Sky's new on screen mid-programme advertising
 

Kieran Seymour wrote:
"Paul Hyett" wrote

IMO shows should be shown uncut at an appropriate
timeslot, or not at all.


You won't get any argument from me on that issue.


Several of the Just Shoot Me episodes currently being
shown on C4 have been totally butchered, with over a
minute being cut out! :(


You obviously didn't watch "Invasion" on C4 last Sunday evening. It
started at 8.06pm and finished at 8.51pm. And that included two
ad-breaks.

To say that they're now taking the **** would be a complete
understatement :(

Kieran
--
The UK Sci-Fi TV Book Guide
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.seymour1/ukbookguide/
A comprehensive guide to 50 years of novelisations and script
books from the UK and US.


ER on Thursday caught me out. No sooner than the credits had finished an
ad. break appeared. I reckon that that was about ~4mins, including the
opening credits before the first break. It's bad enough having to
watch/skip the mind-numbing ads. but if this really now is the way that
commercial TV is going, along the lines of the US, then I'll give up
watching.


Clem

ITV3 Presentation Butchery
 

Colonel Montague Kitchen-Sink [Retired] wrote:
Stephen Henson wrote:

What annoys me is cutting bits out to leave space for more adverts.
This is often very crudely done in mid sentence.


Two of my favourite old series have been butchered in this way by ITV3;
both 'Rumpole of the Bailey' and 'Poirot' were beautifully crafted
productions when they were originally made.

Now, the traditional (viz old IBA) concept of commercials being placed
in a 'natural break' (eg a scene change or cliff-hanger etc) has been
completely abandoned by ITV3 and horrid electronic captions are crudely
cut to screen in mid-sentence, devoid of even the most basic cross-fade
with accompanying lagging (or leading) sound to smooth the transition.
Yet the original productions had quite delightful 'End of Part' stings
which respected the 'natural break' concept - why do ITV3 deliberately
desecrate classic programmes which were made to the highest production
standards of the last fifty years ?

Despite my great fondness for Rumpole and Poirot I have now given-up
watching them being butchered on ITV3.




This butchery extends to ITV2 and ITV4 too. We watch (at present) the
Surface programme. I've lost count of the times it's been chopped in
mid-scene for a commercial break. Likewise on ITV4. Occasionally, I like
to take in an episode of UFO. Same thing.

All this mindless 'vandalism' does (for me at least) is to put me off
watching altogether.


Clem

ITV3 Presentation Butchery
 

Clem Dye wrote:

This butchery extends to ITV2 and ITV4 too. We watch (at present) the Surface programme. I've
lost count of the times it's been chopped in mid-scene for a commercial break. Likewise on ITV4.
Occasionally, I like to take in an episode of UFO. Same thing.

All this mindless 'vandalism' does (for me at least) is to put me off watching altogether.

Unfortunately all of these type of channels have their playlists 'thrown together' by low paid
operational trainees.

They sift up and down recordings of the programmes to decide where to bung in the breaks, and enter
the position (taken from the timecode track) into the playout computer. They've got no interest in
the material they're viewing, and typically they're only employable because of their incredibly low
attention spans.

The result as noted, is crap. To be honest you may as well get the playout computer itself to
randomly assign the break points, it couldn't do any worse.

Of course the next logical progression will be to reduce the 'effort' that goes into 'presenting'
material on 'proper' channels BBC1,2, ITV1, C4, 5. Expect no improvement.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

ITV3 Presentation Butchery (was: Sky's new on screen mid-programme advertising
 

In article ,
Colonel Montague Kitchen-Sink [Retired] wrote:
Yet the original productions had quite delightful 'End of Part' stings
which respected the 'natural break' concept - why do ITV3 deliberately
desecrate classic programmes which were made to the highest production
standards of the last fifty years ?

Because there's more advertising minutes allowed per hour now than when
those progs were made. And I agree the butchering is horrible. All down to
cost again. The progs could have been re-edited *properly* for today's
requirements - they've obviously had the original EOP and BOP removed.

--
*A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

ITV3 Presentation Butchery (was: Sky's new on screen mid-programme advertising
 

In article ,
Stephen Henson wrote:
The quality of the video source material is also grotty in some cases.

Multiple analogue generations. The original would have been fine. Early
Rumpoles on C Format and later ones MII.

The static captions have some clearly visible shaking.

