The Newsroom

Newsround 2019 Rebrand

Monday September 2nd at 7:40am (August 2019)

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NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
5.6wks is the minimum you're entitled to by law. You can get offered more, though companies get a bit upset at having to pay you money when you haven't worked for it, can't imagine why Wink

Still better than the US though, there is no entitlement to annual leave at all in law, its more a perk of the job.
NG
noggin Founding member
Many companies will allow you to additionally buy additional annual leave, or sell back annual leave, adjusting your annual salary to reflect this.

Plus at the BBC you get 2.5 days additional long-service leave once you go past 10 years service, which unlike annual leave doesn't have to be used in the year it is 'earned'. In fact it's designed to be accrued across multiple years to allow for a longer break. Many people will bank 5 or more weeks of long service leave (10 years worth) and take that in a lump with their annual leave.

In your 25th year you get an additional 5 or 6 weeks as a lump (or the equivalent in salary - which will obviously be taxed) as an additional Long Service reward.

If you've taken no long service leave until this point you can be left with the option of taking 3 months plus off. This is partially what the system is designed to encourage, it allows people to take a paid career break, have a 'once-in-a-lifetime' holiday, undertake a building project on their home etc.

This is assuming you are staff of course.

If you are freelance you can chose to work as much, or as little, as you want - though your regular clients may take a dim view of this if you are suddenly unavailable.
AP
AndrewPSSP
but it bugs me that the marble(??) stays in the same position throughout the entire thing..
I don't like this either, it looks (and sounds) to me a lot more like a sting rather than programme titles.
IT
itsrobert Founding member
but it bugs me that the marble(??) stays in the same position throughout the entire thing..
I don't like this either, it looks (and sounds) to me a lot more like a sting rather than programme titles.


Unfortunately (for us), this seems to be the modern trend. Gone are the days of 15-30" opening titles. It's a blink-and-you-miss-it approach these days.

I recall some US shows had incredibly long opening credits in the '80s - Dynasty, for instance, sometimes clocked in at about 1'30" if I recall correctly. Unthinkable now!
FA
fanoftv
You say unthinkable, but there are definitely two sides, HBO and Netflix shows seem to have increased the use of the longer opening titles, where as other tv methods have shorter titles to keep an audience (even Netflix have the option to skip their long titles).
JO
Josh
The last bulletin with the old look is at 13:50 tomorrow afternoon
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
The likes of Netflix (and Amazon) have effectively reintroduced front caps, a principle that ITV once had and got rid of in the 1980s, and that trend has now followed to some of the smaller channels - like Fox for example.

Of course The Simpsons loved long title sequences in its early days because it cut down on the amount of animation needed for the main show and it retains the bulk of its original length today IIRC.
VM
VMPhil
The likes of Netflix (and Amazon) have effectively reintroduced front caps, a principle that ITV once had and got rid of in the 1980s, and that trend has now followed to some of the smaller channels - like Fox for example.

Actually, Sky started this trend back in 2011.
CU
Custard56
but it bugs me that the marble(??) stays in the same position throughout the entire thing..
I don't like this either, it looks (and sounds) to me a lot more like a sting rather than programme titles.


Rather like James Mobbs' work over on BBC Breakfast, also: stings masquerading as a title sequence. (Though I appreciate Mobbs was working to a BBC brief)
LS
Lou Scannon
but it bugs me that the marble(??) stays in the same position throughout the entire thing..
I don't like this either, it looks (and sounds) to me a lot more like a sting rather than programme titles.


Unfortunately (for us), this seems to be the modern trend. Gone are the days of 15-30" opening titles. It's a blink-and-you-miss-it approach these days.

I recall some US shows had incredibly long opening credits in the '80s - Dynasty, for instance, sometimes clocked in at about 1'30" if I recall correctly. Unthinkable now!


In this era of YouTube, Netfilx, squillions of linear television channels, social media distractions from traditional long-form content (etc) all competing for your attention and/or breeding generations of viewers with the attention span of a goldfish, programmes are probably terrified that a 30"+ title sequence would be long enough for viewers to get bored and flick over.

The title sequence for Good Morning with Anne & Nick seemed to last about a fortnight. All that stuff with cheesy models/actors doing very staged "daytime activities" (going to work/school, jogging, cycling, exercise classes, washing the car...) whilst the long theme music gradually builds. Then the bit where the cartoon kite "bursts" coinciding with the gear-change into the upbeat 2nd half of the music, followed by all the cheesy staged shots of Anne & Nick "making their way to the studio".

I'm not aware of any UK programme with such a horribly Americanised-style overblown title sequence before/since*. (*Well... until the current trend for "Phil & Holly"-centric titles for This Morning debuted. But at least they're a sensible duration).

Flicking around the various English Regions' editions of Inside Out on iPlayer ages ago, I noticed that some regions didn't/don't use a full title sequence, but instead have the music vamp/bed segue into the "main titles" music whilst the presenter is still bibbling away with all the "coming up" business, and just have a short sting passing for a title sequence coinciding with the final seconds of the theme music. And yet some other regions use full titles. Similarly, seemingly no two regions/nations have the same length/edit of Sunday Politics titles, since it adopted its current 30-minute fully-regionalised format.
Last edited by Lou Scannon on 31 August 2019 4:50pm
JA
JAS84
Of course The Simpsons loved long title sequences in its early days because it cut down on the amount of animation needed for the main show and it retains the bulk of its original length today IIRC.
The full length Simpsons OP is the same length as the original. They just remade it in HD. They've always varied the length according to requirements. It can be just the title card and then straight to the family arriving home, sometimes it goes straight to that scene after Lisa's sax scene instead of showing Bart on the skateboard and Marge driving, or it can run in full, or they even sometimes use extra long couch gags - it can be anything from 15 seconds to 90!

but it bugs me that the marble(??) stays in the same position throughout the entire thing..
I don't like this either, it looks (and sounds) to me a lot more like a sting rather than programme titles.


Unfortunately (for us), this seems to be the modern trend. Gone are the days of 15-30" opening titles. It's a blink-and-you-miss-it approach these days.

I recall some US shows had incredibly long opening credits in the '80s - Dynasty, for instance, sometimes clocked in at about 1'30" if I recall correctly. Unthinkable now!
At least in the west. Still common in Japan. Just look at any anime.
VM
VMPhil
You always knew when an episode of The Simpsons had run short when they ran the full title sequence with the circus line couch gag.

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