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So let’s get this straight. If you want to legally see a film at any point within the first four months of its release, you have to leave your house, go to what is effectively a ‘movie warehouse’ and pay £10 to see the film at a set time, regardless of how inconvenient that is. You also have to sit with 200 strangers and if you want a snack or drink you have to pay a price that makes you cry. And you can’t pause the film if you need to use the loo. Or rewind it if you miss a crucial detail. And if you decide that you enjoyed the movie and want to see it again you have to leave your house, pay more money and do it all again.

Man, that is dumb.

But wait, it gets dumber.

The movie itself is a digital product. It’s infinitely copyable and is already being distributed in uncontrollable numbers online, globally, for free. You can see the movie at whatever time you like, sat on the couch with your family in the comfort of your own home, eating the snacks you’ve already bought and can pause, rewind and replay it at any time. But there’s a catch – if you do that you’re a criminal.

Movie studios want to actively pursue you and have you fined, or take your internet away, if you attempt to watch the film in the comfort of your own home at any point within the first four months.

That’s fine I suppose, the movie studios are the originators of the content, so they have the power over how and when they sell their product. That’s how it works with all products, from a toy to a pie to a garden shed – the seller sets the price and the terms.

Oh wait, it’s NOTHING like a toy or a pie or a garden shed, because those are physical products. You can’t have them unless the seller agrees to give them to you. We’re talking about movies – digital products – that, like books and music, are infinitely copyable and can be distributed globally at the touch of a button without anyone’s permission.

So the goal posts have moved. When someone can get something for free, the seller can no longer dictate the terms. The power is in the hands of the consumer.

In this situation (the real world) the rights holder is left with one option – give people access to the content on as many platforms as possible and allow them to pay for it. Most people don’t want to be criminals. Most people recognise that it probably cost a bit of money to make a movie or a song or a book, and want to donate money to the creator, allowing them to make more of the movies or songs or books that they love.

But the movie industry chooses not to embrace this.

The movie industry puts its fingers in its ears and says ‘La-la-laaaa!’ when you try and GIVE IT MONEY so that you can watch the film at home with your family. It allows you no legal option of watching the film other than to sit in a place you may not want to be, at a time you may not like, with strangers you may not want to be with. So instead of generating revenue from what is possibly the largest untapped market in any industry in the world, it turns all other viewing options into a criminal act. That doesn’t stop it happening, it just stops the industry making any money from it.

And that’s why movies have the world’s dumbest business model.

I’ve teamed up with some very talented people to start a new company called Telegraph Hill.

We’re working on Hollyoaks, The Fades and The London Pleasure Gardens. KAPOW! Not a bad start, huh?

Much more to come, will update again soon…

This week I began producing a new online campaign forAlison Jackson, the artist who first became famous in 1999 for creating voyeuristic photos using celebrity lookalikes. She went on to win a BAFTA for her mock-documentary show Doubletake in 2002 and is now promoting a new book and website around William and Kate’s marriage. Alison’s brilliant new work uses her trademark style of stealthily-shot paparazzi photos combined with her unique and shocking sense of humour to give the public an insight into the private side of the royal wedding.

Using Twitter we’re going to amplify this work with a new campaign, bringing the personalities of the celebs to life and allowing a global audience to interact with Wills, Kate, Harry, The Queen, Charles & Camilla, Carole Middleton, Posh & Becks, and The Archbishop of Canterbury. It’s a crucial time for the royals and their friends, and bringing eight characters to life allows users to follow a whole family who had, until now, been untouchable.

Throughout the coming weeks our royal wedding party will react to scandalous celeb stories released on Alison’s Daily Mail-inspired website, including the Queen at the bookies, Simon Cowell getting an ‘intimate’ wax and Charlie Sheen’s viagra-assisted night of passion. As they do so our royals will be cracking jokes, bickering, LOLing and a whole host of other shockingly common behaviour.

It’s modern, it’s interactive and its going to be a lot of fun so make sure you follow the key players…

PRINCE WILLIAM
@Wills_Uncut

KATE MIDDLETON
@Kate_Uncut

THE QUEEN
@Queenie_Uncut

PRINCE HARRY
@Harry Uncut

CHARLES & CAMILLA
@Charmilla_Uncut

CAROLE MIDDLETON
@KatesMum_Uncut

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
@Bishop_Uncut

DAVID & VICTORIA BECKHAM
@PoshBecks_Uncut

This project is being run through the new company I’m co-creating (more on that in due course) and the tweets are written by myself and the very funny David Levin.

*taps glass with spoon*

Hi peeps, I have a little announcement to make… I’m leaving Being Human.



After three series and over 275 blog posts it’s time for me to step down as the Producer of Being Human online and let someone else take over running this fantastic community. I like to think we’ve always shown the fans the utmost respect and so I wanted to do a proper blog about it here before any changes happen to the Being Human site. Not that there will be any. Well, the quality might improve, posts might go out on time and there might not be as many errors in tweets but apart from THAT there won’t be many changes at all. 

