Glazier Media Consulting

Entertainment Master Class 2012

JG — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:18:26 +0000

Are you looking to develop your network of industry contacts and to learn about TV from the people who actually set the agenda and shape the TV industry?

I am the creative director of the Entertainment Master Class the world leading academy for executive education in entertainment television, it is a not for profit organisation. I am also a board member, tutor and moderator and have been involved from the very start. The EMC was set up to provide training for the industry by the industry and we deliver on that promise. We have evolved form a format focused business to encompass all areas of the TV business, from games shows to situation comedy, from talent management to distribution deals.

Registration is now open for 2012, there are 4 modules, all listed below.

Cologne Campus: Sitcom and Comedy

13th – 19th June 2012 in Cologne, Germany
Programme Sitcom and Comedy Module / Archive EMC 2011

Tel Aviv Campus: Reality and Factual Entertainment

11th – 17th July 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel
Programme Reality and Factual Entertainment Module / Archive EMC 2011

Berlin Campus: Game Shows and Games

31st August – 6th September 2012 in Berlin, Germany
Programme Game Shows and Games Module / Archive EMC 2011

Cape Town Campus: Entertainment Management

30th November – 6th December 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa
Programme Entertainment Management Module / Archive EMC 2011

Given my credentials I am very likely to champion the course! So let me leave that to others!

“The ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS atmosphere and the preparation of the participants made it a delight to be part of. Knowledge flowed both ways. It is great to work with people who already know their way around TV so we can really share the insider knowledge with participants who know how to make use of it.”

David Lyle, National Geographic, USA
Advisory Board Member and Guest Speaker of the ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS.

“I believe that creative people need constant access to opportunities to gather new stimuli. In an industry as practically focussed as ours, where better to find this stimulus than from practitioners? The ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS is based on a sound principal: practical experience inspiring practical creativity.”

Gary Carter, President, Creative Networks, and CCO, FMX, FremantleMedia, UK
Advisory Board Member and Guest Speaker ENTERTAINMENT MASTER CLASS

So if you would like more information you can register your interest here.

If you would like to actually register then you can click here.

If you want to find out more about the EMC, start a dialogue or meet like moved people you can through all the normal social media, the EMC is on Facebook, Twitter and Linked in.

If you would like to be in the loop you can sign up for the newsletter which comes out every 2 months, and you will also be kept posted about all our activities as they happen. Just Sign up here

Do think about it, join us on facebook, you will meet with some very inspiring people!

Christmas Television 2012

JG — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:16:20 +0000

Perhaps it is just the good old days syndrome but I found little to amaze me on TV over Christmas. I must also say I watched the interview Parkinson did with Morecambe and Wise during the good old days, and found little to amuse me there either.
The highlight comedically for me this year was the moment in Ab-Fab when Lindsay Duncan walked into the wall coming down to the kitchen. (I am sure Lindsay isn’t that pleased she is billed as playing herself in the IMDb!!) That moment made me laugh out loud and I think is worthy of coming close the the bar flap moment of David Jason in “only fools and horses” – You may disagree. Always a problem and a pressure with such an anticipated programme, critically I note that many felt it fell short, but for me it was like an old friend and it was great to get re-acquainted.
I thought the rest of the schedule had really slim pickings unlike the fridge in our house, having just watched Ep 1 of biggest loser I am going for a 5k walk tomorrow! Drama had its moment and gave us the brilliant Sherlock, I loved Endeavour – bringing us the prequel to Morse in fine style, he was a tortured soul then, but it was a very watchable portrayal. Dr Who has lost it for me and I feel like a traitor for saying so. The utter fear of the earlier shows has been replaced by over complex narrative and ever more eccentric performances and portrayal of the doctor.
In the entertainment genre I think we were really out of gas, the big money gets spent on the run up to Christmas and we are left with “text santa for Christmas” on ITV, a brave attempt at something new but it didn’t hold the attention of our house. The specials were all re vamps of shows we’ve seen before.
I must give one shout out to the C4 Mashup, great idea invoking the ensemble piece with a family of presenters that we only really get on Comic Relief or This Morning. We were left again with a battle of the soaps none of which I can watch, the values are not for a house of young girls. I did enjoy “Downtown” I admit to never sitting through a whole episode before but I found it very engaging.
The economic value of the ratings at Christmas mean we are unlikely to get the massive investment in one offs or ideas, the likely hood of a Xfactor Christmas special is slim, although a really nice Christmas Special with the Stars of the Series and the Christmas Album seems like a good idea to me. I guess all the teams are a bit over the show after the long run of shows unto Christmas.
Still in the climate of this new era most of us were probably online on another device we got as a gift rather than glued to the TV. If the networks really do give up on the Christmas Schedule it may herald another loud bang of the nail being driven into the coffin of Broadcast TV!

