If I can dream of a real-time worldwide and interactive audience…then I am Simon Fuller. Fuller’s new reality show “If I can dream” circumvents regular TV stations and gets a straight Hulu/MySpace release (worldwide). Which – given the heavyweights behind the project and the sponsoring brands Pepsi and Ford – does raise some eyebrows in the TV and marketing world. Apparently it will mark the beginning of Disney’s Hulu being available beyond the US market.

If I can dream Trailer

Its concept fuses shows like MTV’s “Real World” (currently in its 22nd iteration) together with a global real-time, interactive audience. Reminiscent of  Sprite-supported “Green-Eyed World” that cleverly integrated, emulated and (to a certain extent) faked real-time interaction with its viewers. Not being 100%  live naturally has advantages for footage, editing and story lining quality. Especially when you are so much on the road as Katie Vogel and the production team were in their show.

Green Eyed World with Katie Vogel

But participating as a real-time-interactive audience will have a strong appeal. Additionally, the attractiveness of “If I can dream” contestants, narrative and set will easily outshine the average hapless Big Brother cast and their demeaning challenges in their drab cage container.

Big Brother shenanigans

I happen to have worked on the first “The Real World” in Germany, so I have a soft spot for any kind of “let’s stick some talented and aspirational kids under one roof and see what happens”. Our production under the title of “Das wahre Leben” (background in German) ran in 1994 and pretty much set the scene for Big Brother and the like. It employed one of the first large scale digital post productions with all Avid systems available in Germany at the time crammed into our editing rooms. Post Production on the 12 episodes happened on 4-5 episodes in parallel, and under the same roof as the set. We were only a couple of weeks behind the “reality” happening in the fancy loft next door in Berlin Mitte (Linienstrasse).

"Das wahre Leben" German TV series 1994

"Das wahre Leben" German TV series 1994

This episode shows (in German) the extraordinary circumstances and the frantic pace with which we produced the show at the time. Excuse the heavy compression, I did it at the time so my movies would all fit onto one CD-ROM.

It was extraordinary because hardly anyone knew exactly how to produce such a show. It was a process of rapid-prototyping with constant refinement loops over the course of the episodes. It was also extraordinary because in our 12 hour / 7 days a week style of production, we were rapidly feeling like we were living the lives of the cast, only with a delay of a week or so. Unbeknown to the cast, we were working next door in former rooms of the Nationale Volksarmee (the East German ‘National People’s Army’). Quite a clash of (at the time) cutting edge technology with socialist-style interior. Btw, I am the guy rocking it at the Apple Performa computer in the second shot.

Post production on "Das wahre Leben"

Post production at "Das wahre Leben"

I am sure that even though in the last 15 years the world has become very used to docu-soaps and real-time interactions with a cast through the web, it must still be a surreal experience for the production team on “If I can dream”. The result soon to be found here:

Hulu website

Holler has received the good news that 2 1 finalist at the Caples Awards in New York went to us and BMF. The project “6 Beers of Separation” was entered by BMF in several categories and among others received accolades in Interactive. I strongly recommend coming to an agreement between digital specialists and (for lack of a better term) ATL agencies. After some intense and ultimately rewarding campaigns with BMF we now came to an agreement which will take some of the stress out of crediting who for what at award time. And nobody needs more cat fights at Cannes.

Michael Lebowitz vs David Lubars

All entries on tightly integrated campaigns will be entered jointly and effort, credits and fees shared. Interactive/Online-focussed categories receive a Holler/BMF entry, categories that look at the integration/360-aspect of the campaign feature a BMF/Holler crediting. Campaigns such as “6 Beers” (Tooheys Extra Dry) and “Birds vs Humans (Tooheys Extra Dry 5 Seeds) rely so much on the interactive work and at the same time stem from unique narrative, style and ideas that it doesn’t make much sense to separate the agencies behind it.

Update: It was my error to assume that the Online category would be about our part of the campaign. It wasn’t and therefore the 1 Caples is the only finalist where Holler shares a mention with BMF. Hope this makes everything clear and takes any non-existing controversy out of the game.

Up The Trees - Interactive Adventure

I have been living without any of the major commercial channels for more than 3 months. The aerial signal quality had deteriorated over several weeks until all I could see was ABC and some SBS (on good days). I was actually too lazy to find out whether it was my Digital Video Recorder (DVR) acting up or the actual antenna or the slightly damaged coaxial cable (as it turned out, it was the antenna).

Now during my forced abstinence from commercial TV I developed a habit of tuning into the fantastic ABC iView service quite a lot. And watched lots of YouTube on the iTouch. Which in turn ate up my download cap (cannot wait for the day when a real flatrate gets finally offered here in AU).
All in all still a very good experience and as iView is getting better all the time, I can only recommend tuning in. Channel 9 and 7 will be following suit and other DVR options are coming into existence. You don’t necessarily have to bend your antenna the wrong way to start watching what you want, when you want it.

