RTÉ

OK I'll have to correct myself. There is a proper steadicam being used in YAS tonight but there's two hand-helds and they look terrible. The proper steadicam is OK but it's effect is dulled by the shakey hand-helds. I've never seen a proper steadicam being used in a studio production before. And the only reason I know there's 3 mobile cameras is because they've all been caught in shot by the peds/jib several times

I see that TG4 has now begun broadcasting in widescreen on RTÉ's satellite testing channel. There is no audio however. It probably won't be long now until it makes the switch completely. But I notice that everything is being cropped from 4:3 to 16:9 and it looks terrible really. If something is made in 4:3 it should be left in 4:3 and not chopped and cropped like there's no tomorrow.

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/tg4w.jpg

Hi Folks,

Just had a gawk through the thread for the first time... Very interesting about the access to the RTÉ News Center sub-site... Shame it's such a badly put together operation.

The new reel of Autumn programs has been running on RTE over the past few days, section by section (although I've yet to see the News & Current Affairs one on TV). Overall it's not bad, but I have to say, whoever the continuity girl is should really go back to writing scripts and let someone with a more muted and less falsly-enthusiastic voice carry off things like that... I'm noticing her brash voice more and more as I suffer through the atrocious quantity of ad-breaks on RTE while waiting for some divine intervention in their programming schedule... Really Really Bad. In fact, here's a question... has anyone actually ever liked an RTE Continuity presenter?

Anyway, another thing I found on the RTE re-launch site is this:

http://www.rte.ie/tv/autumn2006/images/primetimeinvestigates.jpg

Who's responsible for that hideously massive RTE logo?? Honestly I'd hate to be a Red Bee project manager seeing stuff like that being churned out less than 3 weeks before a relaunch. Sickening.

On the whole YAS debacle, thank god it's over eh!? Only thing is we all know it'll be back. For my part, I watched it one evening last week just for the sheer crass value. Apart from the devestation of missing Kathryn Thomas performing, I had plenty of holes shown to me to pick at. Agree with Phen 100% about the camera cueing. It's appauling. The jib camera is the worst because it zooms out from the stage and then looks at the heads of a bored audience. Also, I know nothing of the Helix, but can the seats be moved?? Surely it'd make more sense to have a smaller audience area blanketed by those lovely black curtains to keep the sound at bay... you really get the impression of a barn-yard echo when the crowd are forced to clap along to some dreary song like that miserable Mary Black one Áine Ní Dhroignean sang. Nice girl, passion-less singer.

Idents-wise on RTE, I actually like them. The music isn't any good, but the images are captivating... and what's more important is the original set of idents (which seem to have been *lost* of late) were from all around Ireland. Something RTE overlook constantly.

Anyway, I'm off to the grotto to pray for a new beginning in a few weeks with all the weeds in RTE being served a bowl of RoundUp and a fresh new look to ease me into Eddie Hobbs' latest show coming soon.

Absolutely ANYONE who has broadband and 10 minutes to spare should watch this video from YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdCK4wx9S0c

It's the Late Late show re-cast in Lego. But the amazing thing aside from the work that went into producing it, is the amazing level of attention to details... the cameras are shaky, you can see the floor cameras, the microphones are all delayed and the stupid jib camera shots aswell. Amazing stuff! I don't know who the author is but I'd like to shake his/her hand!

D

Speechless. That is absolutely spot on! It's not just the wonky shots, but it's the boom mic and cameras in shot that make it!

I'd love to know how much lego they had in their collection to get all those people, and the ability to make stuff of all the one colour and not red yellow blue and white bricks!

It also appears 2FM have picked up on the videos, so wonder if there's more in it than someone with just a bit of spare time.

Hmmm - a discreet promo perhaps? Indeed it seems to have been posted in the run up to the new Late Late season....

I love it though . The detail is almost spot on, right down to the little starlights that they used to have around Studio 4 - what a pity they were ditched as they're classic late night chat show material and looked really elegant. I love the expressions of the Lego people too
Even the amount of cameras seems to be spot on!

Saying that, the set is way out of date as it was changed about three years ago now! But who cares, as it may well be changed this season too so you'd have to keep rebuilding - indeed here's hoping it will be changed this Sept given the horribly cheap concoction we have now.
And you can tell the video is a few years old even in the production techniques, cause as Phen as noted, the concept of a dissolve on the Late Late still exists lol. And what a difference it makes too!
The TV Building is bizarrely similar as well - I didn't even know Lego came in brown concrete colour!

Thanks for the link diarmy, do post anymore you come across

It's not just the lego, whoever did it clearly made the set and a whole lot more out of other stuff than just lego. I'm guessing a degree project or something could explain the work if it's not a discreet promo to get people watching the new Late show to see how similar it is to this, and getting hooked.

