Duty Office
ITV
London
11 January 2008
Sirs
I wish to make a formal complaint about the silly new filming
techniques being used on The Bill. The half-wit producers have
recently started a particularly annoying ‘shakey camera’ method
of shooting the actors particularly when they are in small
groups.
One must be charitable. So I shall assume that this is just some
kind of ill-conceived and blitheringly daft and vain attempt at
creating an atmosphere of unpredictability at Sun Hill. It would
have been decided on a Friday afternoon – just before pub time. I
know how these guys work.
They may also wrongly believe that they have achieved some kind
of knack of making the action seem more realistic by deliberately
inducing a wobble in the poor soul who is shouldering the camera.
Whether he or she is forced to drink trawler rum – it produces
the same effect in myself – or is occasionally just kicked in the
shins is not immediately clear to the bewildered viewer.
In any case, it doesn’t work. It makes me sick. Living on a
Hebridean island, I am already forced to endure sea sickness on
the ferry to the mainland. The last thing I want is my staple
fare of cops and robbers being used as some half-baked experiment
by programme makers who have either worked too long on
tuppence halfpenny arthouse projects or are so fond of
hallucinogenic substances they think having the whole cast wobbling
is normal.
The same producers have only recently stopped the equally
ridiculous technique of shooting dialogue between two people in
an open space while they are circled continuously by a single
camera. Unfortunately, that nauseous technique has been picked up
by other programme producers with tight budgets and absent
imaginations.
Stop the shakey cameras. It begins in subtle fashion but once you
notice it there is nothing you can do to avoid the serious
distraction. Think of the viewers. It is not clever. It looks
pathetically amateurish and makes the whole programme a nasty
experience waiting for the next stomach-wringer.
You will, I expect, want to address my complaint with a full
explanation, an apology and an assurance that behinds have been
firmly kicked. I will, of course, then include such grovelling on
my blog – www.maciverblog.co.uk.
Yours faithfully
Oh, I totally agree with you about the “shakey camera thing” that has become common place in the filming of The Bill.
I admit I am a fan of the show, but the filming practices make it difficult and irritating to watch. Perhaps the production team should invest in a tripod, that way no one would even need to be holding the camera. (:
Amazing. I noticed this wobbly camera thing for the first time this week. It is really annoying. Please post the ITV response.
I will post the reply from ITV when or if it arrives.
I too would also love to see the response that ITV gives. I hope you get one.
At one time in my career I was resident course director at the ISTvP. The students were from overseas and all worked as technicians in TV in their home countries. None of their end of term productions suffered from the kind of cynical disregard of the basic tenets of drama production that was a feature of this 2-parter. Script, dialogue, storyline, plot narrative, cam direction, artiste direction, production cohesion, all so lamentable that one could feel sympathy for the cast who were visibly suffering in trying to serve up this amateurish dog’s dinner as a palatable meal of digestible drama. Whatever caused Teddy Woodward and his family to become enmeshed in this woeful piece of peak time paradiddle is beyond belief.
Michael (Grade), if you’re sincere in wanting to restore ITV’s fortunes you have to start creating criteria of ecellence that, if not adhered to by producers and production companies, must result in contract cancellations.