Format Consulting

JG — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:29:11 +0000

I love the flag of South Korea, it’s different to almost all other flags of the world. Format consulting is so interesting, like a social experiment. You have a scientific control, in that you are dealing with a fixed point. That’s to say you have made the programme with your own cultural references, then if you are fortunate you take that show into other different cultures as the format consultant. With the set of fixed points you can then see how each culture deals with the issues the format creates. I am now an expert on how many of the wonderful and diverse cultures of this planet deal with , stress, confrontation, even joy success and failure. All the emotions of humanity measured against the fixed cultural reference of my own cultural background. The joy of this experiment is that we are all wonderfully different but the basic humanity of our emotion is the same. No matter how inscrutably eastern, stoically british, confidently american, or emotional and latin. We all care we all want to do our best and we all for the most part want to get better at what we do.
I have just spent a very interesting week in Seoul South Korea as format consultant on the Eyeworks show “the Chair”. Funny that they had all the problems we had at the BBC, from the difficulty with eye-lines to the problem with the special effects.
The issue of being the international format consultant is that you are viewed as the format police, the protector of the I.P. There are whispered comments in Korean after each take – “what does he (me) think?” “What has he said?” “Is he Happy?” I spend most of my time persuading people I am there to help – not hinder, to share – not to teach, and to offer the experience of a person who has trodden exactly the same path before. It took me until my last afternoon the gain their trust on Korea, the language problems are more pronounced (I am proud of the construction of that sentence!) I was helping them through the issues of the first days recording and eventually the penny dropped, although my flag is very different, I am the same and it television term I speak the same language. It was a good after noon for the humanity of 5 people sat in conference room B of Cinetel Korea. If that’s what it feels like to negotiate an international entente cordial in such a small way, I can only imagine and envy those who play the same situation on a much larger stage.

So You Want to Work in TV

JG — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:01:19 +0000

So you want to work in TV? Well you could do worse than take a trip to a great web site run by a brilliant producer and great professional friend Shu Richmond, follow the link here.

You will find lots of advice from people who actually do work in the industry. I got an in to the industry because my History teacher’s son worked at ATV as a sound person. He gave me the name of Des Gray the head of Sound and Cameras, and I got my first interview. Des is a lovely man, full of integrity and was a great boss, eventually! He wouldn’t give me a job because he didn’t want to seduce me away from University. I got the job in the end, and that was my start in the business. Ever since then people have taken me under their wing as mentors. And I didn’t have to have any sort of inappropriate relationship with any of them!! In general people who are established want to help people new to any industry. Most humans are very nurturing like that and those that are not, well it’s also a matter of choice. Personally I prefer those who nurture!

The advice on Shu’s site is not only for those of you that want to be on the technical side of the industry. There is advice for presenters and ideas people, producers and organisers. And you may always drop me an email and I will do my best to help you with an answer, or at least point you in the right direction. I do try very hard in this respect but I don’t have the time to offer full time careers advice. So do be patient with me.

