RTÉ News

What a bizarre situation!

Yes Marian Burke is the regular director for Six One, the person Bryan referred to so strangely. The fact that he had to address the director directly was clearly an indication of his lack of confidence in the gallery operations of RTÉ News - that a normal 'we'll have to leave it there' cue would not be taken up by the gallery as a warning to move on.

I disagree that staying to the end was the best thing to do. Half way through that mess tyhe director ought to have called for a fade on sound and a cut back to Bryan to ease out of the situation, especially as Bryan had already taken the lead and the interview was coming to a close anyway. Indeed just looking at that shows how good a director Bryan would be!

Yes it seems the guest's comms went down - not clear if they used an RTÉ One feed or a dedicated split line for the guest, though they use the latter most of the time as far as I know. Even if it was an RTÉ One feed, his audio would have been turned up by the op during that mess, or should have anyway...

Just watching RTE News, see the jump at the start is still there.

Still, I'm more amused at the camera shots they're using. Take an OB at Connolly Station, were it was shoved out the back where some railings were, so it wasn't clear that it was Connolly Station, it could have been out the back. Surely with the train stike IE could ahve let them inside or, if not, they could have got somewhere out the front that's identifiable than in a car park.

Then, a report on motorist safety. The shots of general traffic were the worst you'd ever see for generic shots with rails in view and bushes. Imagine sitting on top of a side road filming down on a motorway! This got better, being followed by a random shot of a Luas passing a clapped out old ugly building before someone in orange briefly walks in and the shot changes! Now the PTC is atrocious and at an angle, with a brief shot of an umbrella. Seems the reporter was trying to do a link under an umbrella with the cameraman under the same brolly!

And just now a reports playing a few seconds before the anchors have even finished the intro, so you get a clash of voices!

All in a day's work Peter, all in a day's work.

Was going to comment on that exact OB - what an appalling shot! This is absolutely standard for most RTÉ News OBs - no thought whatsoever goes into choosing a location that is suited to presentation. RTÉ News's foremost concern is finding the handiest space to park the van - no joke. That's all they worry about.
In which case, do they never even think to ask themselves why they're working in television? What's the point in using a visual medium if only to show Ingrid Miley standing outside what looks like a municipal landfill site rather than the stunning Italinate Connolly Station, one of the icons of the Irish railway network? Or their equally magnificent head office right next door - they also have a relatively quiet leafy car park right in front of their fine red sandstone HQ.
It really is a scandal OB ops are allowed come back to base having produced such sh*te and not the slightest word is mentioned. Ingrid spoke to camera yesterday with an almost as bad backdrop from the back of Connolly. What incompetency.

And good God yes - David McCullagh crouching underneath a brolly, speaking in an MCU to a handheld camera beneath him!!! What in the name of all that's sane!?!
And best of all, this was shot right outside the door of RTÉ's city centre studio on Kildare Street opposite Leinster House!!! In the p*ssing rain!

Have a listen to the abominable audio on this report by the usually fairly good Barry Cummins - it was even worse on telly last night. Unbelievable this was passed by the Editor:

http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/228-2141150.smil

The OB did look completely awful, especially as you say there's other alternative buildings available if out the front wasn't there. BBC Newsline I've seen use wireless kits where the camera can go where the truck can't so it can be somewhere else. I think TV3 have something simliar, just RTE probably can't be bothered as it means the camera operator will be further away from the warmth of the truck!

But that report..... that's absolutely shocking! I laughed as the GV shots of the new train started off fairly quietly, and as we got closer to the train it got louder and louder! Looks like the editor didn't do his levels right, as the interviews are generally on CH1 with the ambience with VO on CH2 going Left and Right in the final mix.

And today the OB gets no better.

This time St Patricks Cathedral, which well to be honest, could be a wall and a pavement anywhere in the country. Why not out the front of said Cathedral, showing something even resembling the cathedral. Instead standing beside the car on a footpath with an anonymous wall and possible arch but that's being blocked by the presenter standing in position!

Oh God - and to think one of the city's finest parks sits right next to the cathedral:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/StPatricksCathedralDublin.JPG/300px-StPatricksCathedralDublin.JPG

There are countless spectacular backdrops available around here, not least from the elevated position to the bottom left of this picture

http://www.cslewis.org/programs/cruise/2004/images/stpatricks.jpg

The ignorance is astounding.

I know, it's rather a case of where they can get away quicker!

More amusing is how they just extended a clip on a report on Eurovision. The shot was played twice and dissolved at 50% so you saw someone come place down an ashtray in full view then again a second later 50% transparent.

There also was a traditional cock up during the headlines though, a mis cue meant headline recaps of different stories were read out at the same time

Was watching a report on Six-One on Wednesday I think - who was the female reporter covering "The Da Vinci Code"? A shot of her outside the doors (presumably) of a cinema - wind howling on her mic.

Here's the latest regarding DTT:



PS: GO BRIAN!!!

Yes, August at last seems to be set in concrete as the switch-on date for the trial. Can't wait, as I live in the area covered, well, along with 30-40% of the population . Turning off by 2012 will be a challenge, though not insurmountable - the package offered will make or break it...


You'd have to laugh at the webchat with Fergal Bowers during the week.

http://www.irishhealth.com/content/image/6150/image001.jpg

One question reads:

Duane Arnott, Sligo : Hello Mr Bowers. As a US national living and working in Rosses' Point, Co Sligo, for the last several years, I've been mightily impressed by your reporting on RTE. My question for you...

He must be referring to a completely different Mr Bowers to that of RTÉ News we know and love so dearly - 'mightily impressed'!?! Is this man on the same planet?

And this - I just love this:

Una Coleman : How difficult did you find the transition from print journalism to broadcast? How long did it take you to feel comfortable in front of the camera?
Fergal : Before I moved to RTE in 2004, I had been a regular contributor to television and radio, so I was familiar with the medium but it is a very different medium to print and you always have to be thinking about what pictures you will have in order to explain a news story. Without pictures you really have no story.

LOL. This is even worse than we thought - Bowers does actually consider how pictures have impact and actually works at it! Before it appeared his abominable reporting was simply the result of not giving a damn - only now it turns out that the muck he churns out on a daily basis are the fruits of his hard and considered labour!

The reality is that with Bowers, far from his "pictures telling the story" as he so describes, they actually detract from what he's saying his reports are so appallingly complied. Indeed they'd be more comprehensible if he'd just play the VO back to us over a black screen - at least then we wouldn't have to endure 90 seconds of stock hospital images and roaring traffic noise pasted over what is otherwise a condensed newspaper article that he writes.

This is the reality of television news production in Ireland - far from shoddy operators being spurned or constructively criticised by the public, they actually get praise heaped upon them for their perceived celebrity status! Charlie Bird is of course the other classic example, as are the various regional correspondents, though to be fair most of them are quite good. For the high profile Health Correspondent's position, featured nearly on a daily basis, to be held by somebody as utterly incompetent in news presentation as Bowers is nothing of a scandal. A nice man no doubt, and a highly competent web and press health journalist, but wholly inexperienced in television.


Another uncued VT on Nine tonight
Scroll to 12.18

http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/2142152.smil

I love that cock up - you get to hear the shoddy bed, and then just as they run the out sting (clearly from MD or something) the headline wipes showing the next.

Either someone messed up the promo by over extending the Croke Park shots or they just weren't listening but ran it anway and they make them live. I can't see that happening, it would require several complex moves on a switcher to do and probably beyond the ability of RTE to perfect it each time

Anybody able to get a caps of the titles for RTE News? Cheers!