Australian TV Presentation Thread

Makes much more sense - C4 do something similar when promoting FilmFour, but can keep the actual film credits on screen without shrinking them as they just scroll past.

C4 introduced a standardised ECP with all credits reformated in 1998 for it's youth strand T4, to allow for in-vision continuity on the left. This looked quite good, but wasn't adopted by the main network. ITV introduced their own standardised credits around 2000, with credits over a hearts animation on the right, and a promo playing in the left two-thirds. As ECPs go, this works quite well.

All other ECPs have been generated live though. In 1999 C4 introduced a sidebar for promotions (text only, no picture) using the right third of the screen, squeezing credits into the left two-thirds (rather than reducing them to 1/2 the screen size).

By 2000 credits on C4 all ran in the left two-thirds, with the side bar ECP placed over the right hand side. This meant all programmes had their own credits, but the ECP could easily be generated. In the last month this has changed so the ECP fills the right half.

ITV's ECP introduced in 2002 is easily the best though. Credits run in the centre, with the ECP moving them to the left to allow for promos on the right. This allows credits to run on their own programme background (although many use a generic background!) and they look good and are readable whether an ECP is used or not.

I guess a key reason standardised ECPs haven't taken off here is due to the change to widescreen TV. 16:9 programmes generally have to be 4:3 safe - so broadcasters can't use the sides of the screen for anything important with the credits.

Just a quick observation about Seven's 2004 ECP/Credits. I guess the '7' logo (in the bottom left) is actually generated live, but only goes out on the Seven-branded stations. I notice GWN (the affiliate) got exactly the same generic end-credits, but without the 7 logo. I assume Prime did too. I was a little surprised as Seven's red colours don't really mirror GWN's 'golden' look.

welltahts the affiliates fault if the colours dont match. Yes the 7 is generated live and fades in. It is why the promos that play above dont have any 7 branding.

Interestingly, GWN adds its logo at the end of the promo, and on the inset promo itself. I wonder what Prime does - there's very little up-to-date Prime screencaps about!

How do the Aussie channels (and others) deal with British programmes.

As our ad structure is very different, I guess the networks need to insert two extra breaks in 30 minute programmes and three in 60 minute programmes.

Also, how do they deal with credits. It's been mentioned Seven reformat them in primetime, but are they changed so the executive producer and endcaps played before the main credits. And how do they deal with programmes like The Bill that have "Next Time" promos inserts before the credits. Is it played out as normal, or reduced to run in an ECP when the credits roll.

I dont think networks have a problem with putting ad breaks in the wrong places. They would find a spot to cut to a break. You'd see it often with US shows as well because aust networks dont cut to a break after the intro so it screws up the timing. On other nets, show credits play out as normal with voiceover or are squeezed for a promo.

I've seen seven reformat Airline USA credits (show bombed so now its shafted out of prometime so we get to see the itv generic credits in that light blue colour). The production card is flashed for 1 sec then goes to the credits box making way for a promo. the credits are written in the same amount of pages as the originals.

Only seven place 'next time' previews into ECP to create flow. All other nets would play it after exec prod cred or after final action. The bill is on ABC which doesnt have advets within programmes so it plays smooth without bumpers with the 'previously on the bill' at the start and 'next time' at the end.

As routemarker says, The Bill goes out on ABC, so ad-breaks are cut out but recaps and previews (with the ITV blue-and-yellow super) are left intact. Overseas must get a version of the show without the 'itv.com' URL on the end-credits though; I've seen both Australian and South African showings, and these don't have the URL.

As for ad-breaks, ABC obviously cut them out but you sometimes hear a little bit of the theme music at the start of the 'post-break' scene. I saw an interesting edit on ABC; in an episode about Jessica Sharp's disappearance, before the break the last shot was of Samantha Nixon's face, and the first shot after the break showed her in a long shot addressing the press. The way the camera panned she was hidden from view by a pillar for a couple of seconds, after saying her first sentence. ABC cut it so that the returning shot was the pillar and re-dubbed Sam's voice over it - so viewers didn't get two shots of Sam (a sort of jump cut). Seems a lot of effort to go to - I'm sure the same character appears in both pre-break and post-break shots quite often.

The Series channel (a cable/pay-tv) channel in South Africa shows The BIll, but they take less ad-breaks than ITV; at least late at night. The EOP and BOP captions and music are left intact, even if there is no break there. Very odd!

This may interest you Brekkie Boy - I've just discovered an Aussie site where there are some clips of shows like EastEnders and Corrie recorded from UK-TV (a Pay-TV channel showing mainly UK shows). The Corrie clips available at the moment are from the episode where Richard confesses all to Gail!

http://media.simplyslayage.net/cr.htm

Interesting to see that Oz get the 8.30 Monday Corrie episodes with shortened titles, just like in the UK. I wonder if the 7.30 Monday ones have proper closing credits? Anyone know?

Just a few observations on this thread...

RTE and TG4 in Ireland use continuity announcers on just about every ident (except overnight on RTE1), so its not just the UK that has this practice. (The fact that our TV is very UK-influnced probably is the reason for this though). TV3 only uses continuity announcers over idents at peak time though.

Programme Return Graphics were used on Sky One for a very long time - from 1989 right up until 1997. These days the only station in the UK and Ireland that uses them that I know of is TV3.

I certainly hope we don't go down the road of having multiple breaks this side of the world - I prefer one long break in the middle of a half-hour programme than many short ones. When Sky One ran the Late Show, they had that style of breaks in it and it didn't work IMO.

Seems to me what 7 Network uses (above) is what the majority of networks in the USA and Canada use. If not that, then they use what !!!9 uses (above). I found the latter works better since it shows the programme's end credits as per normal, albeit squeezed. They aren't re-written like they are for the former. Of course, SpikeTV doesn't go as far as do that for the entire length of end credits, just for about the first 15 seconds thereof.

Talking of credits - but going off topic - most US comedies screened in the UK have the credits overlayed over a final scene.

However, clips I've seen from the US have credits for shows like Friends and Frasier in an ECP format - so is the final scene played before these.

Seems strange they wouldn't rather use a full screen promo!

I'm not sure from what ive seen if footage from the show was played during the end credits it is reformatted in the network look to make it uniform. perhaps those clips came from episodes which didn't have a final scene.

example from Joey on NBC
Example from That '70s Show on FOX

both above shows hand the credits reformatted to the final scene. Production company cards played before the credits.