Coming up on viewmagazine.tv

I bumped into a former student whilst calling on some good folk at the Financial Times.

Ed's gone from student last year to the Financial Times - great stuff.

I whipped out my small cam-for an interview where he talks about how his online skills from his one year Masters have helped him.

If you're a student embarking upon a Masters it's worth watching.

Each year new cohorts always groan when we place in front of them CSS, and the more obscure aspects of writing for the eye and appreciating SEO tags as well.

Also coming up on Viewmagazine.tv, we go into Afghanistan with Ron who gives a cool interview of metverse TV.

If you subscribe to the Harvard Business Review, there's an interesting article inside about how next generation television will be metaverse - virtual worlds and the like.

Also and I promise I can soon reveal a good example of a hypervideo in action, which I'll play around with at full length with a presentation at apple

newspaper journalists excelling at videojournalism

This week I showed you what Gareth in Cornwall was doing- a format which has his bosses excited.

Today, I'm bringing you an exchange and video from Catherine, from Devon, whose path I also crossed.

This is her first piece on a very difficult shoot - a training excercise in Norway and I'm thrilled to bits for her.

She's gone straight in at the deep end, going largely handheld - which is advanced videojournalism and also she eschews the reporter's v/o instead threading the elements together.

This often means, you have to shoot-to-edit on the fly.

Great use also of nat sound and the piece breathes you; and she's cracked the metronome of the piece, which is one of the most difficult aspects of visualisation and editing.

Well you take a look and perhaps you'll join me in the chorus that says, newspaper videojournalists can do visuals very well - it's all in understanding the grammar and breaking those rules.

++++++++++++++++++++

Hello David,
Remember me? Anyway, I have finally been able to do my first two videos which are at www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk

The first is Norway and I also did one Bakery Secrets Revealed which is in archive (left hand menu under video). I'd really appreciate any feedback.

The Norway one was fun - I only had one day, a very rushed day from pillar to post, with no time to plan. I hadn't realised how hard it was to a) move in snow quickly and b) get close ups when they were firing and made me keep back!!

The only tripod shots were the CO interview. Still - see what you think!

Best wishes,
Catherine
Community Editor
North Devon Journal

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Catherine, I mean this in a nice way, but I could marry you. Very very nice. Couple of things you've done that make this exceptional.

your first videos..
you've gone largely handheld - the gonzo approach
you've adopted the observational doc approach - based around the Guantanamo piece. Hence no voice over.
Some strong sequences...

Nothing wrong with the shoot and you prove a fundamental point about you as a newspaper journo turned VJ that you understand visual grammar.

You'll only get better.

Remember the aspects of narrative movement: lens, inside the frame, music etc.

Next time to heighten the senses use the lens as the third eye, so in military/emergency operations - you can push in to the subject. It doesn't matter if we see you hitting the deck with cameras wobbly, the viewer knows where you are and that there is an operator behind the camera and a sense of urgency.

Did I mention the zoo effect Chris Moyles Radio one, where his assistants don't have to creep around the room: we know they're there so any noise.... any sudden movement with your cam is tolerable...

c.f 8 days.

Fabulous all the same. I'll take a look at the other.

Watch this. Newspaper videojournalism formats visual newspaper

I have tried to and been fairly successful at staying in touch with print/ videojournalists whose paths I have crossed, and I'm always grateful for the warm and kind words from people like Gareth.

The latest exchange with Gareth has had me watching their latest video on his site, again and again laughing etc.

And, as I have often mentioned in briefings etc they're using video to leverage the newspaper and presumably vice versa.

Cornwall & Devon Media Lt have made video their own. Absolutely fab. Do take a look here. Nothing overly fancy, but it works as you can see below



+++++++++++

Hi David, hope all is well.

Have been incredibly busy with the "day job" so have been desperately trying to fit video in around everything else..and soon about to train 34 of our employees who are interested! Good signs...!

If you get a few spare moments (!!) any feedback on the things I've done lately would be fantastic.
My main "showpiece" has been our What's On guide....our leisure editor is really up for it and its got everyone talking and excited about video.

An email even went around BBC Cornwall apparantly saying they had "missed the boat" and were now playing catch up with us in terms of entertainment and online video...! ( rest of email been cut)

.....

