UTTERMEDIA

This Friday I’ll be circling the city to Elstree TV & Film Studios, in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The George Lucas Stage specifically, the current home of Channel 4 Sleepaway Camp horror reality, Big Brother.

In its eleventh and final season, the usual dregs, bums and fuck-ups of society desperately grasp at dreams of tail-coat fame and public airtime acceptance. But with a recent Channel 4 shake-up, Endemol’s bloated monster is set to retire and retreat on the 24th of August this year.

Having paid extremely close attention to the first couple of seasons, fairly close attention to the middle-run and barely holding on to a footloose flirtation with the last few, it has been interesting to see how the format has (or hasn’t) changed with rising and falling viewing figures - often reflecting public interest in other more engaging media issues.

Season 11’s producers seem to have, ironically, got that format just right. Non-linear editing, candid soundtracking and generally a more comic and modern feel to the show; we’re suddenly no longer sat in front of rotational CCTV footage but enjoying a pleasing montage of arguments, cruel mockery, fairground games and bad cooking.

Some might say that if Channel 4 took this stylistic approach earlier, then maybe it wouldn’t have been axed. I might say anything running for 11 seasons is way beyond it’s BBE date, no matter how great it is.

Whilst I feel it is definitely time for Big Brother to move over and make space for the next decades mini-phenomenal media spectacle, it will leave a gap and a legacy behind it, whether you liked it or not. And for that reason, as a now occasional viewer and partial fan/partial cynic, I’ll be damn glad to have been a small part of the final season. I’ll be the dude with the inappropriate banner, ogling at camera equipment, spying behind-the-scenes and taunting the paparazzi.

An honourable mention and a big thank you to Nansi Nansi at http://nansinansi.com, London based Graphic Designer for Print and New Media.

A brief update after a very fun and sporadic night at Big Brother Live. An all-round interesting experience, not what I was expecting, nothing like Conan O’Brien. The crowd were a really varied bunch, some people were obviously die-hard fans and others were just there for the chance of the experience. The compere, Matthew, was pretty awesome and did a great job in keeping everyone awake. A few geeky observations:

• What you would see live on Channel 4 on a Friday night is about 10% of what actually happens over the evening. The night is manic, energetic and runs very smoothly. A real party/club feel to it with all the lights and music.
• Elstree Studios is pretty grubby in comparison to Shepperton, Pinewood or Teddington. A lot of out-buildings and smaller studios are in disrepair.
• The Big Brother house itself is an amalgamation of chipboard, MDF and cable-ties. No where near as sleek as it looks on TV. But still pretty grand looking with all of the demonic circus decorations.
• The plot is very small, as is the stage and the staircase etc. It looked like a scaled down model. Wide-lenses and long-shots help to dispel this over TV.
• The show is filmed 15 minutes in advance - quite a long delay for a live programme.
• In person, Davina McCall seems a lot smaller and more confident than she appears on TV. She can handle a crowd really well, she should do stand-up. No, seriously.
• Nothing is rehearsed, it all comes straight off auto-cue. Most people don’t know their lines until the last minute.
• The entire live show is shot with only 4 cameras, two of which are fixed, one a steady-cam and the fourth a crane.
• The security is both really strict and really poor. Everyone is full-body searched and watched over all night by various personnel. But the infrastructure and fences etc are quite shoddy.
• Some people take Big Brother really seriously. One couple had travelled from India to be in the live audience!
• The press, like any good set of pap’s, are in and out quicker than you can say “red top”.
• That bloke from Pineapple Dance Studios… the girls were foaming at the mouth for him. I swear the floor wasn’t wet when we arrived…

Panoramic photo from iPhone, crudely stitched together in Photoshop.