Additional info: A study mentioned on Media Guardian claims Video-On-Demand will hardly affect linear TV advertising revenue. I cannot judge the validity of the study, though do see the point that time-shifted viewing (through DVRs such as iQ) slows the growth rate of VOD. As an early adopter I might sometimes overestimate how much the mainstream changes their ways of watching good old TV. It still has a lot to do with how hard ware is set up and used in people’s home.

Now is the time to mention a few incredibly dedicated people who poured their heart and soul into our WWF Earth Hour iPhone application: Mic, Knotty, Alex, Tony, Lukasz and Chris worked long hours to produce an app that is beautifully simple. It carries Apple’s seal of approval by having been a featured app in the iTunes store. And hopefully it does its little part in making political leaders in Copenhagen get serious about global warming.
I can safely say that my part in this project was miniscule. But I did push for making a case study video out of the process and final application. I hope you enjoy this workshoppy kind of look into Holler.
More info at earthhour.org/Tools/Tools.aspx

Thanks to Raz and Carl who worked with Simon Dikkenberg on creating this video.
Voting for Earth is something to be proud of. Show how you choose Earth over Global Warming and tell the political leaders at the UN conference on climate change. You might even inspire others to do the same.

It’s been a while but I am still amused and inspired by my meeting with Casey Spooner at Melbourne Festival. During a hectic but very enjoyable “brand immersion day” with Beck’s I was able to meet Casey back stage. The camera work is a bit wobbly and Casey had a funny way of rambling and theorizing. Still, I was lucky to get a lot of shots during their performance without getting pulled by the bouncers. Practically half the audience was recording with mobile phones and cameras at any given point (makes clapping your hands after a song difficult).

This interview was the first for Beck’s Uberselektor with Alex Barck from my (student day) heroes Jazzanova. Alex and his crew have sonified many of my Thursday nights at the WMF in Berlin. It was clerarly a rubbish idea to only bring the camera and no separate microphone (I think we didn’t even have one at the time).

Roland Appel is from equally good pedigree in terms of electronic music, creating some memorable tracks under the names of Truby Trio and Fauna Flash. He is easily as friendly, approachable and professional as Alexander and a pleasure to interview. Both interviews were done at Future Classic’s studio/office space in Redfern.

Top things I learnt doing these interviews:

People like to ramble.
The more to the point your question, the better they get in coming to the point. Although, Germans love to over-explain and analyse. The more energy you put into your questions and into the exchange, the more energy you will get out of your interviewees. Use open questions like “Take me through this experience”. Don’t hesitate to redo a question if the people lost their train of thought – the second time they will feel more comfortable with the topic and have a more polished version.

You cannot ignore bad sound
Unless you go beserk with the camera people will tolerate a bad zoom or pan in an online video. Bad sound cannot be ignored, especially on the computer where the output device is weak in the first place and mostly played in a noisy environment. Headphones and earplugs might help but you cannot bank on people having them ready or care enough to plug them in. Watch out for background sounds that interfere with the voices.

Edit your own shit
Unless you start editing you never fully understand what you have missed filming and what you can do better next time. Shoot the extra scene of your interviewee getting ready, heading out or something else that can serve as a “cut away” scene. Nobody enjoys a talking head for more than 20 seconds online. Underscore visually what the people are talking about.

Posters in situ at Vinyard

Beck’s wanted to celebrate 20 years of Inspiration since the Fall of the Berlin Wall and put Holler in charge of creating a campaign for it. In addition to the photo exhibition in 4 venues across Australia (see animation in my first post) we juxtaposed images of the past (border guards and Berliners watching the wall being erected) with the joyful, liberal and expressive Berlin of today.

Oppression to Expression

The three headlines show three transitions: “Oppression to Expression”, “Dominated to Liberated” and “Grief to Relief”.

Dominated to Liberated

Grief to Relief

Forgotten Songs

Don’t quite know why we went overboard like this, maybe a desire to catch up with what other cities have done already (did I hear anyone say Melbourne?). Anyway, maybe there are some nuggets of inspiration in it for you – if you can decipher the tiny type.

Seven Metre Bar

I Dwell in the City and the City Dwells in Me

Bridge Lane painted signs

These photos form an exhibition I curated/commissioned for Beck’s. It opens on Nov 1, 2009 in four venues across Australia. Check the Beck’s site for details.For me it is bit of a journey into my own past as well as showing the contemporary Berlin. Most of these places of improvisation, experimentation and creative expression were very much part of my student and early professional years in the always-changing city, Berlin. And since I am German and vividly remember the wall coming down I am celebrating 20 years of reunification, of my people peacefully overcoming such a horrendous monument. Maybe something you start appreciating even more when you move far away.

Beck’s ÜBERSELEKTOR a.k.a. me in this case meets Casey Spooner (before his gig at the Melbourne Festival) and we talk about FS’s creative process, working in New York and who he rates in Australia’s music scene. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischerspooner)
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