Hi Gareth

Absolutely fantastic. Loved it. And the presenter, well he's destined for big things. Sorry but there's nothing wrong with that. Its sharp, well shot, fast narrative, size of the screens great. fabulous.. get experimenting with more hand held and fluidity with the lens, but your format's a winner. (idea - Confidential offered)

-------

Hi David,

Just a quick note to say a huge thank you for revolutionising our video world!

I no longer feel as if I will be producing standard video pieces which have been seen a million times - but inspired to get out, capture emotion and be different, yet confident. (Hopefully the job won't get in the way too much!)

It was a real eye-opener...and can't convey my gratitude enough.

Shall continue following your site and your words of blogging wisdom...

Hope our paths cross again,

Many thanks mate,

Gareth


Gareth
Digital Editor
Cornwall & Devon Media Ltd

video hyerlinking promo viewmagazine

Promo on Viewmagazine.tv for video hyperlinking, which I shared with an audience.

My thanks to Tony Graves and his wonderful band of assistants at the Cultural Exchange.

Masters in Journalism students say it out Loud in an alternative fashion

Masters in Journalism students launch their web sites.

Two different briefs from alpha and bravo team within a couple of weeks from the design phase.

Built in CSS, with Flash and Video, both teams run the site with an editorial mix of designers, marketers, photo editors, podcasters, man eds and editors.

This is London London Out Loud which looks at London from a student/ international traveller's point of view.

You can learn more about their brief and USP from visiting the site.


London Alternative
London Alternative takes a similar path in appealing to international students, but you'll find that it and OutLoud are different, according to the Editorial teams.

And this is their promo

How do you treat your newspaper copy online?

In putting this hypervideo story together, I came across some some choice cuts from a fly-on-wall approach when the Telegraph invited a group of us on a tour of their newsroom.

It's senior exec was very gracious in answering a range of questions.

This one concerns how journalists treat their copy before it goes online.

Now, I didn't ask my colleague what he meant behind the question, but my guess is it has to do with SEO, Key word density and the likes.

You're writing for two audiences, and if you're clued up on writing Jakob Nielsen style, with Search Engine Optomisation for a good measure, you'll score big time.

Some CMS programmes we've discovered are better at wooing bots ( spiders crawling your text) than others.

The year of Videojournalism

The year of the videojournalists - the digital artists and the Net age.
We're coming full circle into a multimodal system that wants to examine multiple perspective.

It's official. "We make a million pounds of ad from placing video on our site, this editor told me at a conference.
"What!" I said.

"The ads are crying out for video "he replied.

Who said video doesn't sell online?

Today, previewed first video hyperlink stories which I hope to put online.

It's simple. You follow a linear story and then it indicates to you various branches. For instance stay with the interview or move on.

This is the new promo banner for viewmagazine.tv giving notice of video hyperlinking, which The Economist featured in an article. Made in FCP and After Effects.

videojournalism success

THis from one of my former students from last year. Please join me in toasting his success.

Hi David,

Bit of news for you on the job front. I have just signed a contract as a video journalist in Afghanistan with NATO.

My time is going to be split between Kandahar and Copenhagen, which is the production centre. I'm going to be out there with a laptop, camera and satellite transmission gear sending back video stories which will be put on the Internet and the footage will be available on all the news wires.

I'm off to Copenhagen at the start of March for a month and then on to Afghanistan at the start of April.

Thanks for all your help and stay in touch.

David

Hollywood plays multimodal - Vantage point and multiple reportage.

What's interesting about the film, which has DNA similar to Mike Figgis' Time Code, The Usual Suspect and the daddy of them all Rashomon - about a female assault from four different angles. etc is the multiple narrative approach to unravelling/piecing together a story.

The web site also sets up a playable game which no doubt will be translated to market research.



Photo/painting courtesy of the 1st-art-gallery.

I wrote about this some time back, but it continues to concentrate my thoughts and sets up an interesting question.

Can multimedia also infer multifocal or multimodal?

By its very nature and multiple delivery of assets, the PC is a multimedia tool, but how much bearing does that have on a lingua france of "choice reportage - perspectivists approach"

In a videojournalism report I'm now compiling, what's clear is the multifaceted nature of term "multimedia" across disciplines from modern day founding father Vannevar Bush to today's graphic design community and the media.

there's an interesting moment in the film when we're at the Telegraph's hub being shown around by a senior executive and somebody asks how the newspaper and its web version reports are consructed. It's one of the hidden arc segments of the film, so you'll have to click on the film to access this

In itself there may be little to fuss about, but in semiotics this will have a bearing on the nature of the narrative in reportage.


