The quality of Spanish TV, whether it is documentary, reality TV, soap, drama, films are dire. The commercial advertisements are shockingly lengthy. I once timed the adverts: 22 minutes. The government has intervened by regulating commercial adverts to maximum 20 minutes per hour. That’s still a staggering length of time, but it’s better than what it was. Commercial adverts are so cheesy that one ends up abandoning watching TV altogether.
Luis owns a production company and often makes TV commercial adverts. He explains that the budgets for commercials are often so small that it doesn’t give much margin to do anything decent. Furthermore the clients’ criteria are so conservative and bland that there is no room for creativity or intelligence. A typical advert would be the owner of the company telling you that his tasty his/her product is yummy.
Sebastian is a scenographer for theatre, films and TV. Just before I left Barcelona, Sebastian came round to my house scouting for oriental objects for a TV commercial for Pescanova. This is well known frozen fish company which regularly advertises on television. Sebastian borrowed my enormous bamboo free standing lamp. The same night, he fanatically called me again and asked if I had anything oriental to put on the walls. We ended up, at 12pm, going to my warehouse to dig out two large lacquered plates. The poor guy was maniac as the shoot was scheduled for the next morning. I asked him what the given budget was: one thousand five hundred euros (£1100)! For that reason, he said, he had to borrow props and raid my warehouse at midnight. I just can’t believe that such a gigantic company can justify a peanut size props budget for a televised commercial advert. It’s criminal! I dare not hasten to think what Pescanova are paying Sebastian.
The only programme I watched in Spain was the nine o’clock news on TVE1. The main reason for watching this programme was for anchor man Lorenzo Mila. The journalistic reporting is complete shite, but Lorenzo is such an empathic and professional news reader that it makes it all more bearable.
I had always managed get some sporadic TV viewing in during my visits to UK in the past 12 years. Gardener’s World is one of my all time favourite and has somehow managed to follow East Enders. Perhaps due to the fact that the cast and the story lines never really change. I’ve been back in London for 18 days and have watched hours TV. Firstly amazed that so many familiar soaps and programmes are still alive and kicking: Emmerdale, The Bill, Top Gear, Panorama, University Challenge and tonight’s special treat is Rick Stein tasting Hanoi’s street food. But ‘Who’s Line It Is?’ No longer exists. This shows you how long I’ve been away! The good news is that some satire will come from ‘Have I Got More News For You’.
Other than the daytime TV which consists of mediocre programmes and well dated series such as Murder She Wrote, but in general British TV has still maintained its excellence. One of my already favourites is Dragon’s Den. Last night’s programme included a proposition by a poker player, a single mum with a self invented product which is set to make her a multi-millionaire. Hmmmm…perhaps I should go on the programme with ideas of my mushroom farm. Hmmmmm…I risk becoming a couch potato!
Lastly, it will be revelation to watch TV where there are no advertisements!
Luis owns a production company and often makes TV commercial adverts. He explains that the budgets for commercials are often so small that it doesn’t give much margin to do anything decent. Furthermore the clients’ criteria are so conservative and bland that there is no room for creativity or intelligence. A typical advert would be the owner of the company telling you that his tasty his/her product is yummy.
Sebastian is a scenographer for theatre, films and TV. Just before I left Barcelona, Sebastian came round to my house scouting for oriental objects for a TV commercial for Pescanova. This is well known frozen fish company which regularly advertises on television. Sebastian borrowed my enormous bamboo free standing lamp. The same night, he fanatically called me again and asked if I had anything oriental to put on the walls. We ended up, at 12pm, going to my warehouse to dig out two large lacquered plates. The poor guy was maniac as the shoot was scheduled for the next morning. I asked him what the given budget was: one thousand five hundred euros (£1100)! For that reason, he said, he had to borrow props and raid my warehouse at midnight. I just can’t believe that such a gigantic company can justify a peanut size props budget for a televised commercial advert. It’s criminal! I dare not hasten to think what Pescanova are paying Sebastian.
The only programme I watched in Spain was the nine o’clock news on TVE1. The main reason for watching this programme was for anchor man Lorenzo Mila. The journalistic reporting is complete shite, but Lorenzo is such an empathic and professional news reader that it makes it all more bearable.
I had always managed get some sporadic TV viewing in during my visits to UK in the past 12 years. Gardener’s World is one of my all time favourite and has somehow managed to follow East Enders. Perhaps due to the fact that the cast and the story lines never really change. I’ve been back in London for 18 days and have watched hours TV. Firstly amazed that so many familiar soaps and programmes are still alive and kicking: Emmerdale, The Bill, Top Gear, Panorama, University Challenge and tonight’s special treat is Rick Stein tasting Hanoi’s street food. But ‘Who’s Line It Is?’ No longer exists. This shows you how long I’ve been away! The good news is that some satire will come from ‘Have I Got More News For You’.
Other than the daytime TV which consists of mediocre programmes and well dated series such as Murder She Wrote, but in general British TV has still maintained its excellence. One of my already favourites is Dragon’s Den. Last night’s programme included a proposition by a poker player, a single mum with a self invented product which is set to make her a multi-millionaire. Hmmmm…perhaps I should go on the programme with ideas of my mushroom farm. Hmmmmm…I risk becoming a couch potato!
Lastly, it will be revelation to watch TV where there are no advertisements!
2 comments:
I agree with you Lorenzo Milla is a fantastic journalist
Bueno, tambien es el hombre perfecto no crees? xxx
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