I think in the fax to the designers they asked for "something suitable for covering disasters" - unfortunately the designers' fax was low on toner and the words "something suitable for covering" got missed out!
In honour of Spinal Tap I think the set designers confused ' and ", (they just need shorter newsreaders ).
OK, so it wasn't that bad but after such a big build up it did look a little
compact and bijou
.
On the other hand I thought Kirsty was very well lit.
After watching tonights first programme I'm am left with mixed feelings as everybody seems to be on here, though the good thing is that they will make changes, even if it's not immediate changes will no doubt be made.
Onto another note that everyone seems to be complaining about, the stairs.
I'm not sure what the rest of you have in your houses to get from one floor to the next, but this method works for me.
Even if the orange wall isn't a balconey, there appears to be one over the top of the lower level orange wall (the one with the BBC News style screen).
The only problem as some have pointed out is that is does block the five logo from that over the shoulder angle. One way to get around it of course would be to get rid of the logo.
There's already one upstairs, and we all know we're watching five when Kirsty says 'and here with more five news'...' or 'for five news...', along with the new fivenews live dog which isn't that bad at all and I quite like.
I also like Cat's suggestion of a city scape being projected as it does look a bit like a window, or maybe just leave it blank or move the five logo over.
Or actually thinking back to the long trailer for the news (the version that starts with Kirsty Young rather than Julie Etchingham), they have a strip of frosted glass with the old style stacked five news logo (very odd, but still), perhaps it would be better to have a frosted piece of glass with the five news logo on the right of it, and light it various colours.
As for the stairs themselves, of course they could have built them behind the lower level screen to get up to the balconey to do the updates, but hopefully they will use the balconey, (even if they shell out more on more special glass, rear projectors or new plamas, or just light the wall green and CSO graphics onto it when they want to), and then walk along the balconey and possibly down the stairs where they could link into a report on the screen on the other side.
This is what I was expecting from this set, as we could see that it was two levels, and I was hoping that they would have used the set more, or maybe like ITV News, they will have different styles for different bulletins, (Nicholas Owen's stand throughout approach, Mark & Mary/Nina stand at the start approach, or Sir Trev's sit for the majority approach).
Thinking about it, Kirsty actually moved around more in the last five news set at ITN.
Going back to the set, I do like glass used behind Kirsty, I'm not a fan of that background though, very strange light daytime colours, and especially the plasmas that seem to be there for the sake of having plasmas!
Part of me hopes that the set has been designed so that it can be lit different colours, which would be nice, especially if it were to change throughout the bulletin.
At the moment, you have lilac lit areas, orange and yellow lit and decoratated areas, purple decorated areas, a blue sofa, and a wierd terracotta sort of colour on the platforms.
As for the graphics, I like them, it seems as though sky are creaping their glass logo idea into five, but I do like them. At the end of the titles, it would be nice to have something appear below the logo when the beam goes across, whether it be the date or 'with Kirsty Young' or whoever it may be.
I even like the astons, a lovely animation, and the text isn't too big, it's nice and subtle and unlike Sky News.
I get what people are saying about the studio being clutered, but what's wrong with them maximising the space? It's a news studio, they don't need a big area for pop bands to perform or anything.
Though tonights show did seem cluttered in a way, due to the fact that there was a big set that could have been used to walk around, and it wasn't.
Overall, the set just needs a bit of tidying up in the way of colours, to match the graphics, and the location of things like the big five behind the stairs (you'd think after a couple of months of rehersals they'd have spotted that!).
Plus it should be used more, to move around, there's great area's that have been created. If it wasn't for the over the shoulder shot tonight, we wouldn't have even known that that screen was there.
Plus I am another one who didn't like the wierd shot of Kirsty, whether it was too close, or just too high on her body making her head the centre of the screen.
I can only presume that they were aiming for the Trisha style close up to make the audience feel as though they can trust her, etc, etc, yet with the positioning it looked very wierd, it made her seem small in a way, hopefully they will stick with what they know in future.
And as for the reporting, bar the dentist report, all seemed top notch! Well done on the reporting front, just fix a few areas sky!
Added Edit...
I quite like the look of that update, not sure when it was from, but it looked good with the long shot being used. That's more what I was expecting from the main bulletin.
Maybe they could open with the crane looking over the studio down over Kirsty, though that would make her seem inferior, as opposed to that capture which makes her seem very high and mighty.
Thats interesting, as Kirsty is actually standing on the stairs, but you can see the stairs continuing to the balcony. Maybe tomorrow it will be used more, as it is the day all returns to normal.
i think that (from what i have seen in these caps) that the five news studio, is a better studio then the 1 million pound ITV News studio, the glass i think looks good,and the 2 floor idea is nice. i think the stairs in the way is the only problem, becouse it is going grey/silver on a glowing white and orange, but otherwise good (even though i havent seen the programe, as i cant get five, im talking about what i have seen from these caps)
The studio was nice enough - but if you have a nice studio, don't sit on the sofa!
I think the nature of the news possibly toned down aspects of the bulletin, especially the pace of the show. I also didn't like the tone of some of the reports - I though their main headline was somewhat taken out of context.
As for the weather - they've taken the worst aspect of Five (Lara Lewington) and the worst aspect of Sky (the awful weather graphics) and come up with something even worse. RI:SE had decent enough graphics for the weather, why not Five?
).
