So this is what Google Sidewiki looks like?
I wonder if it integrates with Wave...
Monday 5 October 2009
My First Sidewiki Experiment
Tuesday 8 September 2009
spider climbing its web
Is there anything prettier than light rain and sunshine and spiders webs?
I've just got a new close up lens so spent the day crawling round the the undergrowth, hanging out in bushes and generally getting too close to snails and spiders and such, much fun!
I've just got a new close up lens so spent the day crawling round the the undergrowth, hanging out in bushes and generally getting too close to snails and spiders and such, much fun!
Thursday 13 August 2009
[Delicious] nicola osborne wants to share a bookmark with you
Another test of the Delicious plugin changes...
Bookmark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y2k
nicola osborne's notes: The Year 2000 Problem, or Y2K, was actually a series of short term coding decisions that led many to believe all computer systems would fail on the roll over from 1999 to 2000. In the event most modern systems were fine but some older systems did fail on a number of dates around the Millennium.
You can find more of nicola osborne's bookmarks at
- http://delicious.com/nkl.osborne
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Tuesday 14 July 2009
Torchwood: Children of Earth
A few weeks ago BBC One devoted the whole 9pm to 10pm slot to Torchwood: Children of Earth. And it was good. Mostly...
The thing is that Torchwood has been ticking along rather nicely on BBC3 for some time now but, as with all things that attract a rating, it's seen itself pimped up through the channels in response to it's success. Series One was only on BBC3. Series Two migrated to BBC2 and now, here we are, premiering the third season on BBC1. Except it's only a five part series and there have been a few modifications that pretty much migrated me from the "regular viewer" category to the "devoted upset fan" box.
The first thing to say - and this is free from spoilers - there have been a few changes to Torchwood that are welcome. The budget seems to have ballooned for a start and that's no bad thing at all when you're looking for glossy sci-fi (though I'm not entirely sure why BBC1 viewers must have glossier than BBC2 viewers or BBC3 viewers... are they broadcasting different formats?!). However when Series One began it was clear the writers wanted to set Torchwood fairly far apart from Doctor Who and it primarily achieved this through a huge abundant amount of sex. Straight, gay, alien, even a beastie who shagged drunken Cardiff drinkers to death. And lo, it was rocking. A bit one dimensional but super dirty because Dr Who-niverse plus sex is a pretty exciting little combination, particularly if you were always into the mind-fuck of the immortal traveller more than the tacky plastic of the aliens encountered in abandoned Welsh slate mines. And Jack was gay and Ianto was heading that way and Tosh was falling for that alien/girl from My Family and they killed someone off in the first episode. Wow. Anyway...
That was on BBC3. When things migrated to BBC2 the sex seemed to morph into a sudden incestuous obsession: all the Torchwood team members were still bonking like rabbits but only each other. But that was OK as Captain Jack started more explicitly hanging out with Ianto, Gwen's dull hubby Rhys almost ended up slaughtered (that was an episode full of the hope of escaping suburbia I think) and Owen ended up the weirdly grey-skinned zombie we'd always suspected he was.
So to BBC1 and do we get less violence? Well not really (and here we will have spoilers). We had a man shooting his whole family dead, we had a child melted by weird noise, Jack died 6 times (thanks to You Have Been Watching for the body count) and they debated slaughtering 10% of all children. Also there were some quite nasty gory bits. So no less violence then and actually a welcome blast of tension and cynicism. But where had all the boffing gone? OK it was a week long run and, though not a real-time experience, it was supposed to be taking place over a few days. So that's probably OK. Although the resurrection of attempts to make Gwen and Jack glance sexily at each other continue to fail big time for me. The idea of them as a fake couple is too, well, improbable I think. John Barrowman, cheese-ter that he is, is quite frighteningly turned into a passable actor when faced with a believable love interest, so long may he be written as a character that will flirt with anything but has a particularly eye for the boys. But I digress.
There were four things that made me badly want to scream with annoyance in the week (bigger spoilers ahead):
The thing is that Torchwood has been ticking along rather nicely on BBC3 for some time now but, as with all things that attract a rating, it's seen itself pimped up through the channels in response to it's success. Series One was only on BBC3. Series Two migrated to BBC2 and now, here we are, premiering the third season on BBC1. Except it's only a five part series and there have been a few modifications that pretty much migrated me from the "regular viewer" category to the "devoted upset fan" box.
The first thing to say - and this is free from spoilers - there have been a few changes to Torchwood that are welcome. The budget seems to have ballooned for a start and that's no bad thing at all when you're looking for glossy sci-fi (though I'm not entirely sure why BBC1 viewers must have glossier than BBC2 viewers or BBC3 viewers... are they broadcasting different formats?!). However when Series One began it was clear the writers wanted to set Torchwood fairly far apart from Doctor Who and it primarily achieved this through a huge abundant amount of sex. Straight, gay, alien, even a beastie who shagged drunken Cardiff drinkers to death. And lo, it was rocking. A bit one dimensional but super dirty because Dr Who-niverse plus sex is a pretty exciting little combination, particularly if you were always into the mind-fuck of the immortal traveller more than the tacky plastic of the aliens encountered in abandoned Welsh slate mines. And Jack was gay and Ianto was heading that way and Tosh was falling for that alien/girl from My Family and they killed someone off in the first episode. Wow. Anyway...
That was on BBC3. When things migrated to BBC2 the sex seemed to morph into a sudden incestuous obsession: all the Torchwood team members were still bonking like rabbits but only each other. But that was OK as Captain Jack started more explicitly hanging out with Ianto, Gwen's dull hubby Rhys almost ended up slaughtered (that was an episode full of the hope of escaping suburbia I think) and Owen ended up the weirdly grey-skinned zombie we'd always suspected he was.
So to BBC1 and do we get less violence? Well not really (and here we will have spoilers). We had a man shooting his whole family dead, we had a child melted by weird noise, Jack died 6 times (thanks to You Have Been Watching for the body count) and they debated slaughtering 10% of all children. Also there were some quite nasty gory bits. So no less violence then and actually a welcome blast of tension and cynicism. But where had all the boffing gone? OK it was a week long run and, though not a real-time experience, it was supposed to be taking place over a few days. So that's probably OK. Although the resurrection of attempts to make Gwen and Jack glance sexily at each other continue to fail big time for me. The idea of them as a fake couple is too, well, improbable I think. John Barrowman, cheese-ter that he is, is quite frighteningly turned into a passable actor when faced with a believable love interest, so long may he be written as a character that will flirt with anything but has a particularly eye for the boys. But I digress.
There were four things that made me badly want to scream with annoyance in the week (bigger spoilers ahead):
- Gwen's pregnancy - childcare just isn't exciting telly. And if you're cynically killing kids in the week why suddenly get fluffy? There was a super flexible option - leave Gwen pregnant and alive at the end of the episode but don't assume she safely makes it to full term (as that atrocious coda did). With all that explosive traumatic jumping about there was plenty of opportunity for chaos there. If Torchwood comes back for Season 4 and the baby is just an excuse for Rhys whimsy I will be pissed. If it's a horrible alien manifestation I'll be just about amused but I still think they missed the subtle open ended sane option to not commit...
- The Rift was exactly where please?! You see the thing is that if you set up a universe and it's silly and full of aliens and such you better bloomin' make it make sense. It's like the Buffyverse: it doesn't have to make sense in the real world but it always has to make sense in the fictional universe you are in. So when Torchwood was blown up on Day One what exactly happened to Cardiff? Overrun with Weavels? Alien influx? Dark paramilitary forces running in to steal control of the Rift? You can't blow up a fictional piece of physics that easily Mr Russell T. Davies. It belittles all those who have already seen the show. And it actually mocks Doctor Who fans who also require that part of the Torchwood Universe to work - it's effectively the Tardis charger...
- The Adventures of Captain Jack is the fear I have for Season 4 of Torchwood. After the shows had gone out someone tweeted that the show would be about "Captain Jack bumming his way round the universe. Literally". It's a comment I'd like to call homophobic but frankly the way the week was completed there was little left but Jack being the sexed up Who. Maybe that means Who is turning all suitable for the under 5's but with Stephen Moffat in charge there and Russell T. Davies still involved in Torchwood I have my fears far more about the latter than the former. Davies seems bored of Torchwood before it's barely begun. It's something he's done before: After an amazing cultural phenomenon with Queer as Folk he absolutely devalued that series with the shockingly rubbish Queer as Folk 2. It was like he'd shown up but couldn't be bothered to follow through with believable characters he'd initially set up. The self-destructive tone of Torchwood Season 3 makes me wonder if he's doing the same thing: deciding he likes the telly slot he's managed to open up but he'd rather do a new show instead. File this little rant under "deeply concerned at the ceasing of fun unwholesome Torchwood fun".
- Ianto - why? Why why why? Why kill off just about the only sympathetic and complex character in the show (Gwen is complex but hardly sympathetic; Jack is complexly background-ed but his core personality seems pretty fixed; Ianto was confused about his sexuality, his place professionally, his class role, his relationship). And worse still why did we need to see his family as a sort of excuse for his dead: the gay brother sacrificed for a chavvy family of four. I'll be honest I was ready for the kids to be destroyed but in no way ready to give up a well written and acted character. It's a strangely homophobic move for me - you've had your coming out moment, you've had a relationship and now we have nothing left to write for you. That's a fairly bleak picture of inclusion in mainstream drama if ever I saw one. Maybe Russell wanted to reduce the amount of slash fiction out there... I suspect the opposite will be the outcome. As much of a feminist as I am I'd rather have a man-who-sleeps-with-men, a feisty woman and a pansexual alien as my leads. Not one depressed alien and a mommy. Gah!
- Take a more Buffy view of your universe. There are no sacred cows but a relationship that's stable across two or three series and then goes badly wrong is much more interesting and surprising than one that is stable only for a few months. You can't keep all characters happy but you should let a bit of stability amek for plain fun episodes short on soap factors. Otherwise you should be writing "continuing drama" instead.
- To help you tie things up sensibly why don't you do something outrageously unusual: hire some writers who actually did science at A-level or at university. It would give the show a short of Star Trek-like big ideas + vague plausibility that would help tidy those endings up no end. What is actually happening and being researched is far more thrilling that what sits in the mind of a writer on their 20th plotline for a sci-fi format. So, subscriptions to New Scientist, Nature and Wired and a few accessible but informative tech/science mags would be a start. Some actual science journals would knock your socks off and a scientist on the writing team... well that might just flip you over the edge so that 100% of a series could be good, not just the first 70% of it!
Wednesday 3 June 2009
Friday 22 May 2009
Eurovision 2009
Eurovision 2009 was ace this year. Click through to Flickr to have a look at the pics or go to http://www.suchprettyeyes.com to see all of our neat wiki pages and blogs and such.
Friday 20 March 2009
many moons
I seem to be walking home at dusk more and more lately. Not due to leaving work early but because the first dawnings of spring mean it's not quite dark at 7ish anymore and that is a wonderful thing indeed.
Walking home the other night I saw this beautiful sight: all the many paper lampshades in the Salisbury Centre were glowing softly whilst a powerfully bright full moon shon out above in that crisp spring sky. You can only partly get the idea from the picture but it was really magical.
Walking home the other night I saw this beautiful sight: all the many paper lampshades in the Salisbury Centre were glowing softly whilst a powerfully bright full moon shon out above in that crisp spring sky. You can only partly get the idea from the picture but it was really magical.
Saturday 14 March 2009
BarCamp Session 6 - Summary of day, highlights etc.
This is a summary session. Everyone had a very unique experience: Ewen got pitched to at the urinals!
Comments, blog posts, and anything else should be put out there with the tag BarCampScotland.
Mike Madnicks talk was about making the best stuff free and the scarce stuff paid for. He was saying don't freak out about piracy but work out how to make money from attention. How to make things more productive and less intrusive.
Ewen recommends Jeff Jarvis: What Would Google Do, JJ says do what you do best and link to everything else.
Social Networking Sites - and multiple identities on them - how you negotiate that divide. Ewen adds that you must be out there if you're pitching for money. If you want to be getting money for social network stuff, apps etc. you need to be there.
Breastlife - a gadget that's on it's way and there was a session about online marketing etc. How to mix mediums etc. Shadowpuppets on Youtube was suggested.
Mobile app session - talk about different price structures, iPhone, Nokia and Android all vary. Time to use was defined as "latte time" - how can your app be useful in the time it takes to order a coffee.
Hyper local news - Ewen says lots of potential there as BBC Trust blocked development of local stuff so a huge opportunity. Apparently he's seen an idea today he may commission on this theme. IN fact he's seen 3 so worth the train ticket for him apparently..
That's pretty much it but I'll reflect later on what I thought I think... for now off to the bar with vouchers...
Comments, blog posts, and anything else should be put out there with the tag BarCampScotland.
Mike Madnicks talk was about making the best stuff free and the scarce stuff paid for. He was saying don't freak out about piracy but work out how to make money from attention. How to make things more productive and less intrusive.
Ewen recommends Jeff Jarvis: What Would Google Do, JJ says do what you do best and link to everything else.
Social Networking Sites - and multiple identities on them - how you negotiate that divide. Ewen adds that you must be out there if you're pitching for money. If you want to be getting money for social network stuff, apps etc. you need to be there.
Breastlife - a gadget that's on it's way and there was a session about online marketing etc. How to mix mediums etc. Shadowpuppets on Youtube was suggested.
Mobile app session - talk about different price structures, iPhone, Nokia and Android all vary. Time to use was defined as "latte time" - how can your app be useful in the time it takes to order a coffee.
Hyper local news - Ewen says lots of potential there as BBC Trust blocked development of local stuff so a huge opportunity. Apparently he's seen an idea today he may commission on this theme. IN fact he's seen 3 so worth the train ticket for him apparently..
That's pretty much it but I'll reflect later on what I thought I think... for now off to the bar with vouchers...
BarCamp Session 5 - Squeak Smalltalk
This was a small but interesting session about the operating system/programming language/useful idea that is Squeak Smalltalk which is built on Smalltalk - a gui developed at Xerox Park back in the late 70's/early 80s. Squeak smalltalk is powerful but it is so adaptable that it was quite difficult to demonstrate (especially as there were problems with connecting laptop to projector).
We saw the "morphic interface" and the editing and programming of objects. Also saw Croquet - a virtual world built on smalltalk in a very SL way. Interesting but at an alpha development stage at the moment so not easy to see.
More practically Scratch - a basic and very widely used visual programming tool - is built on Squeak Smalltalk, and Sophie - an ebooks authoring tool is also built on Squeak Smalltalk.
We saw the "morphic interface" and the editing and programming of objects. Also saw Croquet - a virtual world built on smalltalk in a very SL way. Interesting but at an alpha development stage at the moment so not easy to see.
More practically Scratch - a basic and very widely used visual programming tool - is built on Squeak Smalltalk, and Sophie - an ebooks authoring tool is also built on Squeak Smalltalk.
BarCamp Session 4 - Mobile visual interactivity
My next session I get to be a slightly more passive person again. This one is on "Visual Interactivity" and is being given by Jeff Ballinger who works for a company called Mobileacuity and he says we should throw things at him if he gets too salesy...