These could well have been a camera pointed at a caption stand. Shaking
did occur when they had to be changed quickly. ;-)

An early version of "Taggart" recently shown had what looked like video
tracking noise at one point followed by the effect often seen with
crunched tape.

Early Taggart was film all the way through post production. But archives
will be tape - although the TX film print may still exist. But the cost of
another transfer too high. These channels run on peanuts.

--
*I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

ITV3 Presentation Butchery
 

Colonel Montague Kitchen-Sink [Retired] wrote:

Stephen Henson wrote:
What annoys me is cutting bits out to leave space for more adverts.
This is often very crudely done in mid sentence.

Two of my favourite old series have been butchered in this way by ITV3;
both 'Rumpole of the Bailey' and 'Poirot' were beautifully crafted
productions when they were originally made.

Now, the traditional (viz old IBA) concept of commercials being placed
in a 'natural break' (eg a scene change or cliff-hanger etc) has been
completely abandoned by ITV3 and horrid electronic captions are crudely
cut to screen in mid-sentence, devoid of even the most basic cross-fade
with accompanying lagging (or leading) sound to smooth the transition.
Yet the original productions had quite delightful 'End of Part' stings
which respected the 'natural break' concept - why do ITV3 deliberately
desecrate classic programmes which were made to the highest production
standards of the last fifty years ?

Despite my great fondness for Rumpole and Poirot I have now given-up
watching them being butchered on ITV3.

They're only copying what the UKtv* group have been doing for years.
UKtv Drama is especially bad, not even showing series in story order
which makes a nonsense of some episodes.

--

Peter

ITV3 Presentation Butchery
 

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Stephen Henson wrote:
The quality of the video source material is also grotty in some cases.

Multiple analogue generations. The original would have been fine. Early
Rumpoles on C Format and later ones MII.

The static captions have some clearly visible shaking.

These could well have been a camera pointed at a caption stand. Shaking
did occur when they had to be changed quickly. ;-)

An early version of "Taggart" recently shown had what looked like video
tracking noise at one point followed by the effect often seen with
crunched tape.

Early Taggart was film all the way through post production. But archives
will be tape - although the TX film print may still exist. But the cost of
another transfer too high. These channels run on peanuts.

The *really* early Taggarts were studio plus film.

--

Peter

Sky's new on screen mid-programme advertising
 

In message , Kieran Seymour
wrote

You obviously didn't watch "Invasion" on C4 last Sunday evening. It
started at 8.06pm and finished at 8.51pm. And that included two
ad-breaks.

They cut out the20 minutes of additional of ad breaks that you would
have seen on US TV


--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

ITV3 Presentation Butchery (was: Sky's new on screen mid-programme advertising
 

harrogate2 wrote:
Maybe for the simple reason that many of those series were made for
three parts with two ad breaks of two or three minutes, whereas we now
live in an age of mandatory three break minimum and usually of four
minutes each.

Yes, this is indeed the cause, but the objectionable effects described
could be avoided by re-versioning the programmes to something closer
to what the original Director intended.

Explicitly, this would involve getting out the original mastertape,
identifying the additional new NATURAL breaks, and (ideally) retaining
the original tasteful Ends of Part stings.
Most programmes comprise several specific scenes, so it's not difficult,
and whilst inevitably, such re-versioning would cost a few bob in terms
of time in an editing suite, the result should be far more professional
than the cheap and nasty presentation we currently have to endure.


Ever noticed how often these progs overrun by 2-3 minutes?

And, despite the originals being 'one hour programmes' they are now
often scheduled as 65 or even 70 minute slots - Tacky or what !



Mark Carver wrote:
Unfortunately all of these type of channels have their playlists
'thrown together' by low paid operational trainees ....
They've got no interest in the material they're viewing and typically
they're only employable because of their incredibly low attention spans.

It shows !
Are there any dedicated professionals with a passion for getting-it-right
now left in British television ?
OK that was a rhetorical question - I'm not really expecting an answer.

ITV3 Presentation Butchery (was: Sky's new on screen mid-programme advertising
 

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 17:44:36 -0000, "Colonel Montague Kitchen-Sink [Retired]"
wrote:

Are there any dedicated professionals with a passion for getting-it-right
now left in British television ?
OK that was a rhetorical question - I'm not really expecting an answer.

The Dr Who Restoration Team are TV professionals I believe but they are doing
the Dr Who stuff for love note money http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/

--
Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur