NG
noggin
Founding member
Well - it looks like what it is...
This is what happens when you take a show out of a decent studio, with decent production and with a decent budget that allows for creative use of a large studio space, and shoe-horn it into a much smaller studio, with a cheap fixed set, fewer cameras, and far less scope for studio production. It also shows what happens when you replace decent film camera crew with production-shot DV...
Can anyone say CHEAP?
Cuts... What are they?
To me it looks, and sounds, like a poor relation to XChange (strange that - it comes from the old CBBC XChange studio) crossed with a Saturday show (one of the BBC Scotland ones...) - lots of wobbly hand held cameras, presenters shouting FOR NO APPARENT REASON, and a really cramped and claustrophobic "fake den" look.
If they want to kill Blue Peter as a quality brand, and cheapen CBBC, well they've managed that in one fell swoop.
Blue Peter has been through many re-inventions in the past - but one of the fantastic elements it has always had until now - is a large and flexible studio, where each show can do something surprising, different and interesting... Lets hope they do a lot more OBs - as 2 shows a week from that space won't be much fun to watch.
Sadder still - you can't blame the crew or production team making each show - they will be doing their absolute best with the reduced facilities and money they now have...
Be much better if they just axed it - rather than let it limp on as a pale imitation of its former self.
This is what happens when you take a show out of a decent studio, with decent production and with a decent budget that allows for creative use of a large studio space, and shoe-horn it into a much smaller studio, with a cheap fixed set, fewer cameras, and far less scope for studio production. It also shows what happens when you replace decent film camera crew with production-shot DV...
Can anyone say CHEAP?
Cuts... What are they?
To me it looks, and sounds, like a poor relation to XChange (strange that - it comes from the old CBBC XChange studio) crossed with a Saturday show (one of the BBC Scotland ones...) - lots of wobbly hand held cameras, presenters shouting FOR NO APPARENT REASON, and a really cramped and claustrophobic "fake den" look.
If they want to kill Blue Peter as a quality brand, and cheapen CBBC, well they've managed that in one fell swoop.
Blue Peter has been through many re-inventions in the past - but one of the fantastic elements it has always had until now - is a large and flexible studio, where each show can do something surprising, different and interesting... Lets hope they do a lot more OBs - as 2 shows a week from that space won't be much fun to watch.
Sadder still - you can't blame the crew or production team making each show - they will be doing their absolute best with the reduced facilities and money they now have...
Be much better if they just axed it - rather than let it limp on as a pale imitation of its former self.
RH
They used to at some points - i.e. when it was justified, like the reaching of an appeal target or something, but not as a matter of course.
I wonder how they'll get the carol singers in for Christmas??!
Having a fixed set has totally ruined the show - the set is vile, it has no links to any former studio-set up in terms of the versatility or the theme (i.e. there's only one image of the ship on the whole set, and that is on the plasma next to the seating area.
Not nice at all.
The BP format was working well as it was - modernised over the years, but still intrinsically what was recongised. I would hazard an assumption what we were just being old fashioned, but judging my the CBBC message boards the show's target audience don't like the new look either!
I wonder how they'll get the carol singers in for Christmas??!
Having a fixed set has totally ruined the show - the set is vile, it has no links to any former studio-set up in terms of the versatility or the theme (i.e. there's only one image of the ship on the whole set, and that is on the plasma next to the seating area.
Not nice at all.
The BP format was working well as it was - modernised over the years, but still intrinsically what was recongised. I would hazard an assumption what we were just being old fashioned, but judging my the CBBC message boards the show's target audience don't like the new look either!
RU
The BP format was working well as it was - modernised over the years, but still intrinsically what was recongised. I would hazard an assumption what we were just being old fashioned, but judging my the CBBC message boards the show's target audience don't like the new look either!
Has the board been censored as the main set thread on the Blue Peter has only pro messages, anything else seems to have been removed for breaking house rules!
russnet
Founding member
Rhysey posted:
The BP format was working well as it was - modernised over the years, but still intrinsically what was recongised. I would hazard an assumption what we were just being old fashioned, but judging my the CBBC message boards the show's target audience don't like the new look either!
Has the board been censored as the main set thread on the Blue Peter has only pro messages, anything else seems to have been removed for breaking house rules!
JR
The BP format was working well as it was - modernised over the years, but still intrinsically what was recongised. I would hazard an assumption what we were just being old fashioned, but judging my the CBBC message boards the show's target audience don't like the new look either!