Visual interactivity is the topic up for discussion.
Background:
- Most people have phones they use for voice calls
- Most people send text messages
- Many have cameras on their phone. In a more regular group of punters there are a few less than in this room
- About 5% (if that) have visited a web site on their phone (in our room about 60%)
- Very very few folk have downloaded apps or games (we're much higher than average)
What are the implications for folk on the street. Cameras are used widely. More sophisticated things like browsers etc. are not used very much.
Jeff's company works in brand marketing spaces. They want to use mobile with other mediums. They really want wide usage for it to be useful. It must be inclusive and it cannot put people off (real danger in brand marketing). But perhaps these issues raise the difference between good and bad mobile content.
We're seeing a graph. Most now have camera phones.
Showing 3D barcode: has to be printed on original media. Nice to redirect what it points to. The reason most QR type codes are fairly static. This is to do IPR. NeoMedia Technologies have a patent for any redirection via an image. They did this in about 1995 so did originate in this stuff but it makes it hard to get into it now. There is a real usability barrier here as well. How can you tell that
In 2008, 166.6m handsets in Western Europe are registered for MMS usage - 95% of phones. And ages 16-34 generally know how to send MMS.
Recognition
Very simple form of interactivity. Take picture, recognize and then send back content. Q, basic. You take a picture and get sent back data. It's handy but it's really not that useful or exciting. Only great if loads of media are involved. The number for this sort of interactivity has to be communicated to users somehow. Questions raised about trust issues. Any call to action tends to be situational. Mobileacuity tend not to put out a number for responses to help for that.
Image Zoning
A bit more sophisticated. You take a picture with the centre focused on an action point (e.g. Vodafone guess the goal scoring point interaction). Offers better and wider possibilities. another example done by agency AKQA for Nike PhotoiD. A way to customize shoes by taking pictures of the colours you like, you get sent back a mocked up shoe in that colour (from set palate) and a link to buy. Colour analysis being used as input for mobile shopping.
Blue Screening
As in the movies (or in the beach of old!) you can star in an image. You could take pictures of yourself pocking head through a sign and then the service can return content (e.g. a music video) using this. Limited by physical location of boards etc.
Facefinder
Is latest idea on this. It just uses a regular image so can be used better for social apps. Now getting a demo from some friendly faces in the front row! ;) A picture is taken and sent off to the company servers. And a video gets sent back. Really quite fun. Cost of download of video depends on package. 500k is about the video size. Contracts vary. Vodafone do inclusive data. T-Mobile and 3 have add ons but inexpensive and good take up. Other operators not such easy models yet. You can do viral things to build on that content. Could use GPS into apps on some phones but phone dependent. Mobileacuity is focusing on visual end, apps specialists build the apps.
It's very easy to find face like features in an image. There is some false positive confusion here. Can be tricky to separate real from unreal faces. Finding the edge of a face without a fixed template is also tricky.
Now watching demo video from MobileExpo this year. This prompts a question about serious uses other than teenage silliness. There is a project that Jeff is working on that is a public information service (but he can't tell us about it) but there are also ways of getting data on products and services. Snaptel in the US (in Snaptel Explorer) lets you take a picture of DVD, product etc. and then link to tons of data - real time data when making purchasing decisions.
One useful implication could be to tag a face and then search based on it in image searching tools (some common ground here with iPhoto face recognition).
Visual search over text search has an advantage in terms of specificity. e.g. search for Paris and you get the city, you get Paris Hilton etc. If you take a picture of the Eiffel Tower you'll only get info on the Eiffel Tower. Talk here that a theatre listings could be returned from a picture of that theatre.
More demos are being handed out. I am pausing over them as my data package is not that great.
Discussion: there are manual cut out options and web based ideas. Mobileacuity are in discussion with various agencies about options. Someone asked about Facebook - send from phone and return to Facebook or similar.
There are several competitors. All but one uses a licensed software option that limits options. Mobileacuity uses something different and is leading in UK (and only in UK it seems) with clients including Ogilvy, Joule, Nokia, Pepsi, Vodafone, BBC, etc. Mobileacuity is looking at a web service API in a few months. Once it's finished it will be rolled out more widely.
Visual interactivity is the topic up for discussion.
Background:
- Most people have phones they use for voice calls
- Most people send text messages
- Many have cameras on their phone. In a more regular group of punters there are a few less than in this room
- About 5% (if that) have visited a web site on their phone (in our room about 60%)
- Very very few folk have downloaded apps or games (we're much higher than average)
What are the implications for folk on the street. Cameras are used widely. More sophisticated things like browsers etc. are not used very much.
Jeff's company works in brand marketing spaces. They want to use mobile with other mediums. They really want wide usage for it to be useful. It must be inclusive and it cannot put people off (real danger in brand marketing). But perhaps these issues raise the difference between good and bad mobile content.
We're seeing a graph. Most now have camera phones.
Showing 3D barcode: has to be printed on original media. Nice to redirect what it points to. The reason most QR type codes are fairly static. This is to do IPR. NeoMedia Technologies have a patent for any redirection via an image. They did this in about 1995 so did originate in this stuff but it makes it hard to get into it now. There is a real usability barrier here as well. How can you tell that
In 2008, 166.6m handsets in Western Europe are registered for MMS usage - 95% of phones. And ages 16-34 generally know how to send MMS.
Recognition
Very simple form of interactivity. Take picture, recognize and then send back content. Q, basic. You take a picture and get sent back data. It's handy but it's really not that useful or exciting. Only great if loads of media are involved. The number for this sort of interactivity has to be communicated to users somehow. Questions raised about trust issues. Any call to action tends to be situational. Mobileacuity tend not to put out a number for responses to help for that.
Image Zoning
A bit more sophisticated. You take a picture with the centre focused on an action point (e.g. Vodafone guess the goal scoring point interaction). Offers better and wider possibilities. another example done by agency AKQA for Nike PhotoiD. A way to customize shoes by taking pictures of the colours you like, you get sent back a mocked up shoe in that colour (from set palate) and a link to buy. Colour analysis being used as input for mobile shopping.
Blue Screening
As in the movies (or in the beach of old!) you can star in an image. You could take pictures of yourself pocking head through a sign and then the service can return content (e.g. a music video) using this. Limited by physical location of boards etc.
Facefinder
Is latest idea on this. It just uses a regular image so can be used better for social apps. Now getting a demo from some friendly faces in the front row! ;) A picture is taken and sent off to the company servers. And a video gets sent back. Really quite fun. Cost of download of video depends on package. 500k is about the video size. Contracts vary. Vodafone do inclusive data. T-Mobile and 3 have add ons but inexpensive and good take up. Other operators not such easy models yet. You can do viral things to build on that content. Could use GPS into apps on some phones but phone dependent. Mobileacuity is focusing on visual end, apps specialists build the apps.
It's very easy to find face like features in an image. There is some false positive confusion here. Can be tricky to separate real from unreal faces. Finding the edge of a face without a fixed template is also tricky.
Now watching demo video from MobileExpo this year. This prompts a question about serious uses other than teenage silliness. There is a project that Jeff is working on that is a public information service (but he can't tell us about it) but there are also ways of getting data on products and services. Snaptel in the US (in Snaptel Explorer) lets you take a picture of DVD, product etc. and then link to tons of data - real time data when making purchasing decisions.
One useful implication could be to tag a face and then search based on it in image searching tools (some common ground here with iPhoto face recognition).
Visual search over text search has an advantage in terms of specificity. e.g. search for Paris and you get the city, you get Paris Hilton etc. If you take a picture of the Eiffel Tower you'll only get info on the Eiffel Tower. Talk here that a theatre listings could be returned from a picture of that theatre.
More demos are being handed out. I am pausing over them as my data package is not that great.
Discussion: there are manual cut out options and web based ideas. Mobileacuity are in discussion with various agencies about options. Someone asked about Facebook - send from phone and return to Facebook or similar.
There are several competitors. All but one uses a licensed software option that limits options. Mobileacuity uses something different and is leading in UK (and only in UK it seems) with clients including Ogilvy, Joule, Nokia, Pepsi, Vodafone, BBC, etc. Mobileacuity is looking at a web service API in a few months. Once it's finished it will be rolled out more widely.
BarCamp Session 3 - My own (maybe!)
Veryifing and reusing information is what I want to discuss...
Two folks showed up and we had a good chat about verifying/reviewing/qualifying websites/online objects and how this might work. Talk of social bookmarking sites, social networking, geolocations, hyper local content etc. followed and we sketched out an idea that would use the APIs of other sites to combine into a "Social Web of Trust" idea which would build on existing social content as well as including ways of showing how trusted or accurate a site was. The idea comes from my own thoughts about reusing webpages or web objects for academic use and how you verify the source of that data without having to curate everything one site at a time. One of my two co-discussers is going to take forward the idea and experiment with it. More news as and when...
Two folks showed up and we had a good chat about verifying/reviewing/qualifying websites/online objects and how this might work. Talk of social bookmarking sites, social networking, geolocations, hyper local content etc. followed and we sketched out an idea that would use the APIs of other sites to combine into a "Social Web of Trust" idea which would build on existing social content as well as including ways of showing how trusted or accurate a site was. The idea comes from my own thoughts about reusing webpages or web objects for academic use and how you verify the source of that data without having to curate everything one site at a time. One of my two co-discussers is going to take forward the idea and experiment with it. More news as and when...
BarCamp Session 2 - Second Life and education
The second session I'm along to is being hosted by DigitalKatie http://digitalkatie.typepad.com/ (@digitalkatie).
Been working with Global Kids charity which is based at the High School for Global Citizenship in Brooklyn. Focus on kids with limited access to education, computing equipment etc. No guarantee of computers at home. When extra activities like blogging or flickr it was kids first experience there. There were also low levels of literacy to tackle. Kate was working remotely via Skype and SecondLife. These kids had never used these tools before so we started by teaching them how to use the spaces in order to learn Global Science topics. Engagement was far higher than traditional teaching options. Got funding for 20 laptops, 20 Macbooks. This doubled the number of computers in the school. Teachers, Head and Admins had those machines. Massive change to level of IT access compared to before and compared to peers.
Second Life Curriculum: How to teach SL skills
We tested pdf files that were OK (tested in a school in Washington) but they were more useful for teachers than for students. The teachers in the classroom needed to gain these skills too so this was still useful.
We got them to texture objects, how to do 3D modelling. But we bombarded them with too much content. We hadn't worked out what they would need to know for the course so we taught too many skills in SL. And wordiness wasn't as good as demonstration for these kids. But there are over 100 free teaching materials for SL available at Gloal Kids
Learning Global Science: How to teach Science in SL
The team reproduced lots of materials and spaces to help the kids engage. Did debates with giant floor panels - SL avatars could move to a floor square and then ask then to justify their reasons.
The first area was Science at Home - giving each student a small house and a box of stuff: recyling bins, taps etc. They had to turn their SL house into a replication of their own homes. So they had to research what resources they used and what waste was produced etc. And they had to add a note to each item to explain usage in their own house. Planned to use these little houses as a base but didn't really return past this exercise.
The next area of study looked at Waste Management in Naples. Naples have a really bad waste management problem. There were cardboard cut out type city officials and if they asked the right questions they would find out about what was happening. These were programmed responses but with some variance so students had to ask a lot and talk to each other. This worked well as there were about 8 characters in wider areas but a later exercise had fewer characters and this worked less well. Not real people behind them in this scenario but SL hooked up to another service quite cleverly.
As part of waste management class students could trample through a virtual landfill to understand the issues better - something you could never do in reality.
The next are was Non Renewable Resources. Looking at coal, oil and the ozone layer. Built a coal mine (with water that was grottier by the mine than on the approach). Had a real problem with lag with the coal mine BUT the kids got the point of the coal mine - it was cramped and difficult. In NY it wasn't as if they could go visit a coal mine in reality (something you could do in Scotland). For the ozone exercise you could take measurements and research. Went well but not interactive enough
The next area was on Renewable Resources - we had a house they could explore (used a maingrid resource that we were able to put into the teengrid - not always possible). Needed to give more web resources, the kids got bogged down at the details. They type in a huge sentence and then take first answer. Need to change our approach to cope with that for next time. It worked but not as succesfully as it could be. From the images though you can at least see that it's a rich resource.
Next up was a Virtual Fieldtrip to a water treatment plant with guest via Skype. The issue was that the expert wasn't terribly audible so had to transcribe instead. Kids had great engaged questions though. The water treatment plant was also moved from main grid - scripting causes problems when you move from main to teen grid.
This was a real class in a real high school so to get credit a project was required so the class had a Final Project. Kids had a billboard to fill with Comic Life to present their project and they could accompany with objects etc. They did try out ideas well. Emphasis was on assessing the science learning not the SL learning. This was why an imported poster presentation worked. In future would focus the SL learning so that only useful skills passed on and more focus could be given to the science.
The kids had very little IT skills. So they learned other things - for instance we used Comic Life for exercises and teaching materials. Every day the kids were blogging about their experiences. They would blog about questions on the board and of their experiences etc. Used Google Earth - most hadn't seen before. This worked well although kids were putting up Flickr pictures with their addresses after looking at maps - swift teacherly removal there. But seeing actual science in action on Google Earth was great. And actually real life presentation skills were helped with the final projects and the confidence building.
Daily class first thing in the morning (for them), about lunchtime in the UK. Really great to be able to talk with different people in their classes, not just their teachers/local peers. Helps them see the wider world. Some of the Brooklyn kids had never even been into Manhattan. Brilliant that they could then speak to people in Scotland and get a slightly bigger mind view of the world.
We asked for feedback on the class. Really really positive. Came from a viewpoint of not engaging with science to being interested and open to learning about science.
The kids did a lot nore group work than they were expected. A lot of kids were enjoying the class and said they would miss it. A kid who was excluded for a few days actually logged in from home for class! That's a huge thing: the sign that something had been done right.
Kate managed to visit. Working on Kids Connect in Florida so went across to visit. On the team they had the teacher of the class, a science advisor, and a SL developer. The resources are good to go for others. We had a whole sim to work with but it only requires a little bit of SL land.
Resources
www.rezed.org/group/GKslcurriculum
Questions
Do you use SL in the UK? No. Real problems in Edinburgh and lots of local councils as they have security concerns, issues etc. Bute is the only Scottish area to do this, they set up a private island on a teen grid, no strangers etc. It was for after school usage but other teachers were interested only to be blocked by IT dept. Ed council computer specs are not up to the job, graphics cards can't do them, broadband connection can't handle that traffic. The set up is more for office workers than education. Glow is an initiative that should help though - will increase quality and speed of broadband. Kate's changing syllibus to Digital Media rather than Computing so blogs etc. will be included. At present school rules don't allow staff to change website let alone kids. But there'll be lots of safeguards: we should be teaching kids how to be safe online not blocking anything. The curriculum includes social software including tons of currently blocked sites.
