Jump chat – Irreverent but not irrelevant – part 1.
This is the first in a series of regular ramblings/chats from the Jump team. Okay, so we know it’s getting to that time of year when no one has much time to hear about what has piqued our interest recently or annoyed us or made us laugh. But before you leave this Jump chat, do take a quick peek at our website as you’ll see lots of recent interesting stuff on there that we’ve worked on for our clients.
Picking up on a recent Jump blog that took a slightly sideways look at the ‘is TV-dead debate’ (ground-breaking, we know), I’m going to expand on this a little.
Dynasties, the new BBC series looking at five animals that live in groups, specifically the dynamics of that group living, is brilliant television in multiple ways. Firstly, there’s David Attenborough. He is a one-man quality-assured sticker. His scripts are pointed yet far from emotionless. In fact, the opposite. His voice is reassuring yet never soporific. His words both lead and follow the narrative.
But it’s somehow more than that. Perhaps this is because he’s a UK TV institution, and therefore part of so many people’s childhood here, but he provides a welcome familiarity and creates an immediate confidence in the viewer that their time isn’t about to be wasted. Maybe there’s a tinge of nostalgia, always a danger when it comes to objectivity, but really, who cares? And as my US born and bred colleague, Alicia, is in complete agreement, it’s clearly more than that.
His expertise and sheer humanity should continue to be treasured. I don’t say this lightly: he will be missed when he is gone.
As for the series, it’s simply brilliant. It’s majestic, terrifying, sweet and moving; it expertly tells the tales of the workings of the individuals in each group and the group itself, along with the interaction of groups. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it – and there’s one more to come as I write this – but the Lion episode is particularly spectacular.
The sheer quality of the images, the expert storytelling, the emotion stirred in the viewer – well, in me, anyway – is magic. This deserves the biggest screen you can find. It looks beautiful.
One word of warning: there’s a scene in the penguin episode that will melt the iciest of hearts.
Again, returning to a theme from that previous blog, I’ve been pondering what it is about YouTube that makes me think maybe I should find a local support group and confess my short-form, internet madness viewing addiction.
But my pondering has led to some fresh thoughts. I actually find – beyond the odd oh-no-what-have-I clicked-on-now moment – that I am watching the same channels consistently. It does encourage – in fact you can easily argue that its raison d’etre – a hyper personal experience. It allows us to all to be nerdy in our own peculiar ways.
As hyper-local is to global, so hyper-personal is to big budget, uber content. But the two aren’t mutually exclusive, as I hope this blog illustrates. I will accept, however, that age is definitely a factor here.
Still, there’s one YouTube downside: my content-viewing attention span appears to have decreased alarmingly as my YouTube consumption has risen. I will accept, however, that age may also be a factor here.
Until next time…
Joss Armitage