Has the board been censored as the main set thread on the Blue Peter has only pro messages, anything else seems to have been removed for breaking house rules!
I note how everything on the CBBC message boards that is deemed to be critical is removed, without any proper explanation from the moderators. It makes Digital Spew seem like a haven for free speech!
The new set looks horrendously small, and looks worryingly like Friendly TV's set. It looks really cheap and tacky, and looks sadly like an attempt at cost-cutting from the BBC's sadministration department. I can see the letters of complaint flooding in...
russnet posted:
Rhysey posted:
The BP format was working well as it was - modernised over the years, but still intrinsically what was recongised. I would hazard an assumption what we were just being old fashioned, but judging my the CBBC message boards the show's target audience don't like the new look either!
Has the board been censored as the main set thread on the Blue Peter has only pro messages, anything else seems to have been removed for breaking house rules!
I note how everything on the CBBC message boards that is deemed to be critical is removed, without any proper explanation from the moderators. It makes Digital Spew seem like a haven for free speech!
The new set looks horrendously small, and looks worryingly like Friendly TV's set. It looks really cheap and tacky, and looks sadly like an attempt at cost-cutting from the BBC's sadministration department. I can see the letters of complaint flooding in...
Quote:
Dear
Points of View
,
I would like to object in the strongest terms to the new Blue Peter set, which appears to me to be an a blatant attempt at cost-cutting...
...signed, Jack Williams
(age 3)
I would like to object in the strongest terms to the new Blue Peter set, which appears to me to be an a blatant attempt at cost-cutting...
...signed, Jack Williams
(age 3)
PT
This new set is abysmal. I just want to see Mark Curry trying to steer a steam engine around this set.
(oh wait...I'm living in 1988 again...
)
(oh wait...I'm living in 1988 again...
)
NG
noggin
Founding member
Yep - the set, studio and style all belong to a different programme. The sense of space and the feeling that "anything can happen in this space" has completely gone.
Fixed sets often mean fixed expectations - fine for a show where the studio is just a place to deliver links from - but not fine for a show that has a fine history of delivering interesting studio items - with scale and ambition. They aren't going to be driving cars, marching bands, or staging large musical song and dance numbers in that space...
Anyone remember what happened when Tomorrow's World went from a large and versatile studio with lots of in-studio items to a fixed studio for links only? Yep - the show started to die. They tried to revive the studio format late in the run - but it was too late.
Shows have a character in their format as well as their content. Fiddling with the format seldom works, and often irrevocably changes the character of the show.
Fixed sets often mean fixed expectations - fine for a show where the studio is just a place to deliver links from - but not fine for a show that has a fine history of delivering interesting studio items - with scale and ambition. They aren't going to be driving cars, marching bands, or staging large musical song and dance numbers in that space...
Anyone remember what happened when Tomorrow's World went from a large and versatile studio with lots of in-studio items to a fixed studio for links only? Yep - the show started to die. They tried to revive the studio format late in the run - but it was too late.
Shows have a character in their format as well as their content. Fiddling with the format seldom works, and often irrevocably changes the character of the show.
PT
Well this is ridiculous. Somebody's got to sort out a bigger studio at least. Otherwise, we can say the long goodbye to nearly 50 years of a British Children's television institution.
MA
Which studio is it coming from by the way? I know someone said Xchange's old studio, but which one is that?
There are a LOT of changes programmes can get away with, even if users on the web such as us don't always agree with them, but in this case they really are going to damage their viewership - even kids just won't buy into it, especially those who have been watching it for years. I bet if nothing changes by Konnie's departure, that will be many people's cue to stop watching.
There is a crisis at the BBC, I suppose CBBC alone can't help this, but when making decisions about where to make cuts you don't take an axe to the head of 50 years of what Children's BBC has always been about. Without BP, they're going to find it very difficult to justify being there at all.
There are a LOT of changes programmes can get away with, even if users on the web such as us don't always agree with them, but in this case they really are going to damage their viewership - even kids just won't buy into it, especially those who have been watching it for years. I bet if nothing changes by Konnie's departure, that will be many people's cue to stop watching.
There is a crisis at the BBC, I suppose CBBC alone can't help this, but when making decisions about where to make cuts you don't take an axe to the head of 50 years of what Children's BBC has always been about. Without BP, they're going to find it very difficult to justify being there at all.