Thanks Gavin. My inability to resize my video footage well means it's a lot of hassle for me to post clips.
I also agree with you. I like the look and it does look quite 'joined up' now, especially when you see it on screen. Plus it shows SMG is able to spend a little money and are aware of their on-screen look to an extent.
I don't like the ITV-style 'shower' of blue blocks. The inital 'flying' movements in the titles look great, but the light blue blocks don't look quite right when we fly through them, but other than that, the titles are great. I was going to say 'much better than the last titles', but there were no titles last time really. It was a short sting into headlines then animated words forming. I'm surprsied no-one's mentioned that the main bulletin actually has a proper set of longer titles now.
Also, I see a map of the whole of Scotland is in the titles. I also can't help but love how Scotland Today always want to give the impression that they are the only ITV news show for Scotland and cover the whole of the country. I guess it's nothing new. Even the 1998 titles I harked on about earlier - which wouldn't look out of place today, other than the thistle logo - have Aberdeen as one of the place names in the background. I always think it's good to namecheck places that are in the region. I think it reaffirms that it's local news and helps strengthen the bond with viewers - even Real Radio do it on their news openings.
Anyway, getting back to Scotland Today. You could easily change the words to say North Tonight, and that would be all Grampian need to do. I think a few forumers should give STV a bit of a break. They are doing the best with what they have and it seems quite a decent refresh seeing as they are moving premises in the summer. I think they got it right.
:-(
A former member
I think there one point missing here,
how do we know! that NORTH TONIGHT is still going to be aroudn in 6 months times? how do we know if SMG haven't got plan to merge it with scotland today?
Look, I should preface these comments by saying it's infinitely better looking than any other ITV regional news programme. The titles are a bit disappointing I think. The music is really good - the headline bed just seems to remind me of Sky News for some reason. However, I think the visual element to the titles is a bit poor. It starts off great - I love the sort of duck and weave through at the start, but then as soon as we go through that fly-through all of those squares (a la ITV News as others have pointed out), it goes downhill. That whole transition there just seems badly done, and then you have the Scotland Today logo plonk itself on screen like that, which is, I think, a bit of an anti-climax.
The set is a bit awkward - once again, better than the generic ITV Regional sets, but still, could have been done much better. I don't really like much of the background panels they've retained from the old set - especially those ones with images of the old titles that are behind the main presenters (either side of the rounded block with the plasma built into it). It's not that they have the old titles in them - in fact, they could still fit in well - it's just that they look so flat and dull. I also don't like the stand-up presentation area for sports. The layout of the old set just seemed to be better to me.
Music is out at one point. Don't mix two notes within a semitone together, it ends up sounding like on instrument has missed the note. (Within first few secs of main theme). Apart from that very nice. Was it Adelphoi?
This isn't intended as a slight on Scotland Today - I prefer it to the BBC's tediously box-ticking Reporting Shetland - but it actually looks like a news programme now.
The titles are good, the music's good, the only problem is that surely it'll end up looking out of place again in two weeks time when ITV1 changes its presentation.
The only other problem is that the set doesn't quite match the Sky News-esque intro, but I suppose with SMG cutting things left right and centre, they weren't going to shell out on a new set. Certainly not until they move studios. I assume that's why the desk is there, and they just about pull it off.
This isn't intended as a slight on Scotland Today - I prefer it to the BBC's tediously box-ticking Reporting Shetland - but it actually looks like a news programme now.
The titles are good, the music's good, the only problem is that surely it'll end up looking out of place again in two weeks time when ITV1 changes its presentation.
The only other problem is that the set doesn't quite match the Sky News-esque intro, but I suppose with SMG cutting things left right and centre, they weren't going to shell out on a new set. Certainly not until they move studios. I assume that's why the desk is there, and they just about pull it off.
Do you think the set might get a bit of a lick of paint before or on the 16/01/06?
Does anyone remember the little 'coffee table' ST used before the revamp? I think the new desk is the little table on a raised platform with a bit of red plastic round it?