Friday, November 16, 2012

The Paintball Show

Is the latest offering on real broadcast TV delivering paintball to the masses--over in Euroland. Originating in the UK the show follows the common formula of news magazine style shows with a routine series of short segments, interviewees and guest panel that keeps the show moving along. (Or something like that.)
The last few posts on VFTD have been about as popular as the mainstream media's interest in the Benghazi debacle or the average American's concerns over the looming Fiscal Cliff--if it were really important somebody surely would have mentioned it before now. So I am switching gears and moving on. Best of all we're still talking TV. (The title links to the producers website where easily found links to 'TV Show' & 'watch' will hook you up with the complete series of shows to date. No, I couldn't provide a direct link. You'll see why.) And it's easy button TV at that!
If you're interested I'd encourage you to watch an episode or two or whatever. There's nothing terribly unique but there's also nothing just plain terrible. It's a UK centric presentation as well it ought to be given it's a UK show. This sort of thing has been done before but it's really about quality and the ability to sustain interest rather than some sort of ground-breaking cleverness. As an old, jaded and cynical competition fan I'ma forego passing any judgment on 'The Paintball Show' but that doesn't mean you can't sound off in the comments. To be on the safe side though sprinkle a few paeans of gratitude in with any criticisms you might have. We wouldn't want anyone to think you were ungrateful. After all who are you to have a opinion when you haven't made your own TV show.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its not like The Paintball Show is attracting advertising from outside the paintball industry, so where is the money? Eurocentric, UK centric, Egocentric. Various 'featured' teams were announced, only to be cut as they couldn't attend the studio recordings held the weekend before the Paris Millennium. Tim Barnett is a nasty piece of work who has lied and cheated and deceived his way to his own piece of paintball nirvana.

ollytheosteo said...

Hmmmm, I wonder how many people in this industry someone (else) could say that last little piece of bravely anonymous whining about? To rise anywhere above grass roots in paintball without collecting a posse of haters is pretty much impossible; say what you like about Tim but at least he does stuff in his own name instead of hiding behind the keyboard. Could everyone else doing new stuff for players and making telly...please stand up?

Baca Loco said...

Okay so Tim is a polarizing figure in UK paintball--what about the show?

Reiner Schafer said...

I clicked on one episode but couldn't get myself to commit an hour of time to watch the whole thing. One of the reasons was that much of what they were talking about didn't interest me. I did skim through it and watched a few segments here and there.

I'm not sure how this is being televised or how many viewers they will need to make the necessary minimum. I'm worried for them in the long run. It seemed they were trying to be relatively diverse to attract a large number of viewers including new or never before players (I assume that would be one of the objectives anyway). My problem is when I watch something, it has to interest me. If 80% of an hour's worth of programming doesn't apply, I'm going to have a tough time staying tuned in waiting for the other 20%.

Nick Brockdorff said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nick Brockdorff said...

Same here Reiner :)

The Paintball Show has the same problem every other media (except for PBA, so far, and ofcourse VFTD) in paintball has: It tries to encompass all of paintball, which in turn makes it uninteresting to all of paintball.

Pete said...

I think a 15-20 minute Vod-Cast done once or twice a week that could focus a little more on an audience, Let's say Monday is more tourney and Thursday is more scenario, more specific demographic also benefits advertisers and could just be cut up from the one day of filming that this is currently using.

Nick Brockdorff said...

What they SHOULD do, is focus entire programmes on a specific audience (tournament, scenario, rental, field owners, manufacturers, etc.), as that would make each programme much more interesting... even for those outside the target audience.

When they try to cram "everything" into each programme, they never really get interesting on any subject, because they have to move onto the next issue.

Reiner Schafer said...

The problem with that Nick is that if your preferred interest version only came up once every 4 weeks or so, you'd forget to tune in as would many others. It would be a recipe for failure and the producers know that.

Nick Brockdorff said...

Actually I don't think so.

I can easily be entertained by a tv show, on a subject I know nothing about, if it makes the effort to get really into the issue.

But, a show that glances over stuff, because it has to get onto the next topic, is never interesting.

The former can be very interesting irrespective of the topic - the latter only is if someting is news to you.

It's like comparing 60 Minutes to a normal newscast.