Post by Wyvern on Dec 22, 2008 16:31:54 GMT
If you click on the link to Andy's latest blog on the TG website, you'll get a nice summary of what's coming up in Vietnam.
transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2008/12/22/our-nam-special/
What you won't get is the very interesting stuff he originally posted about the format for TG 2009, because for some reason - either it's meant for a later blog when the current series has actually finished or someone asked for an edit - it has been cut down from the original version that posted this morning.
Fortunately, one of the lovely people at Final Gear happened to have the original version open on his computer when everyone realised it had gone, so it has been saved for posterity. I reproduce it here.
Vietnam is all wrapped up with a ribbon round it and is now sitting under the huge Christmas telly tree, waiting to be unwrapped on Sunday 28th, at 8pm. I hope everyone’s too pissed or fat to move off the sofa, because, and I know I say this every time, it’s quite a good one.
The Vietnam special is also our first foray outside the hour. The final running time ended up at 75 minutes, which was a big worry initially, because one of the most sound and wise sayings in television is “There’s nothing that can’t be improved by making it shorter”, or something like that.
It’s a maxim we stick to religiously - lots and lots of useable stuff ends up on the floor - but in the case of Vietnam, we simply couldn’t fit the actual basics of the journey into 60 minutes; we’d have had to lose whole days completely, so 75 it is, and believe me it rattles along at that. So, Christmas tip for anyone downloading illegally: get plenty of bits and torrents in or whatever it is you do.
As for the story, for those who like to see presenters suffer there is some good hardship, especially for Jeremy in the first three days, who was crapping himself before he set out.
But then your first ever bike ride and it’s the length of Vietnam - you would be. And his bike was rubbish. But as the journey unfolds it settles down (for a while) into what I think is a good buddy movie.
I am reminded actually, watching it back, of those two brilliant bell ends in Sideways, except in our world the only time anyone gets their leg over is climbing back on a bike.
On the subject of the bikes I suppose, looking back, the big risk in this show is not the fact we’ve ditched cars for bikes - for one outing you won’t miss four wheels, and it does put Jezza in a world of pain. No, the biggest risk in this show - and students of film will spot this if they’re not mullered on Malibu next Sunday - is that Vietnam is the one Special that’s more about the guys than it is about the transport.
In the Polar film there is a simple premise - can a car get to the Magnetic Pole, and the whole film hangs round that; what the guys do is just bonus entertainment. Likewise in Botswana the spine of the film is “Can ordinary cars go where four wheel drive cars go?” and likewise whatever the lads get up to along the way should be secondary to that premise.
In Vietnam though, the transport question isn’t that strong, because as Ewan and Charlie have proved so well, you can go almost anywhere on a bike. This means the narrative of the film is a bit more skewed towards the three guys: e.g. Can Jeremy make it without killing himself? Can the others make it without killing Jeremy? So please forgive us on that one. We haven’t gone self indulgent, and as soon as we find another titanic vehicular challenge we’ll be there.
Anyway, that’s enough from me. Watch it and let us know.
As for the rest of 2008, it’s actually been our first year since Richard’s accident that we’ve done a normal run of two series, and personally I think the Summer run was patchy - didn’t find its feet until the sh*t Alfas film in show 3, but rocked from then on - I mean Japan, TG versus the Germans - quality stuff there. As for this just finished Autumn run, I was crapping myself going into it cos we only had eight weeks to prepare, but in the end I’m very happy with it.
I think Star in a Car found its feet again after the less than successful “Two at a Time” experiment. All it takes is good guests really, and people of Boris’s calibre are just that. So we’ll continue SIARPC in this vein for a while (probably should change the car though) and I know that will annoy some of the Final Gearheads, but lads, we can’t make all of this show for you, and whilst I am genuinely interested to know what a 19 year old Skyline fanatic in Oregon thinks of the Japan race, at the end of the day I’m not that bothered about his opinion on Harry Enfield.
As for the the last show, the one with the Awards, was a bit patchy, but in truth it always will be. By the time we get to that one we’ve always run out of money and we write the studio bits in a day and frankly, it’s a bit of a demob happy affair - the Boxing Day casserole made with turkey leftovers if you will - so take it in that spirit, because the money not spent on that show has gone on Spitfires and cars going round shopping centres etc.
Actually on this point, you’re going to have to learn to love the turkey leftovers show even more, because next year we’re getting a budget cut. No point in moaning about that - all shows are suffering and nobody’s got a pot to piss in anymore anyway, so no reason why we shouldn’t suffer as well.
Our problem though is that there is no fat to trim off the show, in that we waste almost nothing behind the scenes and the old cliché of every penny goes on screen is actually true.
So in 2009 the budget cut has to affect what you watch, and Clarkson has had a brainwave in making this as painless as possible. Basically instead of trimming back a little bit on every show - losing a helicopter here or a truck crash there - we’ll endeavour to make 13 of our 14 shows as per the usual Jerry Bruckheimer standard, and then the last one, when we only have a tenner left, will be utter, utter sh*te.
But they had fun singing songs in the dark during the Blitz, so let’s see what happens. Great stuff may come of it.
That’s about it, so can I just thank, massively, everyone who watched the show so devotedly, everyone - presenters, cameramen, me and the office geeks, editors, soundmen, etc etc, who worked on it so bloody hard, everyone except the Stig basically, who was last seen on Santa’s knee in Selfridges about ten days ago.
transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2008/12/22/our-nam-special/
What you won't get is the very interesting stuff he originally posted about the format for TG 2009, because for some reason - either it's meant for a later blog when the current series has actually finished or someone asked for an edit - it has been cut down from the original version that posted this morning.
