rowan.depomerai

Over the last ten weeks I’ve been watching series 3 of Skins, E4’s acclaimed teenage drama. The problem is,  whilst it’s been entertaining, it’s just never quite lived up to series 1 and 2. It’s felt a bit like one of those BBC3 drama pilots a few months back which were oh so desperate to be like Skins! I strongly suspect that – taken in isolation – I would have found the series pretty entertaining, however it never quite captivated me in the same way as the “original” skins. I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on why, which has frustrated me intensely. The new series had a whole new cast, and I’ve thought that the difference between Cook and Tony (from series 3 and 1/2 respectively) was probably quite indicative of the more general differences between the series. But just what was that difference? Now series 3 has finished, I’ve just gone back and watched the first episode of series 1 to see if I could work it out.

Read the rest of this entry »

I think that successfully mixing old and new is an incredible skill; when done well, amazing things can happen. When done badly, the results can be hideous. To create something contemporary which retains elements of the traditional is not an easy task, but successful results can produce something which is more than the sum of its old and new parts. Allow me to illustrate with three examples. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m coming to the end of my sixth week on a new project at work, so I thought it about time I said something about it. For the uninitiated, the first 2 years in my job are a ‘training’ period, when I’ll spend time on four different projects for around six months each. This is my second placement, after spending some time with Production Magic.

I’m now working with the Production Automation team on the Ingex tapeless production system. Read the rest of this entry »

Very few things irritate me more than people who have no idea what they’re talking about mouthing off on the web. And few things entertain me more than their arguments being ripped to pieces by people who have slightly more idea what they’re talking about. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for democracy and free speech and all that, but sometimes I just think people should find out what the hell they’re on about.

The BBC’s iPlayer is a very emotive topic on the web it seems, and in particular the original Windows-only download version. SMPPMS says on the iPlayer forum:

The BBC has rightly been criticised for spending £130 million for developing the download version of the iPlayer which is tied into Microsoft’s Windows Media Player which restricted to Windows Operating systems only. This had very rightly received widespread criticism from the public

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sitting in front of the telly, watching (on my shiny cable on-demand system) BBC3’s new drama, The Things I Haven’t Told You. The Radio Times amusingly described it as another tepid drama pilot where the brief was most likely: “Make it like Skins. But you know, different.” Read the rest of this entry »