what happened to...

[PJ-27]

Re: what happened to...

What about that Killer Robots show? Anyone catch that?

They (Sharp Entertainment) effectively filmed the RoboGames HW Champs (In the USA) got that guy for Mythbusters to host and narrate it and sold it as a 1 hour show to Discovery (Science Channel)

Robot Wars the TV series has gone (at least for now, it'll soon gain nostalgia value and be back, but it wasn't that long ago it left) but why not explore different concepts? Much like these guys have.

From what I gather the gig was commissioned by The Science Channel, but I guess someone still brought all those things together.

I think we could easily put together a short promo between us (Thanks Tony ) as plenty of people in this community have AV skills.

Otherwise I know a TV production company a film Production company plenty of independent film companies.

We also need the content though. As controversial as it may be I think the UK HW champs wouldn't be fitting. It's already heavily theatre-ised (that's not a bad thing, just wouldn't translate well to TV, plus no producer would want to touch it)
There are no spinners (yes yes yes, but look at what Killer Robots did with the inclusion of spinners, lots of slooooow mooooo)
And English crowds just aren't into stuff as much as US crowds.

[Ellis]

Re: what happened to...

It's a bit short-notice, but the UK FW Champs may be a better bet. TheGadgetShow is huge, I am sure the crowds around the battles will also be huge. Spinners everywhere, lots of damage, plenty of people willing to demonstrate their machines, loads of footage could be taken in the pits, etc. Footage for a 30 minute or even hour-long one-off wouldn't be hard to produce at all, like the RoboGames event.

All you need is an HD camera or two and some coordination.

I do video editing, not as a living (I'm 16) but I have done various jobs; many paid. 4+ years using Sony Vegas. My dad has been a music producer (and player) for 4 decades.

Between the community, there's no reason why we couldn't make something presentable.

[jonny]

Re: what happened to...

and i have an ipad which is almost equivalent to a filmography degree

[typhoon_driver]

Re: what happened to...

and my axe!

By all means give it a go and see if something comes of it. I'm just going to err on the side of caution when it comes to getting tv companies involved as I remember them being a pain in the arse

A particular memory - Gary please don't hit the side of the arena again as we are already behind filming.......yeah simple controlling a machine that could nacker the arena if any part of it touched the sidewall........

[psychostorm]

Re: what happened to...

Time to play devils advocate (because that's the kind of guy I am )

-What makes what you are suggesting different and interesting? Robot wars was done to death by the end. Obviously it didn't help that the tv channels messed it around showing it at different times etc but the show was becoming rather repetitive.

Interesting enough point. No-one ever considers it.

Robot Wars was repetitive as well as expensive. 20 episodes at £500,000 each? Would you spend £10 million pounds on a series? The BBC doesn't spends more than 300 grand on saturday primetime no less.

It's not really enough to say we'll film the FWs instead of the heavies. The programme needs a format shift, to be much shorter in season length & to be as cost effective as possible (Not necessarily the same as cheap - though that is a factor.)

-Whoever's event you go to you will need permission to film and send on the footage and have some form of agreement in place as to what happens if DAVE came back and said let's do it. Anyone considered this?

Well as much as I see event organisers liking this, there is the restriction of where it the event is. A studio rental agreement comes with the filming of a studio surround in the contract, the likes of Gadget Show live/NEC or O2 arena still would have to have a contract.

Has anyone actually asked for UKTV for a commissioning brief? uktv.commissioning(at)uktv.co.uk - I'm guessing you usually don't have to mention the programme details.

For the record, I do think the featherweights are the way to go forward. They won't load as fast as Jonno's arena but they are light, an easier accessible weight category and have more recent Teelevision time as well as the interesting duality of being a hjighlight of the last wars yet not the focus of it.

Should we need trials, for TV purposes, the obstacles can be light & cheap. The FW championships could probably make 8 half hour eps.

A particular memory - Gary please don't hit the side of the arena again as we are already behind filming.......yeah simple controlling a machine that could knacker the arena if any part of it touched the sidewall........

Was that after the grand final or the first breakage?

You should have said 'You try try controlling a petrol powered sledgehammer from 15 feet away, let's see you do better!'

[chrissbb]

Re: what happened to...

what ever happens i/we should start a fresh, new name , new game . that way we cannot have any issues with enyone else , companys or legal stuff. we film the promo if someone likes it ,we run it ,us you and me . sorry got to go was just warming up for a bit of a rant. speek soon. Chris.

[Anttazz]

Re: what happened to...