Fortunately, one of the lovely people at Final Gear happened to have the original version open on his computer when everyone realised it had gone, so it has been saved for posterity. I reproduce it here.
Vietnam is all wrapped up with a ribbon round it and is now sitting under the huge Christmas telly tree, waiting to be unwrapped on Sunday 28th, at 8pm. I hope everyone’s too pissed or fat to move off the sofa, because, and I know I say this every time, it’s quite a good one.
The Vietnam special is also our first foray outside the hour. The final running time ended up at 75 minutes, which was a big worry initially, because one of the most sound and wise sayings in television is “There’s nothing that can’t be improved by making it shorter”, or something like that.
It’s a maxim we stick to religiously - lots and lots of useable stuff ends up on the floor - but in the case of Vietnam, we simply couldn’t fit the actual basics of the journey into 60 minutes; we’d have had to lose whole days completely, so 75 it is, and believe me it rattles along at that. So, Christmas tip for anyone downloading illegally: get plenty of bits and torrents in or whatever it is you do.
As for the story, for those who like to see presenters suffer there is some good hardship, especially for Jeremy in the first three days, who was crapping himself before he set out.
But then your first ever bike ride and it’s the length of Vietnam - you would be. And his bike was rubbish. But as the journey unfolds it settles down (for a while) into what I think is a good buddy movie.
I am reminded actually, watching it back, of those two brilliant bell ends in Sideways, except in our world the only time anyone gets their leg over is climbing back on a bike.
On the subject of the bikes I suppose, looking back, the big risk in this show is not the fact we’ve ditched cars for bikes - for one outing you won’t miss four wheels, and it does put Jezza in a world of pain. No, the biggest risk in this show - and students of film will spot this if they’re not mullered on Malibu next Sunday - is that Vietnam is the one Special that’s more about the guys than it is about the transport.
In the Polar film there is a simple premise - can a car get to the Magnetic Pole, and the whole film hangs round that; what the guys do is just bonus entertainment. Likewise in Botswana the spine of the film is “Can ordinary cars go where four wheel drive cars go?” and likewise whatever the lads get up to along the way should be secondary to that premise.
In Vietnam though, the transport question isn’t that strong, because as Ewan and Charlie have proved so well, you can go almost anywhere on a bike. This means the narrative of the film is a bit more skewed towards the three guys: e.g. Can Jeremy make it without killing himself? Can the others make it without killing Jeremy? So please forgive us on that one. We haven’t gone self indulgent, and as soon as we find another titanic vehicular challenge we’ll be there.
Anyway, that’s enough from me. Watch it and let us know.
As for the rest of 2008, it’s actually been our first year since Richard’s accident that we’ve done a normal run of two series, and personally I think the Summer run was patchy - didn’t find its feet until the sh*t Alfas film in show 3, but rocked from then on - I mean Japan, TG versus the Germans - quality stuff there. As for this just finished Autumn run, I was crapping myself going into it cos we only had eight weeks to prepare, but in the end I’m very happy with it.
I think Star in a Car found its feet again after the less than successful “Two at a Time” experiment. All it takes is good guests really, and people of Boris’s calibre are just that. So we’ll continue SIARPC in this vein for a while (probably should change the car though) and I know that will annoy some of the Final Gearheads, but lads, we can’t make all of this show for you, and whilst I am genuinely interested to know what a 19 year old Skyline fanatic in Oregon thinks of the Japan race, at the end of the day I’m not that bothered about his opinion on Harry Enfield.
As for the the last show, the one with the Awards, was a bit patchy, but in truth it always will be. By the time we get to that one we’ve always run out of money and we write the studio bits in a day and frankly, it’s a bit of a demob happy affair - the Boxing Day casserole made with turkey leftovers if you will - so take it in that spirit, because the money not spent on that show has gone on Spitfires and cars going round shopping centres etc.
Actually on this point, you’re going to have to learn to love the turkey leftovers show even more, because next year we’re getting a budget cut. No point in moaning about that - all shows are suffering and nobody’s got a pot to piss in anymore anyway, so no reason why we shouldn’t suffer as well.
Our problem though is that there is no fat to trim off the show, in that we waste almost nothing behind the scenes and the old cliché of every penny goes on screen is actually true.
So in 2009 the budget cut has to affect what you watch, and Clarkson has had a brainwave in making this as painless as possible. Basically instead of trimming back a little bit on every show - losing a helicopter here or a truck crash there - we’ll endeavour to make 13 of our 14 shows as per the usual Jerry Bruckheimer standard, and then the last one, when we only have a tenner left, will be utter, utter sh*te.
But they had fun singing songs in the dark during the Blitz, so let’s see what happens. Great stuff may come of it.
That’s about it, so can I just thank, massively, everyone who watched the show so devotedly, everyone - presenters, cameramen, me and the office geeks, editors, soundmen, etc etc, who worked on it so bloody hard, everyone except the Stig basically, who was last seen on Santa’s knee in Selfridges about ten days ago.
and FG 
.......gosh and sadly the siarpc is still in 
.....so wonder what's up their sleeves, we await with held breath, though ashame seeing as they (BBC) get good money for TG worldwide. 
