The thing is that it's appeal is more than just the 4 presenters, it's the whole package that makes it such a good programme - the casting, the editing, the storytelling. That's a little more difficult to replicate
Though arguably the casting, editing and storytelling will remain the same - assuming the largely-freelance team that Love use decide to continue to the next series.
Well - it would be very easy to drop the 'history of cakes/biscuits/puddings' film... I don't think (m)any of the international variants bother with that...
Believe it or not - HD D-VHS was used to provide a backup projector feed to the old WBR studio in New York in the mid-00s (the studio itself was still 4:3 SD but had a large projector fed by an HD camera on the roof, with a D-VHS backup)
Can't find it now, but I did stumble across a page yesterday that suggested the BBC made wide use of DVCPRO50 in drama around that time, but I'll take your word over that!
EastEnders used it for recording their multicamera cuts AND for their location PSC - that's a lot of output! They used Philips LDK100s (or possibly 200) as studio/back-lot multi-cameras, and there was a DVC Pro version with the same camera head (so the same look could be achieved PSC). This was a major boon over Panasonic (who have never had success with studio / OB system cameras here)
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Apparently some stuff like green-screen shots was shot on DVCPRO HD. Could be where I got confused.
Ah - they could have shot effects shot in HD (though hadn't heard that they did) when the show was SD. Lots of shows moved from DigiBeta to DVC Pro HD when they first went HD, rather than switching to Sony's HD Cam.
The Natural History Unit and Countryfile were fans of the DVC Pro HD-based Panasonic Varicam when they first went HD (and then followed the range to DVC Pro HD on P2 in the case of the NHU.
Holby did an experiment shooting in HD a bit before BBC HD started - and ISTR that they may have used DVC Pro HD camcorders rather than HD Cam (but it's a fuzzy memory)
DVC Pro HD isn't DVC Pro 50 though.
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They won't have been camera rushes if they were on DV tapes - they will have been copies. (Possibly for a cheap offline)
"Mini DV tapes used for making a rough
assembly
of rushes."
Yep - dubs of camera rushes to allow for a cheaper offline without any danger of mangling the DigiBeta camera rushes.
Dubbing to DV would be cheaper and easier than dubbing or cloning to DigiBeta and DV capture over Firewire made DV offlines very cost-effective (no AJA or similar card required to capture - which would have been the case if you were offlining from Digi)
So DV tapes would likely be DV25 copies of the camera rushes, not the rushes themselves. (Which would be preciously guarded). So unless the DigiBeta camera rushes have been disposed of or lost - a DV copy is unlikely to be the only copy?
Odd - I thought the Ecclestone series was shot on DigiBeta, not DVC Pro 50? (Did they really use Panasonic SD cameras?)
You might be right. I had a recollection of a picture of a box of DVCPRO50 tapes on WhoSpy (the teaser photo section of the official website during the first season) but I might have been thinking of a picture of a box of MiniDV tapes used for rushes (why I still remembered even that much after 11 years is beyond me).
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This is the camera that filmed the first scene of Doctor Who shot by the BBC in 15 years.
Well that's a Sony DigiBeta camcorder - so wouldn't have shot DVC Pro 50 or MiniDV (or DV Cam on MiniDV tapes) From memory the only bit of the BBC that was a widespread user of DVC Pro 50 was EastEnders. (Antiques Roadshow used the JVC VHS-based equivalent called Digital-S aka D9 for their move to 16:9 component SD ISTR)
Drama was pretty universally DigiBeta (though Doctors used DV - DV Cam I think), Factual was DV Cam or Digi Beta.
I am pretty certain Doctor Who was shot 50i DigiBeta (and given a good film effect treatment) prior to the switch to HD.
They won't have been camera rushes if they were on DV tapes - they will have been copies. (Possibly for a cheap offline)
I'm always happy to see a discussion about Sixty Minutes.
The strangest thing about the programme's failure is that the same parts of the BBC that had got the mix of news and current affairs right on Breakfast Time six months earlier got it so wrong with Sixty Minutes.
I think the big difference was that there was no established news provision already at that time of the day, so no fiefdoms in the same way as BBC News and BBC Current Affairs had at teatime. It's important to remember how much the two departments disliked each other (one of the reasons Birt merged them was to try and fix this dysfunctional relationship)...
Did the News Dept produce the news update bulletins that the Lime Grove-based newsreader presented (Debbie Rix, Fern Britton etc.) ? ISTR that at on point there was a very separate 0900 news bulletin made at TVC (by BBC News) that was dropped in? Or am I misremembering. I'd always imagined that the news bulletins within Breakfast Time 0600 onwards were also made by Current Affairs at Lime Grove and not produced by News at TVC (irrespective of their presentation location)
It must be a pain to set up all the telephony on location each week. They would be better off filming it in a police station incident room.
These days I suspect it is just a decent IP connection, also used for on-site IT. VOIP telephony is now routinely deployed on larger BBC location-based shows.
Slightly surprised that this hasn't been leaked anywhere over the past decade or so, or at least appeared on one of the deleted scenes things they used to do on the boxsets, with RTD explaining in depth why every scene was cut.
If may not have got as far as being edited, since the leak made it redundant. The raw footage might never have made it off a couple of DVCPRO50 tapes that to this day are rattling around at the back of what is now Steven Moffat's desk drawer (behind his plastic dinosaur collection).
Odd - I thought the Ecclestone series was shot on DigiBeta, not DVC Pro 50? (Did they really use Panasonic SD cameras?)
If it was done better there could have made it more stream line, and connected better? It was strange trying to fit everything under one umbrella, it even had Watchdog slotted into it before being spun into its own show.
To be fair, Watchdog had been a popular part of Nationwide for a couple of years, and I guess they felt the need to keep it rather than dropping it. I assume it spun out into a separate show once 60 Minutes was axed and there was no longer a networked current affairs slot at teatime for it to go out in.
One massive side effect of cancelling 60 Minutes was they effectively ditched the popular current affairs slot at teatime - moving from the 20/20/20 format of News, Regional News and Current Affairs to a 30/30 format of just News and Regional News. (I know the exact durations differ - but they're a good approximation)
In some ways they've moved to a 30/30/30 model of News, Regional News and Light Factual since The One Show launched (though it's very difficult to categorise The One Show - and it's made by the Factual bit of the BBC, not Current Affairs. That said it does commission content from BBC Current Affairs in Salford)
[Speaking about the red jumper Neil Buchanan wore on Art Attack] And did you know that my red sweater is specially made for the programme, from a special material? That's because on camera, the colour red behaves in a strange way. It makes the screen go all funny, unless you use a special material
I presume this still applies today and has done all through the history of (colour) TV and film production. What is it about the colour red that's so problematic please and does anybody know what "special material" could have been used so Buchanan could wear red, presumably there's a few options.
No. Doesn't apply now. Was sometimes an issue with certain saturated reds in the days of PAL composite encoding (though not a massive problem). Those days are long gone.