I’ve been Producing the online content and managing the Being Human community since day one and it’s been such a fantastic job.  As many people have pointed out, it’s been a dream job and I’ve been very, very lucky to do it.  In that time we’ve won awards, become the most popular blog across the whole of BBC Vision (i.e. the telly bits of the BBC), we’ve become BBC Three’s most popular website ever, we’ve amassed over 380,000 Facebook fans, 17,000 Twitter followers, we’ve been trending week after week on Twitter, we’ve produced three DVDs and we’ve also launched the brand new spin-off show Becoming Human which has been seen millions of times and is now on its way to BBC Three.
 
*takes a breath*
 
After all that it’s hard to see what other challenges I could face in the Being Human world without corking it through utter exhaustion, so it’s time to pack my handkerchief on a stick and look for new adventures. 
 

I will always be a massive fan of Being Human and I can’t stress enough that these have been the best two-and-a-bit years of my life.  Being Human has been a constantly evolving project and there’s always been something new to make and broadcast, and once it’s out there a flood of hundreds and often thousands of responses come back our way.  It’s a complete buzz and as I’ve said many times before, the fan community is intelligent, funny and incredibly kind to us as the production team and to each other.  I do hope some of them will follow me in these post-Being Human days and stick with me as I make more films on YouTube and blog and tweet about the exciting new things I’m going to be doing next as I start freelancing and perhaps even setting up my own company. But more on that in due course.

My last day will be covering Becoming Human on BBC Three this Sunday and from then on I’ll be a regular fan, blogging and tweeting away like a good un.
 
I have many people to thank now I’ve come to the end of this brilliant chapter of my career.  Firstly Garret Keogh has been a fantastic mentor, boss and friend and we’ve made quite the formidable team.  Tim Breadin has taught me about the nuts and bolts of business and how to turn an idea on paper into a fully-fledged commission.  Phil Marriott, Geoff Evans, Rich Lyman, Jamie Morton and Anthony Collyer have been the Being Human blog shooters and editors and they are all very talented and have kept me sane on many a shoot.  Loving your work, chaps. Our production managers Cat O’Gorman and before her Vicki Duffin have both been funny, supportive, and of course mind-bogglingly organised. I admire them both greatly for possessing skills I can only dream of.
 

Toby Whithouse, Phil Trethowan, Rob Pursey, Laura Cotton, Poppy Stammers and Helen Munnicchi (plus formerly Matt Bouch) are the brilliant Touchpaper team who make Being Human. Together with the terrific writing team they start with a blank whiteboard and lots of coffee and somehow turn it into award-winning storytelling. They’ve taught me so much about how to make great drama from start to finish and I’ve taken it all on board and stored it under the ‘learn from awesome people’ section of my brain. I love to write and I’m hoping one day to show them a drama of my own.


Marc Ramsay is our Being Human commissioner and his guidance and long-term vision for the project has always pushed me to be a better, more professional, producer. Sarah ‘gets things done’ Clay is our Becoming Human commissioner and she’s the kind of driven, intelligent and passionate person who smashes through red tape to make the BBC truly great and truly loved. Yram and Annabel have helped me immensely with getting all the updates online and keeping me sane every Friday. I don’t know what they’re payed but it’s not enough. Sally Morales is wonderfully bonkers and did a great job redesigning the site, as did Andy Ashburner and the two very talented Steves. I’m still not sure which one’s which but they definitely rock.

Colin Teague, Derek, Marcus, Mike, Lloyd, Ryan, Cheryl, Laura, Mark Fleischman, Tom the Runner, Russell, Sinead, Lenora, Aidan… the Being Human and Becoming Human cast and crew are too many in number to name here, but they are a legendary travelling family.  Their kindness is surpassed only by their incredible talent for telling great stories. They’ve been very generous in letting us film them at work and in doing so have given the fans a fascinating insight into their world.

I’d also like to say a big thank you to my lady Chellington for supporting me through late nights, disrupted Christmas breaks and many long and lonely trips to Bristol and Wales. I’m sorry for spending so much time blogging and tweeting but you know it’s made me very happy. Safe to say, if life was a tin of buttons you’d be the shiniest.


Finally, I owe the fans a massive debt of gratitude for coming to the show, sticking with it and creating genuine friendships that form the bedrock of the fan community.  I hope you have been entertained by everything that’s been made so far and stay with the programme as it continues to evolve and excel.  If you’ve ever followed the blog I hope you’ve laughed, cried and (most importantly of all) done a little ‘dun-dun-durrrrr’ in your head every time I’ve written about an upcoming cliffhanger.
 
Thanks to you all.  It’s been a blast. 

Now onwards… to the future!


Alan Klein is a very talented graphic designer. FACT.

Excitingly, he’s put together a pilot for an online magazine called Formatt Mag, all about the creative arts boom that’s happening online. He’s brought together a bunch of innovative people from across the web, and he very kindly asked me for an interview on animation. So i said yes. Top bloke that Alan Klein, top bloke.

Check out the interview here and make sure you check out Formatt Mag for other fascinating articles about graphics, animation, music videos, 3D design and more…

Also featured is a very talented (and, dammit, very handsome) friend of mine, Sam Shepherd, who recently shot a music video for a band called The Bang Bangs. Check out his awesomely named blog We Were Promised Robots here. Video coming soon.