Well the recording of Noel's Christmas Presents has taken place. It all seemed to go very well, even though it took over an hour longer to record than scheduled due to retakes. It was a great experience and I enjoyed every minute, but I'm not sure I'm interested in working in the TV industry. Not that I ever had any intentions of doing so, but nothing about the week has made me feel inclined to pursue it as a career path. I'd never say never, but I think theatre is where my heart is for now at least.
The show is already a fading memory, the very next day I was straight on to the next job. It's now time for Pantomime, this year I have the delights of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We're currently in technical rehearsals and opening night is Friday evening. So lots to cram in to get the show fit for the paying public.
Still got the transmission of the show to look forward to though. If you are interested in seeing my beautiful theatre in all its glory here are all the confirmed transmission dates for the show. First broadcast is on the 21st December on Sky One at 6pm, it is then repeated as follows:
Mon 22/12 11.00 Sky1
Mon 22/12 20.00 Sky2
Wed 24/12 18.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 10.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 16.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 21.00 Sky2
Fri 26/12 15.00 Sky1
Sat 27/12 20.00 Sky1
Sun 28/12 09.00 Sky2
Mon 29/12 08.30 Sky Real Lives
Mon 29/12 09.30 Sky Real Lives +1
Mon 29/12 11.00 Sky1
Mon 29/12 20.30 Sky Real Lives
Mon 29/12 21.30 Sky Real Lives +1
They certainly like to get their money's worth out of a show like this! There are no excuses for missing it, unless you don't have Sky I guess.
For now, "hi ho, hi ho, it's off to bed I go"..... more rehearsals tomorrow!
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Friday, 5 December 2008
Noel's Christmas Presents
So the lighting and sound is in, the set is up and the cameras are ready to roll! This whole week has been utterly crazy, a complete whirlwind. So much activity, so many people.... what do they all do? I have no idea!
Apart from a days rehearsal tomorrow we are pretty much ready to go. It's a really alien concept this TV malarkey though. So much time, money and effort goes into one performance, then it all gets ripped down and thrown away. Nothing like a week of shows or even a tour, just a one hit wonder. Of course the whole thing gets captured on film but it's not the same as a live show.
Haven't had a chance to take any photos until today but here is the finished set. It's looking pretty festive! I'll let you decide how it measures up to the model I posted earlier in the week.
Here's another photo from another angle, this time with one of the many cameras in shot.
So we've just got a day of rehearsal tomorrow with Mr Noel Edmunds and then record the programme in the evening. At which point someone will shout "That's a wrap", and the really hard work begins of dismantling it all into the early hours of Sunday morning!
Apart from a days rehearsal tomorrow we are pretty much ready to go. It's a really alien concept this TV malarkey though. So much time, money and effort goes into one performance, then it all gets ripped down and thrown away. Nothing like a week of shows or even a tour, just a one hit wonder. Of course the whole thing gets captured on film but it's not the same as a live show.
Haven't had a chance to take any photos until today but here is the finished set. It's looking pretty festive! I'll let you decide how it measures up to the model I posted earlier in the week.
Here's another photo from another angle, this time with one of the many cameras in shot.
So we've just got a day of rehearsal tomorrow with Mr Noel Edmunds and then record the programme in the evening. At which point someone will shout "That's a wrap", and the really hard work begins of dismantling it all into the early hours of Sunday morning!
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Sky One filming
So this week will see my theatre become a TV studio to record a programme for Sky One with Noel Edmunds. The show is "Noel's Christmas Presents" and will be broadcast on Christmas day. More details will be available nearer the time but for now Sky have this on their website:
http://sky1.sky.com/show/noels-christmas-presents
It will be an interesting week for me, I've never done any TV or film work before. Having to get used to a whole new dictionary of terms is bound to cause some confusion. Quite how two industries so closely linked can have such totally different names for things is slightly odd. But since theatre is far older, I maintain our names are the correct ones!
The content of the show is all pretty secretive given that the nature of the programme revolves around surprises, so I can't really tell you anything more about it at this stage.