There is an age issue for SL. Even SL Teengrid you have to be a minimum age of 13. Although the US law has been challenged. OpenSim is an alternative hosted option but most schools don't have that technology. One school in Edinburgh allows students to add stuff to their server. Comment from the floor: St Andrews University are working with OpenSim. At the moment not a lot of kids are doing computing and moving to computing at university so the universities are very supportive in terms of their own teengrids etc. Comment from floor: there are maths and sciences areas in SL? Yes but these are in maingrid. But some nasa, library etc. resources they can be moved to the teengrid as needed. The database code says whether resources are maingrid or teengrid. Resources developed in the maingrid not the teengrid work poorly, especially scripted objects.
Beacon of hope - we spoke to the head of the SL teengrid. They are planning for an open PG area in the middle. This would allow 18 year olds, parents and kids etc. to work together and would allow building and sharing space. Been talked about a long time but not happened yet. Comment from floor: great math models area, a shame kids can't see those.
Question re:resources. Most of what we used we built and developed but we had a good relationship with the maingrid so we were able to use existent objects. If you go to Global Kids you can access materials and reusing content. Pdfs are open for all but the resources cost money so the model wouldn't be reuse as is, would need to work out with Global Kids how those resources can be used/if there's cost. You need to bear in mind you need 2 to 3 people supporting the kids to do this type of learning. Comment: classroom management is very difficult when computer based learning - also do the kids become insular? Kate says that actually lots of interactivity. As adults in the teengrid (we're now classed as kids) we couldn't pass objects or see messages etc in SL. Kids were chatting away but we couldn't tell! LindenLab won't let just anyone do this. Even to be an adult in the teengrid you have to meet approval. To get your avatars in as teens you need very special permission. As adults you have island priveledges only. As teens you can see all so Linden want you to be seriously trusted. This is an issue of how it was developed: started as a game but having to catch up to uses now.
The online work was backed up with real life group tasks so working and talking together there - hard to tell as virtual tutor in Scotland!
Question: would you virtually recruit for an assistant? Might want to but funding would need to be in place. An audience member is at education dept in Edinburgh and reckons that trainee teachers etc. would love that experience. Expensive to clear people. You have to get police checks for all countries you've worked in and get documents translated. Maybe £300 per check for some. Real difficulty of safety causing siloing of data.
Assessment: class teacher generally did this. Some text exported from SL and that was passed on to teacher. Blogs also used. Kate also approved blogs as they went live. Vetted and published as a result of having assistance available.
Been working with Global Kids charity which is based at the High School for Global Citizenship in Brooklyn. Focus on kids with limited access to education, computing equipment etc. No guarantee of computers at home. When extra activities like blogging or flickr it was kids first experience there. There were also low levels of literacy to tackle. Kate was working remotely via Skype and SecondLife. These kids had never used these tools before so we started by teaching them how to use the spaces in order to learn Global Science topics. Engagement was far higher than traditional teaching options. Got funding for 20 laptops, 20 Macbooks. This doubled the number of computers in the school. Teachers, Head and Admins had those machines. Massive change to level of IT access compared to before and compared to peers.
Second Life Curriculum: How to teach SL skills
We tested pdf files that were OK (tested in a school in Washington) but they were more useful for teachers than for students. The teachers in the classroom needed to gain these skills too so this was still useful.
We got them to texture objects, how to do 3D modelling. But we bombarded them with too much content. We hadn't worked out what they would need to know for the course so we taught too many skills in SL. And wordiness wasn't as good as demonstration for these kids. But there are over 100 free teaching materials for SL available at Gloal Kids
Learning Global Science: How to teach Science in SL
The team reproduced lots of materials and spaces to help the kids engage. Did debates with giant floor panels - SL avatars could move to a floor square and then ask then to justify their reasons.
The first area was Science at Home - giving each student a small house and a box of stuff: recyling bins, taps etc. They had to turn their SL house into a replication of their own homes. So they had to research what resources they used and what waste was produced etc. And they had to add a note to each item to explain usage in their own house. Planned to use these little houses as a base but didn't really return past this exercise.
The next area of study looked at Waste Management in Naples. Naples have a really bad waste management problem. There were cardboard cut out type city officials and if they asked the right questions they would find out about what was happening. These were programmed responses but with some variance so students had to ask a lot and talk to each other. This worked well as there were about 8 characters in wider areas but a later exercise had fewer characters and this worked less well. Not real people behind them in this scenario but SL hooked up to another service quite cleverly.
As part of waste management class students could trample through a virtual landfill to understand the issues better - something you could never do in reality.
The next are was Non Renewable Resources. Looking at coal, oil and the ozone layer. Built a coal mine (with water that was grottier by the mine than on the approach). Had a real problem with lag with the coal mine BUT the kids got the point of the coal mine - it was cramped and difficult. In NY it wasn't as if they could go visit a coal mine in reality (something you could do in Scotland). For the ozone exercise you could take measurements and research. Went well but not interactive enough
The next area was on Renewable Resources - we had a house they could explore (used a maingrid resource that we were able to put into the teengrid - not always possible). Needed to give more web resources, the kids got bogged down at the details. They type in a huge sentence and then take first answer. Need to change our approach to cope with that for next time. It worked but not as succesfully as it could be. From the images though you can at least see that it's a rich resource.
Next up was a Virtual Fieldtrip to a water treatment plant with guest via Skype. The issue was that the expert wasn't terribly audible so had to transcribe instead. Kids had great engaged questions though. The water treatment plant was also moved from main grid - scripting causes problems when you move from main to teen grid.
This was a real class in a real high school so to get credit a project was required so the class had a Final Project. Kids had a billboard to fill with Comic Life to present their project and they could accompany with objects etc. They did try out ideas well. Emphasis was on assessing the science learning not the SL learning. This was why an imported poster presentation worked. In future would focus the SL learning so that only useful skills passed on and more focus could be given to the science.
The kids had very little IT skills. So they learned other things - for instance we used Comic Life for exercises and teaching materials. Every day the kids were blogging about their experiences. They would blog about questions on the board and of their experiences etc. Used Google Earth - most hadn't seen before. This worked well although kids were putting up Flickr pictures with their addresses after looking at maps - swift teacherly removal there. But seeing actual science in action on Google Earth was great. And actually real life presentation skills were helped with the final projects and the confidence building.
Daily class first thing in the morning (for them), about lunchtime in the UK. Really great to be able to talk with different people in their classes, not just their teachers/local peers. Helps them see the wider world. Some of the Brooklyn kids had never even been into Manhattan. Brilliant that they could then speak to people in Scotland and get a slightly bigger mind view of the world.
We asked for feedback on the class. Really really positive. Came from a viewpoint of not engaging with science to being interested and open to learning about science.
The kids did a lot nore group work than they were expected. A lot of kids were enjoying the class and said they would miss it. A kid who was excluded for a few days actually logged in from home for class! That's a huge thing: the sign that something had been done right.
Kate managed to visit. Working on Kids Connect in Florida so went across to visit. On the team they had the teacher of the class, a science advisor, and a SL developer. The resources are good to go for others. We had a whole sim to work with but it only requires a little bit of SL land.
Resources
www.rezed.org/group/GKslcurriculum
Questions
Do you use SL in the UK? No. Real problems in Edinburgh and lots of local councils as they have security concerns, issues etc. Bute is the only Scottish area to do this, they set up a private island on a teen grid, no strangers etc. It was for after school usage but other teachers were interested only to be blocked by IT dept. Ed council computer specs are not up to the job, graphics cards can't do them, broadband connection can't handle that traffic. The set up is more for office workers than education. Glow is an initiative that should help though - will increase quality and speed of broadband. Kate's changing syllibus to Digital Media rather than Computing so blogs etc. will be included. At present school rules don't allow staff to change website let alone kids. But there'll be lots of safeguards: we should be teaching kids how to be safe online not blocking anything. The curriculum includes social software including tons of currently blocked sites.
There is an age issue for SL. Even SL Teengrid you have to be a minimum age of 13. Although the US law has been challenged. OpenSim is an alternative hosted option but most schools don't have that technology. One school in Edinburgh allows students to add stuff to their server. Comment from the floor: St Andrews University are working with OpenSim. At the moment not a lot of kids are doing computing and moving to computing at university so the universities are very supportive in terms of their own teengrids etc. Comment from floor: there are maths and sciences areas in SL? Yes but these are in maingrid. But some nasa, library etc. resources they can be moved to the teengrid as needed. The database code says whether resources are maingrid or teengrid. Resources developed in the maingrid not the teengrid work poorly, especially scripted objects.
Beacon of hope - we spoke to the head of the SL teengrid. They are planning for an open PG area in the middle. This would allow 18 year olds, parents and kids etc. to work together and would allow building and sharing space. Been talked about a long time but not happened yet. Comment from floor: great math models area, a shame kids can't see those.
Question re:resources. Most of what we used we built and developed but we had a good relationship with the maingrid so we were able to use existent objects. If you go to Global Kids you can access materials and reusing content. Pdfs are open for all but the resources cost money so the model wouldn't be reuse as is, would need to work out with Global Kids how those resources can be used/if there's cost. You need to bear in mind you need 2 to 3 people supporting the kids to do this type of learning. Comment: classroom management is very difficult when computer based learning - also do the kids become insular? Kate says that actually lots of interactivity. As adults in the teengrid (we're now classed as kids) we couldn't pass objects or see messages etc in SL. Kids were chatting away but we couldn't tell! LindenLab won't let just anyone do this. Even to be an adult in the teengrid you have to meet approval. To get your avatars in as teens you need very special permission. As adults you have island priveledges only. As teens you can see all so Linden want you to be seriously trusted. This is an issue of how it was developed: started as a game but having to catch up to uses now.
The online work was backed up with real life group tasks so working and talking together there - hard to tell as virtual tutor in Scotland!
Question: would you virtually recruit for an assistant? Might want to but funding would need to be in place. An audience member is at education dept in Edinburgh and reckons that trainee teachers etc. would love that experience. Expensive to clear people. You have to get police checks for all countries you've worked in and get documents translated. Maybe £300 per check for some. Real difficulty of safety causing siloing of data.
Assessment: class teacher generally did this. Some text exported from SL and that was passed on to teacher. Blogs also used. Kate also approved blogs as they went live. Vetted and published as a result of having assistance available.
BarCamp Session 1 - 4IP funding.
Today I am at BarCamp Scotland so I'll be live blogging what I hear as I go. The idea of BarCamp Scotland is that you share all your thoughts and ideas as you go hence I'm liveblogging as I go. I'm signed up to talk about quality checking, credentials and reuse of ephemeral content (I think I've managed to describe it ok on the sign up
I'm starting at a 4iP presentation from Ewan McIntosh who is talking about getting your ideas funded by 4iP and also touching on pitching/ideas development more generally.
Ewan starts with destination sites to which he basically says "NO!". People don't use destination/portal sites. Normal people use maybe 6 sites regularly. Facebook, maybe a picture sharing sites, work and/or personal webmail, bbc news, amazon. that's about all. So you have to bring content to them.
4iP is looking at various areas:
APIs, plugins etc. Lovely firefox plugin about local news in development (can't talk more about it).
Games - one of biggest games cos in UK (PlayPen) makes facebook games. 5 are in top 10 of facebook games. And in total they make 7 games. Very Wii look and feel. Collaborative and friendly looking. Growing sector - social gaming.
iMob - biggest iphone/ipod game - text based adventure! Missions etc. Links to address book and you can skip levels by buying credits. Kids nick parents phones and empty parents iTunes accounts!
4iP has an iphone game in development - should be self funding even if only moderately successful. Game about drinking (you booze you lose?) to self assess drunkeness.
To make things participative and interesting - some piece of media, code, etc that plugs into people's existing spaces. Channel 4 are quite good at watching media but trying to get more into participative spaces. Want to get real world outcome to online spaces. Performing spaces (e.g. SecondLife). Publishing spaces - most in the room have blogs, but most have small readerships. "A place where..." is about the riskiest place to be.
Group spaces - bebo, facebook, tagged etc. People complain about C4 pitch process - 800 words but many say it's too much, they want funding to go figure that out. You'd be a mug not to use group spaces to research your ideas and try things out.
Secret spaces - get no idea that take advantage of Instant Messager BUT it's the number 1 place to make money from advertising on the web. Huge amounts of trust etc. which you can use well. For example: Embaressing Teenage Bodies (C4 TV show) had anonymous comments so people contributed. Skins has a realtime Instant Messanger service with private chat but also referrals to useful parts of the C4 support sites. Very cheap, very effective ideas.
Pitching is a tough thing - you should be able to do short Elevator Pitch. Some come in at 400 words. Too much. All you need is "X is the only Y that allows these folk in this place to do this at a time when...". This is a great micro public service orientated pitch.
School of Everything - learning platform. You pick what you want to teach, you search for what you want to learn. Some people charge, some are free. Match up is geographically designed so real meet ups can be had and real learning can take place. 4iP has invested in this twice in the last year.
Through the Roof - wanted to measure how much money through energy loss the UK government through their roofs (with thermal imaging). Two models: can licence data and create a story (and bump a 4 logo on it); can also send data from those images - there is a company in Dundee that can work out lost heat from those images and sell that data on. Timely as lots of reviews of school buildings etc. Major undertaking.
Return On Investment
Try to keep investment small so returns can be good. 30% fees on project management is not a good budget. 10% production fees is fairly realistic. Education not traditionally appealing to advertising. Changing on the web. However for 4 the importance is also Return On Attention: most people are on the web because they can't see what's relavant to them there. Ofcom has researched and confirmed this.
Attention
There is about a 99:1 ratio on social sites. Lots of people consume but very few create. About 4.5% of wikipedia users contribute, they are exception to the rule. Discussion here about Twitter and Twitter "going mainstream" - Jonathan Ross's show encouraged people to read and watch, not contribute.
Once you have attention how do you keep it? YouTube lures you with new/recent/popular videos and allows subscribing to streams etc. Maybe they embed/share a video if they are more proactive (A graph here suggests some levels of use: Visitor/Fan/Contributor or Distributor.
If you have an idea you have to grab attention, keep attention again and again and turn that into a tangible result.
Mobile Content
4 like the iPhone - can give stuff away for free in UK and Europe but also sell the content outside EU. It's a nice model for public service/publically funded remit. Examples include graphic novel app, AudioBoo (lots of auto cleverness built into audio capture and sharing).
Questions & Discussion
How does business to business work for this model for 4ip. Facebook is important as well. People criticize use of Facebook but Bebo is bombing. All these things have a natural half-life so you pick with that in mind. Ewan makes differentiation between users and consumers. Users want more from an idea. How does your idea change people's lives?
Follow up question: Facebook is essentially a platform. What happens if people come with a platform idea. Ewan says 4 aren't against this but it's a big deal. Signing up for a platform asks a lot. If there's a logical reason or need then that's fine. Comment from the floor re: Google single profile idea. You can be compatible with lots of different extant logins and if you can you let your users use whatever login they want. Also lets someone else worry about users data. Ewan adds that user data has really limited use for 4: real liability and expensive to manage. Ewan is showing the site of Matt Locke who does education for Channel 4 (turning programmes into sites). He has A Manifesto for Data Literacy which calls or transparency, portability and not sales of data. 4 likes OpenID - you can access and move data. Facebook is almost the oppositte of this!