EMC – Andermatt

JG — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:18:01 +0000

From December 2nd to the 9th I am moderating the Entertainment Master Class “Managing Entertainment” module in Andermatt Switzerland. Its the last of this years 4 modules. The entertainment master class is the premier executive training programme in the world today. We have participants from just about every continent and some great speakers. The lectures are divided up into “tool kit” and “Big Picture” segments and it is a great networking opportunity. We’ll soon be broadening the scope of the operations and have some great announcements coming up soon. If you live in the UK or fancy spending a week here and you are interested in a career in TV or enhancing your career in TV do keep an eye on our announcements. You can follow the EMC on twitter, facebook and linkedin.

Blockbusters Returns

JG — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:01:03 +0000

Challenge TV are to bring back blockbusters. I loved working on this show, I actually did the sound mix on the pilot. We used to record 10 of these a day, that was real productivity and it pre dated all the cost cutting of today. The poor pensioners in the audience were all locked into the studio! They weren’t of course but it must have been a marathon! The score board was the size of a double decker bus and about 8 feet thick, made up of hexagonal tubes each containing a slide projector. The slides contained the pictures of the letters and had to be carefully loaded in to carousels. these were then synchronised by a huge machine that from memory involved a bicycle chain! I did direct many shows as part of my director training and during the edit we’d usually just sit and watch the shows because they were recorded as live. We’d cheer when there was some problem that needed fixing because it broke up the day!
The best part was one day some of the crew said to the director, “wouldn’t it be a great idea to follow some of the winners using their prizes!”, usually quite big holidays. The champions had often been on the show for a few episodes and had become well known often because they were great characters. It was amazing that the producers agreed and “Blockbusters Abroad” was created. And I got to go to Australia for the first time! It was jolly hard work but great fun, and I stayed on for a proper holiday afterwards and spent Christmas there with m best friend from school.
Very happy days working on this show, delighted it’s coming back despite all the challenges of being a young person today this show does at least reward great young people who like to have fun and are good at general knowledge. Shame there just aren’t enough jobs around to really reward them for being good academically.

6 Jan 2012 – just a short tribute to Bob Holness who it was reviled died today. He was always a gentleman to work with and an icon of his time.

The Chair – Glazier Consults on Format

JG — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:19:39 +0000

Who remembers “The Chair?” to jog your memory here is the description from the Eyeworks catalogue

When contenders take on this big event game show, there’s no covering up their nerves and hiding what’s really going on inside. The human heart doesn’t lie when you’re in The Chair. Each contender is fitted with a heart rate monitor and given a ‘redline rate’ that is 70% above their heart rate at rest. Throughout the game, they must keep their heart under the redline, or face losing the money they have won.

I actually bought this show to the UK. First of all I had to fly out to NATPE in Las Vegas and buy the format for the BBC. That was stage one secure, then it was back to London happy that we had got the show. The controller of BBC 1 then decided she would only green light the show if I could get John McEnroe to host, he had been doing the show in the USA on the ABC. The problem was I knew we’d only be paying him a tenth of what he was getting in the USA. Not only that this was John McEnroe, you cannot be serious! I flew to LA to meet with him, my friend Julie Christie had created the show and was producing it in the US. I had 24 hours in the country before I flew home. I met John, he was hugely impressed that I was on a flying trip, we got on and thanks to wimbledon, the draw of the BBC and some nifty scheduling he said yes.

And now I am off consulting on the format again, this time without John! It is great fun to produce, I actually directed the UK series and Suzy Lamb produced it brilliantly. I was the Exec producer.

The End of TV – A Talk

JG — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:33:29 +0000

Tomorrow (7:30pm 28/9/11) night I shall be at Cambridge’s B bar, giving a short talk entitled “Video – Old Format New Tricks” and also talking about The End of TV! Do come along if you are interested.

More at Meetup

Read the statistics and video is the king of all social media. Sharing, it’s the growth sector. It will even save your company from going bust.

