This week, I'm busy with wrapping up my job, moving, and getting married, but this recent news about Billie Piper has inspired me to take a few minutes to write a quick post and interrupt my self-imposed hiatus from this site.
Since production on Torchwood started we have gotten a few letters from the BBC complaining about secrets and spoilers we have revealed here. I have no idea why insiders would want to give us any scoops, but for some reason they have. Our policy is that we will no longer give out information that might lead to slowing down production, such as location info, but reports of what has gone on already on the set are fair game. Well the BBC doesn't like those either and now we have a better idea why. As shown by their publication of the Billie Piper press release yesterday, they don't care at all about spoilers so long as they are the ones who get to reveal them. If it will help the ratings spoil away!
We certainly don't want to be an enemy of the BBC but we aren't on their payroll either. Its just a TV show after all, we aren't publishing CIA leaks here. Thoughts?
3 comments:
Spoil away - someone's got to...
>> “As shown by their publication of the Billie Piper press release yesterday, they don't care at all about spoilers so long as they are the ones who get to reveal them. If it will help the ratings spoil away!”
It is all to do with timing. If it had been revealed at the press launch that Bill was leaving, the impact would have been lost and the story may have felt stale by the time the episode was viewed. Bill’s departure was kept secret to reward loyal viewers with a surprise not to spite them.
Knowing Bill’s departure would eventually come out it is decided when and how it is best to release the story. They have a whole production team and marketing department to judge when best to release such information. I do not think anyone would think it should be left up to fan judgement when to release information to the general public.
In the UK we are almost at the end of the current run. I strongly believe that the casual viewers now knowing that Rose is leaving will make sure they tune in to see this well loved character’s fate.
> “Its just a TV show after all, we aren't publishing CIA leaks here. Thoughts?”
Whilst fans are appreciated and loved, they should be careful not to interfere with production or product marketing.
Be careful not to damage or destroy the thing you are trying to celebrate.
Richard Naismith
I think I covered most of the difficulties in my last post:
"Loose lips sink ships".
Whilst they are not concerned about fans knowing plot details in advance they do not wish the information to leak out to the press. It is well known that the press use forums such as Outpost Gallifrey to look for sensationalist stories to publish. It should also be noted that a lot of the cast and crew are fans as well; they read the Outpost Gallifrey forum.
Torchwood is more vulnerable than Doctor Who in terms of press attacks. Serious bad publicity could destroy the show before it has been broadcast. Indeed already some plot lines have leaked out, this will not detract from a fan's enjoyment but bad spin doctoring could potentially put the public off from watching.
They do not mind a few fans watching but as an unknown factor it does add an extra concern. Too many turning up at once and it becomes a crowd control issue. It should also be noted that they are on a very tight schedule and that any disturbance can be quite a problem.
Whilst most fans behave on location a minority do not. From what I have been told:
- Some pester for autographs when it is not an appropriate moment.
- Others talk loudly whilst they are trying to go for a take.
- Using flash photography whilst they are filming.
- I have heard that a couple of "fans" refused to move out of shot since as far as they were concerned they were standing in a public place.
So quite understandably they do not wish details of future filming locations to be published. More importantly the paparazzi use the location information published by fans to try to gain a scoop. Again they are concerned about detrimental pictures appearing in the press. Some of the paparazzi show little respect to crew and do not care about disrupting filming in order to get their pictures.
Both the cast and crew work extremely hard beyond the call of duty on both series. So it is quite understandable why they are very protective.
Richard Naismith”
You've stopped posting advance information about locations so they aren't gonna get people or journalists turning up and getting in the way.
You aren't giving major spoilers away because on at least one occasion you've mentioned that you won't tell us something because you feel it's too much.
Besides there's way more gets posted on OG than there is on here and some of the people there are pretty vicious. If I were the BBC I'd be more worried about threads on there from people wanting RTD sacked than about this site.
You're keeping the initial enthusiasm for Torchwood burning and you don't have loony polls about whether to sack members of the Dr Who team ;) (though in fairness I think it's been deleted now) It's a great site and since you're not saying bad things it isn't slander or libel or whatever, it's freedom of speech.(oh god I sound like a campaigner! lol)
Post a Comment