We've already done a fair amount of preparation work to make the venue more TV friendly. Mainly involving the removal of seats to make space for cameras. It will be interesting to see how the set turns out. For those who don't know, a scale model is produced before it goes off to the set builders for full size construction. I took a photo of the model for reference which you can see below:
The red box with the teddy on it will be a large video screen for VT with the two sofas centre stage for Noel and his guests and the whole thing is encompassed by a star cloth. How accurate the finished set will be remains to be seen!
It all kicks off properly on Wednesday when we put all the lighting up, Thursday will be set build day and Friday is Sound and Cameras get in. Then we spend all day Saturday in rehearsals followed by the filming on Saturday evening in front of a "livestudio theatre audience".
I'll update the blog as and when I have time with photos and more details, but for now "STANDBY STUDIO"!
http://sky1.sky.com/show/noels-christmas-presents
It will be an interesting week for me, I've never done any TV or film work before. Having to get used to a whole new dictionary of terms is bound to cause some confusion. Quite how two industries so closely linked can have such totally different names for things is slightly odd. But since theatre is far older, I maintain our names are the correct ones!
The content of the show is all pretty secretive given that the nature of the programme revolves around surprises, so I can't really tell you anything more about it at this stage.
We've already done a fair amount of preparation work to make the venue more TV friendly. Mainly involving the removal of seats to make space for cameras. It will be interesting to see how the set turns out. For those who don't know, a scale model is produced before it goes off to the set builders for full size construction. I took a photo of the model for reference which you can see below:
The red box with the teddy on it will be a large video screen for VT with the two sofas centre stage for Noel and his guests and the whole thing is encompassed by a star cloth. How accurate the finished set will be remains to be seen!
It all kicks off properly on Wednesday when we put all the lighting up, Thursday will be set build day and Friday is Sound and Cameras get in. Then we spend all day Saturday in rehearsals followed by the filming on Saturday evening in front of a "live
I'll update the blog as and when I have time with photos and more details, but for now "STANDBY STUDIO"!
Thursday, 16 October 2008
iGoogle ruined
Anyone who uses iGoogle will probably have seen the new version today. If you haven't, do yourself a favour and never look, it will break your heart to see how badly Google screwed up one of the best "personalised homepages" on the web.
That nicely organised layout you had sorted and were perfectly happy with will be destroyed. They have introduced a left sidebar for the tabs, why I have no idea, and it is a disaster!
I don't even use the tabs, I just want a single page where it shows my Gmail, Facebook status, Calendar, Google Reader and BBC news headlines. Now I have it all squished over to the side and a big empty space on the left for the non-existent tabs. What was wrong with them at the top? They weren't in anyone's way up there!
They've updated some of the gadgets now, for example, the BBC News shows a summary as well as the headline. But I don't want the summary, it takes up too much space. Before there was an option to expand the headline if you wanted to see the summary. Not now though, and you can't change it either!
Google Reader is supposed to work from within iGoogle, but the scrolling doesn't seem to be very happy when doing that. It should be using an iFrame so the tabs and main header stay at the top, but it doesn't. Not nice!
Then there is the Gmail gadget, before if I clicked on my Inbox I'd be taken to Gmail. Not now though, instead I'm taken to the iGoogle version of Gmail, it's so bad!
They've also taken away the option to minimise a gadget. Well, you can still do it but you have to use the drop down menu instead of the convenient button on the gadgets bar.
GAH! I'm really quite disappointed in this, there is no way to go back to the old version so iGoogle is no good to me now. Damn it! I'm actually quite upset about the whole thing, which is most unlike me...
Why do people have to tinker and fix things that are never broken? It's going to be the Xbox 360 next and the new dashboard update, MS have managed to destroy that too, seems like everyone is at it!
This has suddenly made me realise one of the big problems with this kind of modern web development. In the "good ol' days" a program was updated and you could read reviews, then decide if the new features were worth getting. If they were you installed the update, if not you just kept the version you were using. Or, if you didn't like a new version, you could un-install it and go back to the old way.