Still, you gotta love Lego Nadine from Girls Aloud! Made me laugh, even if there is about 10 of her elsewhere in the audience

Better than the real thing!

WOW...that really is fantastic . The level of detail is incredible! And the lego Pat is hilarious. I only have dial-up so I didn't catch the whole lot but what I saw was excellent. If only the real thing was as good!

Anyone seeing the Rose of Tralee??

This has been the highest grossing viewed programme on RTE over the past few years. With less than 2 weeks to go before the relaunch of RTE ONE, what's going on with the production of Ireland's most-watched annual programme?!?!

It's shot in 4:3 with what appears to be 16:9 graphics!!! And if you thought the Late Late Show had dodgy camera cueing and wierd jib-camera shots, you really need to see this stuff to believe it. Apart from the high concentration of overly-rehearsed bad jokes, and Ray D'Arcy doing his best to talk to some quite boring Roses, it's a shambles. This show has a heck of a potential, especially considering that for the first time ever, it's being broadcast live online through RTE's website (in 3 quality streams on 2 formats, Real & Windows Media) it's simply not good enough so close to a relaunch.

This raises two major questions with me. Is it RTE who're sole OBs for this production? And if so, how come RTE hasn't invested in 16:9 cameras for OBs?? Surely with a 16:9 News service coming very very soon, RTE's correspondant cameras are 16:9-ready, so why isnt the Rose programming being shot in 16:9?

It wouldn't be as bad if the show's graphics weren't jutting off the screen, but they're poor to say the least anyway. RTE surely have better ideas for graphics for this show, given they know it's date a year in advance, but they're now churning out pretty much the same graphics and music bed as last year.

The Rose Festival, one of the biggest annual festivals in Ireland, is a major export of RTE's, being aired usually through international channels. This is crucial to get right, as if international audiences see what I see on the box in the corner, they can't think much of the supposed 'technology hub of Europe'!

Am I over-reacting??

Its also being broadcasted on the web. You can hear everything that goes on in the commercials with ads from the RTE Shop where the break is supposed to be.

Yup – it beggars belief!

I think you’re kinda over-reacting diarmy - but only in the sense that it is being shot in 16:9!
How is it you think it's being shot in 4:3? Indeed The Rose of Tralee was the first non-sport widescreen programme RTÉ ever transmitted, this time last year! But fully agreed about the graphics, notably the astons which aren't even 14:9 safe whatever about 4:3 - exactly the same feck-up as last year! They couldn't even be arsed changing them two years running. And the same for the ad break graphics with those hideous sponsor logos pasted all over them. It’s the commerciality of this event that is so embarrassing – sponsors name-dropped in at every opportunity, logos pasted everywhere, the prize VT a full-blown minute of cringe-inducing plugs, with crass Newbridge silverware mentioned about six times……
Arrrgh!

A couple of other less major gripes on the production would be the speed of the steadicam which is generally ridiculously fast - essentially they're just using it because they have it, rather than trying to tie it into the flow of things.
The principal Rose camera is very shaky, up on a scaffold unit. It has improved a bit since last night, but still could be better.
Those LED lighting bar thingies behind the set look feckin ghastly!


But on a big positive note, the production values really have improved enormously over the past couple of years. The lighting is absolutely superb - both the main subject lighting, the wonderful glowing set lighting, and the starlights of the ceiling which can look stunning. The twinkling lights behind the set panels (LED yokes aside) look equally elegant and are a very nice touch - used for a number of years now.
Special effect lighting using rotating filters/lenses cast wonderful glowing patterns on the set too, making it look very complex and interesting.
The various lighting colour cues for each segment are very effective too, as are the softboxes located underneath Ray and Rose to give them that extra glowing lift. Excellent stuff. By Martin Keleghan.

Audio management is generally very good, though I would question why RTÉ leave the house sound on during the News break online - people all over the world can hear the feckin sound tests and all the rest during the break!
Also the mics they use are miles ahead of those ghastly pole yokes they used up till about three years ago - it beggared belief they lasted that long, but it's good to see they're banished. Still think the current ones are too intrusive though.
As is Ray's giant lapel mic - why the heck is it plonked in the middle of his white shirt?! It could easily be popped onto a lapel without him going off-mic. Alternatively get a silver or white mic and use it on the shirt, or two small black ones for each lapel – anything but that ghastly yoke!
Only real audio problem was the disaster of the final song – the mic either couldn’t handle the singer’s frequencies or there was a major problem with the levels as seemed to be the case, with all of the high parts peaking massively – what an embarrassment!

Also the crane operation is superb for once, really lovely stuff. So all in all, a very mixed bag.