I see RTÉ Nine has a new opening sequence following the titles, with robotcam tracking and deflating from a high level across the studio floor with the presenter addressing it as it moves. It was used for the first time on Friday night with the Japanese tsunami story. It was used to better effect tonight, where the movement blended into the titles rather than suddenly kicking in live in shot as on Friday. Mixing the title bed into it is still a problem though, and losing the drama of the 'da-dun' mixing of shots is a shame.
I'm still not convinced by it (though the movement is gracious), as it makes the studio look a lot smaller, the Barco screen which is supposed to be 'set' turns into a giant crude 4:3 monitor which falls off a cliff into black to the left of screen, and the sequence has the potential to be extremely inconsistent - being dependant on who is operating and directing. Not that it should be, but this is RTÉ 'standards' in operation here.
We shall see how things pan out (pun unintended).
Last edited by Telefis on 12 March 2011 9:47pm - 2 times in total
I see RTÉ Nine has a new opening sequence following the titles.
Indeed, Friday's wasn't good but Saturday's with Anne was much better (and quieter). Its nice at least to see that they're trying out new things. The rail cam does seem to be a bit lob-sided though, especially last night - it should be easy to fix that so I don't know why it hasn't been addressed.
There's been a bit of a retool to the open of Tonight with Vincent Browne on TV3. The late news is now full incorporated into Tonight (as indeed it was in its original format of TV3 Nightly News), the reason for the buffer (Tonight's sponsorship by Bank of Scotland) being long gone, so the Tonight opening titles now run first, with an intro by Vincent before the handover to the news studio.
The TV3 Nightly News presentation has also been revived after an absence of 18 months or so (during which the late summary has been branded simply TV3 News and the blue studio), its exactly the same as it was before its departure, red studio and Nightly News astons but there aren't any titles any more obviously.
It's reported today that Anne Doyle is planning to take early retirement from RTE as part of their voluntary redundancy scheme if accepted by management. According to the Irish Independent the names been
tipped to take over the main anchor role are Una O'Hagan, Eileen Whelan & Aenghus Mac Grianna. Would be good to see Una take over the nine o'clock bulletin after stepping down from Six One six years ago. Though be interesting to see what happens since Anne job shares with Eileen Dunne on the nine.
RTÉ have recycled a lot of their General Election presentation for the presidential election - the logo is different and the set seems to be the news set redressed but otherwise the graphics and presentation seem to be more or less the same as at what was used in February.
Thought I'd mention that Anne Doyle's final broadcast is tonight after 33 years reading the news at RTÉ. She began on Christmas Day 33 years ago and is signing off in style tonight. For British Forumers she is Irelands equivalent of someone like Sir Trevor McDonald. Lets hope they have a "best bits" to see her off.
A mainly low-key, dignified final bulletin for Anne Doyle - but it still fitted.
What she thought was her closing message: "And that's the news this Christmas... from me it's been a pleasure. Good fortune, and goodbye."
Then, Eileen Dunne popped up to introduce a good luck montage - clips of her reading the news down the years (including the RTE1 clock from the early 1980s) and appearances on other RTÉ programmes, and tributes from Gay Byrne, Sean Duignan, Dustin(!), Taoiseach Kenny and members of the public.
And then, fade to the end titles.
Thank you, Anne, and best of luck for your future.