To get a sense of this obvious focal story, what part do others in the picture play?

Before Broadcasting
Before the language of broadcasting was refined, a legacy, but not quite a whole lift from newspaper reportage's equitone from Addison and Steele, how robust and expansive was the storytelling language?

We might now easily take that for granted, but centuries ago, there was a different discernible paradigm in play.

Broadcasting, 60 years old, brought its one set of rules; the ever expanding web culture has its own.

Multimedia Reportage AD
A hypothesis: the bible - one of the oldest and most popular tombs lays a claim to multimedia reportage.

Matthew, Mark Luke and John - four differing perspcetives towards one event and to fully comprehend the Bible the reader is required to cover all four gospels.

Some 500 years before this painting at the top by by Luca, Giotto di Bondone one of the greatest Italian Renaissance painters did the extraordinary with visual narrative and lines of perspective and focus.

By jumping through the periods you begin to get an idea that our way of doing things now is not so sacrosanct - time and change move very slowly over periods of decades rather than centuries.

So to this painting again and the original piece I wrote, as I get back to editing this multimodal report.

See you at the Cultural Exchange.

I stood there mesmerized for ten minutes, just studying the piece.... read original piece

Culture talk - Future TV

From Politicans, to Musicians, Poets, and Senoir BBC executives, each year the good people of Demontford University stage a week of open lectures where figures are invited to talk and anyone can just drop in - it's free.

In the past they've had the following

Louis De Bernieres who wrote ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ adapted to film and stage as well as translated in over 30 languages.

The BBC’s creative director, Alan Yentob.

Germaine Greer, currently Professor of English and Comparative Studies at the University of Warwick. A well known TV critic and famed for many things including The Female Eunuch in 1970.

And high profile journalist, currently writing for The Guardian, Gary Younge who delivered a personal perspective on how race and culture need to change for the 21st century.

This year I have been invited to talk and will be looking into the future of news and programme making via the web, something that I have been passionate about for a while.

This will be jargon free and walk through the landscape of news, videojournalism and a new short film I should finish by then, which has multiple video-hyperlinks - some part of my PhD studies.

If you're turning up do come and say hello. See you there and thanks to Tony Graves, his students who put this event together and digital connoisseur Chris Jones who provides this write up of the event and my talk.

Inside Afghanistan

It's one of the world's trouble hotpsots where the rules of engagement, as well as maintaining law and order is played out continuously in the face of insurgents e.g. the Taliban

But almost everyday you can find Ron Edwards on the ground surveying the terrain and in some instances, under Chatham House rules, advising clients e.g. Army folk about what it's like being in Afghanistan.

But Ron Edwards is a civilian and this is no ordinary country, at least in the context we fix on at the moment.

This is Afghanistan world, as the experts would say, or Virtual world to the less-Virtual minded.

Virtual but so real that if you're injured by an explosion you will be injured, correction your avatar will suffer inuries- yes the Matrix.

This is a brief glimpse into a world whose potential is so huge.

Each year we at the University of Westminster fly to Norway for War Games.

The possibilities of augmenting those exercises with this level of modelling and mapping is awesome.

Here's Ron ( above) talking to Ian from Thames Valley University about his work.

I'll post a more expansive interview soon. This was shot on my Canon 1XUS 70

Could this be the clearest evidence yet that London Undergrounds tube network could soon no longer be a mobile free zone, as this exclusive film indicates

The tube is probably the last refuge from the all pervasive din of mobile phones and often inconsiderate callers with little phone etiquette.

Last week a man practically gave out his home address, National Insurance number and Date of Birth on a busy carriage.

But, with all that said, many would like to see London's tube capable of receiving mobile phone signals.

So this man walked by me, looking like something out of robocop: an antenna hanging behind his ear and a mobile and graphic user interface in front of him.


I had my Canon IXUS 70 in my bag and walked up to him.

He clearly saw me filming but I did not want to draw attention to it so excuse the wobbly shots.

Postless

Been dormant for a couple of days - Sorry back now Phew Tired, but a couple of things that may me go wow.

