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Copyblogger

I’ve been enjoying copyblogger. There have been some interesting tips on writing styles that I can relate to. I’m looking after the ITV Local blog so hence the compulsion to follow this. 

Here, one piece of advice is to read the copy aloud. For years now I have been writing scripts for presenters on one sort or another, and I think this is a really interesting point.  We are much more responsive these days to writing that is relaxed and as we would speak – not necessarily grammatically correct. Even to the point of including hesitations we will try and create a rhythm which evokes a particular type of voice or delivery.

Verbal communication is accompanied by tone and visual elements which work to complement the literal interpretations. This combination of tone and visual accompaniment add drama to the piece. Page layouts can attempt to emulate the human character of a physical performance; a space or a flourish adding a sense of timing or energy. Copyblogger encourage bullet points, cheeky headlines and so on.

Not that I have done much of that in this post, but I’ll work on it.

Tags: writing

The opportunity to surprise

I'm on my way back from a meeting in London at ITV HQ, so perhaps this is why I have felt the need to re-visit an old theme.

 

 

An example of a creative brief given to me on a BBC training course was to imagine that the Pope was briefing Michelangelo on the work he wanted doing on ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  We were given some possibilities:

 

1/ Michael, I want you to paint the Sistine Chapel (not clear enough)

2/ I want you to paint ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (better, but why?)

3/ I want you to paint the ceiling of the Sistine chapel using red and gold depicting God and angels (upsets Michael who tells the Pope to do it himself)

4/ I want you to you to create a masterpiece which will truly glorify God for all people and all time (Michael is inspired by the challenge)

 

So, how you set a creative challenge – either for yourself or someone else – is very important. A good creative challenge answere the question, why are we doing this and for whom? Setting the creative challenge without being dictatorial is to respect the artist.

 

The generation of ideas starts with a problem to solve. Without a purpose an idea isn’t going very far.  An idea’s purpose can be a practical one or an emotional one. Some ideas just make us feel good while others can transform the way we live. Great ideas are transformational. Ideas that change the way we think, feel, believe or behave are the ones we value most.

 

As a starting point we need to be stretched. We need to be scratching our heads and looking for a solution to a problem – or the creative challenge as we are going to say. We need to know how to judge when we have found what we are looking for.

 

So the first thing we might think about is how we frame the creative challenge. Sometimes it exists in our head as a problem we’ve been carrying around with us for a long time; in other cases it might be a new problem given to us by someone, perhaps our boss.

 

Setting the boundaries of the problem presents us with an important element of idea generation – a constraint. Constraints are our sparring partners in the creative process. Constraints keep up sharp and focussed on solutions that will have value and have that transformational quality. They scratch the itch.

 

I want to make a distinction between boundaries and instructions. A boundary can provide a useful indication of the space in which we are required to work. It tells us what the work is meant to achieve and what will be the criteria for success. This approach is about telling the artist what you want to achieve, not how you want it to be done. A common mistake by commissioners is to tell the artist how you want the work to be executed at the expense of  any creative freedom. By telling the artist the details of the execution you putting the relationship at risk.  "

 

At the same time it is reasonable for you as commissioner to retain some control over the direction of the work and to reject it if it doesn’t meet the need. Of course there will be some elements of the work which are mandatory and require you to issue some instructions, but the brief must facilitate the the possibility that the artist may come up with something we hadn't thought of.

So a good creative challenge leaves room for the unexpected, the different and the exceptional. It requires bravery to say less and expect more. It is about giving yourself and others the opportunity to surprise.

 

 

Lee Townend to be in charge at Ilkley

Since we moved to Ilkley we’ve been attending All Saints church in the town. The church is without a vicar presently since Paul Tugde moved to Farsley.  It’s been announced that Lee Townend will be the new vicar, probably starting in November. It’ll be an interesting period with new development planned for the building and community. I’ve found Lee’s biog, presumably the same Lee.

Blogging comes to ITV Local

ITV Local Yorkshire has a new blog. I started an informal one a few months back on blogger as an experiment and we all felt it was something we wanted to do. But the idea that you randomly write posts and leave it to find an audience was not going to work.

HQ brought in 1000 heads (excellent people may I say) who have come up with a new design and have been grooming us in the art of blogging. I’m realising it’s quite a commitment.  There’s no point in doing this unless we are properly part of the blogging landscape – contributing to conversations in the blogosphere (see I’m learning the terminology), establishing links, putting out opinions and little emotional nuggets that readers can propagate in conversation.

