Tag: bbc

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BBC One Videos: Openings

The Olympic Broadcaster.

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The BBC broadcast the full length trailer for the London 2012 Olympics last night on BBC One. The campaign shows the landscape of the United Kingdom transformed into a giant sporting arena, with music written and performed by Elbow.

Creative agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R developed the concept and the animation was created by Passion Pictures and produced by Red Bee Media.

Continuing a tradition of animated promos, check out previous Olympics trailers for Vancouver 2010 and Beijing 2008.

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Videos: Broadcast News

A day in the life of British news.

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

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

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

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

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

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BBC (Other) Videos: Idents

The black and white Olympics.

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Going against all tradition and cliche, the BBC have created one hell of a Winter Olympics promo. No blue ice, no slow motion athletes, and no gold medals.

It’s the Persepolis of Winter Olympics promos and I love it.

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American TV Videos: Idents

Be more with PBS.

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Continuing my series of blatant bias towards public broadcasters, and blind rage towards commercial networks.. I present you with the new look for PBS.

Although funded differently to the BBC or the ABC, the Public Broadcasting Service of the United States shares a similar mission to “educate, inspire, entertain”. Like other public broadcasters around the world it is also considered its nations “most trusted national institution”.

But enough about the philosophy, what about the brand. Created by Eyeball, the new look is distinctively non-commercial, yet polished, two qualities sometimes considered mutually exclusively, but beautifully executed here.

Sidenote: Carrier is one of the best documentary series I’ve ever seen.

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BBC (Other) Videos: Idents

BBC Alba, always looking towards the Pole Star.

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Glasgow based agency Design is Central recently created this series of sublime idents for the new Scottish Gaelic language channel BBC Alba.

The look of the idents are based around the Pole Star, and the idea of an attraction and movement towards it. A concept which is slightly reminiscent of that used by Welsh broadcaster S4/C, is still nonetheless beautifully executed.

Complimenting the idents are a series of menu boards after the jump.

Continue reading “BBC Alba, always looking towards the Pole Star.”
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BBC One Videos: Promos

One day like this, on the BBC.

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Ninety second promo for the BBC’s latest batch of new drama. Featuring the likes of Survivors, Little Dorrit, Spooks, Einstein and Eddington, Consuming Passion, Apparitions, Wallander and In Love with Barbara.

All set to the Elbow’s tune “One Day Like This”.

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BBC (Other) Videos: Promos

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, on the BBC.

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Here’s a challenge for you: condense a 400-year-old, 100 chapter Chinese novel into a two minute animated trailer for the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

Actually, don’t worry, the BBC have already done it…

That’s right, they’ve abandoned the traditional “gold-infused slow-motion footage of athletes” Olympics imagery in favour of something a bit more creative.

Animated by Gorillaz creator Jamie Hewlett with music by Damon Albarn, this video of Monkey and his friends made its debut last night in the UK at 7:27pm with a simulcast across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four and BBC News, and will form the centrepiece of the BBC’s Olympic coverage branding.

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BBC (Other) Videos: Promos

The cinematic promise of BBC HD.

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Fiona Bruce stars as the action hero, in this advert for the BBC HD service, available in the UK through Sky, Virgin, and Freesat, and now also available in Australia through Foxtel HD, with further international expansion expected.

The spot was developed by agency Fallon, and produced by Red Bee, and while the Antiques Roadshow inspired action sequences are fun and all, its the first few seconds with the BBC logo that most caught my attention.

– Thanks to Craig for the video.

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BBC One Videos: Promos

Penguins can fly on the BBC’s iPlayer.

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UPDATE: Added the “making of” video above.

While the ABC is still busy getting its Playback service off the ground, the BBC’s iPlayer is already a huge success with over 17 million downloads and streams since its Christmas day launch.

To celebrate April Fools Day and further promote the iPlayer platform the BBC produced this very funny and creative promotion that ran yesterday across BBC television, and generated the kind of 1st of April newspaper stories we’ve all come to expect, with the Mirror reporting: First-ever images of the world’s only flying penguins.

The Guardian has reported that the spot was likely well worth the money for the coverage it received, and while the BBC is certainly raising the bar on the digital future, I can’t wait to see what the ABC delivers.

– Thanks to Craig for the video.

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BBC Three Videos: Idents

BBC Three says buh-bye to the blobs.

Download the whole H264 bunch in one swoop here (50.2mb *.zip).

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BBC Three relaunched its whole brand last month, and these are a selection of the old-look idents, including the first video above, which is the “blobs” final adieu just before the new look arrived.

These Aardman inspired spots have been on-air since the networks launch in 2003, and while I’m not often a fan of purely CGI idents, as they often create stale nothingness, these are quite an exceptional concept, often funny and beautifully executed.

BBC Three is the network responsible for bringing Little Britain to television, along with the short lived but awesome architecture series Dreamspaces.

– Cheers to Andy for supplying the videos.