Twokeets Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I can't tolerate the slowly moving background during most of the host intros and outros. I will accept all the other stylistic changes, but the random movement makes me queasy. So I have to avert my gaze. It makes me sad, really! I promise this is the last time I will harp on this, but I had to get it off my chest, in case any of the Powers That Be care. 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 Doctor, doctor! It hurts when I do this! Don't do dat. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 If you want to see how truly silly this random movement is, watch it at 2x or 4x speed. Back and forth, back and forth... 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagebrush Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 I was watching a post-game analysis of a playoff baseball game last week, and it had the exact same camera movement. Left pan, right pan, left pan, right pan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 I was watching a cooking show on PBS and they were doing the same thing! God, I hope this fad passes quickly. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Movie Collector OH Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 Makes me wonder just who they think their audience is. The bright blinding colors and side-to-side camera movement appears to be none other than the type of visual stimulation which is developed for Autistic and special needs children. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaytonf Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 I was watching myself in the mirror this morning, and I was doing it! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allhallowsday Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 I often am interested to hear whatever a TCM host offers as background info. But the camera pans left . . . (she's talking, I'm interested) . . . camera pans right . . . what the...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Gorman Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Someone at TCM has been watching too many "art" movies, I reckon. See, whatever the host is saying is supposed to be ♦more♦ profound by making the viewer want to retch with 'flashy' camera movements. Or something. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 If they're going to move the camera, I wish they'd get serious about it. How about if they put the camera in the middle of a mosh pit. Do they still have mosh pits. That's pre-rave, y'see. Do they still have raves, or is that so 2006? How about bringing a major league baseball pitcher into the studio to hurl 99 mph fastballs into the side of the camera. That would put some real movement on it. Let's get a drunk guy on a forklift to play bumper cars with the camera, and maybe Ben while he's at it. These are all good suggestions. Let's put on our thinking caps. I still wanna know about the mosh pits, though... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allhallowsday Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 1 hour ago, unwatchable said: mosh pits Reminds me of my youth, but I avoided them... though I was practically in one front and center at (of all things) a PRETENDERS concert... ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Gorman Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 I remember "mosh pits". I avoided them. I recall a scene in the 1986 movie TOUGH GUYS with Kirk Douglas in a mosh pit and some young guy says "Hit me! Hit me!" So Kirk punches him out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toto Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 That's so funny that I kept thinking about the weird camera movements while hosts are talking and wondering if I should post about it then you did! I don't understand why. The camera movements are distracting. I noticed that sometimes they're a little quicker and other times slower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twokeets Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 I feel like I have PTSD while watching. All I can think about are the side to side movements of the background, as I wait for it to reach one extremity, then slowly crawl back in the other direction. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianNH Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 This just won't go away, will it!? I, too, find this needless and exremely distracting. I sometimes wonder if the camera will swing too far and we'll be treated to a peek at the behind-the-scenes crew are all assembled to produce the piece -- yes, I'm talking something akin to Kirk Douglas and Barry Sullivan in "The Bad and the Beautiful." You know, I guess maybe cameras these days just roll off the production line like this, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. The other part of all this concerns the trailers TCM uses for the Coming Attractions. You used to see the the trailer full screen, but now the object of one's attention is competing for that attention with a bunch of geometric shapes floating in the background! Criminy, I feel like Mel Brooks in "The Critic!" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twokeets Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 I'm not a fan of the squiggles. It's like they feel the need to bombard the viewer with constant movement on every available inch of the screen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txfilmfan Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 5 hours ago, brianNH said: This just won't go away, will it!? I, too, find this needless and exremely distracting. I sometimes wonder if the camera will swing too far and we'll be treated to a peek at the behind-the-scenes crew are all assembled to produce the piece -- yes, I'm talking something akin to Kirk Douglas and Barry Sullivan in "The Bad and the Beautiful." You know, I guess maybe cameras these days just roll off the production line like this, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. The other part of all this concerns the trailers TCM uses for the Coming Attractions. You used to see the the trailer full screen, but now the object of one's attention is competing for that attention with a bunch of geometric shapes floating in the background! Criminy, I feel like Mel Brooks in "The Critic!" There are blooper videos posted on Youtube of this happening elsewhere, most notably at the BBC and BBC News. Their newsroom cameras have been automated/remote controlled for years, but they occasionally go rogue and we're treated to hosts trying to move to stay in frame, or odd shots of the studio. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Gorman Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Did someone say 'squiggles'? OK! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbogacz Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 5 hours ago, brianNH said: > but now the object of one's attention is competing for that attention with a bunch of geometric shapes floating in the background! I ignored the Coming Attractions before until I read this, then felt I needed to wonder at it. It is annoying; I'll give you that. Now back to my original habit and blissful ignorance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overeasy Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 One thing we should expect from a network that is devoted to film making is that the interstitial content be of high quality. It clearly is not. The robotic slider/dolly move is a technique for technique's sake. It makes no sense in a cinematic sense other than drawing attention to itself -- which is the last thing a director or DP would want. If they want to really do these intros justice, why not shoot wide shots AND closeups and cut between them, ya know, like people do in real movies and videos? A traditional way to shoot this kind of thing is to start with a wide shot, then find a moment when the script might call for a CU -- such as an interesting or more dramatic point that the host is making. It's not exciting or innovative, but at least it makes sense! My fear is that even though this technique has been roundly panned, they will not stop, because they paid for the gear and they're gonna use it!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldie4Oldies Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 STOP. JUST STOP! I can’t watch the see-saw camera movement. It’s distracting and obnoxious, not to mention nauseating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Seriously, that movement y'all's b-itchin' about isn't all that fast enough to bother me. Besides. all needs be done is to focus on the host/hostess and you'll not notice the slow movement. But that "hand-held" filming technique, used a lot on that TV show NYPD BLUE annoyed me no end. Which is why I never really bothered to watch it after the first couple. Reminded me of when my brother in law would insist on letting my five year old nephew(at the time) hold his camcorder and let him do the taping. Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twokeets Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 Excellent suggestions--do close ups when appropriate, or change the angle of the shot. The random movement feels just that--random. It feels like no one is supervising the direction of the camera.Is it it all being done by robots or something? The resulting impression of this new style, to me anyway, is one of automatic easiness, as if they can't be bothered to take more care or attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unwatchable Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 19 minutes ago, Twokeets said: Is it it all being done by robots or something? I'd be very surprised to find out that it's not the camera operator rocking us to sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overeasy Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 2 hours ago, Sepiatone said: Seriously, that movement y'all's b-itchin' about isn't all that fast enough to bother me. Besides. all needs be done is to focus on the host/hostess and you'll not notice the slow movement. But that "hand-held" filming technique, used a lot on that TV show NYPD BLUE annoyed me no end. Which is why I never really bothered to watch it after the first couple. Reminded me of when my brother in law would insist on letting my five year old nephew(at the time) hold his camcorder and let him do the taping. Sepiatone Shakycam was a "thing" for a few years. I shot a ton of commercials during that period and it was indeed all over the place. Looks somewhat ridiculous now in many cases. However, done correctly (?) it could at least make some sort of narrative sense. For instance, I would do a snap zoom in when I thought a person was going to say something pithy. It was a cheat, but clients wanted it. The worse use of it was in theatrical releases. There was some Woody Allen movie that was just horrible. Can't remember the name right now. So, while it's bad on a the small screen it's REALLY BAD on the big screen. That said, at least there was some thought that went into it at the time. It's still used, though more sparingly, in crime shows and thrillers to give a sense of urgency. As to the The Robotic Slider? It must die! 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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