I hate this "forced upgrade" path that is happening more and more, I want to have control of my PC, I don't want my computer usage dictated to me. But now, I have to either just put up with it, or stop using it altogether, but that's not so easy when you've become so accustomed to a certain way of doing things.
That nicely organised layout you had sorted and were perfectly happy with will be destroyed. They have introduced a left sidebar for the tabs, why I have no idea, and it is a disaster!
I don't even use the tabs, I just want a single page where it shows my Gmail, Facebook status, Calendar, Google Reader and BBC news headlines. Now I have it all squished over to the side and a big empty space on the left for the non-existent tabs. What was wrong with them at the top? They weren't in anyone's way up there!
They've updated some of the gadgets now, for example, the BBC News shows a summary as well as the headline. But I don't want the summary, it takes up too much space. Before there was an option to expand the headline if you wanted to see the summary. Not now though, and you can't change it either!
Google Reader is supposed to work from within iGoogle, but the scrolling doesn't seem to be very happy when doing that. It should be using an iFrame so the tabs and main header stay at the top, but it doesn't. Not nice!
Then there is the Gmail gadget, before if I clicked on my Inbox I'd be taken to Gmail. Not now though, instead I'm taken to the iGoogle version of Gmail, it's so bad!
They've also taken away the option to minimise a gadget. Well, you can still do it but you have to use the drop down menu instead of the convenient button on the gadgets bar.
GAH! I'm really quite disappointed in this, there is no way to go back to the old version so iGoogle is no good to me now. Damn it! I'm actually quite upset about the whole thing, which is most unlike me...
Why do people have to tinker and fix things that are never broken? It's going to be the Xbox 360 next and the new dashboard update, MS have managed to destroy that too, seems like everyone is at it!
This has suddenly made me realise one of the big problems with this kind of modern web development. In the "good ol' days" a program was updated and you could read reviews, then decide if the new features were worth getting. If they were you installed the update, if not you just kept the version you were using. Or, if you didn't like a new version, you could un-install it and go back to the old way.
I hate this "forced upgrade" path that is happening more and more, I want to have control of my PC, I don't want my computer usage dictated to me. But now, I have to either just put up with it, or stop using it altogether, but that's not so easy when you've become so accustomed to a certain way of doing things.
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Google reader broken
What have they done to the Google reader? It's my favourite RSS reader and since this morning it doesn't work. When I try to access the reader I am greeted with this screen:
I don't know what's gone wrong, but that certainly isn't right. I can't read any of my feeds now and that is proving rather inconvenient! I hope this issue is fixed soon!
I don't know what's gone wrong, but that certainly isn't right. I can't read any of my feeds now and that is proving rather inconvenient! I hope this issue is fixed soon!
Sunday, 14 September 2008
ITV Catch Up player broken
I rarely come across something so broken that it can't even perform its most basic function. However, in the ITV web based catch up service I've found a contender!
Everyone is at it now, the BBC have the iPlayer, Channel 4 have 4oD and Sky have the Sky Player. I've used them all, the BBC iPlayer is by far the best, though 4oD comes a close second with its huge archive. However, ITV seem to have lost the plot and missed the whole point of a catch up service.... that you should be able to actually watch it!
For a start the ITV Player is web based streaming only, so you can't download content to watch later. It also uses a horrible media player built into the site that has broken controls.
I missed qualifying for the Italian F1 GP today and as it had a lot of incident I really wanted to see it. So I took a trip to www.itv.com to watch it before the race tomorrow, what I experienced I never want to repeat.
For a start the video quality is atrocious, compare it to other offerings and it is massively compressed. Viewed at the default postage stamp size on the website it looks almost passable, but go to full screen and you can't make anything out the pixels are so large! When I think how lovely and almost broadcast standard the iPlayer pictures are I don't know what they were thinking.
