Friday 27 June 2008

Anja Haman interview about GB Women trip to USA


The other day I heard that GB Women, had beaten Canada women while in a recent tour of North America. I had to find out more.

The original idea was to record a phone call with Anja Haman (GB Women player and coach) and video me on the phone, then edit it down to a sensible size and include it in the next show.

As it turned out, we chatted for a bit too long and syncing it with the video would have been impossible. Plus the sound quality was very average.

However the content is interesting, you can listen to the interview on mp3.

You can find out more about Anja and the other GB women at www.gbwomensultimate.com. Check out those lovely photos.

Sunday 22 June 2008

Steve on the Couch

Just for all the kids out there who may have watched Episode #5 and thought, those guys are absolutely smashed and are filming themselves rambling on about Ultimate, please drink responsibly.

We're not saying that alcohol is cool and that drinking lots of it prior to doing anything is a great idea. It just happens to be that it works rather well prior to filming a internet TV show or even filming the same episode of an internet TV show for the 3rd or 4th time.


Really though this show was such a pain in the butt, yet at the same time a complete party to make. I would have loved it if Take 1 had worked. As it was, the night pressed on and what is normally around 2 beers/glass of wine for a show became 4...then 6 and now as a result I get to see how silly I look/act when I'm drunk watching this episode completely sober. I'm my drunk self's sober friend, slightly embarrassed yet thoroughly entertained.

All that said the entire blockstack experience so far has been a riot! Paga was insane, Copenhagen was awesome and the regular couch shows are more fun that we had imagined it would be. Also much much more work. Thanks for watching and expect some pretty outrageous stuff in the future.

-Steve

Thursday 5 June 2008

Adventures in Podcasting

Occasionally the rollercoaster ride that is Blockstack TV, takes a dip. The dip was the realisation that we had made another dud. The first recording of Episode 5 was so bad that even with 10 minutes chopped off the end it was still unwatchable. YAWN.

Problems included:
  • Too much self indulgent banality
  • Me and Steve fighting to have the last word (Steve usually winning)
  • No energy
  • We look bored
  • Even Clary wasn't very funny
Sometimes it may not seem like it but we do want to be professional in some ways, so we made the tough and time consuming decision to film it again.

That was last night at my house . Here's how it went.

  • Tom goes to post office to fetch new adapters to simplify mic cabling
  • Steve arrives with the rest of the crew
  • Test new mic adapters - thumbs up
  • Put camera on charge
  • Talk about loads of stuff, none of it related to show (iMac, growing tomatoes, blah blah blah)
  • Drink
  • New member of crew arrives
  • Have nice meal, more drink
  • Call Clary
  • Mic up and plan show (Do you think we should have done this earlier???)
  • 10.45pm start recording show
  • 11.20pm Battery goes flat
  • Check video to see where it got too, realise there was no sound all night!
  • Decide that we are going to do this thing if it kills us, more drink
  • Some crew goes home, rest of crew concede that staying over is unavoidable and get stuck into more drink
  • 12.15am Start recording show take 3
  • Nail it
  • 1.30am Play Star Wars Lego on XBOX 360
  • 2.00am Go to bed
Of course for every dip in the rollercoaster there is a high point too. The episode is good, Clary is brilliant, we had great fun making it.

I'm editing this one so look out for it coming up very soon.

Also you can now subscribe to the show through iTunes.