Fake newsroom backdrops

Ah, thanks. I moved to London in 2005, so guess the short lifespan was of me regularly watching it

I agree. It looks like the waves would be lapping around his ankles. It looks silly.

I think the problem is compounded by how the clockface of Big Ben reads 10 to 9, while the Breakfast clock states 08:12. I understand that interviews are regularly repeated and so the time in the backdrop isn't always accurate, but it's quite clear in this instance that the backdrop is just a recorded feed in contrast to the more elevated Westminster backdrop, where Big Ben aligns with the time of broadcast.

I don't mind the real newsroom backdrop that can be found in N8, or at Sky News, or indeed at CNN Abu Dhabi, for example.

As far as the fake renditions go, for by the worst one I can recall is the one used by BBC World News during the virtual cut glass era, between 1994 and 1997? The wide angled shot they had of the virtual set at the open and close of the flagship bulletins (Newsday, Newshour, The World Today, Newsdesk, etc....) featured a fake implant of the actual newsroom. Yet, when we continued to the head on shots of the Main and co presenters, the newsroom background had disappeared and all we had was the typical blue virtual reality cut class background. The BBC World pages on TV Ark from that era depict quite well what I mean.

http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/news/bbcworld/1995.html

Midway down the page, you can see Tim Sebastian and Alastair Yates depicting the phenomenon I am referring to, above. (Thanks to TV Ark for the images.)

I never understood the point of that naff idea, as it clearly proved that the background was fake and I thought, why bother!

Yet, for standard BBC World News bulletins, the head-on shot of the presenter DID retain the newsroom background as it's backing. (I can only best describe this as the virtual reality background used when Nik Gowing famously announced the death of Diana. That backdrop was the standard World one of the time).

If done properly and if consistent, I guess fake newsroom backdrops can be very well received by the viewer. Here one minute and gone the next kind of defeats the purpose of trying to pretend there's a newsroom behind.

My far my favorite ever news backdrop was the McDonald/Etchingham launch set for News at Ten when it returned. Why they ever dropped that, I'll never understand. (I know it's not a fake newsroom, so to speak, but nevertheless one of the classiest ever used on tv news).

Rather interesting thread, this.

Get a grip!

Was this guy floating in the air somewhere south of St Stephen's Tower: no, it's a locational identifier.

At least this one is beliavable...

I know it isn't a newsroom but the CSO used by ITV at the moment is disgusting. I hate it, and even my mum commented on it when I was there last week (I can't imagine she cares less than about news presenation).

I liked the skyline shots used by the BBC before (although hated the breakfast background at the time - and the breakfast newsroom background - the only one I liked was the pre-2006 one) and also loved the ITV backgrounds with the atrium, and the ones with the London skyline.

Here are two examples of effective skyline sets from elsewhere in Europe (the latter has since been modified):

The first one looks like what ITV probably wanted their current set to look like, before their current, flabberghastingly hideous CGI monstrosity was born.

When they are behind deep colours like that & a bit distant if you know what I mean, they work well in my opinion.

Some of those early corporate BBC regions bring back memories, the original windows on the world looked good, as long as your region had a decent sized screen.

If you haven't got anything either polite or constructive to add to the debate, you probably shouldn't say anything.

He did have something constructive to say and he said it underneath. It's surely not meant to lead people to believe it's a live image or he's inside some room next to the river thames. But it's just a graphical representation of Westminster.

Actually, and I can only barely remember this, but didn't the BBC Nine o'Clock News have a very early newsroom backdrop, which was rather more like having the newsreaders actually sat at their own desks inside the newsroom? Early green screen technology.

The era I'm referring to was mid seventies, I guess, when the pool of presenters was Kenneth Kendall, Peter Woods, Richards Baker and Whitmore.

I am sure there are images somewhere on the net. This wasn't a fake newsroom as such, but rather a fake backdrop using a working newsroom, probably played on a loop. Cutting edge for the time.