The videos were unbelievably crap; we had to make a funny video as part of a team bonding activity in my work training and i'm not competing to win a £250,000 investment in a company but they genuinely were better. We had 2 hours to film and edit them and we approached it in a non serious way. I was stunned at how awful they were. This task wasn't that business relevant either; if they had to promote a service or product through viral video on youtube, that's a lot more relevant to what you would be doing when starting a business.
Utterly lost in the edit along with that nameless guy on Solomon's team who just kept laughing at the footage and until this week, Pamela (the one who took over direction). That's what happens when you essentially have four weeks worth of Week 1 edits due to the amount of contestants. We're now where we normally would be with number of contestants though. One more double firing would have us set for a standard interviews and final.
Interesting that many of the big characters have been gotten rid of very quickly - we're now suddenly going to see a lot more of the quiet ones now that Sarah, Stephen, Ella-Jade and to a lesser extent Robert have been gotten rid of so quickly. James, Katie, Felipe, Mark, Daniel, Solomon, Bianca and Roisin are all at least vaguely recognisable characters now but the other four need to be brought more heavily into the mix and most of those names need more fleshing out.
I'm a tad annoyed with the firing of Steven as I don't think he'd done enough wrong to deserve being fired, as he didn't overly screw up the task and he had actually been more right than wrong on task in the past.
Speaking as someone who liked her quite a bit in the first few weeks, I'm pretty happy with Ella Jade's firing. She screwed up the task from the word Go and messed up the comedy video, destroying Tenacity's chances from Day 1. In the boardroom her strategy was basically "These two are comedy candidates, so you should save me", which on the task basis would have been unfair. I'd have fired Ella Jade for messing up the task and Sarah for being utterly useless in the past.
Utterly lost in the edit along with that nameless guy on Solomon's team who just kept laughing at the footage and until this week, Pamela (the one who took over direction). That's what happens when you essentially have four weeks worth of Week 1 edits due to the amount of contestants. We're now where we normally would be with number of contestants though. One more double firing would have us set for a standard interviews and final.
Interesting that many of the big characters have been gotten rid of very quickly - we're now suddenly going to see a lot more of the quiet ones now that Sarah, Stephen, Ella-Jade and to a lesser extent Robert have been gotten rid of so quickly. James, Katie, Felipe, Mark, Daniel, Solomon, Bianca and Roisin are all at least vaguely recognisable characters now but the other four need to be brought more heavily into the mix and most of those names need more fleshing out.
I agree; Jemma, Lauren and Sanjay could be in bother. I actually think Pamela is doing well however. I think James is going next week; he can't be taken seriously from what's been so far. I did think that Solomon was good but the fact that he managed a task with such a bad video. I think maybe Katie, Bianca and Mark will be front runners now but I don't know.
It was actually Jemma's edit that was the clearest indicator to me that Summit was going to win; at the start it was lampshaded by Sugar that her lack of... mentions, contribution, whatever prior to this task seemed to be close to zero (reflected in the edit where she spoke like once per task), and then she still barely featured throughout the task. She came up with the Dare To Dine name, iirc, and did a little buttering up of the YouTube collaborator, but still had a very low-key episode overall.
I feel like her low-key edit's been more conciliatory than the others who got fired so far over poor contribution levels, though, given that one of her tiny contributions was praised and that her cards haven't felt marked despite the mantra of 'deadwood will be purged' that keeps getting thrown around. Maybe that means she just stays on the winning team for a couple more weeks, I don't know.
I've never really watched this programme before but happened to watch last week and enjoyed it so made a point of watching tonight. So glad I did! The triple firing was great, and seemed very fair imho. Will definitely be watching next week.
What did people think of the firing of Ella? I actually thought she would get off with a warning as she had done well previously, she made an absolute shambles of this task but her £900 sale in last task was impressive and she had shown good people skills. I could understand firing Sarah and Steven as they were continually doing nothing. Lord Sugar is obnoxious this year; would you really want to go in business with him?
She's displayed business sense throughout. He seemed to have another attack of anti-academic bias . Plus she did what a few other people have been fired for under the new prize format - she lost at the task he declared was most like her proposal.
The problem is that it wasn't that clear where the video went wrong, or that the errors of the other sub team were not crucial or that a more equal choice of partner was open to her team Nor is there any reason why a documentary maker should be any good at making comedy, or selling youtubes. Its almost as silly as firing Zoe - who wanted to build her drinks business - because Tom designed an ghastly tasting biscuit.
The sugar anti- academic thing was a particularly thick in her case as - from her CV - she must have only just left university, and she couldn't have done more than she had done in the way of part time work and film training courses since she was 16 . http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/ella-jade-bitton/65/7ba/578 If he doesn't want recent graduates he shouldn't pick them.
