almost witty

In case you hadn’t noticed, the BBC have started putting up official video clips and diaries onto YouTube. So far, not particularly Web 2.0 - but the two video diaries they have put up there from (completely coincidentally) Doctor Who - shows how you *can* almost make a Media 1.0 product fit within a Web 2.0 environment, and how you can’t.

Watch Freema Agyeman’s Doctor Who video diary (oooh hiss points to whoever at the BBC titled these videos - it’s *Doctor* Who, not Dr Who!). It’s nothing remarkable or exceptional - it’s an edited piece to camera that feels like something taken off an Electronic Press Kit, or a piece of video made/directed by someone who’s got no real idea how a video diary should feel. It feels scripted, dishonest and commercial.

Compare and contrast to David Tennant’s Doctor Who video diary. The various elements feel - and indeed show - that instead of just sitting and facing the camera, David has gone around and filmed himself walking and talking to people, in corridors, entering sets etc. He also filmed himself inside his trailer and shows us his suit - and when he turns the camera around to face himself, you can see that he’s all alone in his trailer. No PR minders, no film crew - just one man with his camera, talking about what he’s doing. It’s video blogging 2.0 - and it’s on a major TV set for possibly one of the BBC’s most famous TV productions. Having said that, neither video is going to compel people who’ve never seen Doctor Who into watching an episode.

It’d be nice to think that sooner or later, Tom Cruise, George Clooney or Kiefer Sutherland would be doing this themselves as part of their publicity, really bringing people closer to the set and the action. But somehow I doubt it. So yet more kudos to David Tennant for doing just that.

(Oh, and the amusing thing about watching a BBC video on YouTube is that afterwards, the ever-so-helpful YouTube recommendation engine links straight to videos on YouTube that the BBC just may have not approved of, from a copyright point of view!)

When I was a teenager growing up in media-starved mid-Wales, I was known for being an expert (or more accurately, obsessed) with three things: computers, Doctor Who and the Pet Shop Boys.

Some clever genius (well, actually, it’s not that big or that clever, but it’s fun nevertheless) has combined the latter two and used the former to create - well, see for yourself:

My favourite Pet Shop Boys song from the last album, and arguably the best episode of Doctor Who: The First David Tennant year. Reminds me of the summer I spent driving Miss R mad (and around the UK) doing my fake air-synth dance to this song.

Roll on Spring 2007 !

Since I’m suffering with headaches and no sleep (thanks to man-flu, before you ask), I can’t seem to concentrate on anything for more than 5 nanoseconds today. Which isn’t much of an improvement on my usual concentration span of 10 nanoseconds, but there ya go. So instead of reading up on project management software, here are the random moments in my brain:

- Thanks to the recent post about Top Gear’s adventures in America, I am now ranked second on Google when you search for “man love rules ok”. Fortunately, this has not led to an influx of people begging for man/boy love on my blog, as what happened in this blog’s previous incarnation.

- If you’re recovering from yesterday’s Valentine love fest, then bear in mind that in Ancient Rome, today would be Lupercalia day, a Pagan festival involving blood, werewolves and sex.

“Many of the (men) … run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way … present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery” — The Parallel Lives by Plutarch

. So how we’ve mutated from striking each other with shaggy thongs to zombified-men wandering around Tescos or Asda looking for the right red-coloured flower, card and chocolate box, heaven knows. (I was prepared this year, before you ask!) All hail power of Hallmark. (with thanks to Warren Ellis, as if he needs my thanking!)

- Weren’t the Brits fantastically dull last night? The music was crap, all the rock’n'roll had been sucked out of the occasion by corporate managerial swines and Take That did their wearysome ballad Patience instead of the crowd-stomping quite-jolly Beatles/ELO-ripping Shine. The only highlight was the first five minutes with the Scissor Sisters recreating their black-puppetry video onstage. Russell Brand just kept going on and on making verbose random introductions that seemed to make no sense of all and totally ignored the audience who in turn ignored him. If you’ve made it to the end of this paragraph, then you can fill in the punchline.

Would you drive across Alabama in a white pickup truck with ‘Man Love Rules OK’ emblazoned in pink? Whilst following another car that had ‘Hillary for President’ emblazoned? With another car that had ‘Country and Western sucks, ok?’ on the side?

Not many of us would do that, but the team on Top Gear (a British show that used to be about motor cars but is now more about three blokes larking around with vehicles … think of it as the Brit equivalent of The Man Show replacing boobs with cars) decided to do just that as part of their drive from Miami to New Orleans. Unsurprisingly, when they had to fill up in a petrol station, they ran into some trouble…

(continue reading…)

As overheard on Soapstar Superstar (think Pop Idol with soap opera stars, non UKTV residents)

- The camp one from Coronation Street sings a heartfelt Stevie Wonder song
- The wise judge suggests that he set aside his comedy persona and concentrate on singing songs seriously
- He is then told the audience will vote for him to sing either song (X) or Copacabana
- Said camp one immediately throws himself before the camera and begs the audience (camply) to vote for Copacabana…