DISCUSIÓN
7. DISCUSIÓN
7.4. Análisis comparativo del modelo presentado con otros
One of the finalists was Andy Mosse, a young BBC staffer from a programme-making department in BBC Bristol, a part of the BBC largely known for its factual programmes, such as those produced by the Natural History Unit. Andy submitted a teaser trailer for an idea he called ‘Wu How’, a comedy ‘How to…’ programme intended for a young audience, demographically identical to that of BBC3 and relying on postmodern visual humour based on the audience’s assumed knowledge of different genres, from martial arts movies, to children’s TV from the 1970s.
Page 182 of 258 He had already developed his trailer prior to the moo competition being open for entries, but his idea had not made it through the commissioning process, as he explains:
“It was then passed on to commissioners, I think, through development team. I wasn't in any of those meetings. But it got turned down as they didn't think Danny would like it or they didn't think it was suitable for BBC 3. Which was interesting when it caught on.” (Andy Mosse)
The big problem he felt was that the people who he was pitching to were not the intended audience, and did not understand what they found funny about it: “No one really got it that was the thing.” Andy went into more detail about why he had
created a video pitch, rather than a paper or electronic proposal, after he heard that:
“(Danny Cohen) …was interested in "How To" type programs. It was kind of virtually impossible to explain to people on paper. So I wanted to make the taster to be able to explain it. But most people sort of thought, "Oh, it's not what we... It's not quite what we make down in Bristol. We don't do any comedy. And we don't do any ‘How to’ type programs." (Andy Mosse)
He explained that he came up with the mixed genre format, because he wanted to do comedic programmes, but knew it was difficult to get into comedy (habitus (BBC Comedy) within habitus (BBC programme making)) without prior experience and evidence of success. So he picked a different genre to comedy (factual) but intended to make the trailer funny:
“Generally you can forget about comedy. It's not possible to get anything away without any experience. So it was a long shot basically. I knew it was a long shot. But I just wanted to do something... I wanted to be on BBC3. That was my sort of premise. I wasn't really that keen on what was on BBC3 at the time.” (Andy Mosse)
So he developed his idea into something he felt would work on BBC3 that he would be happy with, and explained how he chose his topics for the ‘How to’s’, such as
‘How to use your smartphone with gloves on’ and ‘How to cook a great meal at a festival’:
“They were basically the things I thought that kind of audience were into.
I did quite a lot of research into the kind of things that were popular. And we did variations or new versions of the same areas.” (Andy Mosse)
Having failed to get anywhere at BBC Bristol with Wu How, despite appearing to be in the right kind of programme making part of the BBC (but not exactly right), Mosse was very excited to see the details of the moo competition when it was opened for entries and uploaded his trailer as soon as he could (see Figure 15).
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“Well, I put it up. Yeah, I just uploaded it. I didn't tell anyone I'd done it.
And then people started emailing saying "Hey, your ‘Wu How’'s really good" So those were the comments on it. So then I pitched it to Danny. It was part of the prize, to pitch to Danny, as you know. And then I got a meeting with the commissioner, called Jo Twist. And that was the winning prize. In typical BBC fashion, the prize of the competition was a meeting.” (Andy Mosse)
Figure 15: WU-HOW trailer uploaded to the moo competition site
Mosse then explained how the meetings went and how his idea started to gain momentum:
“The meeting (with Jo Twist) went quite well. She was keen to get it on as a multiplatform project. She was keen on it as a TV idea, because she felt that there was already a lot of How To stuff on the internet. And I felt that it should always be a TV idea just because there wasn't anything on TV like it.” (Andy Mosse)
As the idea moved on, Mosse had to demonstrate his ability to take on board the ideas and contributions of other BBC colleagues, especially the more powerful ones.
It is here that his knowledge of the rules of the game and relevant cultural capital, acquired from working in the ‘right’ part of the BBC habitus, proved beneficial.
“So she put it forward as that. Danny felt it was a bit more of an online thing. So he came back with this steer to pitch it to him as an online only proposition. So I pitched it as 3-minute shows, ten 3-minute shows. Jo Twist showed it back to him. He then commissioned it, and then we started working on it about a month after that.” (Andy Mosse)
Page 184 of 258 After the shows had been produced, they were broadcast on the BBC iPlayer and via the BBC3 website.
“On the iPlayer, it did really well. And it got hundreds of thousands of downloads and it was top of the iPlayer list for a few days, which is really, really good. Especially because it was something that hadn't been
promoted at all...” (Andy Mosse)
“On Twitter, it went completely mad as well. There are pages and pages of people tweeting it.” (Andy Mosse)
An example of the positive feedback on twitter can be seen in Figure 16.
