The Newsroom

Look North North East & Cumbria Refresh

(January 2017)

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JA
JAS84
RDJ posted:
The titles are much nicer! The current ones for the regions are edging 9 years old this year (minus any minor changes). NE & C can demonstrate how to do suitably update the titles.

The grey logos on the big screens look nice too, they just don't go with the predominantly white set.

Every region has updated their titles at some point. Some added full colour instead of the red and grey originally used, though LN NE&C is the first to remove the white almost totally. North West Tonight and Look North Hull have ditched the original regional template completely, though it still fits in with the national news.
HB
HarryB

You can tell the opening in this is pre-recorded. Including the wide shot used following the titles, but when it cuts to the first story the jump between recorded shot and live shot on how Carol is acting between the two shots.
RO
Rofters


This could be the start of something here...
BA
Bail Moderator
Most (all?) regions prerecord the headlines, whats the issue with that?
DE
deejay
Not all regions record headlines. Indeed, a few years ago after some misleading of the audiences by some programmes, mandatory staff training meant recorded sequences could no longer be run as live without making it clear they were recorded. This is why you'll often still hear "speaking to me earlier ..." or "earlier I asked ...".

For a while a lot of regions who had routinely recorded headline sequences felt they couldn't do this anymore, so moved to doing them live believing the BBC had actually banned such a practice. That wasn't quite true, you could still record stuff so long as you weren't misleading the audience. In any case, a lot of headline sequences include clips from reporters in the field which are on tape anyway, so the argument that you have to use a live presenter when you're incorporating a taped reporter falls down a bit.
CH
chris
North West Tonight do them live. It's a bit of a rush for the presenters to move from standing to sitting whilst the titles run!
RK
Rkolsen
Not all regions record headlines. Indeed, a few years ago after some misleading of the audiences by some programmes, mandatory staff training meant recorded sequences could no longer be run as live without making it clear they were recorded. This is why you'll often still hear "speaking to me earlier ..." or "earlier I asked ...".

Was that based on viewer complaints or a new internal policy? Do they have to introduce recorded packages that air first airing from the field that way?
MQ
Mr Q
I may be in the minority, but I reckon those titles are... underwhelming. They're not bad - indeed, the execution is respectable - but it all represents just another variation on a very long running theme.
BA
bilky asko
The grey on the screens is a clever move I feel, as white doesn't look always look brilliant on the rear-projection screens.

The new titles have an air of quality camerawork and execution that is lacking with certain recent national idents.
DE
deejay
The BBC suffered a great deal from a string of occasions where programmes (non news ones I might add) had been found to be making up competition winners, contributors and viewer/listener comments. So it was a widespread change of policy and tightening up of editorial control, and all staff had to attend a training course called Safeguarding Trust. It addressed all manner of things like editing of photographs, supporting live programmes with senior editorial staff (some early morning/late night local radio shows were simply a presenter and no one else), and editing of sequences which might lead viewers to thinking something had happened in an order at odds with what had actually happened.

The big changes though were the effective banning of As-Live treatments, particularly in news and current affairs programmes, and the suspension of phone-in competitions (some of which never returned).

As Live treatments were once quite commonplace in regional news, where a reporter on location would send a single-take piece to camera, possibly containing an interview and it would start and end with a 'hold'. The director would run it early, mix it into a screen and the presenter would throw to it as if the reporter was actually there on a live link. In many cases the reporter was actually still there, preparing their report for a later edition, but this argument fell flat with managers who decided that the viewer would feel misled. Some smaller regions without live facilities used As Live treatments to mix up their reporting styles within a programme and so the ban led to a measure of 'shape' being lost from the overall programme, where it just became a series of links, packages and voiceover "news in brief" type items. News 24 had for years run live clips again later on "As Live" by clipping them up and repeating them. "Turnarounds" still happen, but they now start repeats on the first (or subsequent) answer, cut off any thank you from the end and introduce them generically.

Local Radio suffered quite badly as a result. Lone presenters had to be supported by a producer the other side of the glass. Phone in competitions were suspended across the BBC for months. When they were allowed again, the controls to get compliance and permission to run one meant a lot of local stations didn't bother..

A lot of things changed very much for the better. No one could argue that making up comments, competition winners, or contestants is a great way to make a programme. Introducing recorded programmes on networks where phone in is usually encouraged (such as Radio 5 Live) is now done by saying "This is a recorded programme, so please don't text or call" so that the viewer doesn't waste their money. Any phone vote shows (like Strictly) have lengthy Terms and Conditions which viewers are invited to read and it's made clear how much it costs to vote.

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