As a few people have mentioned, I would stay away from filming at the UK FW Champs, there'd be so much legal stuff to do it'd be a real time consumer, that is, if you even manage to talk to the guy you need to talk to. Also, filming inside a box with LS4 in it? Can't see many people volunteering for that. Also, there are definitely issues to work out on legality, but it would be better sitting down with one of the EOs and venue providers (smaller venues may be easier) and checking the terms of the contract/discussing how we can all achieve exactly what we want to achieve. Also the safety aspect and floor plans etc. Can't really just be come up with overnight.

I do like you're idea PJ, that does change it up a bit, but spinners would I imagine not be allowed, would keep costs down (and therefore attractiveness to a network) to get the EOs involved for that. Also keeps the money within the community, kind of.

I do see where you're coming from with the spinners though so to that effect would it be wrong to kind of stage the first few fights? Not the result I don't mean, but make sure there's as many of the more exciting robots in there as possible eg. Thor, Ripper, one of the IAs, Tiberious maybe? Something that has more variety than flipper, flipper, flipper, ram bot.

[psychostorm]

Re: what happened to...

what ever happens i/we should start a fresh, new name , new game . that way we cannot have any issues with enyone else , companys or legal stuff. we film the promo if someone likes it ,we run it ,us you and me .

Without any legal stuff, we can't even get this promo on Youtube, let alone tv.

I mention companies because [tv]companies will only give other companies the time of day.

Now, if you want to film a promotional tape, that's fine but I must emphasise that you must find out:

• Exactly what TV companies want to broadcast[/*:m:2dpuwoy1]
• Exactly what format you want to film (including how it is different from Robot Wars)[/*:m:2dpuwoy1]
• How much TV companies will pay (lucky for even £50K an ep)[/*:m:2dpuwoy1]

before you plan how to do it. Otherwise it's just wasted effort planning.

Sorry, I'm playing devil's advocate but I'm not seeing any of anything I feel is very important to the conversation.

For the record, Tony, I was in fact referring to a future TV specific FW champs in future years & had, in mind, filming through the polycarb with a polarized lens.

[Max]

Re: what happened to...

Just an idea but if you wanted a different take on fighting robots instead of robotwars you could have the BOXING ROBOTS like the robots live ones- there has been a bit of intrest in them on the forum lately.
And there was a whole film about it (real steel) and all the way through watching it I was thinking God it would be cool to have this in real life maybe this is our chance!

[jonny]

Re: what happened to...

Guerilla marketing, Agressive advertising

Guerrilla radio?

[mattsdragons]

Re: what happened to...

Nice RATM quote there Jonny

But boxers might work, their different, with existing models to see and still beat the crap out of eachother

[Anttazz]

Re: what happened to...

I can see where you're coming from Ceri, but I can't see that being as good quality as filming inside the arena at a HW event. Although I suppose if you had remote cameras it could work. The polycarbonate will more than likely have scruffs and scratches on it that make the camera unhappy or ruin the shots.

Theres are currently 2 boxers I think? I don't understand why you would base it around them, something which no one has really intimated any interest towards competing with. Interest was only seen because a new section of the forum was added and people wanted to fill it. We would be as well making a trailer for a destruction derby if you want to go down that route, it has combat, but not many of us do that either.

If we film a 5minute trailer, or whatever we decide to do and the TV companies say no, we could always use it for our own needs. I remember seeing an advert on Dave for the UK HW Champs, so maybe Jonno would be the first man to contact with ideas, i'm sure if you wanted to take some of that hassle off his hands or get some decent footage for him he wouldn't be too upset.

I'm not really trying to get this idea to go ahead or not either, I just want people to put their ideas forward that make sense and get them all out there and over with, bored of seeing thread after thread of the same thing over and over coming to nothing. So one way of the other this can hopefully sort it out. The stupid one liners are really starting to p£$% me off too....

[codename_47]

Re: what happened to...

Hi all, I'm a bit of a nobody here but I've found this discussion fascinating.

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Paul and I was a big fan of Robot Wars back in the day, so much so I used to be on the old green and black Robot Wars forum typing up my reviews on each episode as they aired while my friends were out underage drinking and getting into actual teenage scrapes!

Since it has been off the air I have been completely out of the loop, though I have been to the shows in Whittick a few times, my Dad took me after explaining he couldn't go and play squash at his gym that week due to the event.
(Can't get into my gym this week Why not Dad? Bloody ROBOT WARS!-has to be one of my favourite quotes of his ever, s**t my Dad says on Twitter has nothing on him!)

I've stumbled back here because I've been laid up with Flu this week and to pass the time between bouts of sickness I found my old VHS recorder and tapes, including all the series of Robot Wars lovingly taped of the Television.

Watching it again has given me a huge wave of Nostalgia and also able to see what worked and what didn't with different eyes than my biased teenage self ever could when he was just a fanboy for various robots.