This wouldn't be quite so bad if it meant it worked well, but the streaming is terrible. I have a fabulous ADSL connection and am lucky enough to sync at almost the full 16mbps and get great download speeds. So I expected to be able to watch the programme uninterrupted, just like I do on the iPlayer or 4oD. Not so I'm afraid, I was able to watch about 20 seconds of video before it started to buffer, which made me wait a good minute. When it resumed I was given a further 30 seconds if I was lucky before having to wait a similar amount of time for the next tiny segment.
I thought I'd pause the stream and let it download the video in the background for a while, so off I went to make some tea and do a couple of other bits. When I came back and restarted the stream, I got 20 seconds of video before the next buffer session.... it seems the player won't download a large buffer at all!
As I really wanted to see the qualifying session I persevered with this for a while, until roughly half way through part one. At which point for no reason, the player jumped to the ad break and then into part two! Strangely the adverts worked perfectly, no buffering what so ever..... As soon as I was back into the F1 programme the buffer cycle started all over again, until a couple of minutes in when it decided it had had enough of part two and skipped to another ad break..... then another ad break..... and another ad break.... and another..... and another..... It was basically skipping every part of the actual programme and just showing me the adverts!
So, I reloaded the page and decided to try again. Only trying to skip part one, which I'd already seen, but this just set off another ad break loop! The "rewind" button doesn't do anything so I had to reload the page again, and the same thing happened on my third attempt.
I though maybe there was an issue with that feed, so I tried another programme, same thing happened with the buffer cycle ending in the ad loop. I thought maybe it was the browser so I tried IE, same result. I though it might be my computer so tried the laptop, still no joy.
So I haven't seen the GP qualifying, I've wasted a good hour of my evening trying and I'm pissed off! Browsing the ITV forums reveals that there are hundreds of people with the same issues and they go back months. Still they exist, still there are no signs of a fix and still ITV continue to push this "service". It's appalling, if it doesn't work, stop wasting everyone's time and remove it until it does! Don't release buggy, broken webware just to pretend you are competing with other stations, do it properly or not at all!
I know I'm not the only one, but can any of you get it to work? Has ANYONE managed to watch something without any problems?
Everyone is at it now, the BBC have the iPlayer, Channel 4 have 4oD and Sky have the Sky Player. I've used them all, the BBC iPlayer is by far the best, though 4oD comes a close second with its huge archive. However, ITV seem to have lost the plot and missed the whole point of a catch up service.... that you should be able to actually watch it!
For a start the ITV Player is web based streaming only, so you can't download content to watch later. It also uses a horrible media player built into the site that has broken controls.
I missed qualifying for the Italian F1 GP today and as it had a lot of incident I really wanted to see it. So I took a trip to www.itv.com to watch it before the race tomorrow, what I experienced I never want to repeat.
For a start the video quality is atrocious, compare it to other offerings and it is massively compressed. Viewed at the default postage stamp size on the website it looks almost passable, but go to full screen and you can't make anything out the pixels are so large! When I think how lovely and almost broadcast standard the iPlayer pictures are I don't know what they were thinking.
This wouldn't be quite so bad if it meant it worked well, but the streaming is terrible. I have a fabulous ADSL connection and am lucky enough to sync at almost the full 16mbps and get great download speeds. So I expected to be able to watch the programme uninterrupted, just like I do on the iPlayer or 4oD. Not so I'm afraid, I was able to watch about 20 seconds of video before it started to buffer, which made me wait a good minute. When it resumed I was given a further 30 seconds if I was lucky before having to wait a similar amount of time for the next tiny segment.
I thought I'd pause the stream and let it download the video in the background for a while, so off I went to make some tea and do a couple of other bits. When I came back and restarted the stream, I got 20 seconds of video before the next buffer session.... it seems the player won't download a large buffer at all!
As I really wanted to see the qualifying session I persevered with this for a while, until roughly half way through part one. At which point for no reason, the player jumped to the ad break and then into part two! Strangely the adverts worked perfectly, no buffering what so ever..... As soon as I was back into the F1 programme the buffer cycle started all over again, until a couple of minutes in when it decided it had had enough of part two and skipped to another ad break..... then another ad break..... and another ad break.... and another..... and another..... It was basically skipping every part of the actual programme and just showing me the adverts!