1. Could London's tube ( underground network) soon be a mobile zone. Well here's the proof that it could.
2. And inside the real Matrix - thoroughly mind blowing stuff.

Please pass this on - You could help save a life

A friend sent the following to me and I'm passing it on



The Smile,

– the Talking or Tongue stretching

– the Raising of Hands

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters.... S.T.R.

My nurse friend sent this and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree.

If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. Seriously..

Please read:

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) .....she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.

Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die.... they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

It only takes a minute to read this...
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke... totally . He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Thank God for the sense to remember the "3" steps, STR . Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke .


Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
(i.e. It is sunny out today)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 999/911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. < /FONT>

New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other , that is also an indication of a stroke.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

The British VideoJournalism Revolution from 1994 to now

What defined videojournalism? How different was it to Television? Why was the first practitioner in the UK a newspaper outfit? And where next can it go as the main debate focuses on primary implementation?

In a series of talks and webinars I'll be producing facts and films from archives, never seen before, that might give you a better understanding of what we're doing now and how that conversation developed 14 years ago


The British VideoJournallism Revolution
No company, or era captured the essence of this brave new form of journalism called Videojournalism in the UK than Channel One TV.

For its first birthday, the accolades as you can see ( Click Image) were a fulsome acknowledgement of the changes enveloping the media; the seeds of change had been sown.

What its first 25 videojournalists knew back then, supported by innovative management and technicians, will not surprise many of them today.

After the first year some of Britain's biggest names in the media and politics paid their respect.

Tony Blair MP, not quite Prime Minister said:
"Congratulations to Channel One on its first year. It has already been a regular fixture of all important news events and I have enjoyed speaking to its journalists. I wish it every success in the future"

Jane Root - at Wall to Wall who would be the first ever woman to become a channel controller at the BBC said:
"Congratulations to Channel One. We've been delighted to help Channel One prove that good television can be low cost and high quality as well. Channel One deserves to be a great success.

Chris Crammer who was head of News gathering BBC News and Current Affairs and would go onto CNN, he said:
" Congratulations to Channel One. Video Journalism has really made its mark. You've broken new ground in multi-skilling and competitive coverage. The Industry should take note"

And then Stuart Purvis, who was chief executive of ITN, the UK's biggest independent news provider said:
"Congratulations on a year of Channel One. You've already developed lots of new young talent and taken some impressive steps in multi-skilling".

It wasn't only that Channel One was radically changing the face of News and Programme production, but had implemented a next generation management tier with innovation at its core, and a revolutionary news output system that had hundreds of programme execs visiting the station to learn how it was done.

"We used track and rushes, so sometimes wouldn't see the inside of the news station for a week".

The programme went out live, but it wasn't live, unless so various times when it created a tear in the schedule for its juke box play out system that looked like the Enterprise. One person could control everything.

Many of those innovative assets have been lost or not yet resurfaced.

800 people across the UK applied to become Videojournalists. It created a wild amount of curiosity.

What is videojournalism? How does it work? What sort of stories will we cover? How will we compete with the likes of the BBC? How hyperlocal can we get? How will we cover nigh beats as soloj journalists? How will the internet aid our quest? How much will videojournalists earn? What is their future? And how would they like to shape the future?

Remember this was 1994, 14 years ago.

Some of the VJs would later become household names in the media at large, and multiple industry winners as well.

Marcel Theroux, son of the famous Paul Theroux and brother to Louis Theroux, sat opposite me has made several ground breaking docs. Dimitri Doganis has become one of the UK's most formidable doc makers winning awards for features such as the Siege of Bethlehem for BBC TV. Julia Ceaser, an entertainment correspondent now fronts BBC News 24s Economics programme and Rachel Ellison, now an MBE went on to tutor female journalists in Tajikistan adn was Editor of the BBC's World Trust.

We all met in one place, with high ideals. What we knew back then has been rerun in a new paradigm now.

In posts to come I'll share some more of the history of Channel Oners and the flame it lit that is now subsuming news. And how full circle 14 years on a new phase of videojournalism has opened for me, which involves looking at Future TV, Presence TV and IM6 Videojournalism, which I was invited to speak at the BBC's Leadership forum.

Next stop - how to fold videojournalism on itself and eschew VJ made for Television's stanza

Theatre of the Mind

Apologies!