In my hunting around for ideas I came across this post by coppyblogger about how to stop being invisible. “Telling people exactly what they want to hear feels… dishonest. Get over it.” is one of the pieces of advice. Blogs are a distraction, they say. 

These notions don’t sit comfortably for blogs from within serious news organisations, but news organisations are adapting, it seems. I have talked to a number of our journalists about contributing to the blog and they are quite understandably nervous about blogging. Here are the top three responses; 1. It’s personal and often seems to require the exposure of a personal position on a subject. 2. What if I get inundated with comments and can’t deal with them. 3. It’ll be a commitment and I’m already overworked.

Anyway keep an eye on our little blog – noting that we don’t yet have an assignment of heavyweight contributors, just me and jack.

End to End Challenge

Yesterday I packed off a Nokia N95 phone to the very north of Scotland addressed to Mike Tomlinson. Mike’s wife, Jane, was the inspirational fundraiser who died last year. Mike and his daughter Rebecca are cycling 1400 miles on a memorial journey for Jane’s Fund. They hope to break £2m. 

I’ve sent them the phone so they can file some video blogs as their journey progesses. I’ve hardly been able to test the phone, but I hope you’ll be able to see the first blog later today. watchout on itv local

Daily Walk

Getting into the habbit of a daily walk. The weather has not been good lately with a lot of cloud, wind and rain. Still beautufull though, tramping though the boggy undergrowth. This is still the best way of relaxing. Joshua came with me tonight, he's not enthusiastic about walking up hill and even after a year in Yorkshire is still programmed for London pavements.

John Whale

I heard from Andrew Barr that John Whale our former boss died on Tuesday morning. He gave me my first production job in television. He was an interesting character and gave me the job in spite of the fact he didn't think much of my education. The first question I was asked when I walked into the religious programmes department at the BBC - did I go to Oxford or Cambridge? Most did, I certainly didn't.

He was intimidating but supportive. I read his book, Put it in Writing, which was essential because the presentation of written English was supremely important to him. He was deeply old fashioned and I remember he came to me in the office one night terrified about an interview he had to give on children's BBC. He said he couldn't remember anything about what it felt like to be a child and wanted my advice on what to say (I was somewhere in my mid 20s).

Here's his obit from the Guardian

Connie and Alf Smith

Last week Deborah did a wonderful job of organising the funeral of Connie Smith, her aunt. Making such arrangements is exhausting and emotional. In this case we had the unexpected pleasure of discovering that the Rev Val Corey who used to be at St Mary's in Ealing lived just a couple of streets away from Connie and Alf - a fact we hadn't known before.  Val led the funeral.

Connie and Alf met in the 1930s and were married 67 years ago. They moved into a rented house in Cleaveland Road, Surbiton in 1955 where the lived for the remainder of their lives.

Alf died last year  in October, Connie died in May 2008. Her funeral was last Thursday the 12th June.

God on Trial

The conference took a welcome break from new media last night.

Frank Cottrell Boyce gave a moving talk on his film script for the forthcoming BBC Drama, God on Trial set in Auschwitz.

Frank explained that it was not intended to be about the holocaust but finding an answer to the question of why God allows suffering. As he began writing the script he was sure he would find a resolution to the question. He places the characters in a prison camp facing the worst nightmare imaginable and in their last time before death they choose to put God on trial accused of breaking the covenant. The trial is a clinical and systematic examination of why God allowed these things to happen. 

Point by point the film examines God's behavior. With the tense atmosphere of a courtroom (prison camp bunkhouse) they go into the often unpleasant details of suffering and exile experienced in the old testament, the slaying if innocents and so on. It's about humanity, people who have big ideas in their heads and histories, he explained.

In the film one character searches the back of his mind, believing that they must have committed some crime to deserve such punishment, "what could justify punishment like this" they ask. A man's children are dragged away to be killed, the father pleads for them, choose one the guard offers; where is love and free will here. Powerful concepts are examined - was Hitler a servant of God.

We only saw experts from the film and I suppose I shouldn't reveal the outcome though it shouldn't be a surprise. Frank describes it as a flipped version of the Prodigal Son.