So, I reloaded the page and decided to try again. Only trying to skip part one, which I'd already seen, but this just set off another ad break loop! The "rewind" button doesn't do anything so I had to reload the page again, and the same thing happened on my third attempt.
I though maybe there was an issue with that feed, so I tried another programme, same thing happened with the buffer cycle ending in the ad loop. I thought maybe it was the browser so I tried IE, same result. I though it might be my computer so tried the laptop, still no joy.
So I haven't seen the GP qualifying, I've wasted a good hour of my evening trying and I'm pissed off! Browsing the ITV forums reveals that there are hundreds of people with the same issues and they go back months. Still they exist, still there are no signs of a fix and still ITV continue to push this "service". It's appalling, if it doesn't work, stop wasting everyone's time and remove it until it does! Don't release buggy, broken webware just to pretend you are competing with other stations, do it properly or not at all!
I know I'm not the only one, but can any of you get it to work? Has ANYONE managed to watch something without any problems?
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Google Chrome - First impressions
So it's here and I've been using it for about an hour now. First impressions are very good, it has a very simple, minimalist UI and I like it!
I don't have anything solid to back up my claims, but sites certainly appear to load faster in Chrome than they do in Firefox. In fact a quick test with www.bbc.co.uk reveals that Firefox loaded the page in 8.84 seconds while Chrome did it in 7.3 seconds. Nothing scientific in that, but it gives you an indication.
It also uses less memory, with Firefox and Chrome both having one tab open with identical pages fully loaded reveals Firefox using 125,684k and Chrome only 29,636k. Now a lot of that could probably be accounted for by the various Firefox plug-ins I've got. But that's still pretty impressive stuff!
One thing I am impressed with is the drag and drop. I can take a tab and pull it off the browser to make it a new window. What was particularly cool was discovering that you can drag tabs from Firefox straight into Chrome!
I've not experienced any rendering issues so far either, all the site I've tried work really well. The incognito mode is an interesting idea, you can open a new window in this mode and all your browsing will be kept secret, no bookmarks or cookies will be left behind. They say this is to let you shop for surprise presents, but I think we all know what they really intend it for :-)
Not so sure I get the new Omnibar which combines features of the address bar, and Google toolbar in one. I really loved the Firefox 3 address bar, but so far I'm just not getting the same great experience with it. That might change in time though.
In summary, this is going to be a strong competitor to the big three (IE, Firefox, Safari). Not sure I'm ready to give up Firefox with all its plug-ins just yet but I could see a time when that may happen!
I don't have anything solid to back up my claims, but sites certainly appear to load faster in Chrome than they do in Firefox. In fact a quick test with www.bbc.co.uk reveals that Firefox loaded the page in 8.84 seconds while Chrome did it in 7.3 seconds. Nothing scientific in that, but it gives you an indication.
It also uses less memory, with Firefox and Chrome both having one tab open with identical pages fully loaded reveals Firefox using 125,684k and Chrome only 29,636k. Now a lot of that could probably be accounted for by the various Firefox plug-ins I've got. But that's still pretty impressive stuff!
One thing I am impressed with is the drag and drop. I can take a tab and pull it off the browser to make it a new window. What was particularly cool was discovering that you can drag tabs from Firefox straight into Chrome!
I've not experienced any rendering issues so far either, all the site I've tried work really well. The incognito mode is an interesting idea, you can open a new window in this mode and all your browsing will be kept secret, no bookmarks or cookies will be left behind. They say this is to let you shop for surprise presents, but I think we all know what they really intend it for :-)
Not so sure I get the new Omnibar which combines features of the address bar, and Google toolbar in one. I really loved the Firefox 3 address bar, but so far I'm just not getting the same great experience with it. That might change in time though.
In summary, this is going to be a strong competitor to the big three (IE, Firefox, Safari). Not sure I'm ready to give up Firefox with all its plug-ins just yet but I could see a time when that may happen!
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