from digibetas, cutting down episodes of EastEnders from 28 minutes to 60 seconds for use here and on the Kingston Interactive platform.

The service may have only lasted 6 months or so but here we are 5 years later and now the EastEnders production team in Elstree are making short versions of their programmes for use on the web and who knows where else in the future. That feels nice.

Presenting not very visual content as video

I am currently wrestling with how to present some not very visual content as video.

You can cover almost any subject area through moving pictures, but doing it in a way that is entertaining enough to maintain the attention of your audience is a challenge.

If you get it right though you can transfer really quite intricate ideas clearly and in a much more interesting way than you could have done with text or images.

Whenever it seems too hard it's always good to come back to a set of some fantastic videos that present not very visual subject matter in a highly entertaining way.

Explain RSS to my mum using moving pictures, now there's a challenge...



For more 'Paperwork' videos by these guys visit leelefever on Youtube.

Microsoft: Hands off our Flickr

It seems Flickr users are not especially pleased with the possibility of their favourite photo sharing website being owned by Microsoft.They're a creative bunch and have created an great Flickr Pool entitled "Microsoft: Keep your evil grubby hands off of our Flickr" for their protestations. It's well worth five minutes of your time.

Cloverfield - spoiler warning...

We went to see Cloverfield at a surprisingly quiet Brixton Ritzy on Friday night. It's good and completely relentless - well worth seeing if you think you might like it.

I remember having a conversation with Dallas last July (ish) about a great trailer for a scary movie that nobody knew anything about. At the time it didn't seem to even have a name, except possibly 1-18-08.

At the same time there were various online treasure hunt type games which teased and tempted you through various puzzles. Although looking back I think the information that was revealed about the film had little to do with what I saw on Friday night. The main hype and excitement seemed to just come from the trailer which managed to look terrifying but revealed pretty much zero about the film. On top of this we knew that JJ Abrams was involved, and whether you like Lost (note the phrase HD streaming on this page!) or not, you know he has a track record.

Now the film has been released, I thought it was be interesting to see how much content people have been posting about Cloverfield. You obviously might come across some spoilers if you visit the links below.

Flickr: 1420 photos.



This is the first photo which seems to refer to the movie uploaded on July 18 2007. There are also quite a few photos from the production sets.

Youtube: 6840 videos. These seem to consist of mainly trailers and exclusive bits of content leaked and a few people doing reviews and ranting about the movie.



Facebook: You can join 19000 other people and become a fan of Cloverfield. Despite having such a huge number of fans, there are only 6 videos posted. There are over 1200 reviews and comments though, implying that people are not exactly rushing to Facebook to upload videos.

Blogs and elsewhere: There are a gazillion blog posts about Cloverfield, I think a more interesting analysis comes from Alexa and Technorati using both Cloverfield sites and 1-18-08 sites.


And from Technorati...

And if you have seen the movie and can take anymore, then you might be interested in following this link which possibly shows what happens after the lights came up... (or perhaps this is the sequel) http://www.1-18-08.com/

Beware the Google Maps