social media

“I have an upcoming project, codename Sam I Am [update 27/06/08]. I’m busting to tell you about it but I can’t yet; it’s necessarily under wraps. It’s a very entertaining concept and interactive experience which still manages to convey a substantial meaning – in this case about the diversity of Islamic culture, and the narrowness of most of our experience and understanding of it.

The commission I’m most proud of: The Big Art Mob. It applies new technology and media behaviours to a worthwhile public task: mapping the best of Public Art (from bronze geezers on horses to Banksys) across the UK. Interested people from all around the country and beyond (we’re big in Brazil) are photographing artworks on their mobiles and uploading them to the map, having a good online natter about arty stuff along the way. You can interact wherever you are – I’m particularly proud of the WAP (mobile) site at bigartmob.com/mobile. It’s been nominated for 3 Baftas alongside the likes of the iPlayer and Dr Who, so it’s punching above its weight in true C4 stylee.

In the way that Big Art Mob finds a worthwhile purpose for moblogging (mobile blogging) I want to find missions and purposes for other emerging interactive tools and technologies like, say, Twitter – in itself geek masturbation and possibly the end of civilisation as we know it, with a creatively conceived context perhaps something exceedingly good.

I’ve spent the last 5 years at Channel 4 exploring what public service means in a digital world – from Big Dig to Big Art Project, and one or two projects that don’t even have ‘Big’ in the title like Picture This and Empire’s Children. But Big is important: ambition, scale and impact are all vital.

Cross-platform and interactive media is what’s pumping the nads of the telly industry right now, and it’s vital to its future. All the creative and entrepreneurial energy is welling up in these areas and Channel 4 is ready for action.”

Adam Gee: Commissioning Editor, New Media Factual, Channel 4

“I’m excited about everything – we’re trying so many experiments this year. But to pick a few, The Insiders is an online comedy about the world of work; YearDot is a huge, innovative experiment to follow a group of teens for a year across various media; Phantasmagoria is a collection of widgets for social networks and Slabovia.tv just makes me laugh out loud.

The key topic for me is transitions. We’re focused on the transitions that 14 to 19-year-olds go through, how they find the information and the people who help them through this critical time in their lives. When you start talking to teens, you realise how many really huge decisions there are to make – about work, university, your identity, your relationship with your family – when you’ve had very little real experience of life.

Making the right decisions is really down to the networks you have around you: family, friends, teachers and work colleagues. I’m very interested in how teens are using new media platforms to build these networks, and how these networks influence the decisions they make about their lives.

At C4 we’re all about getting you to ask questions about your life, whereas the BBC is more about giving you the ‘answers’. The BBC is homogeneous – it tries to talk with the same ‘voice’ in all its programming. C4 is really just a collection of voices, a lot of which can be very contradictory at times, and this isn’t a problem. We show people different ways of looking at the world around them, and challenge their assumptions and prejudices. I’m interested in getting people to ask questions and participate, rather than just presenting ‘knowledge’ in a didactic way.

The barriers for new creative talent to get their projects out there aren’t the same as they were in 1982, but there are still some big problems to sort out. If anything, its a more level playing field in cross-platform commissioning, as it’s much newer – you’re not pitching against a grizzled industry veteran as you would be in, say, docs or features. If you understand what people are doing online, and think you’ve got an idea that can be a real success, then you’ve got as much chance of getting commissioned as anyone.”

Matt Locke: Commissioning Editor, Education, Channel 4