More about the Coronavirus Covid-19 and its effect on the provision of television programming.
The Shows Must Go On
YouTube
Universal has put on YouTube a series of musicals – from Stage to Screen; “The Shows Must Go On”. Each film is on YouTube for 48 hours. One thread, running every Friday from 19:00 BST, is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals, starting with the film adaptation of the stage version of “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. (Friday 03 April 2020)
The second one – on Good Friday – was, appropriately enough, “Jesus Christ Superstar”.
Have I Got News For You
Virtually .. (04/04/2020)
In fact, the complete series – all nine episodes – were virtually done this way.
The Queen
The Queen broadcast to the nation at 20:00 on 05 April 2020: one of only five times during her reign (apart from the regular Christmas broadcasts).
John Howell (Hibou)
There can’t be many cameramen who have been alone in the same room as the queen.
Pat Heigham
Well, if it was a dubbing session, HM would have needed a 2m long sword!
I’m puzzled, Hibou, as your message is time stamped at 19:10, although I assume that you posted after the broadcast at 20:00.
This also applies to a posting from Nick, stamped at 19:20.
John Nottage
I’m just reading a novel involving time travel. That might explain it.
Roger Bunce
But you didn’t have to travel in time, nor wait until after Her Majesty’s speech because, if you had tuned into BBC News at any time in the day, you’d have seen Nicholas Witchell explaining what the Queen was GOING to say. And, if you’d listened very carefully, you might have heard my distant voice screaming at the tele, “This is NOT NEWS! News is when you tell us what has happened AFTER it has happened. Speculation and prediction should not be on the News!” Personally, I’m quite happy to wait, and hear what the Queen has to say, when she says it.
And to make matters worse, – well – it was NICHOLAS bloody-creepy-toady-everso-unctuous WITCHELL! What was it Prince Charles said about him? I don’t always agree with Prince Charles, but on the subjects of the Goon Show and Nicholas Witchell we are of one mind. I still haven’t forgiven the man for crossing our picket line, when proper BBC Journalists, like Charles Wheeler, stood shoulder to shoulder with us!
David Denness
Can’t blame Auntie really. It was all releases from Buckingham Palace telling royal correspondents what she had said in her speech.
I do agree with you in abhorring the practice across countless News outlets of releasing what someone might, or could have said.
It devalues everything we see, read or hear.
John Howell (Hibou)
I posted my email before the broadcast so your clocks are correct. The info was on the BBC lunchtime news.
Roger Bunce
And – and – and another thing! Nicholas Uriah-Heep-lives-blackleg Witchell (some people split infinitives, but I demand the right to split proper nouns!) wasn’t just talking to camera. He was being interviewed by another BBC Journalist! What’s the point in that? One BBC Journalist interviewing another, both agreeing with each other. Where’s the dynamic? So, two journos were tied up, wasting half a bulletin, telling us something we didn’t need to know, because we’d find out soon enough, and was NOT NEWS!
But I have sympathy for the young lady journo, on location in a park, who said, “It’s a sunny day. People are out walking, running, cycling, dogging . . .” I think she meant ‘dog walking’!
Andrea Bocelli: Music For Hope
Alec Bray
[On Easter Sunday (12/04/2020)] night, at 18:00, my wife and I watched, with many people across the world, Andrea Bocelli’s broadcast from Milan Cathedral.
On YouTube.
No national television production company (like RAI) no EBU, no International Control Room (is there one still?), no standards conversion, no Red B or other Presentation intros.
Looked like some drone cameras were used, some handheld cameras (the track that the screen grab comes from was a bit wobblyvision), and it looked like some fixed position remote operated cameras.
Is this the future …?
[Ed: the concert was mentioned in BBC News bulletins and in the daily Coronavirus update on Easter Monday 13/04/2020, as below]
One World: Together At Home
“One World: Together At Home” is a campaign rallying funds for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization. The WHO’s mission for COVID-19 is to prevent, detect, and respond to the pandemic. This Fund, powered by the UN Foundation, goes directly to WHO’s rapid response to COVID-19 around the world.
The programme was live-streamed from performers’ homes over the Internet on Saturday 18th April 2020, and was curated by Lady Gaga. The BBC broadcast an edited version on Sunday 19th April 2020.
Alan Taylor
I stayed up until about 02:30 [Saturday] night watching the live stream and was generally quite impressed and often intrigued about how they accomplished what they did. [Sunday] evening I started watching the BBC compilation of it and found it utterly frustrating.