We were treated to some humour at the expense of Prof Richard Dawkins. Winning the debate is not what matters, but in the debate we discover there is something much bigger. You have to challenge your faith, but in the end it doesn't matter what you think, all that matters is that God loves you.

Churches Media Conference

I'm at the Churches Media conference right now and this is a message to those of you who have attended my two sessions talking about ITV Local Yorkshire.  Many thanks for coming along and for the excellent and inspiring conversations.  I'm going to write up some notes - possibly here but also on Interlace, a blog on which I keep specilist notes on the subject of user generated content and other thoughts to do with my work. So, pop back here or to Interlace in due course and I'll have some more for you.

The talented Jamie Woon

Moving on

Been a stange few days. Deborah's aunt passed away and it's fallen to her to make the funeral arrangements. Meanwhile I have been organising builders to rework our bathroom. We hadn't planned the two events to coincide, and not ideal. Trying to coordinate plasterers and undertakers at the same time is interesting, especially when they don't announce themselves on the phone.  Anyway, she had a good long life and brought pleasure to many people - and that goes for the aunt as well.













Connie died just a short time after her husband, which is often the way. They had been married and devoted to each other for sixty seven years.

the lights will guide you home

Digital photography, Photoshop and Flickr and stimulated an enormous amount of experimentation and creativity when it comes to stills photography. Just browsing flickr can be amazingly uplifting at times when you discover gems that may otherwise have remained hidden.

Video photography has been more tricky because of the expense and complexity, not to mention download times for big files. However Vimeo, of which I'm a fan, is beginning to get exciting.  My latest discovery there has been ingenious tv (based I think in Berkshire).  Their Storm-chaser piece here is beautiful.

Then if you go to one of the channels you will find some amazing timelapse material including this one called the lights will guide you home posted by Benjamin Taft

Faith in human nature

One of these people is unfit to lead and should be given a hard time.
The others can do as they please.

Good morning, morning good

7am. The sun is streaming through the windows and I can see the hills washed in soft warm light. There are no traffic sounds, just birds singing and a church bell.

Is this a beautiful day making me feel happy, or is my happiness making it a beautiful day?

Daily Dose of Imagery

Some things become a habit and one of mine is to call up Daily Dose of Imagery. This is a site run by a Canadian photographer, Sam Javanrouh. Many of the photos are symmetrical often including a small and very specific detail or subject Often architecture. The colours are very much set in his style (like the symmetry). I think they're great, and what a discipline to produce a new picture every day.

Breath of Fresh Air

I've just started to piece together some useful resources for walkers. Mark Reid and Jon Mitchell have been tramping around the region and have filmed a series of guides to popular walks. This appeals to me greatly.
You can see the downloadable maps and descriptions provided by Mark on our site ITV Local. The first walk is in the Peak District - Hathersage, North Lees, Stanage Edge * Carl Wark

 

Churchrovers - re:fresh

Posting in reverse order here, so back to Sunday...

On the subject of church we have decided to explore so over the next few weeks we are going to investigate some of the more innovative offerings in the area.

On Sunday Deborah and I checked out a service held in Costa Coffee in Bradford. 're:fresh', an emerging community based at St Cuthberts Church in Wrose have struck a deal with the Forster Square Retail Park outlet of Costa Coffee and hope to hold their monthly gathering in the coffee shop on a regular basis.

I have to say it was strange meeting like this in a coffee shop with the fridges buzzing and the coffee machines producing cappuccinos while the vicar did his talk.  The slightly cramped space meant that you were locked into small groups around the tables. The subject was mission and one of the contributors was Chris Howson who's involved in a project called Street Angels who operate in Bradford between 8pm and 2am. We thought it was excellent.

There were about 30 people at this event. The community meets in smaller groups once a week and then on this scale once a month.

Meal at the Opera

A wild night out with the team at an eating house on Drury Lane (not so wild in this pic but warmed up later). Sarastro Restaurant near Covent Garden constructed like an opera set. At intervals during the meal musicians and opera singers would entertain.  This was a team meeting of ITV Local (it was never like this at the BBC)

Flickr does video

soccerman
Originally uploaded by markwaddington

I've been wondering when this would come. Seems a brave step as video is quite a different market from stills I think. For a while I have been admiring vimeo which offers a well presented site for video. The big draw of vimeo for me has been the ability to download the original files.  I shall give this a go and see how it works.