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Bat's wings 60th anniversary

(November 2013)

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VM
VMPhil
Well there you go, shot on Super 16. So it could possibly be transferred to HD if needed.
AS
Asa Admin
... and apparently not quite as it appears, Nick Higham tweeted that as it's illegal to fly a balloon over the sea, they filmed the lighthouse from a helicopter and filmed the balloon somewhere else and married the two up in post.

Yep, as given away really in the cutaway shot half way through the ident.

http://tvfi.co.uk/bbcone-needles.jpg

It has to be the Millennium Dome one for me, great visuals and soundtrack.

Shame I've only got them in crummy Real Media or low quality VHS!
PC
Philip Cobbold
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkgfe1_mrrealradiofan2002-s-tribute-to-the-bbc-one-balloon-1997-2002_shortfilms
This has video of pretty much all of the first set of balloons, clean and in full.
PC
Paul Clark
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkgfe1_mrrealradiofan2002-s-tribute-to-the-bbc-one-balloon-1997-2002_shortfilms
This has video of pretty much all of the first set of balloons, clean and in full.


I *think* these originated from the idents.tv website...
PC
Philip Cobbold
Oh yeah, and the quality is much better on there as well.
BA
Bail Moderator
http://beohm.com/identica/uk/BBC1Balloon_England.flv
More: http://idents.tv/blog/2009/01/25/the-much-beloved-bbc-one-balloon-idents/
MK
Mr Kite
They were, and are, beautiful idents and look every bit as good today. I agree with some though that the latter ones, like that bungee one, were not so good and in some ways diluted the impact and feel of the originals. They should get the balloon back out for a fly for old times' sake. I recall hearing it's lying in some shed around the Bristol area, perhaps. One thing I would say is that I felt they could've done more urban idents. It seemed to be London or countryside, although there was that Blackpool one.
ST
Stedixon
Yeah a few were a bit London centric.
BA
Bail Moderator
It'll never ever fly alas, it's certificate of airworthiness expired many years ago now, and indeed even its registry G-IBBC is now only recently null and void.
WP
WillPS
Is that not just because there was no need to keep its' registration active, rather than being indicative of the balloon's ability to fly?
DE
deejay
They were, and are, beautiful idents and look every bit as good today. I agree with some though that the latter ones, like that bungee one, were not so good and in some ways diluted the impact and feel of the originals. They should get the balloon back out for a fly for old times' sake. I recall hearing it's lying in some shed around the Bristol area, perhaps. One thing I would say is that I felt they could've done more urban idents. It seemed to be London or countryside, although there was that Blackpool one.


There were a fair few shot in the docks at Felixstowe, plus a lot of rooftops shot in Wales and in/around Cardioff Bay (I think). According to TV Ark there were 47 idents in the initial set. They were known as "Scottish 5", "Irish 4", "English 3" etc on the laserdiscs, and network directors were all careful to try and ensure a mix from around the country. I dare say there might have been a preference in the nations to use their set more than some of the others. Certainly in English Regions the South Downs ones were used a lot.

TV Ark has a very good section on the Balloons, so you can see that they're not all rural/seascapes:
http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbcone/1997_idents.html

I think my favourite was actually St Michael's Mount, the camera movement in that one was fantastic...
http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/images/bbcone/images_idents/1997/bbc1balloonenglish18.jpg
LL
Larry the Loafer
The more I watch the balloon idents, the more I miss them.

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