Sunday, June 07, 2009

on demand

over the last year or so, i've really got into watching 'tvnz on demand' - free streaming video from tvnz. in particular it's excellent for watching the material which tvnz itself produces. since going digital and introducing its freeview tv channels, tvnz has found a home for some of the more obscure special interests programs that it makes - including two of my favourites: 'the gravy' and 'new artland'.

i don't have freeview (we've got sky instead) so for now i watch this content online.

it started with discovering 'the gravy' - a show in which the hosts go out and interview creative new zealanders - the range and scope is vast. it is shot beautifully and uses nz music as its soundtrack. with tvnz on demand, i can watch the episode whenever i like, so once i ran out of new episodes (we are currently between seasons - i hope) i decided to check out 'new artland'.

'new artland' is hosted by chris knox and each week features a different artist. the show follows the artist from concept to completion of an artwork especially commissioned for the episode. excellent stuff.

tvnz on demand has recently relaunched, integrating itself into the overall tvnz website. so, here are the links to the two shows:

the gravy: here
new artland: here

this week i was particularly interested in an episode in which a video artist went to a faceless apartment complex in mt eden and interviewed the residents before projecting those interviews onto the outside of the complex. very cool concept that rang my 'safe little world' bells.


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