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| (c) Theresa Branton: http://www.flickr.com/photos/velma_dacron/ |
The inspiring
@WarrenEllis blogs about Some Thoughts On The Disruption Of Television.
Which echoes a lot of the concerns about tv that I
have had. I did a Scriptwriting for Film and TV degree back in 1998, just when
tv was beginning to dip its toe into digital platforms. The course crossed
over with New Media, whose students were having a ball. They were the groovy
new things, ready to pounce on the industry once they were let loose from uni. Us
Scriptwriters were still pouring over old 35mm films and classic ‘play for
today’ videos, and typing up our own offerings on an antiquated version of MS
word.
There was a practical element: I learned
to shoot and edit on VHS, with cameras so heavy you needed a neck brace the day
after. I shot a short film in my first year, and by the time I got to my third
year and went to borrow the facilities to edit down my sister's wedding video,
I found that the VHS edit suites had been ripped out and replaced with shiny
new iMacs. The new intake were already shooting digital and editing on iMovie.
As for the writing, we were learning how
to write and structure story, but nothing like the accepted method of modern
day drama writing. Just a few years later, I resigned myself to the fact that
if I wanted to write tv, I would have to educate myself.
The age of YouTube and iPlayer is
tremendously exciting of course. Anyone with an iPhone and some mates can start
making short films and series for the web, and now the BIG companies are
weighing in. YouTube offers partnerships, Amazon has its Studios, and soon the
BBC will be doing iPlayer Originals*. A BBC producer recently told me that a
large percentage of users go to iPlayer not knowing what they want to see. They
are browsing the site, waiting for that perfect show to leap out and entertain
them. Which is where the writer comes in of course...
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