But is it true, can simply adding a moving picture to your online activity save you and your company? If you don’t need saving, can video turn you into a net millionaire?

Just what is so magic about video, and how does it work? Who are the magicians? Should I Flip, YouTube or simply get back to reality?

An open debate prompted by the views of Jonathan Glazier, director of such classics as Krypton Factor and Gladiators, Producer of Don’t Try This at Home, Friend of Richard and Judy, Head of BBC Light Entertainment. Now running Web Video Production Company Pepper Rafferty and Creative Director of the world renown Entertainment Master Class.

Bring tomatoes, he even worked for News Corp!

The End of TV

JG — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:34:56 +0000

The very first Entertainment Master Class – Summer School has just come to an end. It was a great success, predictions included the idea we are going to see the “End of TV” c/o Doug Scott from Ogilvy Entertainment. The move to soft factual formats and are they saleable? c/o Keri Lewis Brown at K7media. My own contribution was “Format development Art or Science?” We decided that craft was a great word and that lables were and are creative poison! Patty Geneste of Absolutely gave us a great insight to the format business and Julian Newby of Boutique Editions gave us a thought provoking lecture on using the press to our best advantage.

These were some of Doug’s other headlines.

“Network TV will be dead in 5 years”

“Websites will cease to exist in 5 years”

“There will be a rise in micro content”

“Brands will be pushing content direct to willing consumers”, Doug Scott Ogilvy Entertainment.

Doug is a leader in the delopment of the way in which entertianment is delivered. It’s leaders like him that are shaping the industry and the future of the industry. Content creators should welcome and embrace the developments. It is a chance to challenge the gate keepers of our customers, in my view this is a welcome delvelopment. I would like to see the creation of a true free market for entertainment content, rather than the current curation model. Not only that, if we do create the new model with care, the rights to a creators IP will stay with the creators and not the publishers.

All in all a valuable experience for the particpants and the oppotunity to network and renew friendships out of the cut and thrust of the tv markets.

The hotel in Mallorca, Punta Negra, was the birthplace of the Entertainment Master Class and it is right that it was the place to meet and discuss some very exciting possibilities. There will be several announcements over the next few weeks, one I can already report is that I am to be the Creative Director and will help the EMC offer some new and exciting services to the industry.

I am deighted that my talk at the summer school has provoked enough interest for me to be asked to deliver it to some companies direct. This is something I am very happy to do under the EMC umbrela, and something we are going to develop over the coming year. The EMC exist to provide Executive Eduction to the Entertianment Industry, it is a real insight into the business, and is delivered by people who work in the industry. It’s credability is without question and if you would like to talk to me about the services we can offer I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Fremantle Indonesia

JG — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:06:32 +0000

I have just returned from a stint consulting for Fremantle in Indonesia, based in Jakarta. I do love Asia and it was good to be back in this land that really does attack the senses. Obviously being away from my family for any period of time is hard. Having spent so much of my life concentrating on my career, to now have a family I can focus on I want to do just that. That said it is always a privilege to be in another culture but having the commonality of television. I think it is a great way to quickly understand a place, to have all the common queue points I know so well being executed to the characteristics of a completely different set of values and ideas.
I will post more about the specifics of my experiences over the next few days. For now I just wanted to note that overall my opinion about content is stronger than ever. I recently had a meeting in Cambridge with Paul Smith of CamCreative, we talked about setting up a new video group in the City. I am passionate that any “video” group has to be about creativity. My experience of video groups is they focus on equipment serial numbers, camera reviews and now – codecs! In Indonesia the control rooms are literally lashed together, the equipment is basic, yet the ability to create stories, jeopardy and great entertainment is just as powerful as anywhere in the world. The point is as ever good content and the ability to tell a story is the very heart of this business. Sure the tools are important but they should only drive the process. And it is a very big lesson that rubber plants, interior design, catering and leather chairs add nothing other than inflating the egos of those who feel their own importance is enhanced buy them.