Thursday, August 17, 2006

Putting Party Political Broadcasts on YouTube


In 1998 I produced a 3 hour video of PARTY POLITICAL BROADCASTS: THE GREATEST HITS, sad git that I am. The following year I brought out AMERICAN POLITICAL COMMERCIALS: THE GREATEST HITS. It occurred to me that it would be a great idea to put each of the hundred and thirty PPBs and American Commercials onto YouTube, so they can be available to everyone. However, I haven't the faintest idea how to do it because I don't have a digital editing suite to capture them each as MPEGs. If anyone out there fancies performing a public service by helping me (I'm not profiting from it!) do email me by clicking on the icon in the left hand column. For those who can't wait for them to appear on YouTube, you can still buy the videos HERE and HERE.

15 comments:

Machiavelli's Understudy said...

Umm, I'm sure your intentions are meant well, but do you have clearance from the content owners to publish the clips on YouTube?

Personally, I don't care for such trivialities, but I wouldn't want to see it used against you if it's something that hasn't yet been considered.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone remember the Chris Morris fake BNP Party Broadcast and how i can get a copy of that? or am i just making that up

Iain Dale said...

Machiavelli, I am in discussions with the Conservative and LibDems and dont anticipate any problem. However, I have yet to find out who would be responsible for this in the Labour Party. Anyone know?

Anonymous said...

Oh dear.
Iain Dale, you're a sad, sad person.
Next you'll be compiling the political equivalent of Wisden:
"In a near-faultless three hour session at the stump Dangerous Dave scored with 14 allusions, countless similes, dispatched two hecklers and survived four appeals against his litotes - without exposing his policies once. Not since the days of Campbell-Bannerman..."

By all means show these ******* useless ******* *********, complete with their Joe 90 hand movements and carefullly orchestrated expressions of compassion and concern spouting their PR generated **** on YouTube, but only if they agree to end party political broadcasts on the main channels.

The extent of most folks interest in politics is limited to "How can I stop this bastard screwing up the country/my job/my life?"

We take notice of them because self-defence requires it, not because it is interesting per se.

Anonymous said...

If you have the originals on a DVD then the job is really rather easy (and I'd be happy to help out). If the originals are only on VHS then the job is slightly less easy, but still quite manageable.

Oh and somewhere I have a VHS copy of every single PPB from the 1992 election, together with that election night's Spitting Image programme AND the local (Yorkshire TV) programme covering the battle in the constituency I then lived in (Sheffield Hallam) - about 3 or 4 seperate episodes of that political journalistic masterpiece.

Sad, sad and downright tragic? You betcha....

Anonymous said...

SOS - as this is a geek thread, can anyone tell me why when I play UTube or anything else, it keeps pausing/freezing for around five or six second and starts again for seven or eight seconds, then freezes again. I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. I just "click to play" like everyone else, but it doesn't work!

The New Constitution said...

Sadly, I think I've seen the video before... and rewinded to watch the "highlights" again.

Anonymous said...

Iain, just at the point you get to the fork in the road for fortune, fame and a knockout punch on Guido you choose to go down the road less travelled marked 'Mission to Boredom'..

If this was Dragons' Den we'd ask 'How many did you sell?'

Croydonian said...

If it has the NLP's demonstration of yogic flying, I might even buy it.

Iain Dale said...

William, I am pleased to tell you that it does indeed include the yogic flying PPB.

Anonymous, the PPB video sold more than 3,000 copies!

PoliticalHackUK said...

Some of us are genuine political anoraks, so it is very attractive.

And if you want to see nasty adverts, try some of the American campaigns for size - they make the LD leaflets look evenhanded.

Croydonian said...

Iain - I salute your indefatigability etc etc.

I've also enjoyed 'Jennifer's ear', the Hague 'Kitchen Table' PPB, the BNP's 'wandering wino' and the entire oeuvre of the WRP.

One of the great advantages of having a digibox and thus Sky News was the ability to view SNP/PC/Ulster PPBs last time round.

Maybe I should try to get out more.

Anonymous said...

Iain, I have to eat humble pie if you flogged three thousand of those videos...

Then again I did watch a number of those 'so-bad-they're-good' Public Information Films when they had a retrospective on the BBC website.

They even got Reginald Molehusband out of retirement to re-film his parallel parking masterpiece as the original had been lost !!

And I also understand they've retouched the 'Petunia' film to add in a mobile phone to enable them to 'DIAL 9-9-9 and ASK FOR the COASTGUARD'..Now who's sad..

Anonymous said...

jimbo jones - there is some Chris Morris stuff on YouTube, although I'm not familiar with the process for searching for something as specific as this..

Anonymous said...

Verity, you need to hit the Pause button as soon as the video starts loading. What's happening is that you can watch it faster than your computer can recieve it. Hit Pause immediately, and you can let the whole thing load and watch from beginning to end. You only need to do this once.

To post video on YouTube, note first of all that the video has to be short. Commercials are perfect. I think twenty minutes is the longest bit, but the longer a video goes on, the more difference between the audio track and the video; they get out of synch.

The video must also be on your computer as a digital file. It could be a DVD, could be anything. Don't worry about the format, YouTube will deal with it.

Join YouTube. It's free and easy. Then once you're signed in, go to Upload, which is the tab on the Far Right of your screen at the top of the page. Then just follow the instructions in the automated form. Five minutes work at tops.

Now I must go back and watch Sesame Street songs...and Charo!