RE: (very OT) Something about TV camerawork

["Mark Hetherington" <mark.egroups@xxxxxxx>]

Nick Broughton wrote:
> There's something about TV camerawork that I find really annoying, yet
I
> can't quite put my finger on it.

Any chance of a clue as to the effect?

I get the feeling TV cameramen(/people?) or their directors, are
increasingly trying to be either artistic or "original" to give a
particular
show something memorable enough to maintain ratings and therefore their
revenue streams and jobs.

In any case it can often seem annoying. My personal one is something that I
saw in some "30 something" type programme with Londoners and an
odd title
like "That's Life" but obviously not since there is no Esther
Ranzten(sp?)
with supporting orthodontist nor amusing vegetable shapes and signs towards
the end. Anyway, I digress, it isn't drama, it isn't comedy, it isn't a
reflection on life, it is just a bunch of people with not so ordinary
things
going on so doesn't make much sense as a programme anyway but there was
something in there that made it watchable.

The camera crew had this habit of doing this sort of frame by frame delayed
zoom with skip. So you go for say 3 seconds with a half second per image
frame to go from conversation to close up on person's face. Not sure what
it
was supposed to invoke in the viewer beyond wondering if the camera
glitched
since it seemed to be appropriate both when person x "came out"
to person y
and when person z made coffee. :) In the same programme they would have
long
converations filmed in a tennis game fashion; i.e. person z talks with
camera on them, camera pan for the response, camera pan back ad infinitum.
A
dizzying and sickening type of filming where IMO the more standard pull
back
and show both or just switch camera works much more effectively for the
viewer.

> When I see it I'm reminded of American sitcoms.

I only really follow "Friends" in American sitcom and Ally McBeal
(until it
got dumped) if you would class it that way. The only thing I can think of
that compares with other American sitcoms I have seen episodes of, is the
spend x% of the programme using cool local city shots. Admittedly this will
not be such an odd experience after visiting New York and Boston next month
so instread of a loss of programme it can become "I have been to that
bit"
when Friends or Ally McBeal is on but it is something I associate with
American programming.

> It seems to becoming more
> prevelant in the UK.  There was a comedy here a couple of years ago
with
> Linda Bellingham if I remember rightly, Emmerdale suffered from it
during
> the xx anniversary week recently, although it appears to have restored
> normality, and I've seen it tonight on Stars in your Eyes (Oh god am I
> watching that!), but only on some of the singers footage.

Well I can't think who Linda Bellingham is off hand (no doubt I will
remember once I hit send) I do not watch Emmerdale and is Stars in your
Eyes
still going? I guess that wasn't one of Barrymore's shows <g> I seem
to
remember what Stars in your Eyes is as a programme, but isn't the camera
work just a series of closeups intermingled with long zooms and pans?

> It really winds me up, put probably mostly because I don't understand
it.
> Who knows what I'm talking about?  Who can explain it?

If it needs explaining then even an explanation probably wouldn't help.
Seems to be a taste issue so probably an artistic one. The same weird
camera
effects I mentioned earlier had no effect on the person I watched the same
show with. But then this same guy has a habit of channel surfing so
frequently that I am not sure he actually follows any programme that
closely
and he probably changes channel whenever the camera view offends without
thinking :)


Mark.


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