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IN MY VIEW


‘The self-shooter now needs to produce, direct and camera op – who’ll teach them how to do all this on the


latest HD camera?’ Emma Riley


PRODUCTION QUALITY VERSUS CONTENT


The picture quality versus picture content stand-off between producers and broadcasters can only harm the programmes we make, says Emma Riley. But broadcaster-certified training could offer a way out


has had a tough few years, but spare a thought for the poor producers trying to navigate their way


E


through a technology minefield with a 10-year-old map and too many signposts. Gone are the days of Digi – it’s all solid-


state cards, back-up, ingest, archive and file- based delivery – and the words codec and wrapper still make most run for the hills. When we looked for the HD equivalent of Digi, we found a Spaghetti Junction of choice and, in the face of a tight schedule, we picked cameras that achieved the look and feel to best express the content. If you want to shoot on a Canon 5D because


of its beautiful depth of field, or on a handheld camera so the contributor doesn’t feel intimi- dated, the response from the broadcasters will be ‘no’, because it isn’t accepted as HD.


14 | Broadcast TECH | May/June 2012


veryone in the broadcast industry


The struggle between what we as produc-


ers want to shoot on and what the broad- caster will allow is a contest between shoot- ing style and tech spec, and content quality against picture quality. The problem is compounded by what has


happened to the freelance market, with lower budgets driving down the head count in every production company, leaving no room for in- house directorial training, retained knowledge, and experience of tried-and-tested workflows. The self-shooter now needs to produce,


direct and camera op – and who’ll teach them how to do all this on the latest HD camera? Key to this could be broadcaster-certified


training, which invests not in young gradu- ates coming out of university but in our tried, tested and experienced producers: professionals who know how to make engaging programmes but not how to set a clip name, or who can tease a story from an interviewee but don’t know how to verify a back-up.


Experienced producers would then have an


industry-recognised certification that would set them apart from those who say they can shoot because they once picked up a Z1. This, in turn, would give the broadcasters


assurances that if the budget can’t afford a professional camera person with years of shooting experience, they’re at least getting someone who’s been trained in the basic principles of filming. The stand-off is set to continue. The


production industry is not without an appre- ciation for a broadcaster’s transmission train – especially with HD – or for viewers’ demands for better-quality pictures on their 55-inch flat screens. We sympathise with the ongoing struggle


to meet broadcasters’ demands, but the con- tinual battle of picture quality over picture content can only harm the very thing we all want: a good programme. ➤ Emma Riley is production executive at Mentorn Media


www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils


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