Funding wise 4iP have a match funding deal so they put in money and various Scottish bodies match it. You can sign up to 4iP: http://www.4ip.org.uk/. Ewan claims this is the easiest and most open VC and media pitching opportunity going. Maybe it'll take you 15 mins to fill in. 4iP have over 10 million to spend in Scotland and NI. Small good ideas are what they are after. A catalyst fund though, 4iP want out in about 18 months. Needs to be a sustainable model and be self-funding as soon as possible. Speedy ideas desired. Small ideas might take a month from idea to funding. Lots of money and support available in exchange for good useful ideas. Pretty but useless is a no. 4iP wants to be first or distinct second. Otherwise don't bother pitching. Want ideas that are participative and collaborative. And it must thrive without telly. 4iP might link from channel4.com. It's not about 4 marketing. Mostly they fund other things. 4 commissions they don't make. Themes for the next year for 4iP: ultra/local news; health and wellbeing; mobile gaming; environmental/green stuff.
See more on 38minutes.com
I'm starting at a 4iP presentation from Ewan McIntosh who is talking about getting your ideas funded by 4iP and also touching on pitching/ideas development more generally.
Ewan starts with destination sites to which he basically says "NO!". People don't use destination/portal sites. Normal people use maybe 6 sites regularly. Facebook, maybe a picture sharing sites, work and/or personal webmail, bbc news, amazon. that's about all. So you have to bring content to them.
4iP is looking at various areas:
APIs, plugins etc. Lovely firefox plugin about local news in development (can't talk more about it).
Games - one of biggest games cos in UK (PlayPen) makes facebook games. 5 are in top 10 of facebook games. And in total they make 7 games. Very Wii look and feel. Collaborative and friendly looking. Growing sector - social gaming.
iMob - biggest iphone/ipod game - text based adventure! Missions etc. Links to address book and you can skip levels by buying credits. Kids nick parents phones and empty parents iTunes accounts!
4iP has an iphone game in development - should be self funding even if only moderately successful. Game about drinking (you booze you lose?) to self assess drunkeness.
To make things participative and interesting - some piece of media, code, etc that plugs into people's existing spaces. Channel 4 are quite good at watching media but trying to get more into participative spaces. Want to get real world outcome to online spaces. Performing spaces (e.g. SecondLife). Publishing spaces - most in the room have blogs, but most have small readerships. "A place where..." is about the riskiest place to be.
Group spaces - bebo, facebook, tagged etc. People complain about C4 pitch process - 800 words but many say it's too much, they want funding to go figure that out. You'd be a mug not to use group spaces to research your ideas and try things out.
Secret spaces - get no idea that take advantage of Instant Messager BUT it's the number 1 place to make money from advertising on the web. Huge amounts of trust etc. which you can use well. For example: Embaressing Teenage Bodies (C4 TV show) had anonymous comments so people contributed. Skins has a realtime Instant Messanger service with private chat but also referrals to useful parts of the C4 support sites. Very cheap, very effective ideas.
Pitching is a tough thing - you should be able to do short Elevator Pitch. Some come in at 400 words. Too much. All you need is "X is the only Y that allows these folk in this place to do this at a time when...". This is a great micro public service orientated pitch.
School of Everything - learning platform. You pick what you want to teach, you search for what you want to learn. Some people charge, some are free. Match up is geographically designed so real meet ups can be had and real learning can take place. 4iP has invested in this twice in the last year.
Through the Roof - wanted to measure how much money through energy loss the UK government through their roofs (with thermal imaging). Two models: can licence data and create a story (and bump a 4 logo on it); can also send data from those images - there is a company in Dundee that can work out lost heat from those images and sell that data on. Timely as lots of reviews of school buildings etc. Major undertaking.
Return On Investment
Try to keep investment small so returns can be good. 30% fees on project management is not a good budget. 10% production fees is fairly realistic. Education not traditionally appealing to advertising. Changing on the web. However for 4 the importance is also Return On Attention: most people are on the web because they can't see what's relavant to them there. Ofcom has researched and confirmed this.
Attention
There is about a 99:1 ratio on social sites. Lots of people consume but very few create. About 4.5% of wikipedia users contribute, they are exception to the rule. Discussion here about Twitter and Twitter "going mainstream" - Jonathan Ross's show encouraged people to read and watch, not contribute.
Once you have attention how do you keep it? YouTube lures you with new/recent/popular videos and allows subscribing to streams etc. Maybe they embed/share a video if they are more proactive (A graph here suggests some levels of use: Visitor/Fan/Contributor or Distributor.
If you have an idea you have to grab attention, keep attention again and again and turn that into a tangible result.
Mobile Content
4 like the iPhone - can give stuff away for free in UK and Europe but also sell the content outside EU. It's a nice model for public service/publically funded remit. Examples include graphic novel app, AudioBoo (lots of auto cleverness built into audio capture and sharing).
Questions & Discussion
How does business to business work for this model for 4ip. Facebook is important as well. People criticize use of Facebook but Bebo is bombing. All these things have a natural half-life so you pick with that in mind. Ewan makes differentiation between users and consumers. Users want more from an idea. How does your idea change people's lives?
Follow up question: Facebook is essentially a platform. What happens if people come with a platform idea. Ewan says 4 aren't against this but it's a big deal. Signing up for a platform asks a lot. If there's a logical reason or need then that's fine. Comment from the floor re: Google single profile idea. You can be compatible with lots of different extant logins and if you can you let your users use whatever login they want. Also lets someone else worry about users data. Ewan adds that user data has really limited use for 4: real liability and expensive to manage. Ewan is showing the site of Matt Locke who does education for Channel 4 (turning programmes into sites). He has A Manifesto for Data Literacy which calls or transparency, portability and not sales of data. 4 likes OpenID - you can access and move data. Facebook is almost the oppositte of this!
Funding wise 4iP have a match funding deal so they put in money and various Scottish bodies match it. You can sign up to 4iP: http://www.4ip.org.uk/. Ewan claims this is the easiest and most open VC and media pitching opportunity going. Maybe it'll take you 15 mins to fill in. 4iP have over 10 million to spend in Scotland and NI. Small good ideas are what they are after. A catalyst fund though, 4iP want out in about 18 months. Needs to be a sustainable model and be self-funding as soon as possible. Speedy ideas desired. Small ideas might take a month from idea to funding. Lots of money and support available in exchange for good useful ideas. Pretty but useless is a no. 4iP wants to be first or distinct second. Otherwise don't bother pitching. Want ideas that are participative and collaborative. And it must thrive without telly. 4iP might link from channel4.com. It's not about 4 marketing. Mostly they fund other things. 4 commissions they don't make. Themes for the next year for 4iP: ultra/local news; health and wellbeing; mobile gaming; environmental/green stuff.
See more on 38minutes.com
Monday 23 February 2009
Oscars 2009 - the final awards
So, my power cut out there just as we were getting to the last awards...
Best Foreign Language film was, by all accounts, a surprise winner! The Baader Meinhof Complex? No! The Class? No! Revanche? No! Waltz with Bashir? No! No the winner was an excellent looking Japanese film called Departures. The director was charming but absolutely struggling for English so just charmed and winked and waved Oscar with his colleagues. All very lovely...
And now, if I recall the order correctly, the footage of those Hollywood greats who have passed away this year. Queen Latifah sings "I'll be thinking of you..." very beautifully, live, over a mildly stomach churning (only because of the editing) ever moving collage of clips. Mostly we knew about these people but seeing them in one huge clipreel is always very sad and there's always one or two you didn't hear about. Various sharp intakes of breath ensure. We close on Paul Newman with Heath Ledger not having featured. Having said which the Best Actor award was a whole personal tribute. But gosh. Does that mean they know what's going to happen before the envelopes are opened? Or maybe there was always a plan for the Ledger family to do a wee piece anyway regardless of whether Heath won or not. But of course he did so... Anyway...
Next up. Directing. Presented by Reece Witherspoon. OK.. Noms are a lot of by now familiar films: Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionnaire. And...
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Yay! Danny Boyle has won me round with the Tigger bounce he apparentlty always promised to do should be ever win an Oscar. Too cute as is his speech. The movie isn't the best ever but in this category it's a more than fair choice.
Actress in a Leading Role. The ghost are back so lets analyse the pairings: Shirley Maclaine = Anne Hathaway - clearly a guarantee of low valued but much loved parts for many a decade me thinks. The wee pep talk is all about how it's Anne's first nomination but surely will not be her last (I happen to concur) which sounds a lot like "not this time kid, sorry"; Nicole Kidman=Angelina Jolie - Nicole did a good job but it's a weird pair, almost like "well you two are both better known for who you sleep with than what you do" or something. But we know Angelina (or indeed Brangelina) is not going to win this time frankly; Halle Berre=Melissa Leo - black is different but hot and black is so less Hollywood outcast than over 50 that Melissa Leo should be feeling the big big breaking the mould love here; Sophia Loren = Meryl Streep - much hilariousness indeed here. Sophia barely got Meryl's name right and was wearing insane yellow frilly frockage straight out of Pricilla Queen of the Desert, indeed the big hair, red muscley neck and all those frills made her look scarily drag; Marion Cotillard=Kate Winslet - I think this is the official bestowing of Euro class on Kate's Reader accent. Marion genuinely seems terribly excited by Kate's performance, maybe she's seen the results?1
WINNER: Kate Winslet.
But then we knew that going into this evening didn't we? Kate seems to have known but nonethless does a charming british gaffathon telling Meryl that everyone in the category was just amazed to be let in by Meryl and that Meryl should just suck up that joke. You know 15 noms is a recipe for love-in bullying at these things. Kate almost has a nervous breakdown here but then flips into alarming efficiency and name dropping. Watch out for her speech on YouTube too. Not only does her speech include a few great gaffs but she gives her statuette a hand-job throughout. She also provided the most spontaneous moment of the entire night though much be her requesting her dad whistle to make himself known and him whistling incredibly loudly back. Genius.
Actor in a Leading Role. And again with the spiritual 12 step love partnering. Adrian Brody=Richard Jenkins - is this something about character actors or just lanky lads? Either way Richard gets his moment on screen and I wish he could win for The Visitor even though I feel sure he won't... ; Michel Douglas = Frank Langella - Micheal's getting younger dammit! He gives great speech at this stage though so Frank looks very pleased with his lot. Robert De Niro = Sean Penn - cue a lot of weird stuff about both Penn's acting and his humanitarian work. Plus some good jokes about Penn's temper. Mutterings run round the room though about the comparative homophobia levels of De Niro and Penn. We don't think either has a perfect reputation and it troubles us; Anthony Hopkins = Brad Pitt - Anthony has gone all extra Welsh and is chatting away to Brad like a man who's been at the free bar. Memories of that weird film they were in together are not helping me like the pairing; Finally Sir Ben Kingsley=Mickey Rourke - a lovely pep talk to officially welcome Rourke back into the arms of Hollywood, the crowd love it.
WINNER: Sean Penn.
And so to an acceptance speech that I love on every level but also get irritated by on every level. Sean is fabulous on shouting out that the Academy are "Commy Homo-loving Sons of Guns". I think we shall take that as a compliment for that. Sean effectively donates his speech to Prop 8. He tells people that when you see the banners of hatred they saw today (something whitewashed from all my coverage) on the way into the theatre you know that people will and should be ashamed for voting against gay marriage and that everyone should have equal rights. Indeed his speech is the gayest thing you will ever see at Oscars and, unlike the fabulous Milk screenwriter confessional number earlier, will be very very hard to cut down to edit out the politics. My money is that the cut will be "I know I make it hard for you to appreciate me sometimes". Anyway I guess Go Sean. It was a good performance. I would just so much would have preferred to see Mickey Rourke win (and cry about his pooch as a speech) or, even better, Richard Jenkins. Penn is a fair choice though. Would be nice to see a gay actor talking against Prop 8 and playing a gay icon though...
Best Picture. Stephen Spielberg entered the stage in show off moving video panel fashion... Ladies and Gentlemen it's the top award! In the running are: Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader; Slumdog Millionnaire. Much as I like a good clip show these look unnervingly like the long length trailers. It's an odd thing to watch at home, how much odder in a theatre eh?
WINNER: Slumdog Millonnaire!
So at first I was not for this but now I am swept up in the fun and the dream. And I love that there is now a 98% Indian stage invasion of excitable folks who are going to have a really really weird week! Hollywood looks simultaneously delighted but also a bit alarmed. After all the money from Slumdog is British and from TV licensing. It's low budget and independent(ish) and it's made back loads of cash despite it's lead actor only being known previously as a troubled teen in a late night drama (Skins). It is quite the coup.
The night closes out with Hugh Jackman introducing, of all things, 2009 previews. Not just any previews mind, no trailers for Angels and Demons and Ice Age 4 and Terminator, er, 4? 5? and Night at the Museum 2 and such...basically previews of dire films which will not be featuring at next year's award ceremonies except, maybe, for makeup or animation. If they're lucky. What an odd way to end. Oh except that they end with the rules which are fullsome and lovely big print...
All in all a fabulous Oscars night in terms of awards - I would have picked some differently but am not outraged at any of the selections and think that most were the right choice. The stagey thing was sort of good but also not perfect at all times. The "return of the musical" number just wasn't up to the job musically and Hugh Jackman may have a lot of charisma but not enough to extend to all his co-stars and hoards of dancers for that sequencer. The international note of the night was interesting too. Japanese film makers, Penelope with her excellent English but picking up a bilingual Oscar really, the many wonderful Indian stars and crew of Slumdog. The contrast between interesting humble international winners and comedy/TV orientated industrytastic hosts could not have been more stark. Nor could the crucial difference between British and US filmmakers: Breasts. The brits (even Kate Winslet) have them. The Hollywood types just seem to consider them optional when tiny gowns are at stake. I"ll stick with the down to earth poorly paid properly curvy folks any day I think!
For me personally I had an awesome night of friends and snacks and co-vlogging the frockage. Neil was an awesome host and the red carpet cake, the waffles and bacon, the home baking and sweeties and such were all fabulous! And now, at about the time my alarm normally goes off, I am off to my bed...
Happy Oscars 2009 all!
Best Foreign Language film was, by all accounts, a surprise winner! The Baader Meinhof Complex? No! The Class? No! Revanche? No! Waltz with Bashir? No! No the winner was an excellent looking Japanese film called Departures. The director was charming but absolutely struggling for English so just charmed and winked and waved Oscar with his colleagues. All very lovely...
And now, if I recall the order correctly, the footage of those Hollywood greats who have passed away this year. Queen Latifah sings "I'll be thinking of you..." very beautifully, live, over a mildly stomach churning (only because of the editing) ever moving collage of clips. Mostly we knew about these people but seeing them in one huge clipreel is always very sad and there's always one or two you didn't hear about. Various sharp intakes of breath ensure. We close on Paul Newman with Heath Ledger not having featured. Having said which the Best Actor award was a whole personal tribute. But gosh. Does that mean they know what's going to happen before the envelopes are opened? Or maybe there was always a plan for the Ledger family to do a wee piece anyway regardless of whether Heath won or not. But of course he did so... Anyway...