I don't think there's fundamentally much wrong with the format aside from one issue: The House Robots
We all know why they were created, to make sure all the fights were entertaining enough for TV.
If the combatant robots could do that, fine, if not, the house Robots would inflict some damage to at least make something worth showing on TV-fine, whatever.
By the end of the series they weren't needed anyway as the compettitors were more than capable of holding the show on their own (even in series 7 when the majority of the stars seemed to vanish without trace, this probably helped contribute to the lower viewing figures combined with the channel move...)

What I thought the sport needed at that time was to drop the house robots completely and become what Battlebots was, a straight competition, a sport in its own right that happened to be televised, not a gameshow artificially pretending to be a competition.
What Battlebots did right was if a Fight wasn't entertaining enough, it simply wasn't shown on TV, they didn't send in other robots to create damage for entertainment reasons.
If you were a boring but effective wedge you probably wouldn't get on TV until the time when someone finally stood up to you and trashed you or the grand final when it simply had to be shown.
This would have the side effect of Robots like Tornado not being seen until the final show but, so be it, that's the design path they chose to go down, I'm sure they'd rather win the thing and get less TV time with a boring box than build something more exciting and risk not winning. Yin and Yang and all that.

What you have now in the live events is great, (although the areas need less opportunities to send someone OOTA in 5 seconds imo!) and while I understand the arguments about it not being satisfactory for a TV Show maybe getting on TV shouldn't be the main goal?
IF it was run as a bona fida sport and became a lot more popular, the digital TV channels would be approaching you lot to televise what you're already doing, not the other way round.
Going to them cap in hand and saying you'll do it on water or with helicopters or whatever other compromise that will mean the majority of competing bots in action now can't be used isn't going to endear you to them or make them think they can use you to make great TV!

What could work though is, as I say, set out the competition so it isn't reliant on TV either way, then set up the cameras around the area so they stream, live, to your website. (And back that up with a populist site like justin.tv or something like that)
When I was at my last event it was Saturday lunchtime and I estimate there must have been at least 100 people there if not 150-200. As far as I could see it was one of three shows so that's 300 people who could be informed of the stream.
Well that was a good fight with Kronic wasn't it everyone? He goes through to tomorrow's final, come back and see that or if you can't make it then watch it on our web stream on our website...only a quid... or whatever.

Word will spread and it'd be a lot easier to follow the events from your laptop than driving around the country with them, which seems to be the only way to see these things live atm...

(As I typed this I thought I was being amazingly original but then it just struck me now...isn't that what Battlebots did to get itself on Comedy Central in the first place? I have a dim memory from the old forum of hearing about Battlebots as a live web stream, particularly as a lot of UK robots were over there at the time....Oh well, hey, it worked once, it can again )

That's another point though, if anyone follows motorsport as much as I do I can see parallels in where Robot Combat is now and where Formula 1 was in the 1960s/1970s
It was no doubt popular but just bubbling under public conciousness.
Then a certain businessman called Bernie Ecclestone came along, united the teams and governing body into one organisation, got the interest of TV companies installed a sense of professionalism, sorted sponsorship and basically turned a ragbag gang of engineers and racing drivers into the professional multi-billion dollar sport we know today.
Is there anyone that could do that for Roboteering? Is it all a bit disparate with various different leagues and organisations vying for control? If one organisation goes to TV and the other half isn't involved will half the potential robots suddenly not be around?
These are all questions I don't know based on being out of the game for so long, but to stand a chance of getting anyone's attention you all need to stand as one, no in-fighting over petty squabbles that were based on stuff from years ago!

Anyway, as I say, I'm just a fan, if it wasn't for Youtube and my recent bout of Flu I'd probably never have come here but now I have, those are my thoughts on various matters.
Due to my inexperience, naievity and, heck, the goddamn huge length of this post I expect to be ignored, but hey, its good to vent, so thanks for giving me the chance to!

TL,DR Version: Proper Sport, Web Streaming, Bernie Ecclestone

*P.S* How come they legalised Flamethrowers over in the US? Jesus Christ! DO that! That'll get you straight back on TV, you know how TV viewers love flames!

*Edit* Apparently I have 65 posts! Yikes! I've been here before? Time to wallow in Nostalgia then!

[swanaldo]

Re: what happened to...

and my axe........... PMSL.

[kodster]

Re: what happened to...

CRIKEY!

Welcome back Paul, I do indeed remember you from the old RW Forum. 'Hmmmmmmm'

Your post has plenty of merit, I say. But we would also need the opinions of those who have been on Robot Wars before. Not just from the competitors, either...we have plenty of those on here!