However, it was not universally well received on all digital channels,
“One of the things I was really surprised at was that on YouTube, it completely bombed on YouTube.” (Andy Mosse)
Even after 5 years the Wu How videos on YouTube are still searching for an audience, with only the technology episode having received more than 10,000 views, which compares very poorly to the volume of iPlayer downloads claimed by Mosse. In YouTube, Mosse had his own, more straightforward, explanation:
“Because we weren't offering anything different on YouTube. So it was just basically what they were, and I think people were thinking, "Why I'm watching on YouTube when I can watch the whole thing on BBC." (Andy Mosse)
Figure 16: WU HOW tweet
Page 185 of 258 Having been pitched as collections that formed 30 minute programmes, and asked to be broken down into individual online sketches, the individual ‘how to’ items on iPlayer were then requested to be repackaged back into TV programmes.
“The TV commission then came off the back of the online stuff. It was picked up by the BBC3 Scheduler. He said, "I really like this. Let us just chuck them together. I basically just watched all ten, back-to-back.”
(Andy Mosse)
However, creatively this was not as straightforward as it seemed.
“The things that we pitched as half hour TV's before were at very, very different pace. They were slower, they had more information. They had little sketches and skits that would pop up with the ninjas who become little characters and so on.” (Andy Mosse)
Mosse explained how else he might have repackaged the items and programmes.
“The other thing I would have done differently was on YouTube... I would have separated all the items out as individual ones so they were more searchable.” (Andy Mosse)
This shows a more fundamental understanding of YouTube as a platform, and arguably a genre, than that demonstrated by the commissioners and schedulers Mosse was working for. One of YouTube’s most popular content genres is short
‘how to’ videos (Burgess and Green 2009) and users of these arrive at them by googling the task they are trying to complete, e.g. “How do I use my iPhone with gloves on?” If a programme contains this content, but is titled “BBC3 Wu How Series 1 Episode 3” then it will not rank highly in the search results for that task.
In all of these responses, in his patience in unpicking an idea, then repackaging it back to the way he originally intended, and in his flexibility in dealing with those in power above him in the BBC3 hierarchy, despite their demonstrably inferior
understanding of both genre and audience, Mosse demonstrates his knowledge of the ‘rules of the game’. This should be considered as much a part of the
explanation of his relatively smooth path through the commissioning process, post moo competition, as the quality of his idea and his skills as a digital programme maker.
Asked if the moo competition had helped him move his television career forward, Mosse replied:
“Yeah. I feel like it, it's got me lots of brownie points. Now I am a director and it was something that helped me do well.” (Andy Mosse)
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“They see me as someone who can, I guess, who can pull off the more quirky things now, who can develop a visual style. And come out with something new. And so that is always something good to have.” (Andy Mosse)
Asked what advice he would give to entrants of a future moo style competition he made the following suggestion:
“I would say make something you want to see regardless of whether you think you can get commissioned or not. Just make something you want to see. Because I think I just became more and more... Slightly
discouraged, I think, by the commissioning process...”
“I don't usually bother trying to think of ideas for specific briefs, where there's a steer on an idea, because it's usually the end of all creativity.
Just come up with your own stuff and find a route.” (Andy Mosse)
12.6.1 Interview Summary
12.6.1.1 How has this interview helped answer the research question?
In this interview Andy Mosse explained how he found it difficult to express and communicate his ideas on paper using the conventional commissioning process.
Similarly, cross genre ideas were also difficult to pitch as coming from BBC Bristol (which mostly makes factual programmes) it was anticipated that Andy couldn’t ‘do comedy’.
By enabling video pitching, and providing a direct channel to the BBC3 Controller, the moo website enabled Andy to overcome these barriers and to progress his career in television. This was a demonstrable success for the project and clearly shows how it enabled new ways of working at the BBC.
12.6.1.2 What is the original contribution?
In addition to the contribution made above the interview also shows how Andy Mosse’s existing knowledge of the BBC’s ‘rules of the game’ meant he had a much easier time navigating the BBC’s processes and power structures than some of his fellow finalists, who lacked this knowledge and cultural capital.
12.6.1.3 My reflections
The fact of Andy Mosse’s success with a previously rejected idea and his response here, suggests that the instincts, whether rhetorically informed or not, of Alan Yentob and Frank Ash in believing that
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there was a pool of young talent with good ideas, but who lacked the network and social capital to get those ideas in front of powerful commissioners and controllers and
that digital and social media could provide a platform and network could provide a means of connecting with that talent
were correct.
What they had not considered, as we shall see in the interview with Stephen Fingleton, was the extent to which the cultural capital of the idea’s original owner would determine the progress of an idea once the structural holes had been bridged (Burt 2004).