Next up. Directing. Presented by Reece Witherspoon. OK.. Noms are a lot of by now familiar films: Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionnaire. And...
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Yay! Danny Boyle has won me round with the Tigger bounce he apparentlty always promised to do should be ever win an Oscar. Too cute as is his speech. The movie isn't the best ever but in this category it's a more than fair choice.
Actress in a Leading Role. The ghost are back so lets analyse the pairings: Shirley Maclaine = Anne Hathaway - clearly a guarantee of low valued but much loved parts for many a decade me thinks. The wee pep talk is all about how it's Anne's first nomination but surely will not be her last (I happen to concur) which sounds a lot like "not this time kid, sorry"; Nicole Kidman=Angelina Jolie - Nicole did a good job but it's a weird pair, almost like "well you two are both better known for who you sleep with than what you do" or something. But we know Angelina (or indeed Brangelina) is not going to win this time frankly; Halle Berre=Melissa Leo - black is different but hot and black is so less Hollywood outcast than over 50 that Melissa Leo should be feeling the big big breaking the mould love here; Sophia Loren = Meryl Streep - much hilariousness indeed here. Sophia barely got Meryl's name right and was wearing insane yellow frilly frockage straight out of Pricilla Queen of the Desert, indeed the big hair, red muscley neck and all those frills made her look scarily drag; Marion Cotillard=Kate Winslet - I think this is the official bestowing of Euro class on Kate's Reader accent. Marion genuinely seems terribly excited by Kate's performance, maybe she's seen the results?1
WINNER: Kate Winslet.
But then we knew that going into this evening didn't we? Kate seems to have known but nonethless does a charming british gaffathon telling Meryl that everyone in the category was just amazed to be let in by Meryl and that Meryl should just suck up that joke. You know 15 noms is a recipe for love-in bullying at these things. Kate almost has a nervous breakdown here but then flips into alarming efficiency and name dropping. Watch out for her speech on YouTube too. Not only does her speech include a few great gaffs but she gives her statuette a hand-job throughout. She also provided the most spontaneous moment of the entire night though much be her requesting her dad whistle to make himself known and him whistling incredibly loudly back. Genius.
Actor in a Leading Role. And again with the spiritual 12 step love partnering. Adrian Brody=Richard Jenkins - is this something about character actors or just lanky lads? Either way Richard gets his moment on screen and I wish he could win for The Visitor even though I feel sure he won't... ; Michel Douglas = Frank Langella - Micheal's getting younger dammit! He gives great speech at this stage though so Frank looks very pleased with his lot. Robert De Niro = Sean Penn - cue a lot of weird stuff about both Penn's acting and his humanitarian work. Plus some good jokes about Penn's temper. Mutterings run round the room though about the comparative homophobia levels of De Niro and Penn. We don't think either has a perfect reputation and it troubles us; Anthony Hopkins = Brad Pitt - Anthony has gone all extra Welsh and is chatting away to Brad like a man who's been at the free bar. Memories of that weird film they were in together are not helping me like the pairing; Finally Sir Ben Kingsley=Mickey Rourke - a lovely pep talk to officially welcome Rourke back into the arms of Hollywood, the crowd love it.
WINNER: Sean Penn.
And so to an acceptance speech that I love on every level but also get irritated by on every level. Sean is fabulous on shouting out that the Academy are "Commy Homo-loving Sons of Guns". I think we shall take that as a compliment for that. Sean effectively donates his speech to Prop 8. He tells people that when you see the banners of hatred they saw today (something whitewashed from all my coverage) on the way into the theatre you know that people will and should be ashamed for voting against gay marriage and that everyone should have equal rights. Indeed his speech is the gayest thing you will ever see at Oscars and, unlike the fabulous Milk screenwriter confessional number earlier, will be very very hard to cut down to edit out the politics. My money is that the cut will be "I know I make it hard for you to appreciate me sometimes". Anyway I guess Go Sean. It was a good performance. I would just so much would have preferred to see Mickey Rourke win (and cry about his pooch as a speech) or, even better, Richard Jenkins. Penn is a fair choice though. Would be nice to see a gay actor talking against Prop 8 and playing a gay icon though...
Best Picture. Stephen Spielberg entered the stage in show off moving video panel fashion... Ladies and Gentlemen it's the top award! In the running are: Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader; Slumdog Millionnaire. Much as I like a good clip show these look unnervingly like the long length trailers. It's an odd thing to watch at home, how much odder in a theatre eh?
WINNER: Slumdog Millonnaire!
So at first I was not for this but now I am swept up in the fun and the dream. And I love that there is now a 98% Indian stage invasion of excitable folks who are going to have a really really weird week! Hollywood looks simultaneously delighted but also a bit alarmed. After all the money from Slumdog is British and from TV licensing. It's low budget and independent(ish) and it's made back loads of cash despite it's lead actor only being known previously as a troubled teen in a late night drama (Skins). It is quite the coup.
The night closes out with Hugh Jackman introducing, of all things, 2009 previews. Not just any previews mind, no trailers for Angels and Demons and Ice Age 4 and Terminator, er, 4? 5? and Night at the Museum 2 and such...basically previews of dire films which will not be featuring at next year's award ceremonies except, maybe, for makeup or animation. If they're lucky. What an odd way to end. Oh except that they end with the rules which are fullsome and lovely big print...
All in all a fabulous Oscars night in terms of awards - I would have picked some differently but am not outraged at any of the selections and think that most were the right choice. The stagey thing was sort of good but also not perfect at all times. The "return of the musical" number just wasn't up to the job musically and Hugh Jackman may have a lot of charisma but not enough to extend to all his co-stars and hoards of dancers for that sequencer. The international note of the night was interesting too. Japanese film makers, Penelope with her excellent English but picking up a bilingual Oscar really, the many wonderful Indian stars and crew of Slumdog. The contrast between interesting humble international winners and comedy/TV orientated industrytastic hosts could not have been more stark. Nor could the crucial difference between British and US filmmakers: Breasts. The brits (even Kate Winslet) have them. The Hollywood types just seem to consider them optional when tiny gowns are at stake. I"ll stick with the down to earth poorly paid properly curvy folks any day I think!
For me personally I had an awesome night of friends and snacks and co-vlogging the frockage. Neil was an awesome host and the red carpet cake, the waffles and bacon, the home baking and sweeties and such were all fabulous! And now, at about the time my alarm normally goes off, I am off to my bed...
Happy Oscars 2009 all!
Oscars 2009 -
Back at Sky HQ. Beacham is restless again: "It's just not as glamerous as it could be"!
So now we have the credit crunch debate about glam and all new less frilly intimate crowd control.
And so back to Kodak Theatre to musical compilations again. Yes this year movies are all about Theatre...
Best Score time then: Benjamin Button vs Defiance vs Milk vs Slumdog Millionnaire vs WALL-E.
Based on how most of these have sounded WALL-E is terribly pretty indeed. But Slumdog Millionnaire clearly is standout for interest and different sound, not that the orchestra is entirely tooled for Slumdog really.
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Go Slumdog! I cannot approve more of that particular award. The composer is adorable but quite prepped and did a good job but lack of blubbing seems to have disappointed the crowd.
Oh I didn't mention that Zak Ephron and Alicia Keys are presenting btw. Alicia has a good dress but not as nice as my co-party goer Claire's. She erm did not tell me to say that. no.
NExt up is Best Song: two of these are from Slumdog, the other from WALL-E...
Oh! Awesomness. Oscar winner from Slumdog is performing one of the Slumdog songs with a huge team of dancers and drummers. Kicking ass. Seriously. And now the Peter Gabriel song is being performed NOT by Peter but by John Legend. And with the Bollywood dancers. There is a strong tribal vibe to all best song. Oh and he has some gospel backup now. Cool. Drumtasticness... and into the bouncier second Slumdog number with female co-singers helping out Oscar winner. So so cool. The white and black Bollywood dancers look a tad tasteless if I'm honest. Oh we are mashing up WALL-E and Slumdog. Odd. I'm sure Peter Gabriel approves though.
OK...
WINNER: Jai ho! Takes it! Fantastic! two oscars for A.R. Rahman!
So now we have the credit crunch debate about glam and all new less frilly intimate crowd control.
And so back to Kodak Theatre to musical compilations again. Yes this year movies are all about Theatre...
Best Score time then: Benjamin Button vs Defiance vs Milk vs Slumdog Millionnaire vs WALL-E.
Based on how most of these have sounded WALL-E is terribly pretty indeed. But Slumdog Millionnaire clearly is standout for interest and different sound, not that the orchestra is entirely tooled for Slumdog really.
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Go Slumdog! I cannot approve more of that particular award. The composer is adorable but quite prepped and did a good job but lack of blubbing seems to have disappointed the crowd.
Oh I didn't mention that Zak Ephron and Alicia Keys are presenting btw. Alicia has a good dress but not as nice as my co-party goer Claire's. She erm did not tell me to say that. no.
NExt up is Best Song: two of these are from Slumdog, the other from WALL-E...
Oh! Awesomness. Oscar winner from Slumdog is performing one of the Slumdog songs with a huge team of dancers and drummers. Kicking ass. Seriously. And now the Peter Gabriel song is being performed NOT by Peter but by John Legend. And with the Bollywood dancers. There is a strong tribal vibe to all best song. Oh and he has some gospel backup now. Cool. Drumtasticness... and into the bouncier second Slumdog number with female co-singers helping out Oscar winner. So so cool. The white and black Bollywood dancers look a tad tasteless if I'm honest. Oh we are mashing up WALL-E and Slumdog. Odd. I'm sure Peter Gabriel approves though.
OK...
WINNER: Jai ho! Takes it! Fantastic! two oscars for A.R. Rahman!
Oscars 2009 - Jerry Lewis: humanitarian award
Back to Sky chat lounge. May I just say that Winkleman is a pro. Winkleman for Eurovision please! I love the bizarre sofa combo of Danny Wallace, Mark Dolan (that guy who is about 8 ft tall and does that freaky people C4 series) and La Beacham. They may fight as proper exhaustion sets in!
Currently the chat is how many hours of Oscar are left. Yes, is that exciting with the Sky sofa that we are sweepstaking the running time...
OK so, out of nowhere (really), Eddie Murphy is presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Jerry Lewis. Our response round the room "he's still alive?"
So now we see a compilation clipshow (to Coldplay) of naff Jerry Lewis slapstick. And now some hardcore guitar chords as we hear Jerry's appeals the "Colgate Comedy Hour", via Telethons, and generally raising money for Muscular Dystrophy. Obviously I can't be too evil here cos he seems like his charity way out performs his comedy. The award goes "from one Nutty Professor to another". Jerry Lewis is looking alarmingly, really alarmingly, good for his age. Standing ovations all round of course. Like Dick Van Dyke though our main thought should be: what exactly does he do that keeps him looking the same age as in 1968?! He is struggling with his dentures a little. He has the same haircut btw. That he has had forever. The speech is possibly better acting than his films btw. Classy stuff. The crwod love him btw. Although Heidi Klum looks a tad unmoved but it could just be her sinister hair and the fact that she really had no expectation that she would be filmed at this point...
Currently the chat is how many hours of Oscar are left. Yes, is that exciting with the Sky sofa that we are sweepstaking the running time...
OK so, out of nowhere (really), Eddie Murphy is presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Jerry Lewis. Our response round the room "he's still alive?"
So now we see a compilation clipshow (to Coldplay) of naff Jerry Lewis slapstick. And now some hardcore guitar chords as we hear Jerry's appeals the "Colgate Comedy Hour", via Telethons, and generally raising money for Muscular Dystrophy. Obviously I can't be too evil here cos he seems like his charity way out performs his comedy. The award goes "from one Nutty Professor to another". Jerry Lewis is looking alarmingly, really alarmingly, good for his age. Standing ovations all round of course. Like Dick Van Dyke though our main thought should be: what exactly does he do that keeps him looking the same age as in 1968?! He is struggling with his dentures a little. He has the same haircut btw. That he has had forever. The speech is possibly better acting than his films btw. Classy stuff. The crwod love him btw. Although Heidi Klum looks a tad unmoved but it could just be her sinister hair and the fact that she really had no expectation that she would be filmed at this point...
Oscars 2009 - visual & sound effects
I think Hugh Jackman just got heckled by his own orchestra. Twisted.
So we have a special effects type video clip. The Action 2008 bit maybe? This compilation looks unnervingly like the unmanned ITV Movie Show from about 1995.
Wicky wicky wah wah! Will Smith is presenting this bit. He's speaking up for Action. Weird live scoring in the theatre btw. Sounds like a mistake but am sure is deliberate.
Visual Effects noms: Benjamin Button; Dark KNight; Iron Man
WINNER: Benjain Button. It's a bloomin footie yeam worth of winners! Only one got to speak though.
Sound Editing: Dark Knight; Iron Man; Slumdog Millionnaire; WALL-E; Wanted.
WINNER: Dark Knight!
Our resident sound expert nods approvingly.
And our sound editor walked off to some Bowie if my ears did not diceive.
Now Sound Mixing noms: Benjamin Button; Dark Knight; Slumdog Millionnaire; WALL-E; Wanted.
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Seems fair given how the music and street noise was woven together. Another team affair (Danny Boyle is crying from his seat). Seems for teams one man can speak. Slumdog's Rahul is overcome and can barely tie his words together with excitement. He's gotten it together now he says this is history being handed over to him. He's a proper charmer!
And, and yes Will Smith is still our only host, we are on to Film Editing: Frost/Nixon vs Dark Knight vs Milk vs Slumdog Millionnaire vs Benjamin Button.
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Yup, another Slumdog award, A very very bald gentleman of supreme Englishness. Chris Dickins. Yes, He's so English he's even called Dickins. Is a nice speech, seems like he genuinely liked making the film which is a plus. Danny Boyle no longer crying, now grinning and doing thumbs up! Another super Brit reserve speech of wobbly lacking an ending. Nice. Makes you proud in a weird weird way...
So we have a special effects type video clip. The Action 2008 bit maybe? This compilation looks unnervingly like the unmanned ITV Movie Show from about 1995.
Wicky wicky wah wah! Will Smith is presenting this bit. He's speaking up for Action. Weird live scoring in the theatre btw. Sounds like a mistake but am sure is deliberate.
Visual Effects noms: Benjamin Button; Dark KNight; Iron Man
WINNER: Benjain Button. It's a bloomin footie yeam worth of winners! Only one got to speak though.
Sound Editing: Dark Knight; Iron Man; Slumdog Millionnaire; WALL-E; Wanted.
WINNER: Dark Knight!
Our resident sound expert nods approvingly.
And our sound editor walked off to some Bowie if my ears did not diceive.
Now Sound Mixing noms: Benjamin Button; Dark Knight; Slumdog Millionnaire; WALL-E; Wanted.
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Seems fair given how the music and street noise was woven together. Another team affair (Danny Boyle is crying from his seat). Seems for teams one man can speak. Slumdog's Rahul is overcome and can barely tie his words together with excitement. He's gotten it together now he says this is history being handed over to him. He's a proper charmer!