Even on those occasions when they actually feature a musician’s performance, they can’t leave it alone, they keep panning the camera around the BBC set instead. Why ? It’s not even a very interesting set.
The live stream certainly had it’s quota of duff spots, but the BBC show so far has managed to add duff bits into places where there previously weren’t any.
A few minutes ago we had “… coming up …” with a clip of a couple of forthcoming acts, but that’s usually a ploy to keep attention before a commercial break. On the BBC it’s just an unnecessary irritation.
To my mind a highlight show should mainly consist of, well, you know … highlights. They have diminished the show I saw last night and I’ve now given up on it, which is a shame because the fundamental raison d’être is a subject extremely close to my heart as my wife works in a critical care ward, dealing with the most contagious category of aerosol emitting Covid patients. This is pic of her dressed for work on Friday and she will be repeating this every day she’s working for the foreseeable future ( subject to availability of PPE ).
Why do production teams have to interfere and mess up something which was perfectly watchable and indeed quite enjoyable in its original form? [Saturday] night there was a slight sense of “Live Aid” about it and certainly a buzz about it. [Sunday] evening‘s show portrayed nothing of that.
The One World concert showed that artists can work perfectly well without pesky audio professionals getting involved.
David Denness
Some can….
Alan Taylor
By the way, did anybody spot that Lady Gaga’s vocal microphone was switched to cardioid and which way her microphone was actually facing?
Robert Miles
Mmmm……. Wondering why she appears to be singing on the back of a U47 set to Cardioid!
Bernie Newnham
Is that a way of getting indirect sound, bounced off the walls? Don’t attack me, I’m not a sound man.
Chris Woolf
Nah! Just gives that super-warm, all bass tip-up and no top they think is “retro”…
But actually it is because the badge is on the front and they want to show the camera they can afford a vintage Neumann mic.
Nick Ware
I didn’t see that bit, but judging by some of the others, what makes you chaps even think the mic was plugged into anything?
Alan Taylor
Whether the microphone was plugged in or not, the pop shield was still positioned on the wrong side.
It reminds me of a time when a local cameraman wanted to work solo, without paying for a sound guy as it would be such a simple shoot. He needed to record one reporter doing two or three brief pieces to camera, along with a stereo atmos track. He hired one of my Neumann RSM191 stereo gun mics. As those mics are complex and can be a bit confusing, I set up the matrix box so that everything would be appropriate for his purposes and told him to simply disconnect the microphone lead, leaving the matrix box connected to the camera and not to change any of the settings. After the shoot was over, he angrily confronted me insisting that the microphone was useless and that the quality of the recording was unacceptable.
I went round to his place to listen to the rushes and indeed the noises off were rather prominent, the microphone didn’t seem to be at all directional. Then at one point the microphone popped into shot and I spotted that the end of the Rycote with the cable emerging from it was pointing at the reporter. It was obvious that he had been using the microphone upside down throughout the entire shoot.
There is a trap for the unwary ( and also for cameramen who don’t listen to explanations ) when using the RSM191 in its Rycote windshield, because if you think of the handle as being in the middle of the windshield, the short end of the windshield houses the front and should face the artist, while the longer end is the back. The assembly looks the opposite way round to most other gun mics, however the microphone cable always emerges from the back half of the Rycote on all gun mic windshields.
Having said all that, the sound quality picked up on the back of the Neumann was actually pretty clean and decent. It’s just that the sound of everything else nearby was so much louder.
Doug Puddifoot
I know this to be true because I was sitting with the news intake editor at the time.
YouTube – Streaming
Alec Bray
It is donkey’s years since I saw a broadcast transmitted Test Card (and that was Test Card C!)
We have been watching a couple of streaming programmes on YouTube, and the countdown to the start of the stream has this:
Is this for real, or is it just a fancy design?
By the way, is there a name for a stream(ing service) which is being (simultaneously) uploaded from a recording or film? Some items are definitely streamed for download as they are being live uploaded, and are legitimately called “live streaming”. But how do we describe a film which is being streamed as it is uploaded? It can’t be a live stream, and “stream” on its own implies something already uploaded!
John Nottage
Love these streaming plays, especially NT Live. “One Man Two Guvnors” was brilliant – watched it twice. Even enjoyed “Treasure Island” on Thursday. However, be warned. We tried the Curve Theatre’s streaming of “The Importance of Being Earnest”. It was obviously recorded using a single camera and mic at the back of the auditorium, so the picture was a tiny mess and the sound was completely useless. We gave up after about a minute!