If her CV had read Hackney Secondary Modern, and left school for market at 16 - instead of Harrow Private school , Central, RADA, Harrods, Kings London, I think he would have given her another chance.
The whole apprentice format is getting very tired, the candidates left and lost really don't seem at all credible. Tonight's task outcomes were comparable to high school toilet humour not high flying entreneurs. I think they should do an over 45 apprentice program, l bet we would see what good leadership looks like as well as creativity, resourcefulness, humility, humour, team working and dogid determination. Stuff the youth of today, if this is all they can come up with.
The whole apprentice format is getting very tired, the candidates left and lost really don't seem at all credible. Tonight's task outcomes were comparable to high school toilet humour not high flying entreneurs. I think they should do an over 45 apprentice program, l bet we would see what good leadership looks like as well as creativity, resourcefulness, humility, humour, team working and dogid determination. Stuff the youth of today, if this is all they can come up with.
In the real world though not many 45+ year olds are going to get very far with starting up a business. Obviously good sense, a strong idea and business nous will get you far but these factors:
- A need to engage with youth trends, social media and technology
- A relentlessly competitive market where you need a head start
- Rampant ageism and pandering to youth in all corners of industry
...mean that getting off the ground is going to be hard. It's not right and it's sad but that's just the way it is. You start young or you've had it.
For anyone who's interested, here's my review of this week's historic triple firing --> Link
Would need to see it again, but did you understand the point about the partner they were offered. We know Solomon's team had one with far more monthly views - which he picked over the one with much fewer. Did Ella's team get people on the same list to choose, , or a choice of different ones? She ended up with someone with half as many hits as the guy Solomon took.? Did she have a better option available, or was Solomon always advantaged by having a better/bigger partner with more views available? Its rather important that that is a fair playing field - as Ella seemed to win on the total for the other views?
And if it actually mattered, where did Ella's video go wrong? Was it the direction, or the acting, or the filming, or Katie being too serious? We mainly just have Pamela's account?
Or was the decisive event not putting a title/description on the youtube . Given it produced more hits independently of the partner it looks highly likely she would have won , if a title and description had pulled in 200 or so more hits?
I'm a tad annoyed with the firing of Steven as I don't think he'd done enough wrong to deserve being fired, as he didn't overly screw up the task and he had actually been more right than wrong on task in the past.
Speaking as someone who liked her quite a bit in the first few weeks, I'm pretty happy with Ella Jade's firing. She screwed up the task from the word Go and messed up the comedy video, destroying Tenacity's chances from Day 1. In the boardroom her strategy was basically "These two are comedy candidates, so you should save me", which on the task basis would have been unfair. I'd have fired Ella Jade for messing up the task and Sarah for being utterly useless in the past.
Stephen messed up his pitch (though they probably wouldn't have featured the channel anyway). He was sacked for a similar reason to Sarah. Performance so far showed he couldn't work in a team. He takes passive-aggressive to a new level.
Ella Jade was shocking, and the grovelling on the way out awful.
Far too much use of the P word by all three of them. Being passionate about something doesn't make you any good at it. You've got to have some ability first before passion starts to make any difference. Claiming you are 'passionate' about something is meaningless. It's something you can only demonstrate by your actions.
Ella Jade was passionate about watching TV so thinks that makes her good at it.
Sarah was passionate about her dating website without actually knowing anything about how they work.
Steven was passionate about Steven. He talked utter bollocks as if it made sense, when actually it was the exact opposite of what he meant. He said he was the only social worker in the Arctic as if that meant he was the best. As the only one he was both the best and the worst. Of the three he's probably the nicest, if only he'd learn to shut his gob. Good comedy value too, so it's a shame he's gone.
It was actually Jemma's edit that was the clearest indicator to me that Summit was going to win; at the start it was lampshaded by Sugar that her lack of... mentions, contribution, whatever prior to this task seemed to be close to zero (reflected in the edit where she spoke like once per task), and then she still barely featured throughout the task. She came up with the Dare To Dine name, iirc, and did a little buttering up of the YouTube collaborator, but still had a very low-key episode overall.
I feel like her low-key edit's been more conciliatory than the others who got fired so far over poor contribution levels, though, given that one of her tiny contributions was praised and that her cards haven't felt marked despite the mantra of 'deadwood will be purged' that keeps getting thrown around. Maybe that means she just stays on the winning team for a couple more weeks, I don't know.
I've been suspecting she might be getting the winner's edit, but this doesn't come across as the usual case. Normally they don't leave it this long to have the winner getting our attention.
They normally keep them quiet for the first week or two, then have them quietly impress in Week 3 or 4 (they are at this point considered a dark horse but are in reality the obvious winner), then have them successfully project manage shortly afterwards and therefore emerge as a contender, before gradually becoming the main star by the final weeks.