And, and yes Will Smith is still our only host, we are on to Film Editing: Frost/Nixon vs Dark Knight vs Milk vs Slumdog Millionnaire vs Benjamin Button.
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Yup, another Slumdog award, A very very bald gentleman of supreme Englishness. Chris Dickins. Yes, He's so English he's even called Dickins. Is a nice speech, seems like he genuinely liked making the film which is a plus. Danny Boyle no longer crying, now grinning and doing thumbs up! Another super Brit reserve speech of wobbly lacking an ending. Nice. Makes you proud in a weird weird way...
Oscars 2009 - Supporting Actor & Documentary Awards
Looks like we're headed at Best Supporting Actor category... We have a wacky clipshow attack!
Christopher Walkin, Kevin Kline, Cuba Gooding Junior, Alan Arkin and Joel Gray are our ghosts of supporting actors past introducing the actors. Pairings up again. Apparently Alan Arkin = Phillip Seymour Hoffman; Joel Gray = Josh Brolin (a little gay in joke maybe? We get a small parable alongside the spiel); Cuba Gooding Jnr = Robert Downey Jnr (yeah, it really did have to be that pairing!); Christopher Walkin = Micheal Shannon (dubious mental health connection I think); Kevin Kline = Heath Ledger (weird). So inevitably Heath Ledger is going to be an odd thing to introduce for this. Kevin Kline is trying to make it work. Heath's family are being zoomed into by the camera. Al a little weird the vibe here.
WINNER: Heather Ledger. Of course.
So Heath's family look, er, pleased. And well dressed. Quite odd. Standing ovation from the crowd from them as they go up to pick up the award. Sean Penn is crying away in that crowd btw. Ok so we have Heath's parents and sister are picking up the award. The ladies have been beautifully dressed in Ivory, Heath's dad is doing a lovely tearful speech. It's a weird character and film to have a moving moment with. Heath's "special friend" Steve is an interesting throwaway comment. No sight or word of his ex and mother of his child Michella Williams though. Interesting. This is a nice way to do this award - no speeding up music for Ledger family mind.
Onto Best Documentary noms: Encounters at the End of the World; The Garden; The Betrayal; Man on Wire; Trouble the Water (I'm taken with that only as the director swore crazily just then). So the award is being given out by Bill Mahar. He points out that he has to come on whilst everyone cries. Bill is pimping his own religion film here, crowd won't commit to laughing. They draw the line there. They laughed at the scientology jokes from Steve Martin and Tina Fey earlier. The whole room here agrees with Mahar: we should all go see documentaries more!!
WINNER: Man on Wire. Is a no brainer (though not a great film the idea is genuinely uplifting for some reason). Co-directors are making Phillipe run up (He managed it leaping marvellously!). His speech: "yes!" Phillipe btw is carrying lucky coin from Werner - is magic! And Phillipe? He's leaving with Oscar balanced on his chin. Of course!
Best Short Documentary noms: The Conscience of Nhem Loo; The Final Inch; Smile Pinki; The Witness - From the Balcony 306
WINNER: Smile Pinki!
The director is delighted. Lucky her. But her dress is backless silk total gorgeousness! She is on the ball. She expected to win. She did good in that mildly cold way!
Christopher Walkin, Kevin Kline, Cuba Gooding Junior, Alan Arkin and Joel Gray are our ghosts of supporting actors past introducing the actors. Pairings up again. Apparently Alan Arkin = Phillip Seymour Hoffman; Joel Gray = Josh Brolin (a little gay in joke maybe? We get a small parable alongside the spiel); Cuba Gooding Jnr = Robert Downey Jnr (yeah, it really did have to be that pairing!); Christopher Walkin = Micheal Shannon (dubious mental health connection I think); Kevin Kline = Heath Ledger (weird). So inevitably Heath Ledger is going to be an odd thing to introduce for this. Kevin Kline is trying to make it work. Heath's family are being zoomed into by the camera. Al a little weird the vibe here.
WINNER: Heather Ledger. Of course.
So Heath's family look, er, pleased. And well dressed. Quite odd. Standing ovation from the crowd from them as they go up to pick up the award. Sean Penn is crying away in that crowd btw. Ok so we have Heath's parents and sister are picking up the award. The ladies have been beautifully dressed in Ivory, Heath's dad is doing a lovely tearful speech. It's a weird character and film to have a moving moment with. Heath's "special friend" Steve is an interesting throwaway comment. No sight or word of his ex and mother of his child Michella Williams though. Interesting. This is a nice way to do this award - no speeding up music for Ledger family mind.
Onto Best Documentary noms: Encounters at the End of the World; The Garden; The Betrayal; Man on Wire; Trouble the Water (I'm taken with that only as the director swore crazily just then). So the award is being given out by Bill Mahar. He points out that he has to come on whilst everyone cries. Bill is pimping his own religion film here, crowd won't commit to laughing. They draw the line there. They laughed at the scientology jokes from Steve Martin and Tina Fey earlier. The whole room here agrees with Mahar: we should all go see documentaries more!!
WINNER: Man on Wire. Is a no brainer (though not a great film the idea is genuinely uplifting for some reason). Co-directors are making Phillipe run up (He managed it leaping marvellously!). His speech: "yes!" Phillipe btw is carrying lucky coin from Werner - is magic! And Phillipe? He's leaving with Oscar balanced on his chin. Of course!
Best Short Documentary noms: The Conscience of Nhem Loo; The Final Inch; Smile Pinki; The Witness - From the Balcony 306
WINNER: Smile Pinki!
The director is delighted. Lucky her. But her dress is backless silk total gorgeousness! She is on the ball. She expected to win. She did good in that mildly cold way!
Oscars 2009 - no awards at all.. But "The musical is back"
We are back with Sky, Beacham is in grumpy, maybe drunk, mode. She hates the amateur intimate nature of the ceremony. She is angry. Don't mess with Beecham. She'll strangle you with her pearls...
We are back at the theatre. Hugh reckons change has come... not Obama but Mamma Mia outselling Titanic in the Uk. Musicals are back. He says he cannot wait for Doubt the Musical (nuns. They've worked before).
So. Now we have a big fancy odd number. Hugh Jackman doing a bit of Fred Astaire. With Beyonce. The cheorography is pure MGM. Loving it despite the fact that it's a big clumsy compilation and it really actually doesn't work! Actually they have moved to Grease. I feel less good about liking this now! They are having fun with the combination of tracks, but they really aren't weaved together. It's a shame. I love musicals but if only they had stuck to well done and classy. Cripes. Zak Ephron has appeared scarily from nowhere. With the Mamma Mia folk. Mamma Mia is the theme tonight a bit. I supposse it is the major seller of the year but not Oscarable. We have military drummers joining in Mamma Mia (the song). Odd. It's a bit like a really really really well funded stage school car crash! What a waste of top hats and sequins! Cute to end on "The Musical is Back!" though! Crist. Who do we blame? Baz Lurhman.
We are back at the theatre. Hugh reckons change has come... not Obama but Mamma Mia outselling Titanic in the Uk. Musicals are back. He says he cannot wait for Doubt the Musical (nuns. They've worked before).
So. Now we have a big fancy odd number. Hugh Jackman doing a bit of Fred Astaire. With Beyonce. The cheorography is pure MGM. Loving it despite the fact that it's a big clumsy compilation and it really actually doesn't work! Actually they have moved to Grease. I feel less good about liking this now! They are having fun with the combination of tracks, but they really aren't weaved together. It's a shame. I love musicals but if only they had stuck to well done and classy. Cripes. Zak Ephron has appeared scarily from nowhere. With the Mamma Mia folk. Mamma Mia is the theme tonight a bit. I supposse it is the major seller of the year but not Oscarable. We have military drummers joining in Mamma Mia (the song). Odd. It's a bit like a really really really well funded stage school car crash! What a waste of top hats and sequins! Cute to end on "The Musical is Back!" though! Crist. Who do we blame? Baz Lurhman.
Oscars 2009 - Cinematography
Natalie Portman is presenting with a beary chap. It's someone in disguise. We're thinking it is Ben Stiller being artsy. He cannot compete for distraction with Natalie's My Little Pony dress. Stiller is doing nice bad cue card reading. Good job they weren't up earlier when the presenters genuinely were failing. Natalie thinks Stiller looks like he works at a meth lab, yup, that's the (faked) look. Poor Natalie is trying to be a pro and not giggle at the nominees whilst Stiller does skits behind. This cinematographer thing is a Jaquin Pheonix joke apparently. What an odd boy he is. Did they make the same jokes when Daniel Day Lewis became a cobbler? Probably!
So the noms: Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionnaire, The Dark Night, Changeling, The Reader.
WINNER? Slumdog Millionnaire!
It looks like Slumdog is starting to trump Benjamin Button. The Slumdog cinematographer is improving his own jokes, is a bit unsuccessful. But he seems nice. He's lost.
And now an ad again. Wow that was one short spell of actual ceromony between awards!
So the noms: Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionnaire, The Dark Night, Changeling, The Reader.
WINNER? Slumdog Millionnaire!
It looks like Slumdog is starting to trump Benjamin Button. The Slumdog cinematographer is improving his own jokes, is a bit unsuccessful. But he seems nice. He's lost.
And now an ad again. Wow that was one short spell of actual ceromony between awards!
Oscars 2009 - Best Live Action Short, Comedy 2008
Jennifer Biel is up on her own. And she is wearing the satin napkin again. Meh! But she is presenting the Scientific and Technical Awards update. And she has so little charisma we were bored before she opened her mouth. How is she working!
BTW the crew at Neil's party want to flag up that Tina Fey's silver dress was quite possibly the best one seen thus far. I rather concur. Although Goldie Hawn showed up in smart casual and that takes some balls. And Tilda was in couture of course and you know she just had that in the wardrobe. No one night crepe horrors for her!
I think we have a special Judd Apatow stoner video thang with James Franco & pal watching clip show to demonstrate best films. Cue inappropriate laughing. Nice q: "who's a better actor: Ronald Reagon or Barak Obama". Cute playing of Milk clip. Think Hollywood says Milk in response to Prop8 disaster. That was our comedy 2008 compiltion I think.
Live Actio Short Film noms: Aufe der Streke, Manon on the Asphalt, New Boy, The Pig, Spiegalslund.
WINNER: Spiegalslund
The Director was born in East Germany and is sweet.
BTW the crew at Neil's party want to flag up that Tina Fey's silver dress was quite possibly the best one seen thus far. I rather concur. Although Goldie Hawn showed up in smart casual and that takes some balls. And Tilda was in couture of course and you know she just had that in the wardrobe. No one night crepe horrors for her!
I think we have a special Judd Apatow stoner video thang with James Franco & pal watching clip show to demonstrate best films. Cue inappropriate laughing. Nice q: "who's a better actor: Ronald Reagon or Barak Obama". Cute playing of Milk clip. Think Hollywood says Milk in response to Prop8 disaster. That was our comedy 2008 compiltion I think.
Live Actio Short Film noms: Aufe der Streke, Manon on the Asphalt, New Boy, The Pig, Spiegalslund.
WINNER: Spiegalslund
The Director was born in East Germany and is sweet.
Oscars 2009 - Art, Costume and Make Up
Stephanie Beecham says Hugh Jackman's opening was laboured. The team view is that he is still no Billy Crystal. Steph would like to look at him but hated the skit. Respect to her for going that way.
Hugh is introducing the Art Direction award. Cute stage set up - big lit bulbs and pretty pretty presenters: Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig (and some jazzy reworkings of Charade). Baroque digital backdrops are how we're seeing: Benjamin Button vs The Duchess vs The Dark Night vs Changling vs Revolutionary Road.
WINNER? Benjamin Button!
Seems like a good call. The designers Seem pleased and on the verge of serious tears. And special thanks to David Fincher. The designers are in tears as they go. Feels like a proper win...
Daniel Craig is fluffing his lines, SJP is perfect pro and great at delivering meaningless style stuff. Lovely. So... Costume Design. It's Revolutionary Road vs The Duchess vs Milk vs Benjamin Button vs Australia. SJP btw is in another lovely evening gown. This one ivory and lovely (and much more busty) than the mint number she red carpetted in.
WINNER? The Duchess!
The Custume Designer is floored and maybe drunk or just totally baffled. Seems very unlikely as a costume designer in a good way. A gentlemen in his forties who was apparently the risk for the picture. He did a good befuddled speech. Apparently Keira Knightly is "one classy lady"!
Wow... it's a triple bill award host combie. Now Make Up is up. Benjamin Button vs Dark Knight vs Hellboy II.
WINNER? Benjamin Button!
Of course it was, how could it not be huh? The gent who has gone up is stroking his Oscar as he gives his slightly arch campy (well prepared) speech. He's running through the names impressively. Everyone on the freaking craft table almost got a micro mention. No emotion there though.
Wow! Our hosts for the next award are from that vampire tastic Twilight male lead and young female lead from Mamma Mia to cue up our romance compilation. Romance this year looked like... a blond dye jon. Is a particularly soft lit mixtape affair. I think that's a bit of Coldpplay being used there. I think I missed half these films btw. But I can at least recognise Highschool Musical 3. I is clasy. Romance this year looks mostly quite heterosexual. Even the Milk clip is bland as heck but they rescued themselves with a nice kiss in their snoggy compilation! Thank goodness!
Hugh is introducing the Art Direction award. Cute stage set up - big lit bulbs and pretty pretty presenters: Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig (and some jazzy reworkings of Charade). Baroque digital backdrops are how we're seeing: Benjamin Button vs The Duchess vs The Dark Night vs Changling vs Revolutionary Road.
WINNER? Benjamin Button!
Seems like a good call. The designers Seem pleased and on the verge of serious tears. And special thanks to David Fincher. The designers are in tears as they go. Feels like a proper win...
Daniel Craig is fluffing his lines, SJP is perfect pro and great at delivering meaningless style stuff. Lovely. So... Costume Design. It's Revolutionary Road vs The Duchess vs Milk vs Benjamin Button vs Australia. SJP btw is in another lovely evening gown. This one ivory and lovely (and much more busty) than the mint number she red carpetted in.
WINNER? The Duchess!
The Custume Designer is floored and maybe drunk or just totally baffled. Seems very unlikely as a costume designer in a good way. A gentlemen in his forties who was apparently the risk for the picture. He did a good befuddled speech. Apparently Keira Knightly is "one classy lady"!
Wow... it's a triple bill award host combie. Now Make Up is up. Benjamin Button vs Dark Knight vs Hellboy II.
WINNER? Benjamin Button!
Of course it was, how could it not be huh? The gent who has gone up is stroking his Oscar as he gives his slightly arch campy (well prepared) speech. He's running through the names impressively. Everyone on the freaking craft table almost got a micro mention. No emotion there though.
