GMTV - fyi

Sorry, which shot is that?

Thanks a lot!

http://www.thisisfive.co.uk/gmtv/gmtv7.jpg

They switched to this shot various times throughout interviews.

Oh OK, thanks! But they've always done group shot cutaways during interviews, haven't they? Mind you, as you say, it looks much better in widescreen.

I like the new set, much better than its predecessor. But I'm not sure about the backdrops, reminds me of RI:SE !!!

But apart from that it is a lot better, nicer then Breakfasts set.

Love the new set however the view out the window is much to be desired - is it not just a view of grubby old buildings?

Christ. You wouldn't want to be a vertigo sufferer watching breakfast TV in the UK.

Both Breakfast and GMTV seem to have a desire to make their sets look like they are as high up as possible, floating dangerously in mid air above giant 200ft drops below.

Well it did all look rather good -- absolutely no clutter now. The news hour especially, as Penny's in it.

The Welsh news opts just feel like they come from some grubby dull cupboard somewhere in the 80s. Except it's still virtually "new" of course.

The window view is rubbish mind you, and the clock could be a bit bigger, or moved, or otherwise different.

Bit of a shame the mumsy frumpy era has gone of course, but yeah, nice.

Could that sofa look ANY more like Breakfast's? Have Bill and Natasha been loaning it out?

I'm sorry but from what I see - studio looks a bit ex-BBC to me

Yep - red sofa - laminate wood floor? Wonder where that idea came from. Are those cream walls? And a window?

That said - the picture quality from the cameras was first rate (LDK cameras not Sony or Ikegami by the look of the pictures?), and the lighting / racks balance between faces and window was very clean.

The keying on the weather was also quite good (though it was gribbling slightly on the shadow bottom right)

Not sure about the 16:9 stuff though. Quite a few shots on the show were tall/thin (Shot 16:9 and then incorrectly ARCed as if they started off 4:3). and graphics were cropped off. They also seem to be fully zooming 4:3 stuff to 16:9 not 14:9 pillarbox (meaning it looks very soft and the framing is compromised). Didn't see a news belt though - just non-news featurey stuff.

Studio felt quite cramped - and there wasn't a lot of variety in the shots. Nice to see moving wide shots - someone has been watching Liquid News and BBC Three News...

However the wide shots are not always 4:3 safe. Anything to the left of the clock is likely to be cropped in 4:3 - including at one stage a guest who was talking.

So - nice technically - and I'm sure the framing will improve with experience.

(Clock needs sorting though - looks like it was designed on a PC or Mac without an interlaced output - why else would a designer incorporate that degree of interlace flicker on the top white line? That does look really quite cheap and nasty)

Did they switch to 4:3 for the regional news - or was it cropped / squashed / centered?