In this case though Jemma's been non-existent in Weeks 1-3 and barely registering a blip even in Week 4. She seems to be doing well enough for her colleagues to be happy with her and not accuse her of being a passenger, which means she can't be too bad and she's no Noorul. I suspect she's more of a Lohit from Series 2 in that she's very quietly and meekly shuffling through the tasks being basically fine and will eventually be noticed at a late stage and promptly fired. This is a similar edit to a winner's edit but without any noticeable victories. Let's see if I'm right!
Yeah, the whole premise of the show is silly, and not a good way to look at any specific skillsets they may have. I see it as just an entertainment show. I can't remember the last time I took it seriously.
Series 2 for me.
After that, it really boils down to an entertainment extravaganza, not a serious look for who is a good business person.
YF wasn't great, Stephen was all talk to the point of it being a bit cringey/sad and Sarah was Sarah.. she doesn't seem particularly bright.
Two things I was wondering
1) Did the video that got the most views not mostly depend on what keywords they had in the title? I could get views on Youtube just sticking 'Justin Bieber Beyonce' e.t.c. in the title..
2) Anyone found the videos themselves, I guess they took them down shortly after the task? Did the famous youtuber guy upload something around the time that means we know what month the series was filmed around
It was actually Jemma's edit that was the clearest indicator to me that Summit was going to win; at the start it was lampshaded by Sugar that her lack of... mentions, contribution, whatever prior to this task seemed to be close to zero (reflected in the edit where she spoke like once per task), and then she still barely featured throughout the task. She came up with the Dare To Dine name, iirc, and did a little buttering up of the YouTube collaborator, but still had a very low-key episode overall.
I feel like her low-key edit's been more conciliatory than the others who got fired so far over poor contribution levels, though, given that one of her tiny contributions was praised and that her cards haven't felt marked despite the mantra of 'deadwood will be purged' that keeps getting thrown around. Maybe that means she just stays on the winning team for a couple more weeks, I don't know.
The whole apprentice format is getting very tired, the candidates left and lost really don't seem at all credible. Tonight's task outcomes were comparable to high school toilet humour not high flying entreneurs. I think they should do an over 45 apprentice program, l bet we would see what good leadership looks like as well as creativity, resourcefulness, humility, humour, team working and dogid determination. Stuff the youth of today, if this is all they can come up with.
To be honest, I like the idea of the task this week, and it kinda makes sense if the candidates flop horribly doing a simple task like this one they deserve to be fired, as being good at social media is vital to the business deal LS will eventually put $ in
I agree; Jemma, Lauren and Sanjay could be in bother. I actually think Pamela is doing well however. I think James is going next week; he can't be taken seriously from what's been so far. I did think that Solomon was good but the fact that he managed a task with such a bad video. I think maybe Katie, Bianca and Mark will be front runners now but I don't know.
Judging from the preview I think it's really likely.
Comments
Blonde Bird? You mean Jemma Bird.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/302hpwsvNB8HstnlcbK1HZp/jemma-bird
He just took the opportunity of dumping 3 people who's ideas didn't interest him. If either of them had a worthwhile idea he might have saved them.
She was great. I'm trying to find out her full name so I can follow her on Twitter.
Utterly lost in the edit along with that nameless guy on Solomon's team who just kept laughing at the footage and until this week, Pamela (the one who took over direction). That's what happens when you essentially have four weeks worth of Week 1 edits due to the amount of contestants. We're now where we normally would be with number of contestants though. One more double firing would have us set for a standard interviews and final.
Interesting that many of the big characters have been gotten rid of very quickly - we're now suddenly going to see a lot more of the quiet ones now that Sarah, Stephen, Ella-Jade and to a lesser extent Robert have been gotten rid of so quickly. James, Katie, Felipe, Mark, Daniel, Solomon, Bianca and Roisin are all at least vaguely recognisable characters now but the other four need to be brought more heavily into the mix and most of those names need more fleshing out.
Speaking as someone who liked her quite a bit in the first few weeks, I'm pretty happy with Ella Jade's firing. She screwed up the task from the word Go and messed up the comedy video, destroying Tenacity's chances from Day 1. In the boardroom her strategy was basically "These two are comedy candidates, so you should save me", which on the task basis would have been unfair. I'd have fired Ella Jade for messing up the task and Sarah for being utterly useless in the past.
I agree; Jemma, Lauren and Sanjay could be in bother. I actually think Pamela is doing well however. I think James is going next week; he can't be taken seriously from what's been so far. I did think that Solomon was good but the fact that he managed a task with such a bad video. I think maybe Katie, Bianca and Mark will be front runners now but I don't know.
I feel like her low-key edit's been more conciliatory than the others who got fired so far over poor contribution levels, though, given that one of her tiny contributions was praised and that her cards haven't felt marked despite the mantra of 'deadwood will be purged' that keeps getting thrown around. Maybe that means she just stays on the winning team for a couple more weeks, I don't know.
