BBC News Channel: Presentation

( An aside: Gavin Grey reminds me of a younger version of Alastair Yates. Quintessentially British and Very old-school "BBC", if you know what I mean.)

On the subject of that intro, if you also listen carefully to your clip, you'll notice that the theme music ends horribly abruptly when they cut to the wide shot of Gavin. Surely there must be a better way of fading it down gradually?

Funnily enough, I was going to draw a parallel between Gavin and Alistair. I was going to say that I hope Gavin grows old on the overnights, but I'm hoping for a better slot for him in time. He has plenty of potential, and has a great manner of presentation. As you say, very clear and old-school, just how it should be. Very BBC, yes!!


I wish they would zoom into that wide shot as well. It's annoying to see the left end of the screen with the newsroom backrdrop when the rest is showing a graphic/still of whatever news story.

On BBC World over the last two weeks, they have been zooming that shot far closer and generally have been making much tidier and efficient use of the backdrops and the newswall. There's a new shot that zooms in over the desk and encapsulates the presenter into quite a tight head shot with only a fraction of the newswall visible.

But at weekends, they revert back to the usual static boring shots.

It's a similar story in N6 - on weekdays we see panning side shots for the One, Five, Six and Ten and sometimes on the NC if the presenters are facing the camera. On the bulletins at weekends all they do is use a static camera and zoom in with that. Obviously it's understandable because there's less staff at weekends, just slightly less interesting for those of us interested in presentation.

In terms of the Barcos too, N6 (no I am not Worzel ) is not used very flexibly. It's not often we get a shot where the back wall includes an image and this could be used more often, but wider to show the whole width of the wall - perhaps we'll see more interesting things in Salford for Breakfast or in the new Broadcasting House studio.

The thing that most annoys me is the laptop though, it ruins the shots. I remember a wee while back with Naga on GMT, it looked awful. Much prefer N6 desk with everything built-in, and N9 for that matter.

Also, with a standing shot on World Business Report last week, the angle wasn't the best because it obscured the market data at the very right corner of the newswall.

And the shaky cam on the roof during GMT as well which doesn't give the best of shots.

All in all though, much better use of N8.

BH will hopefully be the saviour of those interested in news presentation.

Well, since you've brought up the subject of laptops, I fully agree that having the screens buried inside the desk looks far neater and tidier, although I believe it could be less comfortable for the presenters. Since all news output comes from flat desks these days, there is no longer the old-fashioned option of having screens angled behind little mounds at the front edge of the desk. If buried, the presenter needs to look down at quite an angle.

On World the other night, Mike Embley and Jamie Robertson were at the desk with two completely different colours of laptops, one of which had a technical sticker slapped on the front of it. The two different laptops looked naff in combination. Just plain untidy.

Although, not quite bad as this case of two laptops so close together, they were almost French kissing!! (Apologies for the thread-creep, but I hate these small imperfect details which make the set look shoddy.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbAbuchYPKA

Very apparent Twitter endorsement for Norman Smith since joining the BBC. Every time he's on, the graphic is always reminding us to follow him. Getting one back at Laura Kuenssberg?

I think it's because BBC World News have introduced cameramen during the week to try and liven up the camera-work. But at the weekend it's back to automated cameras.

Yea I've notice that too. On GMT the other day after the commercial break at .45 past the hour the GMT music was playing while the camera zoom into the side of George. It look so neat and revolutionary for BBC WORLD NEWS. Normally the GMT graphics will play in that instance. Hope they continue this because their competitors like ALJ and CNN really knows how to do it.

Actually...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/08/from_laurak_to_normans.html

Some different camera shots being used this afternoon... actually looks quite nice.

It's because the main presenter sitting on the left has gone (usually to do the Five, I don't know who was with Emily) and they often use that shot - I don't know why they don't just shuffle down to the main seat when that happen really.

Here's another cap of when it happened, this one is from last Christmas (tree gives that one away):