General Presentation/Logistics Questions

Yep - timelapse. You can get camera mountings for DLSRs that will slowly pan, coupled with intervalometers (either built in or external) that let you take a still every so many seconds/minutes. Speed the stills up to video rate and you get a nice timelapse pan, ata much faster rate. It's the same technology they use in natural history films when they show tracking shots in timelapse of plants growing etc.

For static shots you can also lock off a video camera and shoot normally, and then speed the footage up in the edit.

When people appear on the news to give their say do they get paid?
IE that ex assistant met police commissioner Brian Paddick and proffesor Hugh Pennington during bird flu.

If it's an 'expert' or similar who's there to give an independent opinion or insight into a story then yes they get an appearance fee.

Of course if it's a politician or spokesperson for an organisation then they wouldn't get paid for the appearance. It's the same when an actor appears on a programme to promote a programme or film - they won't get paid either

Just out of interest, how much is such an appearance fee? Average?

Well some MPs that do the paper review on Sky get paid about £100 for the 20 minutes that they're on air and others get the same £100 for 3 hours on the same channel.

Parliamentary register of interests

I remember (when I was aged 12 some thirty years ago) and having a Sunday paper round back in my native Lanarkshire, I used to enjoy reading my customer's newspapers before slipping them through the letterbox. The Mail on Sunday had a magazine called SUNday, I think. (it may have been The Times. Not sure).

Anyway, said magazine ran a special feature one weekend, which was a photo feature of a day in the life of News at Ten and the Nine Oclock News. I vividly recall Alastair Burnet and Sandy Gall being photographed in their rather luxurious offices, whilst Pamela Armstrong was photographed in the main newsroom.

The BBC article was more focussed on studio shots and editorial meetings.

In today's day of rolling news, do the big "stars" still have their own offices in recognition of their status? I am thinking of the likes of Huw Edwards, Jeremy Thompson and Mark Austin, etc. Or, are those days long gone and the anchormen and anchorwomen of today more likely to be found slumming it out in the main newsroom with the rest of us "plebs"? Pardon the term.

If I remember rightly, they have their own workstation in the newsroom, but not their own office. Bunched up together though.

No absolutely not. From the newsrooms I've worked in the presenters have the same desk next to anyone else. Only the exec's these days enjoy offices.

I know Trevor McDonald had his own office at ITN. Don't know whether Mark Austin inherited it when he left - it's possible, I guess.

I've noticed the proverbial "satellite delays" on some of the double and triple headed programs on CNNI, such as World Business, which links London, Hong Kong and New York. There are always awkward pauses between the readings of each of the anchors. But watching BBC Newsday this morning, the timing was faultless. It was almost as if Babita Sharma and Rico Hizon were sat next to each other, as the flow was perfect and there were no gaps at all.

How does Newsday manage to do it, whereas CNN can't?

The whole script on Singapore's autocue? Just a case of judging when to start when they hear London coming to the end of a sentence? (just guessing)

I can't answer that specific question but I do remember when I visited CNN's London studios that they try to compensate for the satellite delay by cueing the anchor slightly earlier than they normally would. I remember the anchor began reading while the titles were playing but by the time his speech arrived in Atlanta, it was perfectly timed. Quite clever if you ask me.