Hello everyone...

Hello everyone, hope you're having a very happy new year and the January weather's not making you too glum.

It's already been a hectic 2009 for us. We're even more in sketch mode now than before Christmas. Time is flying by and we'll be in pre-production for the new series of our sketch show before we know it. Next week we're taking some great new comedy writers on a four day course. We hope to help develop their sketch writing and inspire some innovative low-cost narrative ideas for TV too. I've already banged on about how important strong comedy characters will be to the success of the series, and also in dictating which new writers will make it onto the core team. Although there's room for exaggerated traits and catch-phrases, we think these should be driven by the character - not the other way round. And each sketch should offer something new with plenty of twists and turns. Just when the audience think they know how the character will react, we want to wrong-foot them and offer something new.

We also want to focus our new writers on their specific audience. This show is for young adults, so we're using a fresh, young cast and want our viewers to feel understood and catered for. We also need to deliver the right product for the commissioning channel which has a cheeky, risk-taking, young-at-heart ethos. Even though sketches can be wildly different in subject, we're striving to find a coherent tone which makes the show unique. Poo jokes are always good too.

Knowing your audience is as important for online content as TV productions. We're currently developing short-form videos to support our TV programmes and new ideas just for the internet. The main aim is to make content so good that viewers want to share it with their friends and ping it all over the web. Easier said than done!

Pour Quoi - I love this video. One of the things which is fantastic about making online content is the immediacy of it. Producing TV shows is brilliant too, but it's a lengthy process, which makes it hard to be topical. Ideas which seem fresh and relevant now, may well be hackneyed by the time your idea hits the small screen. People who create content for the internet can have it uploaded in hours. From Britney Spears shaving her head, to faddy sports like free running - there's the potential to produce comic ideas at whirlwind speeds and have them seen when they're at their peak.

I Like - simple, original formats are also great for online viewing. Because internet content is so often watched out of context, a really pure format can be a huge strength. A bit of titillation often helps too - which is why I'm ending on I Like Nudity, a very cute short by Back To Front Animation.

 

 

 

 

January 26 2009

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