Coronation St Live episode

In article ,
Graham. wrote:
I was rather expecting someone would start a thread in one or other of
these technical groups but as one hasn't been forthcoming, here is a
rare x-post by me.

I'm not a soap fan or even a TV fan but I watched the live episode
simply because it was live. If this was indeed done live it must rank as
the best live dramas in UK TV history. Frankly it was so good,
practically flawless, that I somehow doubt that such a technical complex
production could have been executed in real-time. Anyone know how it was
really done?

The scenes where Sally Webster was comforting the other girl were
unintelligible in parts. Had that been a normal recording they'd have been
ADR'd.

I might be prejudiced, but I reckon the last live 'Bill' was the best live
drama shown in recent years.

--
*Virtual reality is its own reward *

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

On Sat, 11 Dec 2010 22:59:37 +0000 (UTC), J G Miller
wrote:

On Sat, 11 Dec 2010 22:27:10 +0000, Ian Jelf wrote:

and Granada was once more the greatest television station in the world.

Granada has not been a television station since November 2008 when it
"lost" its licence, which was transferred to ITV Broadcasting Limited.

Coronation Street has been an ITV Studios Production for at least 2 (?)
years.

The Granada name now appears to be owned by ITV plc.
The ITV company resulted from a merger of Granada and Carlton
Communications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada_Ltd

The credits for the reality show "I'm A Celebrity..." give ITV Studios
as the production company. However, a few days ago when the companion
show "I'm A Celebrity... Now!" did a behind the scenes view of the
production in the Australian forest I saw signs at the entrances to the
TV company's land with the Granada name on.

I don't know whether that is because ITV Studios is using the Granada
name or whether the production is partly the responsibility of Granada
Australia (owned by ITV):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada...nada_Australia

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
: In article ,
: Graham. wrote:
: I was rather expecting someone would start a thread in one or
other of
: these technical groups but as one hasn't been forthcoming,
here is a
: rare x-post by me.
:
: I'm not a soap fan or even a TV fan but I watched the live
episode
: simply because it was live. If this was indeed done live it
must rank as
: the best live dramas in UK TV history. Frankly it was so
good,
: practically flawless, that I somehow doubt that such a
technical complex
: production could have been executed in real-time. Anyone know
how it was
: really done?
:
: The scenes where Sally Webster was comforting the other girl
were
: unintelligible in parts. Had that been a normal recording
they'd have been
: ADR'd.

As it would be, "Molly" was dying after all, there was, as there
would be, a lot of background noise, not all drama needs to have
either crystal clear audio or video, to me that scene was very
realistic, Sally (and anyone else present) really would have had
problems hearing everything that was said unless shouted out.

:
: I might be prejudiced, but I reckon the last live 'Bill' was
the best live
: drama shown in recent years.
:

I think you're just being (very) biased Dave. :~P
--
Regards, Jerry.

In article ,
Jerry wrote:
As it would be, "Molly" was dying after all, there was, as there
would be, a lot of background noise, not all drama needs to have
either crystal clear audio or video, to me that scene was very
realistic, Sally (and anyone else present) really would have had
problems hearing everything that was said unless shouted out.

It was actually down to personal mics under layers of clothing - as Sally
moved it changed from just about acceptable to not.

There's not much point in two people talking to one another if they can't
hear what is being said. In reality. So the microphones are meant to
replicate that.

But it was a classic case of where a chest mounted mic is likely to give
problems - sat down and leaning over when wearing outdoor clothing. It all
sort of rucks up over the mic. Other one in the same episode was two
people hugging while talking.

: I might be prejudiced, but I reckon the last live 'Bill' was the best
: live drama shown in recent years.


I think you're just being (very) biased Dave. :~P

Maybe - but I didn't work on either. ;-)

--
*What am I? Flypaper for freaks!?

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

In article , Mark Carver wrote:
The Eastenders live edition back in February consumed over 30 cameras, and
production was split over five OB trucks, each with their own director to look
after particular scenes. I'd imagine Granada adopted a very similar operation
(perhaps hired the same crews etc ?) for Coronation St ?

And to think the industry used to churn out live drama every day with 4 or 5
cameras...

Rod.
--
Virtual Access V6.3 free usenet/email software from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/

"Roderick Stewart" wrote in
message .myzen.co.uk...
In article , Mark Carver wrote:
The Eastenders live edition back in February consumed over 30 cameras,
and
production was split over five OB trucks, each with their own director to
look
after particular scenes. I'd imagine Granada adopted a very similar
operation
(perhaps hired the same crews etc ?) for Coronation St ?

