RTÉ News

Well you probably got your answer on the RTÉ One thread

Yes Anne's hair is the same as always - although she does get it tweaked from time to time, like only this week where it's a bit different......I so shouldn't have noticed that...
Anyone ever see the time she started to wear glasses about 3 years ago? Huge black-rimmed bottle base yokes I think have the country had a heart attack when they saw them. She's probably wearing contacts now as they disappeared inside two days

Just a correction - the Nine News achieves roughly the same audience as Six One on average - usually around 500,000, although this can go much higher to the 600-650,000 on big story nights which was the figure originally quoted.

So THAT'S where Fiona Bruce got the idea!!!

Here's a couple of pics from tonight's (Sunday) Six One, presented by Niall Carroll and Colm Murray.
Niall's pretty good - he's excellent on radio, a bit shifty on television though. Might iron out with time.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/RTE1TV/RTNews-Wide.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/RTE1TV/RTNews-Wires.jpg

And the obilatory wires 'n mess stuffed in under the desk - admittedly much better than normal, it's usually a lot worse with wires in a tangle on the floor etc. Anne Doyle makes the biggest mess during the week for some reason - are there no floor managers anymore except for Six One?

Also note the hood of the camera coming into shot at the top - outside the safe area but still visible on computers etc.
Big chip out of the silver yoke to the front too.
And just on a final whinge - that desk is too high. As far as I can make out, all newsreaders with the exception of the tall Ken Hammond are hidden in behind it. Even Bryan Dobson can look too low, but it especially affects women. If you're more exposed and higher up, you're much more likely to sit up straighter and appear more engaging, whatever about just looking better all round.


Just on a topic raised with the suitablity of the BBC 'dancing' idents - what do people make of the suitablity of the RTÉ News closing music? Far too often I find it completely inappropriate. Whenever a serious main headline is read again at the end (esp on Nine) in sombre tones by the newsreader, the music kicks in with all trumpets blasting in celebratory tones and is truly awful when the main story is about a death or refugee crisis or AIDS etc. So much so that the odd considerate director has had to pull the audio completely at the end, which is going too far but they've no option.

The worst case I came across and I could see it coming a mile away from the outset, was the story about the bin charges protester if you remember who got scooped up by the Dublin City Council truck and ended up being whisked off down the road on the bonnet of the vehicle.
As soon as I saw the closing VT on the monitor behind the newsreader I just kept thinking please no, please no, let someone in that gallery have some wits about them, but no - the VT cut in with the music blasting out in celebratory tones la la la la la as the guy went sailing off down the road clinging for dear life, and then on cue on the *Da Don Don, Da Don* at the end, he falls off onto the road and slumps to the music....
It was just disgraceful. How could anyone calling themselves an editor not notice that coming?

An alternative set of bars needs to be composed for the end titles. The BBC's fits all being so neutral, but RTÉ just haven't thought it through.

On the music, I thought it was OTT at first but like it now. It certainly made a change from the rather sombre and downbeat music used during the purple (2000-2003) look. The music from the look before that was probably even more upbeat than what we have now!

I always liked the 2000 music, but it felt like something was missing, like someone forgot to finish it. And though I liked the purple and the start of the titles (with the globe), the satellite and the curved straps just looked so tacky. I liked the cool blue light under the desk though
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/weekendsixb.jpg

Image fromThe TV Room

PS: The whole thing was definitely better than what they have now

I thought the 2000-2003 look was excellent - being a sad get, I often watched RTÉ News specifically to hear that theme tune and the titles. Everything seemed to work well together. Although, admittedly, I've only seen a couple of bulletins with the current look, I far prefer the previous incarnation.