Wow! Our hosts for the next award are from that vampire tastic Twilight male lead and young female lead from Mamma Mia to cue up our romance compilation. Romance this year looked like... a blond dye jon. Is a particularly soft lit mixtape affair. I think that's a bit of Coldpplay being used there. I think I missed half these films btw. But I can at least recognise Highschool Musical 3. I is clasy. Romance this year looks mostly quite heterosexual. Even the Milk clip is bland as heck but they rescued themselves with a nice kiss in their snoggy compilation! Thank goodness!
Oscars 2009 - Animated Feature
Jennifer Aniston and Jack Black are doing the animated intros. Jack's animation money making scheme: take paycheck from Dreamworks and then bet it on Pixar for the Oscar winner. Harsh. But very very funny!
So we have a big ol' clipshow of dubious animated movies and good uns too. Chimps from Space still looks rubbish despite editing it next to WALL=E. Nice little soundtrack for the clipshow though. I think we know who will win since WALL-E features 10 times as much as the other films of the year. Anniston btw dipped herself in glue and rolled in sequins and beads by the looks of things. Quite a sparkly dress! So it's Bolt vs Kung Foo Panda vs WALL-E. Yes, you guessed it...
WINNER: WALL-E!
Of course.
A cute family man type Oscar speech. Cute. Also the Director is thanking his high school drama teacher for casting him as Barnaby in Hello Dolly.
Now Best Animated Short Film. Not easier to win than the full length movie. No. Not at all! Aniston and Black should do lots of telly
Le Maison en Petits Cubes vs Lavator Love Story vs Oktapodi vs Presto vs This Way Up. This is traditionally a wild card category. No disappointments here then...
WINNER: Le Maison en Petits Cubes!
The animator is very sweet. And speaks almost no English. So a nice short speech from Kunio Kato "Dom Arigato Mr Roboto!"
So we have a big ol' clipshow of dubious animated movies and good uns too. Chimps from Space still looks rubbish despite editing it next to WALL=E. Nice little soundtrack for the clipshow though. I think we know who will win since WALL-E features 10 times as much as the other films of the year. Anniston btw dipped herself in glue and rolled in sequins and beads by the looks of things. Quite a sparkly dress! So it's Bolt vs Kung Foo Panda vs WALL-E. Yes, you guessed it...
WINNER: WALL-E!
Of course.
A cute family man type Oscar speech. Cute. Also the Director is thanking his high school drama teacher for casting him as Barnaby in Hello Dolly.
Now Best Animated Short Film. Not easier to win than the full length movie. No. Not at all! Aniston and Black should do lots of telly
Le Maison en Petits Cubes vs Lavator Love Story vs Oktapodi vs Presto vs This Way Up. This is traditionally a wild card category. No disappointments here then...
WINNER: Le Maison en Petits Cubes!
The animator is very sweet. And speaks almost no English. So a nice short speech from Kunio Kato "Dom Arigato Mr Roboto!"
Oscars 2009 - best screenplay
Best screenplay is a cheesy affair with Tina Fey and Steve Martin: Frozen River vs Happy Go Lucky bs In Bruges vs MIlk vs WALL-E. Ny the way how is Milk an original screenplay given the Oscar winning doc it's based on?!
WINNER: Milk! What? Meh!
Winner Dustn Lane Black is a camp 12 year old. He could be in High School Musical. Writer is former conservative Mormon. Bless. He is using this as an anti Prop 8 rant. I rather love that. Dustin think Milk would want him to say how much God does love gay people and that very soon we will have equal rights federally across the US. Brave in a way.
Best Screenplay Adapted. Curious Case of Benjamin Button vs Doubt vs Frost/Nixon vs The Reader vs Slumdog Millionnaire.
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Expected but a bit crap considering the betterness of Q & A. Simon Boeufoy is looking very very surprised. He's wearing a necklace I think. He's a bit overcome in that nice English way. Everyone on the film has changed his life. Danny Boyle is the And Finally... thank you. Almost an afterthought.
WINNER: Milk! What? Meh!
Winner Dustn Lane Black is a camp 12 year old. He could be in High School Musical. Writer is former conservative Mormon. Bless. He is using this as an anti Prop 8 rant. I rather love that. Dustin think Milk would want him to say how much God does love gay people and that very soon we will have equal rights federally across the US. Brave in a way.
Best Screenplay Adapted. Curious Case of Benjamin Button vs Doubt vs Frost/Nixon vs The Reader vs Slumdog Millionnaire.
WINNER: Slumdog Millionnaire!
Expected but a bit crap considering the betterness of Q & A. Simon Boeufoy is looking very very surprised. He's wearing a necklace I think. He's a bit overcome in that nice English way. Everyone on the film has changed his life. Danny Boyle is the And Finally... thank you. Almost an afterthought.
Oscars 2009 - Actual Real Live Event Ahoy!
It's beginning! It's beginning! Yay!!!!!!
Wow the staging is bling a ding diamnote dong!
Hugh Jackman is on. Looking tall and tan and attractively random. Still not quite sure why he's hosting this year but he's a charming chappie. He's doing the obligatory toe curling waving at the crowd... Hugh's little nationalities joke about Australia is quite cute. Everything is downsized due to the recession. Next year he'll be in the film New Zealand ;) Go go script writers.
So.. It's a class credit crunchy musical number. With cardboard props. In that sexy expensive Michel Gondry style. It's a musical number based on the nominees of course. Hugh is doing a good job actually so far. Although his tan and suit and such is strangely reminiscent of William Shatner circa 76. Wow! Phallic tastic Tripic Thunder props! IT is cute to get a stage actor to do a no frills number. Anne Hathaway has been accidentally on purpose co-opted on. Anne as Nixon. Cute. Anne is showing off that yes people, she ia available for musicals. Thank you. I think the undertone is that Frost/Nixon is a porny cheesy romance. Hmm... odd. And crazy silver dancers (as if from Eurobeat) are mime dancing The Reader. Now The Wrestler. Home props include barbed wire and a standard lamp. And fold out Oscars! Clearly the boys films are the focus this year.
However. Quite possibly best. opening. ever.
Classy and cheapie. Hugh Jackman is almost scarily Vegas and lady friendly. Although Hugh's little lap hopping onto Frank Langella is rather fun. Nice joke: 7 second delay but for Mickey will be a 20 minute delay if he wins. Cute. Again Hugh is pimping round the audience. Meryl looks pained. Likes his 15 noms steroids joke. Weirdly it's a little Best Actress clip show. And the video intros to the clipshows are a bit, well, classic cheesy. Oh no. It's actually the film that's cheesy. But it's introducing some seriously rockin ladies: Eva Marie Saint, Whoopi Goldberg, Tilda Swinton, Goldie Hawn and Angelia Huston. Tilda rules them like a sexy couture queen! It's a bit we are the ghosts of Oscars past but hey, nice idea to make folks work for their previously received statuettes! And tears already. I love the pairings btw: Eva Marie Saint = Viola Davies; Angelia Huston = Penelope Cruz; Whoppie Goldberg = Amy Adams (it's a nun thing); Goldie Hawn = Taraji P Henson; Marisa Tomei = Tilda Swinton.
WINNER?! Penelope Cruz!!!
AWESOMENESS!! Je suis insanely delighted!
Penelope has 45 seconds and she's very very very thrilled! fabulous! Lovely wee speech btw. She wrote one, she's showing her classy european roots. Charming and touching and not painfully blubby. She is talking about art. Penelope we love you! Everyone from Spain shares her award according to my live translator!
Wow the staging is bling a ding diamnote dong!
Hugh Jackman is on. Looking tall and tan and attractively random. Still not quite sure why he's hosting this year but he's a charming chappie. He's doing the obligatory toe curling waving at the crowd... Hugh's little nationalities joke about Australia is quite cute. Everything is downsized due to the recession. Next year he'll be in the film New Zealand ;) Go go script writers.
So.. It's a class credit crunchy musical number. With cardboard props. In that sexy expensive Michel Gondry style. It's a musical number based on the nominees of course. Hugh is doing a good job actually so far. Although his tan and suit and such is strangely reminiscent of William Shatner circa 76. Wow! Phallic tastic Tripic Thunder props! IT is cute to get a stage actor to do a no frills number. Anne Hathaway has been accidentally on purpose co-opted on. Anne as Nixon. Cute. Anne is showing off that yes people, she ia available for musicals. Thank you. I think the undertone is that Frost/Nixon is a porny cheesy romance. Hmm... odd. And crazy silver dancers (as if from Eurobeat) are mime dancing The Reader. Now The Wrestler. Home props include barbed wire and a standard lamp. And fold out Oscars! Clearly the boys films are the focus this year.
However. Quite possibly best. opening. ever.
Classy and cheapie. Hugh Jackman is almost scarily Vegas and lady friendly. Although Hugh's little lap hopping onto Frank Langella is rather fun. Nice joke: 7 second delay but for Mickey will be a 20 minute delay if he wins. Cute. Again Hugh is pimping round the audience. Meryl looks pained. Likes his 15 noms steroids joke. Weirdly it's a little Best Actress clip show. And the video intros to the clipshows are a bit, well, classic cheesy. Oh no. It's actually the film that's cheesy. But it's introducing some seriously rockin ladies: Eva Marie Saint, Whoopi Goldberg, Tilda Swinton, Goldie Hawn and Angelia Huston. Tilda rules them like a sexy couture queen! It's a bit we are the ghosts of Oscars past but hey, nice idea to make folks work for their previously received statuettes! And tears already. I love the pairings btw: Eva Marie Saint = Viola Davies; Angelia Huston = Penelope Cruz; Whoppie Goldberg = Amy Adams (it's a nun thing); Goldie Hawn = Taraji P Henson; Marisa Tomei = Tilda Swinton.
WINNER?! Penelope Cruz!!!
AWESOMENESS!! Je suis insanely delighted!
Penelope has 45 seconds and she's very very very thrilled! fabulous! Lovely wee speech btw. She wrote one, she's showing her classy european roots. Charming and touching and not painfully blubby. She is talking about art. Penelope we love you! Everyone from Spain shares her award according to my live translator!
Oscars 2009 - Live!
Freaking A! IT's Claudia Winkleman and Gok Wan on the Sky sofa!
So... nothing has actually begun yet. It's all fashion thoughts and preamble. Lorks. Fern Cotton is Winkleman's gal on the ground at the Kodak theatre. Pink eye shadow has crept up on Fern and taken her by surprise! Scary!
So... nothing has actually begun yet. It's all fashion thoughts and preamble. Lorks. Fern Cotton is Winkleman's gal on the ground at the Kodak theatre. Pink eye shadow has crept up on Fern and taken her by surprise! Scary!
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - robert downey jnr
Robert Downey Jnr. has found Ryan's mic. The lapels are quite cunning here. dark grey matt short back lapels giving the look of a classic Italian suit with matt black lower lapels taking the tux into proper formal wear. IT works. With Bob's Elvis quiff it's a fifties throwback look...
And then... Out of nowhere...
It's beginning!!!
And then... Out of nowhere...
It's beginning!!!
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Getting closer to the main event..
Ryan has secured an interview with Kate Winslet. Something about the hairdo is set, solid and pure Princess Diana. Most odd. It's her classic look though. Sculpted up do with small diamond stud drop and a Ben De Lisi (or similar) frockage with some sort of foliage across the shoulder. Always the shoulder attack. Kate seems baffled by commenting on her own success. She's quietly confident. Despite the odd deprived ballet school look in the Time cover they've just flagged up.
Alicia Keys is along for unknown reasons. Looking like the polar opposite of Christopher Nolens wife. Keys has concave chest these days so thinned is she still, Nolan's Mrs meanwhile looks truly buxom in this lineup of ladies. She's really outshining the crowd cleavage wise with even a cross over basic ball black ballgown all that's required.
Alicia Keys is along for unknown reasons. Looking like the polar opposite of Christopher Nolens wife. Keys has concave chest these days so thinned is she still, Nolan's Mrs meanwhile looks truly buxom in this lineup of ladies. She's really outshining the crowd cleavage wise with even a cross over basic ball black ballgown all that's required.
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Penelope Cruz
Cruz, close up, is a mix of Loren and Audrey Hepburn. Gorgeously heavy fringe and fabulous pale dress (though pale isn't Pene's best colour. Ryan thinks Cruz's role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona is "troubled". I say fabulous. Penelope says "I love her!" yay! Full length view of her dress reveals wedding cake frosting awesomeness. Cruz is the proper princess.
Audible groans! Phillip Seymour Hoffman is wearing a freakin knitted hat people!
Daniel Craig looks good but a little more rugger bugger than usual. His girlfriend might disappear if you accidentally breath out she's so thin. Not cool.
Angelina has the most amazing jade earrings here. They shout out above the black dress - a classic sculptural strapless number to show off Ms Jolie's very finest assets.
Kate Winslet has a dual coloured frock which seems to involve using fabulous black lace as shading to help her hide into size zeroness from her just mildly larger than size zero actual size. The main colour of the dress is a dusky mushroom. It's what the cool kids do:
Audible groans! Phillip Seymour Hoffman is wearing a freakin knitted hat people!
Daniel Craig looks good but a little more rugger bugger than usual. His girlfriend might disappear if you accidentally breath out she's so thin. Not cool.
Angelina has the most amazing jade earrings here. They shout out above the black dress - a classic sculptural strapless number to show off Ms Jolie's very finest assets.
Kate Winslet has a dual coloured frock which seems to involve using fabulous black lace as shading to help her hide into size zeroness from her just mildly larger than size zero actual size. The main colour of the dress is a dusky mushroom. It's what the cool kids do:
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Meryl Streep, Marion Cotillard
Meryl Streep is sporting a dusky mushroom off the shoulder number. Much nicer by far than the red jersey pleated boob tube that Robert Downey Jnr's date for the night is wearing.
Evan Rachel Wood has beaton off a baffled paparazzi and is speaking to Ryan Seacrest. She's either a naturally cocky lady or a few drinks into the evening...
Jessica Biel forgot to get a dress so is co-ordinating her bed head with an improve dress and, apparently, a large bed sheet was the only thing to hand... We do not love.
Hilarious special feature of the E! coverage number 2: the pointy markers so you can spot the tiny tiny celebs from space. From Space!
Penolope Cruz has come as Sophia Loren. It works people. It works!
Brangelina have made an appearance now but only just hopped out the car. Matt tasteful black classiness but misguided Pitt facial hair horrors.
Marion Cotillard meanwhile has gone for a challenging mix of dark blue and black with heavy beading. Very nice and yet not quite right. A bold attempt though.
Evan Rachel Wood has beaton off a baffled paparazzi and is speaking to Ryan Seacrest. She's either a naturally cocky lady or a few drinks into the evening...
Jessica Biel forgot to get a dress so is co-ordinating her bed head with an improve dress and, apparently, a large bed sheet was the only thing to hand... We do not love.
Hilarious special feature of the E! coverage number 2: the pointy markers so you can spot the tiny tiny celebs from space. From Space!
Penolope Cruz has come as Sophia Loren. It works people. It works!
Brangelina have made an appearance now but only just hopped out the car. Matt tasteful black classiness but misguided Pitt facial hair horrors.
Marion Cotillard meanwhile has gone for a challenging mix of dark blue and black with heavy beading. Very nice and yet not quite right. A bold attempt though.
