The Grand Unified Top Gear Australia Audition Video Thread!

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Stiggie, have you seen their audition tapes or are their tapes on youtube? It would good to see which ones they choose.
 
Walk into a newsagent at look at the motoring section. Imagine how many journos are employed to produce all that. Turn on the TV on a weekend and navigate the wall to wall motorsports. More people. The newspapers, the motoring industry itself.

Now think about what you've seen on youtube. Is the above listed crowd represented? No, the really impressive candidates you won't find on youtube. As nice as they might be, the online crew are largely people seeking fame and see youtube as a step in the right direction.

It's not enough that you know cars. You've got to be witty and likable. A rarer commodity than you'd think. They've also got to not be foul-some to look at. You've got to be able to write.

There's a natural charm to the three blokes on UK Top Gear, but if you look carefully, they work hard at it. The early episodes now showing on SBS show them slightly awkward at times and missing the mark occasionally. Having said that however the dude who's been replaced by James May is like a possum sitting in the Crested Madagascan Marmoset cage. A different animal altogether and not possessing of the likability factor the three current hosts enjoy. Perhaps, however it wasn't until James arrived that the other two had the right balancing effect.

So, this is what Freehand is seeking. Three people who, together, are greater than the sum of their parts. A big ask.
 
Harsh to say the online crew are merely seeking fame, from what ive seen its more simply a shared passion for cars.....

I agree that there will be some very high quality applications from inside the motoring industry itself, but some print journo's can be oh so painful to watch of TV... Paul Gover is one.
Many of the other motoring guys within tv are tied up to other networks. So anyone with tv experience is left up to free agents (Mr Martin), Speedweek and community tv idiots (myself).
As that pool is shallow why not have a crack? Nothing to lose
 
I agree with you though. Why not have a crack. There's nothing to say journos or ex-race car drivers are going to have what it takes and you or I would not.

It requires something which is hard to define but anyone can identify.
 
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If it's a good show, I hope that it's really good. If it's a bad show, I hope it's really bad. I'd hate to have it somewhere in the middle - it would feel like 5th Gear,
 
3 in 4000 chance is pretty good odds...Imagine wanting to be on the USA's Gear...imagine those odds!

The odds are definitely against you if you have no television or motoring journalism background, but you gotta be in it to win it and with odds of around 1 in 1300, its worth a crack.

The fact that they decided to do an open invitation to audition makes me think they didn't have people lined up already.

Many of the vids on youtube appear to be from a similar demographic. 25-35 y/o males that work in IT and drive modified 4 cylinder Japanese cars or commodores! I fall into this group too! haha...
 
You have to remember some of those 4000 are auditioning for the role of the stig ... i think the odds are quite good that your video has been given a decent look at ... but if you weight your entry, by how much experience you have had reporting on motorting and motorsport, then the odds go down, way down ... freehand, its my guess, will look at all the journos / broadcasters / anyone who said yes to TV / motoring experience ... before they look at other entries ... BUT ... personally ... if TimHet was selected as a host and he was Roshamboed every episode ... I'd watch it. :)
 
Done and dusted chaps.

I read on Stiggies forum they'll start camera testing on Monday.

I called Freehand. All done, all sold. They called who they're going to call.

The fat lady has sung.
 
Oh well. I managed to make a few people laugh as well as piss a few people off, which is a better result than I was expecting. To be honest, I was hoping they'd phone me up and ask me to be a writer... as I'm not a presenter!

I know that if they try jumping a VB Commodore over as many kegs of VB as possible, or they send the hosts into a car factory to work for a day, then they watched my video and took some of my ideas on board.

On the plus side, I can put that left nut into storage ... just in case someone offers me a drive of a Bugatti Veyron or a Ferrari Enzo in exchange for it. You never know ...

Congrats to anyone reading this who got to the next stage. Assuming, of course, that Ray Martin and that Laura chick with too many consonants in her last name read the FG forums ... :D
 
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ok, time to say what everyone really thought of the audition tapes online ;)
 
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