Alan Davies on This Week

Totally agree. This is the new trendy way for the bbc to film and it is crap. Thing is I didn't listen to a word Alan Davies said as I was so distracted by the camerawork!!!!!!:mad:

Talking of which, there's a new series of The Thick of It starting on BBC 2 tomorrow. Shame I can't watch it without feeling sick. Someone should tell Armando.

I stopped watching after a couple of minutes. The technique has clearly been used on purpose but why escapes me.
Part of me thinks the cameraman is taking the p*ss and seeing how far he can go before someone cuts his zooming hand off.
I'd say it was amateur but that's insulting to amateurs

Sad to say it but I actually own a plug in for final cut pro that will do this to any shot:eek:

Sad to say, my assistant has a condition that will do this to any shot.

This is a sign of some of the next generation of Directors trying to copy a style that was never quite right in the previous generation. IMHO!

On style -

My wife has tak.. (Hmmm, better start new thread in chatter. Dominic Minghella?)

Hello

Yeah I saw it too and I'm glad that someone has raised it here. Initially I thought it was crap like many of you. But nevertheless let's not slam the door on experimenting and finding new ways to make footage look.........well crap.

It kind of did fit in with the pkg. Let's face it. He was ranting and they didn't have enough pictures for the edit.

It was crap but still serves a good sample of how the media we use can be edited in many different ways.

It was crap though!!!!

Just for fun here is a before and after a CHV "natural camera movement" filter is applied in post:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQNUoxQXRmU

I used a mild setting!!! I can see the producers of The Bill loving this:D

that said it all Gary - pitty 'cause I've a feeling he had something worth saying going by the studio piece which followed.

robo

That is fantastic! Is that just the standard "camera shake" filter? I can think of a million and one reasons never to use it! :)

Actually, the only time I've ever seen anything like that done effectively is in the film of The League of Gentlemen where Steve Pemberton is playing two characters on screen at the same time. It was obviously filmed with a locked of camera but a filter like that must have been added to give the impression of a hand-held camera. It cemented the impression of two different people being on screen at the same time rather than a rock-steady, split-screen FX shot.

To get back to the Alan Davies thing - yes, I noticed it too and was equally appalled. Robo - I agree completely. His point would have come across far better with a locked-off single shot of his piece to camera.

Edit - Just noticed, Gary, that you said it was a CHV filter. Must learn to read properly! :)

Keep your fingers crossed, and hope that it's just a fashion. They have a habit of being dropped once the practitioners grow up. I don't mean that as a slight on the highly competent practitioners who are required to do it, but on the producers who demand that they do so. Jamie Carney's a highly competent chap, and the crap camerawork on the Thick Of It isn't his fault, it's 100% down to Armando Iannucci, he's the producer and he told Jamie to do it that way. I agree that it makes the programme unwatchable, but the dialogue's so good that I 'watch' it with my eyes shut and still reckon it's some of the best TV being made these days, apart from the pictures.

I can see you also used it on your other youtube video, the one for the Allcam Orbit 7" Gary... :D

Mind you I can't really speak... wait until you see my first full-length feature currently in production... It's supposed to be filmed by a particularly inept documentary team :)

Well spotted Chrome but that was done before I got my steadycam for the HF11:D

Armando Iannucci - now there's a name that should never be used next to the word talent!

I have a friend who worked on his very unfunny, make it up as we go along solo tv show.

Yes but Armando was also involved in the hugely funny (and prophetic!) The Day Today. Wasn't he also responsible for KYTV and the various Alan Partridge series?

I still think Iannucci's highly talented (and, yes, those were his shows), but his demand for this production style is crass and needs to be stamped on.

Agreed! :)

I think he fitted in well with the writing team approach to those great shows but certainly when my friend was doing the solo show the talent wasnt there but the bad production disciplines were.

My friend is now working on benidorm another ITV/production disaster area:eek:

Oh, I quite like Benidorm.

Day Today was fantastic, as was Brass Eye, and also the underrated but hilarious Look Around You.

So your the viewer!:D

No. There are two of us.

I like to see myself as a discerning viewer but I do have terrible lapses and Benidorm is one of those fascintatingly awful lapses. Sorry. :)

No need to apologise I have a sad confession that I used to watch Mile High on Sky:eek:

And enjoyed it!

I also used to be the Dubbing Mixer on Ch5's Family Affairs!

You can't watch high quality drama all the time - there has to be a bit of naff TV too. But Mile High, though! :)

It must have been the stewardess uniforms:D

Ah! Fair point! :)

I too saw the Alan Davies piece on This Week as I was so outraged that I immediately wrote to the programme editor asking why viewers were being so patronised by this pathetic style of shooting. I also asked where I can go to train in this new technique in order to get more work in the present-day broadcast TV field.

I didn't get an answer!

Colin :-)

I could give you lessons but basically after you have finished editing you use the discarded stuff:D

Doing it the daft way is easy, any amateur with his first camcorder will show you how. Doing it right takes talent, and a tripod.

Yep, I wrote in too - didn't get a reply but I noticed there was a complete lack of sh*** camera work in this weeks edition - I hope it was something to do with our letters Colin, but I have this little niggling doubt.......

robo