I thought I could pause “Treasure Island” to put the hedgehogs’ dinner out at 8:30, but, though it seemed to work, about 10 mins from the end of the play the picture turned into the Treasure Island caption. The sound continued, but with no vision. I had to wait till the end, go back to the start, then jump forward to the last bit and watch it again. I suppose that was because it wasn’t uploaded in advance, just live streamed at 7pm. After that you should be able to watch it like any downloaded YouTube video I guess.
Watched “Phantom of the Opera” [Sunday] night (19 April 2020).
We plan to watch the Chichester Festival Theatre production of “Flowers for Mrs Harris” on Monday.
Background to “Flowers for Mrs Harris”
Hope that’s better than”The Curve”.
Mostly I’m “casting” from the phone YouTube app to my Chromecast device which works well. I haven’t managed to get any Vimeo videos to work yet. The Vimeo app has a cast button, but none of the Vimeo videos we want to watch seem to be available on the app. I have to set up the laptop and get the videos on the Chrome browser, then cast from there. Last time I tried, the video kept stopping, so I gave up and plugged the laptop directly into the TV with an HDMI lead – messy but successful.
News Inserts
Mike Jordan
I am amazed how the down-the-line interviews and inserts for news and current affairs work at the moment.
Even from those in peoples homes (i.e. without the special kit installed in newsreaders etc homes) done on Skype, the full screen video is remarkably good – but that is what arrives at BBC HQ presumably – but is intercut with cutaways from the interviewers perspective – either with an inserted question (recorded later?) or an over the shoulder shot with the happening interview on the small screen in front of them. This often sees to be live done.
Also – presumably due to even ordinary internet having a much lower delay than in the old days when often clean feed was by phone to save reverse satellite audio delay.
The things like Ch4 or ITV News presented from the presenter’s home work amazingly well. Better than what has worked up to now when the shot on the large “invision” studio screen is always cut to the live feed when the remote is talking so is in lip sync.
Ideas?
On the other hand it is interesting to watch “Gardener’s World” where Mr Don is shooting stuff of himself by himself and sorting out cutaways to be inserted after in the main edit.
All this cleverness may well have a profound effect on future shooting of shows eh?
Dave Plowman
I’m quite interested in this. Of course interviews where the interviewee is at home or whatever aren’t new. Just a lot more prevalent now.
What is noticeable is how much the quality varies, even when the interviewee is obviously just using their own equipment.
I’ve been using Zoom quite a bit recently. What annoys about that is the picture quality can be good enough while the sound can go to such a low data rate as to be very tiring to listen to.
Is there that much difference between, say, a decent Mac laptop or i-phone and the Windows or Android equivalent? Or is it more down to the internet link?
Alan Taylor
Last year (2019) I was doing some corporate work where we needed to interview contributors from overseas. We did the interview itself via FaceTime but got each contributor to use two or more iPhones to video their contribution from different angles and then send those files to us afterwards.
We did trial runs with contributors, making suggestions about how best to use the lighting in their room, optimise the sound and preferred camera angles. We did things like getting them to fasten iPhones to adjustable lamps with bulldog clips in order to get the right camera angle, or to have an assistant doing hand held shots.
The interviews themselves worked really well and the contributors seemed very relaxed about working that way. The client was delighted with the edited results and pointed out that we have probably lost some future foreign trips now that they know how to work remotely.
Pat Heigham
I recall a panic amongst film crews when front projection was invented. This was similar to green screen and could put the actors anywhere in the world!
Happily, the foreign locations still happen to this day.
Alan Taylor
I know an old photographer whose father was a photographer using wet plates. When 35mm cameras came along, [he was] convinced that his work would vanish, but now there are more professional photographers than ever.
It’s one thing to take a decent snap shot, but quite another to create a professional image and to do so under all circumstances.
We’re not worried about our work going away because of that remote working job. Part of the job involved FedExing a package to the contributor with a Lightning interface, microphone, cable and stand for the iPad, together with simple instructions so that we could get good quality results. We were able to work from home and still charge worthwhile fees and the client could see that we were adding quality to what they were doing.
VE DAY 75 Anniversary Celebrations
John Nottage
Just watched the VE Day programme on BBC1. Anyone know who was responsible? We thought it was excellent: just the right amount of music and history, beautifully put together. No credits though.
Reduced to tears at the end!
Nick Ware
Agreed. Beeb at its best, a best that only the Beeb can do……..(or are we biased? I don’t think so).
Pat Heigham
Me too, John, and again watching off iPlayer.
The “We’ll Meet Again” montage was cleverly conceived and synced so well.
The Last Word…
