At Bomb Productions I was the Entertainment Producer working on television pilots and interactive entertainment properties for Channel 4, Film Four, Nickelodeon, Lego, The BBC and Ha Ha Bonk. On a day to day basis this would involve Account Management, Content Management, Audio/Video production, Microsite Project Management and elements of writing, coding and design.
I was extremely fortunate to have worked on some amazing projects which broke new ground in interactive entertainment and created new genres unto themselves. I was also blessed to have worked with an amazing group of talented creative’s, producers and developers.
Bomb Productions (Showreel 2001) from Kain Tietzel on Vimeo.
The following are few of the key projects that I was responsible for.
Channel 4
As the account manager for Channel4.com and FilmFour for most of my tenure I was responsible the production of wide range of micro-sites to support the television programming, as well as the creation of stand-alone websites, entertainment and Content Management Tools.
Many of the sites I worked on at bomb have now disappeared into the electronic ether, however the legacy of bomb’s design aesthetic is still apparent in the current iteration of the website. These include:
- Channel Four
- Film Four
- Spaced
- 4 Music
- Tour De France
- Big Brother Voting
- The Big Breakfast
- Dots-TV
- You-Punt
- To the Ends of the Earth
- Various Channel Four Intranet sites
FightBox
Explaining the premise is a very difficult thing to do, because to date, there still hasn’t been a television show or online game experience like it. And so an extract from the press release will likely explain it best:
FightBox leads the way in bringing together the web, computer games and TV audiences in a new entertainment format.
New studio and gaming technology means that FightBox will be a unique gladiatorial contest combining virtual characters in a live arena with the audience determining the content of the programme.
Using the FightBox software, available via the BBCi website www.bbc.co.uk/fightbox, contestants will be able to design and build their own virtual warriors on their PCs from hundreds of specified components.
Using downloads from the website, they can train their creations and upload their scores onto the leaderboard.
The top players will be entered into the TV show where, using new studio technology, the virtual warriors – controlled by their makers – will slug it out in a huge arena, surrounded by a live studio audience.
Vesuvius, one of the house Sentients
The viewer at home and the studio audience will then watch these monstrous gladiators in action as they compete in games of skill and combat against each other and the FightBox house warriors called Sentients.The ultimate winner will become the FightBox Champion and their warrior will be made one of the house Sentients.
In a nutshell, FightBox was an interactive television and game show where virtual robots, controlled by human players, fought it out on a virtual set in front of a live studio audience.
Players would purchase the FightBox game for their PC. And would then build and personalise their robot warrior and take it online to battle with other players. Winning online tournaments would earn points that could be used to upgrade the players warrior with the goal taking on the in-house gladiator (known as Sentinels) in front of a live studio audience.
It was certainly pushing the boundaries of television and online interaction back in 2004, even if the end result didn’t turn out to have the same production values as we’d hoped.
Unfortunately I cannot take too much credit for this project as I was not involved in it’s development after 2001. However, I was there at the start when the dreams started to become a reality.
Additional Links:
BBC FightBox Press Kit
BBC FightBox Press Release
Digital Lifestyle: Blog Review
Ricochet Productions
Dots Interactive TV Pilot
Dots was an interactive television pilot developed for Channel 4 in 2000. The television show reported and reviewed the latest website and internet phenomenon, passing critique and allowing the audience to receive the bookmarks from the show via telephone. Using an IVR prompt system users would have their specific bookmarks delivered to them via email. Audiences were also encourage to vote on the reviewed sites and offer their own feedback to dictate the contents of next weeks show. To this day, there still hasn’t been a television show like it.
As the interactive producer I was heavily involved with providing editorial direction for the television show, as well as using IA techniques to make the phone process simple, and the website intuitive to engage in. Working with designer Mark McClure we also developed the title design, website and email components.
Dots – Interactive TV Pilot (2000) from Kain Tietzel on Vimeo.
Two-Minutes
Two-minutes.com was an interactive murder mystery set in Cornwall during the eclipse of 1999. It was the precursor to today’s Alternative Reality Games and was truly ahead of it’s time. The premise centred around a group of documentary makers who are intent on exploring the link between local celtic mythology and eclipses. The doco crew are producing videos, publishing them to the website daily and building quite a loyal audience. However, during the eclipse some of the film makers go missing and are subsequently found murdered.
The website then became an interactive problem solving tool with users able to hack into the extranet and go through the documentary crews personal emails, unravelling the mystery and solving the crime. The disconnect between the reality of a documentary crew posting real footage and narrative constructed by Bomb meant that both audience (and media partners) became swept up in the idea that this was real!
Two Minutes (Trailer 1999) from Kain Tietzel on Vimeo.
A more illustrative writeup can be found at the Ruritania blog.