BBC/ITV Midlands News - Printable Version
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+--- Thread: BBC/ITV Midlands News (/showthread.php?tid=176)
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Mike - 15-10-2023
Oh I don't think my hopes are up - to be honest it doesn't really make much difference to me not living in the region for over 10 years now. It's just nice to see the back of late 90s era cameras, and the grainy picture quality. Edit: The Thomson 1707 was marketed by Thomson between 1997 and 2003 - so one assumes BBC English Regions did a bulk order circa 2002...
I checked the weekend bulletin from Midlands Today and what is noticeable is the titles now feature a thin black band down the sides of the image which when they mix to the static shot they use the camera shot fills the frame. Their existing vision mixer is HD capable, so would I be right in assuming their playout server (which is still Quantel based) stores media in SD, or the titles were downscaled to SD before being added to the server?
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Phil - 15-10-2023
Does anyone know why the Sunday night Midlands Today bulletin looks so different to all other bulletins?
They use a version of the titles that has the music out of time with the pictures, and then the music appears to be faded out abruptly. They then never use a wide shot of the studio, which all other bulletins use. Then the end of the bulletin is an abrupt cut to the closing slide, rather than the full closing music and a mix to the closing slide.
I'm guessing it might be due to the length of the Sunday night slot, with them trying to fit more into the time. It just looks really amateur compared to all other Midlands Today output.
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Mike - 15-10-2023
Less staff?
They normally use 2 people for Sundays, a presenter and a technical operative/director in the pres gallery. The tech will set up cameras etc, then control the programme from the smaller gallery. I do wonder as well if they're using an apprentice to direct these bulletins, as I noticed earlier doing my research for the above that the microphone sound is faded up during the titles (I've hard this before).
It could be as simple as someone trying to do it all - manage pictures, sound, opting etc, in their rush to get the titles cut away from them slam the fader down at the end and cue the next pictures for the first package.
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Phil - 15-10-2023
I did wonder if they used a smaller gallery on a Sunday. I suspect that the titles have the audio fade out at the end burnt into the recording. It's very consistent every week the way its done.
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Mike - 20-10-2023
Midlands Today are definitely using new Sony cameras linked in to the old gallery, hence the picture quality improvements. What is interesting is there are very exacting instructions on where the cameras need to be in the studio, and where the presenters need to sit 'Presenter on sofa 2 with their right shoulder parallel with the gap between sofa 1 and 2' as well as the framing of each shot, for example 'presenter inside first frosted panel' for a mid shot.
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Mike - 08-11-2023
Midlands Today have added a 'Breakfast' legend below the logo on the pillar - a minor thing and I don't think branding the breakfast bulletins as 'breakfast' is necessarily a necessary step.
I'd get it if they had a version of the blue and orange orb, but this just seems like a change for change's sake...
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - m_in_m - 08-11-2023
It would be quite nice if someone designed a tower graphic template for the Breakfast bulletins so that they were co-branded consistently.
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Mike - 08-11-2023
(08-11-2023, 06:09 PM)m_in_m Wrote: It would be quite nice if someone designed a tower graphic template for the Breakfast bulletins so that they were co-branded consistently.
Well it seems EMT and some other regions have followed the same - so it must have come from the centre...
Note to BBC English Regions/Local/England - rather than slapping extra, thin text over the top of a generic graphic, why not issue a kit of parts or just a living loop for the towers for the region to insert it's standardised logo or programme legend above or below the breakfast logo. Otherwise what have you achieved? We know that the opt outs are part of breakfast, and we also know that the 3-5 minutes they are on air for are part of the wider strand.
My understanding is the new BBC Breakfast blobs are by the same folk who did the regional news title template, in fact probably far easier to just centrally render out a loop and let regions overlay their own branding - or provide a precomposed template of all the elements...
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Lester - 10-11-2023
I really dislike the way Midlands Today seem to do their sports report in a fake conversation "chit chat" style with the main presenter. It comes across as rehearsed and not genuine especially when the sports reporter quickly turns to the camera and says here's a report from.... very cringeworthy.
RE: BBC/ITV Midlands News - Mike - 27-11-2023
Bob Warman on the Midlands Today sofa tonight. Nick Owen was awarded the best on screen personality award by RTS Midlands.
A nice package looking back on Nick's time with Midlands Today and Good Morning with Anne and Nick ("that's a strange place to keep a hamster").
I'll get it captured and uploaded separately as it did have some interesting flashes of old pres.
The bulletin ended with Shefali getting slightly flustered over her words and the weather watchers photos not appearing, and they finally appear to have fixed the dodgy colours on the PTZ camera on the wall of the studio.