Thanks for the link, I really enjoyed your review
Judged on this week's performance alone, neither Sarah nor Steven deserved to be fired.
She's displayed business sense throughout. He seemed to have another attack of anti-academic bias . Plus she did what a few other people have been fired for under the new prize format - she lost at the task he declared was most like her proposal.
The problem is that it wasn't that clear where the video went wrong, or that the errors of the other sub team were not crucial or that a more equal choice of partner was open to her team Nor is there any reason why a documentary maker should be any good at making comedy, or selling youtubes. Its almost as silly as firing Zoe - who wanted to build her drinks business - because Tom designed an ghastly tasting biscuit.
The sugar anti- academic thing was a particularly thick in her case as - from her CV - she must have only just left university, and she couldn't have done more than she had done in the way of part time work and film training courses since she was 16 .
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/ella-jade-bitton/65/7ba/578 If he doesn't want recent graduates he shouldn't pick them.
If her CV had read Hackney Secondary Modern, and left school for market at 16 - instead of Harrow Private school , Central, RADA, Harrods, Kings London, I think he would have given her another chance.
In the real world though not many 45+ year olds are going to get very far with starting up a business. Obviously good sense, a strong idea and business nous will get you far but these factors:
- A need to engage with youth trends, social media and technology
- A relentlessly competitive market where you need a head start
- Rampant ageism and pandering to youth in all corners of industry
...mean that getting off the ground is going to be hard. It's not right and it's sad but that's just the way it is. You start young or you've had it.
Would need to see it again, but did you understand the point about the partner they were offered. We know Solomon's team had one with far more monthly views - which he picked over the one with much fewer. Did Ella's team get people on the same list to choose, , or a choice of different ones? She ended up with someone with half as many hits as the guy Solomon took.? Did she have a better option available, or was Solomon always advantaged by having a better/bigger partner with more views available? Its rather important that that is a fair playing field - as Ella seemed to win on the total for the other views?
And if it actually mattered, where did Ella's video go wrong? Was it the direction, or the acting, or the filming, or Katie being too serious? We mainly just have Pamela's account?
Or was the decisive event not putting a title/description on the youtube . Given it produced more hits independently of the partner it looks highly likely she would have won , if a title and description had pulled in 200 or so more hits?
Ella Jade was shocking, and the grovelling on the way out awful.
Far too much use of the P word by all three of them. Being passionate about something doesn't make you any good at it. You've got to have some ability first before passion starts to make any difference. Claiming you are 'passionate' about something is meaningless. It's something you can only demonstrate by your actions.
Ella Jade was passionate about watching TV so thinks that makes her good at it.
Sarah was passionate about her dating website without actually knowing anything about how they work.
Steven was passionate about Steven. He talked utter bollocks as if it made sense, when actually it was the exact opposite of what he meant. He said he was the only social worker in the Arctic as if that meant he was the best. As the only one he was both the best and the worst. Of the three he's probably the nicest, if only he'd learn to shut his gob. Good comedy value too, so it's a shame he's gone.
I've been suspecting she might be getting the winner's edit, but this doesn't come across as the usual case. Normally they don't leave it this long to have the winner getting our attention.
They normally keep them quiet for the first week or two, then have them quietly impress in Week 3 or 4 (they are at this point considered a dark horse but are in reality the obvious winner), then have them successfully project manage shortly afterwards and therefore emerge as a contender, before gradually becoming the main star by the final weeks.
In this case though Jemma's been non-existent in Weeks 1-3 and barely registering a blip even in Week 4. She seems to be doing well enough for her colleagues to be happy with her and not accuse her of being a passenger, which means she can't be too bad and she's no Noorul. I suspect she's more of a Lohit from Series 2 in that she's very quietly and meekly shuffling through the tasks being basically fine and will eventually be noticed at a late stage and promptly fired. This is a similar edit to a winner's edit but without any noticeable victories. Let's see if I'm right!
Series 2 for me.
After that, it really boils down to an entertainment extravaganza, not a serious look for who is a good business person.
It didn't cease trading. It was bought by BSkyB and makes set top boxes for Sky.
Two things I was wondering
1) Did the video that got the most views not mostly depend on what keywords they had in the title? I could get views on Youtube just sticking 'Justin Bieber Beyonce' e.t.c. in the title..
2) Anyone found the videos themselves, I guess they took them down shortly after the task? Did the famous youtuber guy upload something around the time that means we know what month the series was filmed around
Was that her business plan?
it just means little lord alan is back in charge
To be honest, I like the idea of the task this week, and it kinda makes sense if the candidates flop horribly doing a simple task like this one they deserve to be fired, as being good at social media is vital to the business deal LS will eventually put $ in
Judging from the preview I think it's really likely.
My pick of front-runner is Solomon.