Episode 10 of Masterchef on iPlayer contains "textless elements" after the credits. I have learnt that these are used to make a clean version of a programme.
Episode 1 of Five Star Babies: Inside the Portland Hospital also includes this with the implication that the face of one of the participants is visible when it was blurred out in the programme itself.
I'd always assumed a clean version would be provided separately if required. Is including textless elements the most common method for future uses including international distribution?
Happened once on Coronation Street on the Virgin Media player a few years ago as well- textless versions of the titles, credits, break bumpers and opening scene appeared after the episode.
I've come across it quite often with international distribution, usually they're at the end of the tape but there's been some where a few captionless shots are placed in the middle of the break points so they can easily be found when editing.
They sometimes appear on the end of a programmes master tape and they are instead of a clean version rather than to create one. Once a caption is put on a finished programme it can't be taken off so having those shots without them is handy. Why not on a separate tape? Well it won't get lost or seperated from the main programme when sold abroad.
In a lot of cases a completely separate clean version will be made of a programme with multiple audio tracks so a foreign broadcaster can replace a voice over into one in a different language and alternative music.
AFAIK these are included mainly so foreign broadcasters can translate the text in the opening scenes/credits etc without it looking awkward or without the need to insert a voice over reading a translation of the English text
AFAIK these are included mainly so foreign broadcasters can translate the text in the opening scenes/credits etc without it looking awkward or without the need to insert a voice over reading a translation of the English text
Yes - textless elements are provided both for foreign broadcast sales, and also for distribution (where the BBC logo may be replaced by a BBC Worldwide logo for instance). In some cases it is easier to provide a separate, clean copy of the show, but if there are only a couple of captions to worry about, leaving copies of the clean shots (i.e. the textless elements) after the end of the show is a neat solution.
(It's certainly not unusual to leave an M & E mix on higher tracks - i.e. no voice over - just Music and Effects i.e. location sync, and stems can also be provided - so you can strip music away should you need to)