I should be going through the next stage of building a movie, but I have been distracted and for very good reasons.

Once in a while a talent crosses your path; an unusual one in so much as a dying art that's been revived for the 21st century.

Lord Bryon is a stock broker by day, but his hidden skill combines the voice of a Hollywood trailer voice artist and the writing skills of any brilliant story teller.

Last week a colleague gave me his CD and I just went wow, so we talked about filming him and in my usual, yeah, came up with a treatment that we spent time filming.

Credit to Kienda Hoji for producing, Hassan for lighting and filming, Lord Bryon for his incredible talent.

It took us a couple of hours to film this 15 minute seq; not the sort of swift turnaround VJ product; this was about patience.

We had three DV cams shooting, and I'll soon, sometime have those edited for you to really enjoy.

Here's a preview mixed to three from the shoot. The snippet from his original audio book, which Byron calls Theater of the Mind, is called Marcus Constantine

Of course one of the greatest in this genre is WOTW - HG Wells

The full version soon, which we'll post on YTube.

Videojournalism? Journalism or Art?

" When I'm painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing......I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image etc because the painting has a life of its own".

So said Jason Pollock.

Yesterday I added this modified comment from a colleague:

"We view and read images and film with our emotions; they are symbols that communicate with our sub conscious. Our minds make assumptions about their content and meaning, thus the image depends on the context with which it has been used.

The image and film's state can be heightened by elements such as music, colour and narrative - all of which add texture, qualification and interpretation".

Journalism is exacting; factual information, the truth, objectivity and impartiality.

Embedded in long format film it is the documentary, and over the years many many doc makers often solitary or working in small groups e.g. Molly Dineen, The Lord's Tale 2002; Barbara Kopple, American Dream 1990: Jean-Marie Teno A trip to the Country, have showed us just how magnificent the form is under their authorship.

Their pieces are considered, studied and allow movement both within the film, and by the journey of film making itself.

Videojournalism borrows very heavily from the doc form, but works to the compressed time ratio of news???

It is a quasi of many forms, almost confused by what it is.

But there's no denying that it is about artisanship.

Perhaps above many other things, it captures why there is no one fixed form and why I mention two broad strands that sit next to each other: Vjism for TV and Vjism gonzo.

The latter is more expressionistic; eschewing the template of news production.

For traditionalist newsmakers it's a medium hard to understand; difficult to acknowledge breaking the rules, particularly if you've been used to the stanza of prescriptive news all your working life.

Just as one art form over time usurped another, film styles n' all, video-making ( video journalism) stands to morph from one form to another.

We've likely only just seen the beginning of the auteurs.

circular films

This is trippy. Why is the field of view so constrained to the present paradigm.

I mean your camera can only film so much, but what if it could take in some more around the edges, and what if the cinema canvas got even more panaromic.

In 300 the director runs a really cool technique of both widening the frame, and in so doing manipulating the images within it.

The effect can be just as a wierd as bullet time; differece is not many people have tried this, so give it a go.

To illustrate how it works, put three friends on a couch with three cameras trained on them individually.

You need three camera or more to make this look something else

Line em up on the field of action, and where possible demarcate the action into thirds.

Set the timecode: just slap your hands as you're recording

The let them fidget, jump up and down etc.

In the edit lay the three different film time lines on top of each other; synch them so they're the same timecode, then crop away each of the films to highlight only one of yor subjects.

You should have a seamless picture.

Now the fun; slow one down to 50 or less and speed up the other, letting one continure as normal.

Et Voila. In 300 you see the effect best in the end fighting scenes.

Next time try it with a wider panama.

Now what would film look like if we could wrap it around our visual periphery?

Yep we've been here before. cf Lev Manovic and spatial cinema.

Nothings orginal nowadays huh!

Lets make a movie

Actually more a trailer, but I thought this might be fun.

This is quite gonzo - a term I often use to interchange between self authorship and what's going on in the mind.

John Sturrock an incredible photographer and lecturer put this up on the board, last week as we double-headed.

How right he is, how right the quote, which I have doctored and added to:

We read images and film with our emotions; they are symbols that communicate with our sub conscious. Our minds make assumptions about their content and meaning, thus the image depends on the context with which it has been used.

The image and film's state can be heightened by elements such as music, colour and narrative - all of which add texture, qualification and interpretation.