And to think the industry used to churn out live drama every day with 4 or
5
cameras...

True, but it probably didn't feature multiple scenes interwoven as a modern
production does, and it may have used film inserts for some of the outdoor
scenes. Come to think of it, was there any live drama in the past that used
live production (ie video cameras) for outdoor scenes?

The trick is to be able to produce a live episode which is more or less
indistinguishable from a recorded one, where the restrictions of being live,
in terms of fewer shots, less mobile camerawork etc, aren't too obvious.

In article en.co.uk,
Roderick Stewart wrote:
In article , Mark Carver wrote:
The Eastenders live edition back in February consumed over 30 cameras,
and production was split over five OB trucks, each with their own
director to look after particular scenes. I'd imagine Granada adopted
a very similar operation (perhaps hired the same crews etc ?) for
Coronation St ?

And to think the industry used to churn out live drama every day with 4
or 5 cameras...

Well of course many dramas these days are produced using only one or two
cameras. Which makes it all the more difficult to do a live version.

One thing which did annoy was the credits on that live episode. They gave
pretty well everyone who worked on it a credit. Then ran them so fast you
couldn't read any. So a bit pointless.

--
*A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab centre said: 'Keep off the Grass*

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

"Mortimer" wrote in message
...
: "Roderick Stewart"
wrote in
: message
.myzen.co.uk...
: In article , Mark Carver
wrote:
: The Eastenders live edition back in February consumed over
30 cameras,
: and
: production was split over five OB trucks, each with their
own director to
: look
: after particular scenes. I'd imagine Granada adopted a very
similar
: operation
: (perhaps hired the same crews etc ?) for Coronation St ?
:
: And to think the industry used to churn out live drama every
day with 4 or
: 5
: cameras...
:
: True, but it probably didn't feature multiple scenes interwoven
as a modern
: production does,

But does it need to, surely that is the real question, doing
something 'just because we can' is never a very good reason for
doing it...

and it may have used film inserts for some of the outdoor
: scenes. Come to think of it, was there any live drama in the
past that used
: live production (ie video cameras) for outdoor scenes?

That wasn't be because they didn't want to, it was because
technically it was difficult, has the TV companies had the camera
of today then yes they no doubt would have!

:
: The trick is to be able to produce a live episode which is more
or less
: indistinguishable from a recorded one, where the restrictions
of being live,
: in terms of fewer shots, less mobile camerawork etc, aren't too
obvious.
:

I suspect that the real problem is not a behind the camera
technical one but one of having the talent capable of a live
production, many TV actors do not make very good stage actors or
vis-versa.
--
Regards, Jerry.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
: In article ,
: Jerry wrote:
: As it would be, "Molly" was dying after all, there was, as
there
: would be, a lot of background noise, not all drama needs to
have
: either crystal clear audio or video, to me that scene was
very
: realistic, Sally (and anyone else present) really would have
had
: problems hearing everything that was said unless shouted out.
:
: It was actually down to personal mics under layers of
clothing - as Sally
: moved it changed from just about acceptable to not.
:
: There's not much point in two people talking to one another if
they can't
: hear what is being said.

It was clear enough though and was in keeping with the atmosphere
of the scene and plot, of course if one was watching the episode
'cold' without knowing the on-going plot then I can understand
why one might have had problems.

: In reality. So the microphones are meant to
: replicate that.
:
: But it was a classic case of where a chest mounted mic is
likely to give
: problems - sat down and leaning over when wearing outdoor
clothing.

Not sure why they used the personal mics in that scene, I would
have though that a couple of hidden mics would have given better
sound.

It all
: sort of rucks up over the mic. Other one in the same episode
was two
: people hugging while talking.

One of the perils of modern production values/costs, in the past
such a scene would have been boomed surely (even if personal mics
were available)?
--
Regards, Jerry.

Mortimer wrote:

True, but it probably didn't feature multiple scenes interwoven as a
modern production does, and it may have used film inserts for some of
the outdoor scenes. Come to think of it, was there any live drama in the
past that used live production (ie video cameras) for outdoor scenes?

ATV's children's drama series Timeslip, circa 1970, used video cameras
attached to an OB truck for the location scenes, which sent the output back to
ATV's Elstree studios by microwave link for recording. At that time
'transportable' Quadruplex VTRs (of the quality required) were not available,
so that was the only method available to record the OB's output.

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

www.paras.org.uk