Channel 4: Born Risky.

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Channel 4 stands up for what it believes in a new campaign designed to remind viewers of its remit and purpose.

We were set up to experiment, provoke and entertain, and to put our profits into our programmes. You may love us, you may want to punch our lights out, but we make programmes we believe in. We can do this because we were Born Risky.

Produced in house by 4Creative. Full credits here.

[NSFW] Griff & Scott Garrett: Wish List


WISH LIST is an animated film, directed and animated by UK based Andrew Griffin (aka GRIFF) with illustrations from Scott Garrett. The amazing humour, the uniqueness of each character and the great illustration, makes this one of my favourite animations of all times.

Hat tip to Carolina Monza and Fred Cordier.

Director, animation & Sound Design: Griff
Original concept & Illustration: Scott Garrett
Written by Scoff & Gritt
Voices: Steve Furst
Commissioned by Chris Shepherd
Produced in association with Lupus Films for Channel 4 / Random Acts
Copyright Scott Garrett & Griff 2013

Posted on Motionographer

Adam Hills’ Alternative Christmas Message.

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Australian comedian Adam Hills delivered the latest Channel 4 “Alternative Christmas message” this year focusing on the Paralympics, with reference to the hugely successful Meet The Superhumans campaign. Shot in a single long take it’s a particularly sincere and poetic spin on the annual tradition.

Presenters of previous alternative Christmas messages have ranged from Marge Simpson to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Meet The Superhumans.

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Broadcast concurrently across 78 different UK television channels last week “Meet the Superhumans” is a 90 second film produced as part of Channel 4′s campaign to promote their coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Accompanied by ‘Harder Than You Think‘ from Public Enemy, it’s a spectacular piece of work from 4Creative and a powerful introduction to the Paralympics.

Full credits here.

Dancing with 4Music.

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British music and entertainment channel 4Music refreshed its on-air branding this month and introduced four new idents based around dance.

I’m reminded of the old BBC One ‘Rhythm and Movement’ idents that still remain a gold standard for television branding. And having recently seen Pina I still think there is plenty of room to further explore dance in idents.

For more info on the 4Music rebrand read this.

(Thanks for the details Nick)

Channel 4 Street Summer promo


Update: MPC’s behind-the-scene ‘making of’. Fascinating stuff!

Given the recent riots and looting that’s been plaguing England, I cannot help but post this “Street Summer” promo by Channel 4. MPC London is responsible for the flawless VFX, which is fascinating to watch if you can ignore the highly charged content for a second.

Glancing through the comments on the official YouTube page and also here, I find them to be just as interesting as the video.

Is this inappropriate, done in poor taste? Or is this simply a honest portrayal of the youth culture in Britain now? Does this condone stereotyping or challenge viewers to rethink it? What do you think?

Thanks to Zinnia for the nudge, and our hearts go out to U.K. residents affected by the riots.

 

Posted on Motionographer

The news needs more Steadicam (and laughs).

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The wit of David Mitchell and the profundity of Charlie Brooker have joined forces along with Jimmy Carr and Lauren Laverne for a new topical comedy programme on Channel 4 called 10 O’Clock Live.

In a similar vein to local productions Hungry Beast or the 7pm Project the show is a tight hour or news, chat and comedy. Visually the programmes colour palette and set design are decidedly un-newsy, and the use of Steadicam makes for a (quite literally) smooth viewing experience.

Something that’s meant to make us laugh, is somehow also making us smarter. The rise of comedy in the delivery of news is challenging new audiences to have a greater understanding of the world around them, and hopefully that’s a good thing.

Planes, cars and Blackpool.

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Channel 4 have been producing some of the most beautifully executed and conceptually coherent idents on television for nearly six years now.

Yesterday they introduced three new spots (well two if you don’t count the 3D spot) with the clear stand out being the epic airplane graveyard ident.

Again, an absolute triumph in branding and incomparable to local offerings. For the full set of Channel 4 idents stretching back to the beginning look here.

Attending the funeral of Big Brother.

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Over the past decade the Big Brother format has swept the world, and along with it broadcast thousands of hours of people sleeping. It’s had an enormous cultural impact, made this guy incredibly wealthy and at least a couple people mildly famous.

But the format has been losing steam for a while now, the Australian version wrapped up in 2008, and now in 2010 the British version is also saying goodbye.

The final season is embracing its impending death, with a strange circus themed title sequence, and a rather witty promo featuring former housemates attending the shows funeral. It’s nice that the show is acknowledging its departure from British television screens with as much dignity a show like this can muster.

– Big thanks to Craig for the videos.

A day in the life of British news.

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The way a network presents its news, both visually and editorially says a lot about the channel. For the sake of comparison lets look at how ITV, BBC, Sky and Channel 4 covered today’s Ash-attack.

I’ll avoid making comment on the various broadcasters editorial skills, but to summarise the look and feel of each news bulletin:

– The BBC is the straightest, clean lines, serious look.
– Channel 4 is the edgiest, feels a touch alternative.
– ITV is the glossiest, very shiny, little to CGI heavy.
– And Sky News is by far the least interesting.

For some historical perspective, check out my 2007 edition of this exact same post.

With the launch of ABC News 24 getting close, I look forward to seeing how the ABC takes on the task of branding a whole news channel. Hopefully nothing like Sky.