TV feed from Malaysia

[Bibendum]

I'm sad to say that "MY TV3" provided the least impressive feed of images I can remember in recent seasons. I doubt it's lack of technical prowess or, certainly, equipment; probably it's mostly to do with practice. Anyway:

I can understand that if you've got a heat haze in combination with smoke from peat fires, any shot taken with a long lens will look as though there's a dirty aquarium in front of the lens. But the *director* should recognize this *too*, and select relatively fewer very long shots -- from the stratospheric helicopter, for example.

Worse, though: Irrespective of type of shot selected, the director appeared to have an uncanny instinct for avoiding anything eventful and significant. Nobody can get it right all the time, and some things will always go unrecorded, with a finite number of cameras; but there was so much that one would have liked to see, and that in theory one might have seen, that I don't know where to begin listing it.

Some examples:

*Jenson running on 3 wheels in the final couple of laps.
*Bernoldi doing some of his early passing -- and balking McNish at turn 1, perhaps, as Allan passed for 6th.
*For that matter, McNish making his way up through the field; by no means were all of his positions gained by attrition.
*Fewer interminable shots of cars cruising along pit lane.
*And, yes, a decent view of the 1st corner incident... From what I saw, it was pretty remarkable driving all round that got almost everyone through the corner in good shape.

I hope we see better shot-selection from Brazil.

Bibendum

p.s. I'm adding one thing, since I just read a post reminding me that Jenson's dice with Montoya was covered quite well, so I'm not being quite fair when I say they missed *every*thing!

[Cougar]

I had the same problem with ITV... Qualifying missed laps and the start had very little coverage or replays and they had these long shots out of the helicopter where the cars where little specs.
I asked in another thread why we can't have one producer who knows what he is doing for all the races? They seem to have regional producers each time?

[Bibendum]

Cougar21, I wish for the same -- the consistency and professionalism of someone who does the same job all the time. However, I suspect that having a local TV network feed the world allows Bernievision, or whatever it's called, to preserve its monopoly on the really good stuff. If the FIA got into giving the general network feed too, this might compromise the marketability of the special digital feed which one could get if one (a) had the cash and (b) lived somewhere it was available. Sigh. I swear, I'd contemplate finding the money if only the service were available to me.

On the other hand, I note that one discussant who does have the Bernie feed missed stuff because he got fixated on Montoya's driving; I think that would be a common hazard -- it's hard to be one's own director, making shot selections without any overall view on which to make decisions about salience...

There's no complete answer, I suppose -- but in this case, quite a lot was missed unnecessarily. In Brazil they have a more robust motor racing tradition, so I dare say the direction wil be better; and it will, I hope, be more colourful, without that leached-out, sepia look!

[Cougar]

This I also posted somewhere else but here it seems more apt. If I had bernie vision I would want a TV for every feed... and also you would need to record the race and go over all the feeds one by one...
You would need the whole 2 week gap hehe...
But more seriously would they not make more money if they had better/cheaper coverage for everyone. With the threat of tabacco advertising disapearing surely they will need a new target market?

[stevie.murray]

sky digital(interactive)F1 ch.434 has extensive coverage of the grand prixs from testing on friday to the race itself.pit lane,driver,crew,garage,incar,cameras interviews and tech talk thier cover is probably the best although a subscriber to sky I'll not be paying the addisonal £12 they want to watch this channel I'll stick to ITV.

[Sato san]

belive me , ITS FANTASTIC !

[Bibendum]

I've been researching this in a desultory way today (still office hours where I am), but I don't think I can GET it here. Rats. I do wish I could see. I understand you get to choose which views you'll see (depending to some extent on which in-car is activated?) -- so I'm curious, honorable Sato, how you choose where to look next, and whether you find yourself frustrated by missing events while you're looking elsewhere? There is (forgive me) a certain Zen submission to inevitability in being subject to the whim of a TV director, which relieves one of some responsibility and permits one to drift down an image-stream laid on by a higher power... But enlightenment & mortification of fleshly concerns be damned, I'd still rather have the box!

Dumb be in
(or bide numb)

[BD]

Bibendum,
I agree with you completely. It was frustrating to hear what was going on and not see it. Or to see an agonizing long shot of the pit crew sitting around watching the monitors. Or some woman in the McLaren garage. Or the closeups of the drivers helmet when they are dicing with another car.
I'm still ****ed.

[botsquad]

mytv coverage was off the chart pathetic.

what happenend?

that was an f1 race?

[EERO]

Originally posted by BD
Bibendum,
It was frustrating to hear what was going on and not see it...Or to see an agonizing long shot of the pit crew sitting around watching the monitors. Or some woman in the McLaren garage.

But wasn't that the "new Erja????"

Expect to see a lot of her.....

Michelinn Fellow, I ythought the coverage was laughable. Btetween the loust direction of the feed from MY-TV and Rick Debruel's scintalating commentary, I had no idea what was going on...
If only we could get Digital F1 here

[djb]

I'm not making this up, but when they showed that "woman" in the Macgarage, the first thing that popped into my head was that it was Kimi's mom! (I've been taking my son to hockey/skating classes lately and so I guess that's what did it) They said right after that she was the wife of some tech guy at Mac.

Well, she LOOKED like she was maybe old enough to be his mother.

[Jukebox]

Yeah..poor coverage isn't it.....
I'm not gonna defend them but instead i've sent an email together with the address of this thread for them to review all of your comments and i think they should accept all of these as a constructive critism.

[strad]

Cougar;
Great minds work alike I guess
I asked before...If Bernie and the FIA are so concerned about the sports image and want to insist that the venues meet certain demands, then why don't they have the same high standards when it comes to the local feed. Why don't they insist on certain standards or as Cougar says a team of producers and directors that travel to the tracks?
Could it be one word? ..he whispers the word...Bernievision.

[Sodemo]

Yes, I too am of the opinion that the terrestrial feed on Sunday was below its usual 'OK' standard.
Why did they miss so much of the juicy action?
Do they have a brain dead director?

Why did they miss so much of Montoya's and M Schu fight through the field?

Why was there only a few seconds of on-board footage on the warm -up lap wheras in Australia there were 2 or 3 cameras used reguarly throughout the race?

Bad form.

[RWC]

bernie takes what he likes & sells the **** stuff to tv stations for a fortune.
Actually there was something odd about the tv coverage.the smoke ,the sounds,etc-i allmost felt i was there.I think the bigest thing was the 'true' sound.You know on most tv coverage these days where any given camera shot just DOESN'T match the cars your looking at.This has allways bugged the hell out of me.In malaysia most of the sounds were 'live'.What a breath of fresh air!!


But ,yes, the director was doing slightly worse than the allready poor average.