So long and thanks for all the fish…

An extract from an article in Broadcast today. {courtesy of Broadcast}

 

 

Senior digital commissioners depart in C4 shake-up

24 May, 2016 | By Alex Farber

 

Channel 4 commissioners Adam Gee and Jody Smith are to leave the broadcaster after more than a decade as part of a restructure at digital video service All 4.

The broadcaster is shaking up All 4’s editorial team, scrapping genre commissioning in favour of recruiting an overarching executive who will be responsible for curating, acquiring and commissioning programming.

As a result, Gee and Smith’s respective factual and entertainment multiplatform commissioning roles will close. It also follows the departure of shorts commissioner Isaac Densu, who left to join youth music brand SBTV in February after a year.

Around half of All 4’s 15-strong editorial team of online producers are also understood to be at risk of redundancy as a result of the changes.

C4 offered a clue to its plans in late April when it advertised for a Collections commissioning editor to help with the “transformation” of All 4.

…

Digital departures

Gee and Smith, who are expected to leave over the summer, have worked at C4 for 13 and 10 years respectively.

Factual multiplatform commissioner Gee was responsible for Embarrassing Bodies’ multiplatform output, Hugh’s Fish Fight and music amnesty campaign Don’t Stop The Music. He has collected an array of Bafta, RTS, Broadcast Digital and Emmy Awards.

He has commissioned over 25 short-form series since All 4 was established including My Pop Up Restaurant and Naked and Invisible, which has notched up over 6m YouTube views. He has also overseen digital shorts including Tattoo Twists, which led to E4 format Tattoo Fixers, and Drones In Forbidden Zones, the inspiration for C4’s Hidden Britain By Drone.

“I have loved every minute at Channel 4 and couldn’t respect its values more,” said Gee. “It has been a pleasure and a privilege to help establish Channel 4 as the world leader in TV-centred multiplatform; to set up and run the innovative and impactful IdeasFactory creative talent scheme when I first arrived; and most recently to get the channel’s short-form originals offer up and running with a distinctly C4 voice.”

…

 

Davidson-Houston thanked the pair for their “huge contributions to Channel 4’s reputation for innovation” in a note to staff. “They have boldly gone where no one has gone before,” he added.

The broadcaster will be looking to build on strong foundations. After launching All 4 around 12 months ago, digital revenues have rocketed to £82m, up 30% from 2014’s figure of £63m.

Frida Smith

There seems to be a connection

Patti Smith by Robert Mapplethorpe

Frida Kahlo meets Patti Smith

Patti meets Frida (Wave)

Frida as Odalisque

S.O.S.

A while back, on my sabbatical from Channel 4, I did a phone interview with Hettie Jones in New York, wife of LeRoi Jones aka Amiri Baraka, and friend of Allen Ginsberg (both sons of Newark). Baraka passed away a few months later. He played a key role in one of my favourite films, Bulworth. This poem of his I read this week in connection with a documentary I’m working on really resonated…

S.O.S.

 

Calling all black people

Calling all black people, man woman child
Wherever you are, calling you, urgent, come in
Black People, come in, wherever you are, urgent, calling you, calling all black people
calling all black people, come in, black people, come on in. 

Amiri Baraka

 

“Poems are bullshit unless they are teeth”

Black is a country

(1962 Amiri Baraka)

The Black Lesbian Handbook nominated

The Black Lesbian Handbook was nominated today for the new Best Non-Scripted Online Short category in the Broadcast Digital Awards. It is up against David Attenborough, BBC3 and Vice. Winner announced at the end of June. It is the only All 4 original show nominated. A good one to go out on regarding me, Channel 4 and awards.

I got a particular kick when the series was nominated at the Banff Rocky Awards recently (Digital Unscripted Series category). The shortlist read:

• Cosmos
• I Was There: Boston Marathon Bombings
• Secrets of the Vikings
• The Black Lesbian Handbook

I believe they call that bathos.

bathos

ˈbeɪθɒs

noun

1. (especially in a literary work) an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous.