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big breakfast opening titles

(March 2006)

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ST
stevek
whilst watching some old big breakfast episodes i recorded years back i was reminded of the opening / closing titles and wondered if any of you know how they filmed them,

You can see the filmed towards the house because on the closing titles is a couple walking backwards past the house so it is obviously played backwards.

just wondering what sort of technical set up was used.
JB
JasonB
I've noticed this too, im not sure how it was done though. Its best asking over at the Bow Locks BB forum here Unofficial Big Breakfast Forum
BR
Brekkie
I don't know the technical terms but it was basically done with a camera on a crane.


I know with the 1996 revamp they couldn't get the crane in time to film the new house (the white one!), so for the first couple of weeks the sequence used was filmed by a cameraman moving along the ground.
ST
stevek
i always wondered why that one looked wonky at first, when the big breakfast finished i recorded the last ever episode and photographed each shot of the 4 house changes during the end credits (except for the first shot i managed to freeze the image of each house with no credits on them)

now if somebody could tell me how to load photos I'd happily share them with you

unfortunately as i just told somebody else in a pm i don't have the video recordings as I'm recycling my old video cassettes so i can't download any video footage
WH
Whataday Founding member
As far as I know, the titles were filmed using a minicopter like the one below:

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/_38471045_gyrocopter300.jpg

A crane would've been too high to get low, or too low to get high...
DA
davidhorman
That's an autogyro, which needs forward thrust to generate lift, so you wouldn't be able to get the kind of shot that was in the titles. It was more likely done with a remote controlled mini-helicopter, but I can't really remember how it looked now.

David
PE
peterrocket Founding member
It was a mini helicopter - if you watch the bottom left you can see a shadow of one.
HC
Hatton Cross
These guys did the footage

http://www.hovercam.com/customers.asp
TW
tweetypie
Yeah, it is a mini chopper as you can clearly see the shadow of it as well as what looks like a movement of a person within it on the ground.
BR
Brekkie
Crane, Planes, Minicopters - easy to get confused!


Yes, your right. I knew it was something like that - just had a memory lapse!


P.S. I mentioned this elsewhere but it's relevant here: the London Olympic Stadium is set to be built right next door to the Big Breakfast house, which will be on the outskirts of the Olympic Park.

It's unclear at the moment if the house will remain - it's in the compulsory purchase order zone, but appears to remain on the plans for the venue.

More details at http://www.bbmb.co.uk
ST
stevek
somebody advised me to ask at the big breakfast website bow locks and the reply was

The initial fly in to the house would have been done by helicopter at
somepoint during the titles theres a clever edit (hidden by the fruit, and
breakfast items flying around) where the camera would have switched from the 'copter cam to a crane cam which then swooped into the doors.
BR
Brekkie
stevek posted:
somebody advised me to ask at the big breakfast website bow locks and the reply was

The initial fly in to the house would have been done by helicopter at
somepoint during the titles theres a clever edit (hidden by the fruit, and
breakfast items flying around) where the camera would have switched from the 'copter cam to a crane cam which then swooped into the doors.


That be referring to the Johnny/Denise era titles then.

Of course though both the original titles and the white house titles didn't have a smooth run in to the house - the sequence was actually in four parts jumping a bit nearer the house with each bar of the theme.

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