I'd agree about the blue light under the desk, and as said before, the set could really look fantastic at times, not least the afternoon bulletins where it just glowed. You can see the potency of the colours here behind Flor McCarthy:

http://thetvroom.com/images-rte-one/rte-one-news/images-01/daytime-a.jpg

The neutral nature of the set also allowed greater freedom for composition etc.
But I got thoroughly sick of it after nearly 4 years on air - the pink being particulaly overbearing after all that time. Perhaps that's why afternoons seemed so refreshing as that part of the set was a deep blue.
The completely bland background as in your picture above and in tighter two-shots (below) was perhaps the worst part:

http://thetvroom.com/images-rte-one/rte-one-news/images-01/weekend-six-d.jpg

But the biggest problem with this set was the lack of identity it offered - it was too neutral, almost corporate in nature, and made no references to the fact that it was an Irish service, it could have been from anywhere in the world.

I totally agree about the music seeming unfinished, lol - you were always waiting for that punchline that never came

Overall though it did work quite well - the picture windows beside the presenter were excellent, and how the dissolved away into the set at the edges. The captions introduced later also worked exceedingly well: both their font & colour and how they projected out beyond the picture if necessary:

http://thetvroom.com/images-rte-one/rte-one-news/images-01/weekend-nine-c.jpg

Images also from www.thetvroom.com

Yes I like the new titles a lot, at the top and at breaks, but a more muted option needs to be composed for the end titles to be used as required.

Has anyone got the theme to download? As it is great theme IMO, plus I don't like constantly going onto the Stream to hear it, as it takes forever on 56K.

Though I downloaded the RTÉ Nine O'Clock News titles from 2000-2003 from The TV Room the other day, though the titles are good and very Newsy, the theme tune isn't as powerful as it should be, as it is now, though it is slightly OTT, it is powerful, especially compared to it's UK counterparts.

I have to say I really disagree about the 2000 theme... I can't see why it wasn't powerful. A full orchestra, those drum beats, and as for not having a signature tune to it - right at the end, the signature proudly says "RTÉ".

How can you not hear that?! EH?!!!! WHY?!!!

Watch and listen to this TV Room clip: http://thetvroom.com/video3/B-RTE-NEWS-601-2.rm . It works perfectly - it's dramatic, authoritative and doesn't remind me of IKEA. Unlike RTÉ News 2005.

Don't get me wrong the 2000-2003 theme was very good and yes I can hear, but to me it just doesn't stand out as much as the current theme.

Though I also think that the 2000 theme and the whole look go rather well together, as it does overall appear to be more sensible, it does it's job, it's not OTT. I overall prefer the current theme, though agree with many of the comments said about the current look compared to the 2000 look, as they said it looks like they have gone a step backwards.

lol - although I'd argue that the desk surface of the 2000 set was textbook IKEA

I referred to the set not having a signature element rather than the titles, but agreed to a point - the 2000 titles were powerful, there's no doubt about that, and the 'climactic' part exceedingly well written, but it is the start I don't like, where the globe comes in - the music's very messy in that section, somewhat directionless.
And in the visuals I just found the globe a very cliched image to stick in there - pulled out of the dramatic news titles identikit.
I suppose I look on it unfairly cause I was so totally sick of it by the end - I really really hated it by then

As an overall package, it was perhaps the most successful of RTÉ News schemes - titles, set, graphics all worked very well together.

One thing that disappeared unnoticed was the music used just after the titles during the opening wide of the studio. The concept was a direct rip-off from the BBC's newly introduced set, but it worked quite well. It was a deep spaceship-like *dooooooooooo* that faded in as the camera deflated on the wide shot of the studio.
It was ditched within a few months though, if not weeks - supposedly too awkward to fade out or something

What did people think of the last change to be made to that scheme's format - the use of the huge banner image for the main story splayed out behind the wideish shot of the presenter?
Hated it at first but kinda got used to it after a while...as you tend to whether you want to or not...
How was it generated?

From what I remember it was the Nine that mainly used that shot. It looked like they were trying to emulate Sky News' newswall or something. It looked wierd.

Since we are talking RTE News, what do people think of RTE News on 2's current format? I'm not sure it works, they seem to be streching parts of the old News 2 format with the RTE News look and it doesn't seem to be meshing well. I read in one of RTE's brochure's at one stage it was under review, but that could mean anything. Mind you, RTE's policy since September 2003 is that the name "RTE" has to be in everything (only TG4 escapes), so I doubt we will any significant changes...