The right side free-wheeling mind assimilates and hands over to the left side sequential and more ordered.

How you react with the product is completely up to you

Making a film/trailer/ flash movie/ site/ is an inspirational love affair - particularly when there's no green backs awaiting you.

I suppose this vocation can be a bit like an artist painter - making pieces out of the sheer enjoyment, and that's often my starting block.

If it's straight news then I'd like to think I'll gain the zeal from the story, but when it's a feature two things fight each other: the pic and the music.

Ridley Scott talked about how Gladiator was inspired by a single pic and I had some idea what he meant.

It's like a word association game: one image begats another and so on.

When I heard this music (see below), I couldn't get it out of my head.

The energy, pace said it all. I bought the license and played it at high volume on my Mac with speakers with no light in the room.

It allows me to visualise scenes and how the music might be interpreted; also I'm editing sequences together.

Then two images came to mind - which I have laid over this quicktime file.

Left side - right side brain
These two marry the music pretty well. They are scenes shot in Cairo for a project looking at Multimedia. Last summer I was there with Robb Montgomery and we made a behind the scenes attending to a number of projects about multimedia.

I have since continued looking at this with elements for a half hour feature which I can put together.

Unfortunately I can't do that in a couple of days because of commitments, but we can look at how I might get something decent - I hope, together.

So this qt movie of two stills sets the trend.

From here some point tonight I'll dig through my archive and look for approp shots from Cairo, London etc.

Once I have got the shots, we'll start to manipulate them.

Manipulating shots is perhaps the more trying for any videojournalist. It's a feel thing. I'll use a few ghosting effects and what I call grandma's recipe - stuff that I've built up which in many ways has no structure.



Now wait, I'm not saying I'm Pollock, but if I had to a chance to ask him how does he know where to daub his strokes, the paint, I'd be highly interested in his reply.

I wouldn't be surprised if he said, he just feels it. It may look random and perhaps it is, but the manipulation of imagery is dependent on the context and image, and that often can feel you with an emotional state that allows you to do things you wouldn't even consider worthwhile before.

For instance in one short I made I recorded the film onto my Super 8mm and then projected that onto water surface and refilmed with my dvcam.

I have no idea why, other than the music and the mood suited something haunting and I'd somehow conjured up, most likely from seeing someone else, a way of meeting that.

Anyhow's enough of that. Lets see what happens tomorrow.

top gear goes global

If you don't know the phenomenon that is Top Gear, then read on, otherwise skip the ff paras.

Take three blokes, as British as they can get, two whom qualify for crusty old man syndrome: butter should be evenly spread on toast, NOT pasted, and then place them alongside some of the hottest cars on the planet amid some of the best TV-film makers for that genre and let them act as spoilt teenagers and away you go.

Notice also that there should be no scantily clad or half decently attractive women in sight.

Sounds all too wierd for high success, but that's what this programme has consistently done over the years winning itself global gings from New Yorks TV film awards.

Jeremy, Hamster and May are a sitcom with a script that sometimes isn't far off from the cringe of "The Office". Hamster (on account of his size) nearly met his car maker with a horrific accident last year. Jeremy parks jets in front of his house - his poor wife- and Mays is the ant-Christ of optomism: "It'll never work... it'll never work... see I told you it won't work" as his car sinks to the bottom of the river.

And now for the news: Top Gear in on the verge of American stardom, not the stars they're already on BBC World etc, but the US wants its own Jeremy, Hamster and Mays.

So what is it with this prog, for on the other channels are Channel 5's Fifth Gear - an O-lectric set of the old Top Gear. Yep BBC bosses actually scraped the programme, and the old team more or less went to Channel 5 sans Jeremy.

And then ITV had Pulling Power, where the very lovely Katy Haswell worked ( We were at journalism school together and occupied a shared student digs) and my mate Kevin Haggarthy plied his own mellifluous banter.

Kevin, ITV will tell you was a favourite on the show, much loved also by viewers in a top gear anti way.

Kevin was the epitome of cool, without being cold or arrogant; leather jackets, racing gloves and the like,

We made a car feature last year and now it looks like we could be testing some other super cars.

Not anywhere near top gears budget, but how you make a car feature with spit and polish and one guy that would be me who doesn't have a clue - makes for some interesting moments.

I'll deconstruct that item in a jiffy