Edinburgh International Television Festival – The Evidence

As Peter Andre said, “you can ignore the headlines as you know they’re probably not true, but you can’t ignore the photographs…” All photos by Rob McDougall 2009 1) TV’s Got Talent winner Carolyn Philpot 2) Five’s channel controller Richard Woolfe 3) Director of BBC Vision Jana Bennett and Dragon’s Den series producer Sam Lewins 4) Peter Andre [...]

Crappy Taxidermy

Crappy Taxidermy is a site dedicated to ill-executed, ill-advised or just plain wrong taxidermy specimens, from a rat covered in blood to a cat that appears to have turned into a vase. Let’s hope Benson – the 64lb 25-yr-old British carp that recently died, and is deeply mourned by the fishing community – doesn’t suffer [...]

Odd Cops

You don’t see this every day: A cop playing a guitar to a busker A Staffordshire bull terrier being frisked A lady cop watching a naked man do an unconventional high-wire act See more on Trendhunter

Channel Branding: A Quiz – Answers

Last week I posted a list of UK and US straplines that should – if they were doing their job properly – tell you which channels they referred to. In case they didn’t, click through to find out the answers. (Photo by bdunnette under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Channel Branding: A Quiz

After the success of the programme logline quiz, I thought I’d challenge you again. This time you have to identify the following channels from their tagline (to make it more difficult there is a mix of UK and US channels). Click through to give it a go. (Photo by bdunnette under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Urban Legends

Snopes.com has a whole host of urban legends, that it explains and pronounces true or false, for example: The woman who sent an email to her friends describing her date and how she’d overlook his mullet if he showered her with gifts (his boat only had room for six so didn’t really count as an [...]

The Guardian’s Random Documentary Generator for BBC3

If you are finding it hard to come up with ideas for the youth orientated BBC3, The Guardian has come to your rescue with its F*ck Off I’m a BBC3 Random Documentary Generator. It offers you four lists from which to choose your documentary elements: Z-list ‘celeb’ presenter Style of reportage Edgy subject matter Trite [...]

Wedding Dance

It’s common, I think, for couples to have a couple of dancing classes prior to their wedding in order that they don’t trip up during their first dance; now it looks like you need get a choreographer for the groomsmen and bridesmaids too…and who knew it was possible to have so much fun in church? [...]

Square Mile Barista Throw Down

Considering I’m not a huge coffee connoisseur (give me a 75 cents cup of NYC deli coffee and I’m fine), it’s surprising to me that I AM a huge fan of Square Mile Coffee (and coffee shop Tina, We Salute You in Dalston, London). Square Mile Coffee founders James Hoffmann (World Barista Champion 2007) and [...]

How to Write an Arresting Logline: Quiz Answers

Last week, we looked at loglines – where you boil your concept down into one succinct, hooky sentence – with a fiendishly difficult quiz. As promised, here are the answers (click on the headline to go to the answers). Remember, the first thing your buyer will look at is the title, so the logline should complement and build upon it, so they get an instant feel for the tone and content of your programme. Give yourself a point for each one (and subtract five if you failed to get no. 6 correct).

If you didn’t do that well, you can console yourself with the thought that the loglines weren’t doing their job properly.

And, as ever, feel free to share, tweet or comment. (Photo by ♠ le max)