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Beyonce, Josh Brolin, Queen Latifah
Looks like Beyonce has come straight from Versace by the look of her spray on black and gold gown. Gorgeous matt finish fabric with lacey gold flower splashes. The gathering gets a tad eighties towards the tail but the overall finish is fabulous.
Oh my god it's bittersweet... Mickey misses his chiwhawha (intentional spelling there) that he would so much have preferred his dog for two more years than an Oscar. He is wearing a pendant with his pooches pic around his neck. We almost want him to win purely for his adorable teary piece to camera about his recently deceased doggie best friend.
Queen Latifah is in pretty much a classic plus size prom gown. Nice but dull. As is the glossy swept bun she's sporting. Severe hair is the look (Evan Rachel Wood is also sporting an insanely structured up do). I take back some of my comments on Anne Hathaway btw - her dress finishes in an increadible dispersing spiral of teacup sized sequins. Art yes. Fashion though? Not sure. Glamour? Not with the gaping size zero busline!
As we listen to Josh Brolin (looking a lot like a terrier) and has floored us with the comment "More people would have lived through the AIDS crisis if Harvey Milk were still alive". We barely have a response for that it's so outragously insane.
Jessica Biel is a modern gal. She's on the phone. On the red Carpet. With bed head. Most odd.
Love him Ron Howard is shoutingly defending Micheal Sheen's performance in Frost/Nixon. He seems personally affronted that only Frank Langella was nominated.
Peter Gabrial looks more and more like a wizard every day.
Oh my god it's bittersweet... Mickey misses his chiwhawha (intentional spelling there) that he would so much have preferred his dog for two more years than an Oscar. He is wearing a pendant with his pooches pic around his neck. We almost want him to win purely for his adorable teary piece to camera about his recently deceased doggie best friend.
Queen Latifah is in pretty much a classic plus size prom gown. Nice but dull. As is the glossy swept bun she's sporting. Severe hair is the look (Evan Rachel Wood is also sporting an insanely structured up do). I take back some of my comments on Anne Hathaway btw - her dress finishes in an increadible dispersing spiral of teacup sized sequins. Art yes. Fashion though? Not sure. Glamour? Not with the gaping size zero busline!
As we listen to Josh Brolin (looking a lot like a terrier) and has floored us with the comment "More people would have lived through the AIDS crisis if Harvey Milk were still alive". We barely have a response for that it's so outragously insane.
Jessica Biel is a modern gal. She's on the phone. On the red Carpet. With bed head. Most odd.
Love him Ron Howard is shoutingly defending Micheal Sheen's performance in Frost/Nixon. He seems personally affronted that only Frank Langella was nominated.
Peter Gabrial looks more and more like a wizard every day.
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Anne Hathaway, Sean Penn, Marisa Tomei & Natalie Portman
Neutral continues to be a trend this year. Anne Hathaway has arrived in a deeply bridal floor length beaded gown. Nice but not challenging and designed to highlight her skinny elegance. Given she's up for a little gold man for her role in Rachel's Getting Married as an alcoholic it's probably not the year for frivolous fun just in case she wins!
Evan Rachel Wood is in neutral gown of horrible beige. The tattoo it hightlights is rather lovely though.
Sean Penn has arrived in an increadible orange colour. Meanwhile Sarah Jessica Parker says her gown is "barely mint" and that - horror! - Sex and the City 2 is on the way! Shocker! Matthew Broderick has been forced into co-ordinating midnight blue tux.
Oh my god. Marisa's dress has properly been unveiled. It is actually fairly incredible in construction. It has a pleated Sydney Opera House look and is genuinely interesting but the torso shot of it is unfortunate since the colour is less than flattering on the face but the structure is increadible. Maybe Marisa should have borrowed Sean Penn's tantastic look!
Natalie Portman has arrived in My First Barbie Ballgown from the discounted beaded range at an out of town wedding store near you now!
Evan Rachel Wood is in neutral gown of horrible beige. The tattoo it hightlights is rather lovely though.
Sean Penn has arrived in an increadible orange colour. Meanwhile Sarah Jessica Parker says her gown is "barely mint" and that - horror! - Sex and the City 2 is on the way! Shocker! Matthew Broderick has been forced into co-ordinating midnight blue tux.
Oh my god. Marisa's dress has properly been unveiled. It is actually fairly incredible in construction. It has a pleated Sydney Opera House look and is genuinely interesting but the torso shot of it is unfortunate since the colour is less than flattering on the face but the structure is increadible. Maybe Marisa should have borrowed Sean Penn's tantastic look!
Natalie Portman has arrived in My First Barbie Ballgown from the discounted beaded range at an out of town wedding store near you now!
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Richard Jenkins, Mickey Rourke
Micky has arrived in slovenly tux style. Open shirt, waistcoat, white dinner jacket and shock! A cigarette! Richard Jenkins meanwhile is classiness personified in classic tux. Sadly Ryan Seacrest ain't that interested as I think we all know it ain't Richard's year despite The Visitor having been fabulous.
Sarah Jessica Parker has appeared in a fabulous gown with increadbly natural looking curled hair. The gown is mint but it is so well designed it still looks good!
Robert Downey Jnr. has arrived. Frsh from rehab? He's looking good in the classic twist on a tux: some satin some matt sections to the lapels. Classy. Simple. Even Downey Jnr's hair is on the conservative side but since he is up for an oscar where he was blacked up it's provbably the wise way to go.
Sarah Jessica Parker has appeared in a fabulous gown with increadbly natural looking curled hair. The gown is mint but it is so well designed it still looks good!
Robert Downey Jnr. has arrived. Frsh from rehab? He's looking good in the classic twist on a tux: some satin some matt sections to the lapels. Classy. Simple. Even Downey Jnr's hair is on the conservative side but since he is up for an oscar where he was blacked up it's provbably the wise way to go.
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Marisa Tomei
Marisa has not learned fashion lessons despite the decade gap between Oscars appearances. It's assymetrical (oy!) and is in a sort of dirty white silk frock. It's classy and understated but so understated as to look a little like a slip. Hair wise though it's a hit.
Amy Adams meanwhile has got the understated classy look in spades. Floor length crimson gown with black piping around the corset, skirts gathered between bust and waist and all highlighting her elegant tied back red hair. Glamour triumph.
Amy Adams meanwhile has got the understated classy look in spades. Floor length crimson gown with black piping around the corset, skirts gathered between bust and waist and all highlighting her elegant tied back red hair. Glamour triumph.
Sunday 22 February 2009
Oscars Red Carpet 2009 - Heidi Klum
For some reason Heidi has come to the Oscars. No complaint from me though as the red satin asymmetrical (purlease!) 50's styled evening frock is rather fabulous! Her jewellery is just amazing - huge diamond and either pearl or a very classy agate leaf design climbing up her neck beautifully. Co-ordinated with huge coordinating bangles in a definitely slumdog chic style which make up for the hitheroto missed insane dress split and triangular back cut out of the red dress.
Danny Boyle is now being interviewed. Behind him there is an awesome asian red carpet invasion. The calm glammer of the saris knocks the socks of some of this year's mainstream frocks!
Danny Boyle is now being interviewed. Behind him there is an awesome asian red carpet invasion. The calm glammer of the saris knocks the socks of some of this year's mainstream frocks!
Oscars 2009 - Red Carpet
Currently watching the red carpet coverage of Oscars 2009. We're witnessing the Glamastrator on E!. Truly fabulous magic sports pen action being applied to a fabulous oyster mushroom dress.
So Dev Patel is currently working Ryan Seacrest's mic. I take that back. Dev is just not that lewd! Costar Frieda Pinto is looking fabulous in a stunning (but inexplicably assymetrical) blue lace and diamante sari inspired gown.
So Dev Patel is currently working Ryan Seacrest's mic. I take that back. Dev is just not that lewd! Costar Frieda Pinto is looking fabulous in a stunning (but inexplicably assymetrical) blue lace and diamante sari inspired gown.
Oscars 2009
I am live blogging and vlogging the Oscars 2009 . Vlogs may follow the event but they'll be recorded live! enjoy!
Wednesday 11 February 2009
Snow, Busy week, and EdTwestival
As previously mentioned Sunday night we finally had real proper snow in Edinburgh. And Monday it was snowing all day leading to very very pretty inch thick frosting on everything. Then except for a thin sheet of ice on a small bit of pavement (which I went flying off in some skilled coffee-preserving way) it had all thawed come Tuesday. Ah well.
This whole week has been a bit chaotic trying to fit lots of work and training and new work stuff in - quite the challenge. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to though - it's the EdTwestival and I am joining the Twitterati to chat and drink and tweet and see what a Twitter meet up actually looks like. Scary good fun I think... Wish me luck!
This whole week has been a bit chaotic trying to fit lots of work and training and new work stuff in - quite the challenge. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to though - it's the EdTwestival and I am joining the Twitterati to chat and drink and tweet and see what a Twitter meet up actually looks like. Scary good fun I think... Wish me luck!
Monday 2 February 2009
snow!
It snowed today!
In fact it snowed a lot but almost exclusively, bizarrely, in the South of England. Up here in the frozen north we just had lots of snowfall melting quietly away. As I type it is baltic BUT the snow is melting under the pressure of new sleet and warm(ish) urban streets. I fear today's snow is tomorrow's lethal ice sheet though - lordy!
In fact the bad put me in an usual on trend place: I was wearing cords and walking boots with a big fluffy jumper as, it seems, were half my colleagues. It was the EDINA look. Nice.
Anyway despite the thaw it is still far far too cold to type or indeed be out in the open.. I'm off to hide under fleece blankets!
In fact it snowed a lot but almost exclusively, bizarrely, in the South of England. Up here in the frozen north we just had lots of snowfall melting quietly away. As I type it is baltic BUT the snow is melting under the pressure of new sleet and warm(ish) urban streets. I fear today's snow is tomorrow's lethal ice sheet though - lordy!
In fact the bad put me in an usual on trend place: I was wearing cords and walking boots with a big fluffy jumper as, it seems, were half my colleagues. It was the EDINA look. Nice.
Anyway despite the thaw it is still far far too cold to type or indeed be out in the open.. I'm off to hide under fleece blankets!
Thursday 8 January 2009
Hard at work on my assignment...
Cocoa is very comforting at midnight when you are glazed over with strategy jumbling in your head, two throws keeping your knees warm and just 4 days till deadline. I wish I didn't get hyperactive about everything EXCEPT homework on the week's when my assignments are due: it's so tacky!
At least tomorrow I have a nice catch up day at work - our server has a scheduled all day outage which means I can actually all the stuff I'm usually too busy munging to get to! Thrillment! Hopefully that will be therapy for the brain and the soul and tomorrow evening will be even more productive for writing up!
At least tomorrow I have a nice catch up day at work - our server has a scheduled all day outage which means I can actually all the stuff I'm usually too busy munging to get to! Thrillment! Hopefully that will be therapy for the brain and the soul and tomorrow evening will be even more productive for writing up!
Sunday 4 January 2009
Craft Pride
Hmm... It seems my sewing and machine embroidery based pressies this year looked just slightly too professional so that some folk didn't realise they were handmade for them. So, the question, to label or not to label handmade gifts?!
It seems like an ego trip to label but then it seems a shame to spend hours or days or weeks hand-making unique things and not have that careful thought and time element of the present known about.
What do you think?
It seems like an ego trip to label but then it seems a shame to spend hours or days or weeks hand-making unique things and not have that careful thought and time element of the present known about.
What do you think?
Chocolate Marquisse Cake!
The last piece of this yummy chocolate cake is awaiting me after dinner. All I need to do is stop procrastinating over my e-Learning Strategy & Policy assignment and I can have one of the last two bits of this dense gooey yumminess (from the Green & Black's cookbook btw)...
Now... to attempt to do some exciting stratergising!
Now... to attempt to do some exciting stratergising!
Friday 2 January 2009
Mmmm... Moroccan Food
This is the most scrummy of dishs: chicken with honey and baby onions from Claudia Roden's excellent book Arabesque. We brought mum a copy for Christmas and got so excited looking for ingrediants to add to her present that we decided to do a Moroccan feast for Heather's birthday. Alongside the chicken dish we did some little lamb pastries with yoguht sauce (utterly delicous), a warm sweet potato salad (awesomely unexpectedly good) and a tomato and aubergine dish (nice but I executed it poorly so it ended up too garlicy). Really yummy stuff indeed especially when also served with the Chocolate Marquisse from the Green & Black's Cookbook (alarmingly good but featuring 10 eggs!!) and a big bottle of vintage champagne. To follow our leftovers we also have some leftover pastries (again from Arabesque) that we made just before we left Cardiff - little fragrant almond cigar type things baked in filo and dripping with yumminess. They went very well with the Oranges in Orange Syrup. Num. Despite Heather getting 3 recipe books for her birthday I think we'll be off to get our own copy of Arabesque very soon indeed.
Sari Silk Scarf
I've been doing lots of crafty stuff for christmas pressies this year but this latest creation was actually for me. It's a scarf made of Jeager fushia fake fur (lovely stuff but awefully tangly) and a handspun silk sari yarn made from little scraps and waste pieces of indian fabrics. I picked the sari yarn up in a yarn store in Potlatch in Washington when we were day tripping from Seattle last spring. It took me ages to find the best use for it but it is quite heavy and dense to work with so I have a beautiful but very compact scarf now. Two balls of yarn in a very lazy knit (no, not even a stockinette) and maybe 2 ft of scarf. But both feet of it are very very pretty!
Thursday 1 January 2009
Merry Christmas!
Nummy Christmas pudding seems like a good shot to sum up a glutonous and fun festive season at home. Although come to think of it I actually didn't eat more than two bowls of puddin' which is a shame as there was lots left but there were too many other temptations. I did learn how to make my own brandy butter. Actually Ameretto Butter: 3oz unsalted softened (to room temperature) butter, 3oz sugar and at least 3 and probably rather more Ameretto. Whipped up (a lot) it makes a yummy melty alternative to those naff Tesco Brandy Creams...
Anyway the christmasy week of my fortnight off was spent at home in Cardiff with mum and Heather and (for a few days) Anna mostly sleeping, drinking lemsips and eating turkey. If we hadn't all had colds it would have been super relaxing I think. Sniffles makes everything that bit more claustrophobic and tiring though so it's good that the colds are finally receding at last. Which means a rush to do my next MSc assignment, my CIGS Web2.0 presentation (book now to see me!) and then use my big chrimbo pressie: a new shiny podcasting mic to make suchprettyeyes on film so much sexier :)
Anyway the christmasy week of my fortnight off was spent at home in Cardiff with mum and Heather and (for a few days) Anna mostly sleeping, drinking lemsips and eating turkey. If we hadn't all had colds it would have been super relaxing I think. Sniffles makes everything that bit more claustrophobic and tiring though so it's good that the colds are finally receding at last. Which means a rush to do my next MSc assignment, my CIGS Web2.0 presentation (book now to see me!) and then use my big chrimbo pressie: a new shiny podcasting mic to make suchprettyeyes on film so much sexier :)
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