A new program by Channel 4 is their ‘Homemade’ section of T4, their teenage viewing weekend slot. Homemade is a show, which just like Current TV, allows its audience to generate content. This show, presented by Dave Berry, allows you to upload short thirty second to four minute clips, which if deemed worthy by online voting, will then be shown on the Sunday morning show. Clips which are uploaded are first moderated before being placed online for voting. The online audience is then given a scale of 1-10 to vote on each video, 1 being rubbish and 10 being simply good as they put it, with a title above the small windows media player screen; ‘Homemade: Television made by you’. It includes such inserts as the ‘Lip Sync Chart’. ‘Homemade talent’, ‘Too much time on your hands’, ‘The Homemade Channel’ and ‘The Very Public Diary of….’. As ever terms and conditions apply and files must be in Windows Media Video (.wmv) format, more likely to keep everything simple and uniform and to allow for all files to be played on the online setting.
The website itself is simple, easy to follow and the guidelines are few. You can be 16 and upwards to submit, all you need is a camera, an idea which fits one of the aforementioned slots and a way of converting and uploading your file. Even on a broadband connection though it takes a while for each new clip to load and the viewing screen is quit small.
The overall idea though is simple and literally allows for any crap to be uploaded and voted for, and as most youngsters will have little video production experience, this is what most of it seems to be. A good idea, coupled by simple camera position and little if any editing is more likely to be a winning combination and in that light it somewhat reminds one of those old video clip shows such as ‘You’ve been framed’and ‘The Planets Funniest Animals’. The difference of course being that the audience through voting gets to choose which clips make it to the television show (and ultimately as they have been chose by a wider audience probably have more credit for appearing on the show then a clip chosen by a few researchers). This thus not only gives the author an ownership to the program but also part of the audience has responsibility and so have ownership for the show.
This level of interaction is interesting and relatively new on British soil and comes in advance of any kind of
UK version of Current TV. I intend to become part of the user generating audience by producing a response to Chalkhill Lives, however my production values will be much higher.
