Classic FM Gramophone Awards - the day before

Hello, long time no blog. Quite a bit has changed since the last time I was on here. Been a bit busy, you know, launching a brand new channel, training newbie Sarah on the ins and outs of Tracy's system (let's say it involves a lot of process manuals and filing - we do like everything to be in its place), trying out a new role (yep, they have given me a WHOLE channel to schedule! I am officially the new Sky Arts Scheduler - why thank you, I'm quite chuffed myself) and the ever increasing politics involved with desk moves (fitting ever more members into a small corner is quite a feat in itself).

But hey ho, I'm very glad Sarah J has joined the Sky Arts team as for a little while I was juggling my old role and my new one. Now I can fully concentrate on my channel which is a daunting task. Adrian et al are convinced I'm the right person so I will try not to disappoint. December has been started now and it's going to be a cracker of a Christmas. You are all going to be spoilt rotten with the choice available.

Anyway, just wanted to express the extreme fear I am experiencing at the moment. Apparently, with a new role, comes new responsibilities and opportunities to leave good ole Osterley for a gander in that busy town called London. To the Classic FM Gramophone Awards to be precise. I shall be walking nervously towards The Dorchester tomorrow in my fancy frock, notepad in hand, with the target to speak to at least 2 people at the Awards. You see, I'm not good at networking or going to fancy do's on my own. The lovely Sinead just makes too much darn sense and all my protestations (2 days worth of saying I really can't do this) came to nothing. And so, tomorrow I shall be trying my best to smile sweetly, big up Sky Arts and try not to look or sound like a fool. Please think of me. It all starts at 11.30 and I'll be so nervous.

Best be off now. I must decide what to wear for tomorrow and try not to think too much about what could possibly go wrong. I shall definitely be taking advantage of that champagne that is sure to flow (though not too much mind, I am 'working').

Behind the scenes shooting Friday Night Hijack

We popped over to the studios to see Dan recording a Friday Night Hijack with the highly entertaining Nina Conti - a big favourite here at Sky Arts Corner since she appeared as one our Hay-on-Sky guests this summer.

In the above image, eagle-eyed viewers can spot the PM giving his conference speech on the left monitor coming from the Sky News Centre next door - while we're recording an exclusive Q&A with Nina for the website (we'll have it on the Sky Arts website the week she's 'hijacking' the channel!).

Dan can be seen here hard at work- all the glamour of telly (no-one ever belives us that it's just a desk job...with a very big desk...and, y'know, lots of twiddly things and big TV screens everywhere...) in the clip below...

collaborative canvas

http://www.thebigdraw.org/make%2Dyour%2Dmark/collaborative%2Dcanvas/
This is quite a nice thing to do - join in their collaborative drawing during your next coffee break.
It's a giant expanding canvas that anyone can add to, and you can send your drawing on to a friend once you've finished as well...

Update on the new channel...

Adrian, Tracy & Sarah are working away on the new schedules for Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 and we're looking forward to launching the new brands and new programmes on Oct 20th.

On the web side, we're editing more web video clips than ever before so there'll be lots to enjoy on the new video player and the whole site will have a much better design finish to it, with faster page loading times and better internal search.
Our Interactive Media Design Agency and our Small Projects Team have been working away on my wishlist for an improved viewer experience online and although we can't have everything ready in time for the channel launch, we'll have launched with quite a bit done by then...and we'll keep rolling out the improvements for you over the following months.

So much to do, so little time...

This week in Sky Arts Corner...

We're getting closer to the launch of the new channels and the whole team are working pretty flat out here. Not only are you getting a new arts channel from us but you'll also get a much-needed facelift on the website so I'm looking forward to launching that - new video section included :-)

We're also back into pre-production on The Book Show as of this week and the production team are lining up the guest authors for the forthcoming new season - due to start back onair next month.

Don't forget to watch David Gilmore live at the Royal Albert Hall on Sky Arts this Saturday (6th) at 9pm - part of our Centre Stage concerts line-up....

A few fun things we like...
Mix some sounds & record them :-)
http://www.becks.co.uk/mixer.aspx
This beer company have actually done some pretty interesting this lately, like this:
http://www.becks.co.uk/canvas.aspx
Total silliness by the Iceland tourist people...but good fun all the same: http://www.icelandsocks.com/
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