Crazy Television

Why do we have to have so many trailers on television? I don't mean for films, but for television shows. They seem to show the same clips for a drama, for example, and it surely ruins the actual show because if there's several clips which are extracted from that show, they're just going to spoil the surprise element and just destroy that programme. If it's a comedy show, then, to have some of the comic moments shown endlessly during a trailer is going to kill any sense of humour that may have been in that particular show. Having said that, they're running trailers for my least-favourite programme, 'EastEnders,' where all the most dramatic 'bits' are squeezed into about 30 seconds and actually improves this programme. Whenever the famous introductory music starts, we always reach for the remote and switch channels or turn the television 'off.'

To the question 'why so many trailers on television?' I'd say, so we know a new show is coming up in the near future and the producers want us to watch. Which I suppose is obvious.

I've mentioned how they have to squeeze the credits at the end of a programme into a horrible narrow strip and insist on telling you what's coming up. Why does the announcer have to speak over the credits and why on earth do the credits have to be rushed through so fast that you can't possibly read them clearly? Just an insult on the actors as well as the production staff.

Something else I hate about television is when directors and cameramen insist on using crazy angles to shoot film or video. WHY I have to ask? It can be very unsettling. Also, using what they call 'whip-pans' (I think I have the correct term for this) when they spin the camera around quickly, perhaps cutting from one place to another. It makes you feel sick. Then there's this thing they have of filming people as they walk along, which can make you feel sort of sea-sick, or at least motion-sick. I feel sorry for the cameraman having to walk along backwards to follow the actor or presenter. It must be difficult, probably having to avoid colliding with furniture or, worse still if it's outside, falling into a ditch or running into whatever is in the way.

Daytime television: why are there endless programmes about couples selling houses? Some are fine, such as 'Homes Under The Hammer,' because it's about people who buy empty, probably derelict houses, at auction, and you then see how they manage to transform them and then sell them on at quite large profit or rent them out. At least they're giving people homes and preventing houses being built on greenfield sites and increasing the housing stock. But it the programmes about couples who have so much money, from selling one over-priced properties, usually in the South East and London, and have this fantasy about moving to an idealised rural property with a 'large kitchen,' and 'space for a pony' or most likely it someone who's retiring and has got money from a bonus working in the city or it's from being a director of a company or business they've had something to do with and got share options. . . the show I'm thinking about is called 'Escape To The Country' and it's on virtually every day, in the afternoon.

Even More Television Annoyances

Why do the credits at the end of so many television shows have to be rushed through so fast? How on earth are you supposed to be able to read at that speed? Then, not only do they insist on speeding the credits through at high speed, but they have to shrink them down by putting them in a narrow window at the same time and you get a voice-over which tells you what the next programme is or some other television show. So why do they have to treat the credits in this way? It seems something of an insult to all those who have contributed to the making of the programme that has just ended, not just the actors but the production staff and other creative personnel. It's almost as if they're not important enough to be given some sort of recognition for the work they've done as regards the production that has just finished.

At one time dramas on television used a minimal amount of music in their productions. Obviously you'd get music as the programme started, the opening titles and at the end, over the credits. You didn't get a lot of music used as incidental to the action. Probably such shows as 'The Onedin Line' had the very distinctive music at it's opening and closing and it probably had quite a lot of music over scenes of ships and the sea. But today we seem to have far too much music. Is this another bit of American television's influence on our productions? It can be over-used and in some ways it's become something of a cliche to have a hidden orchestra bursting forth as the action on screen gets dramatic. It's almost as if the director can't allow the audience to think for itself. The problem with all this music is that in some cases it can drown out dialogue. There was much controversy some while ago over the BBC production of 'Jamaica Inn' where viewers were complaining about the actors not speaking clearly. I find it difficult to believe that actors were unable to be understood because they weren't speaking clearly. I know from working in theatre that it's one of the most important things that an actor has to do and that is to be able to speak clearly and be heard. When I worked in rep (and, yes, it's around 45 or so years ago) none of the theatres I worked in used microphones for the use of the actors. Most big musicals use amplified sound and the actors have tiny microphones hidden in their costumes and sometimes in their hair or even stuck to their faces. As a result it means that the sound engineers can balance the singing voices with the orchestra or band. It means that nowadays actors don't have to worry about speaking clearly or to be able to project their voices to the back of the auditorium so every audience member can hear them. It also means that if actors have no real experience of working in theatre and only concentrate on television and film work they can then rely on sound engineering and all the paraphernalia of sound production without worrying about their ability to project properly.

I seem to have wandered slightly from the main subject of this blog post, but the matter of actors being able to speak clearly does connect with television sound and the over-use of music and the reliance of sound being over-used in dramas and other television productions.

My final moan is regarding the use of what I imagine must be library music. In a lot of shows, particularly documentaries and lifestyle shows, particularly those about antiques, is the repetitive use of some very familiar music. No doubt it's because they might not have to pay a composer to write original music and then fall back on using library or 'stock' music which doesn't require the production company to pay a royalty. But the same bits of music seem to appear regularly on things like 'Antiques Road Trip,' 'Flog It,' 'Bargain Hunt', and 'Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.' Just becoming very annoying and repetitive. I bet if you watch a lot of these shows, usually shown during the day, you will notice this music and how it's over-used. Come on producers and other people, do give us a break from this monotony.

More Niggles: Television- Part 1

I have written in several blogs on some of the niggles of life. I shall discuss some niggles I have about television. I'm sure it's not just me that notices such things, so if anyone reading these thoughts has any further comments to make, do, please, feel free to write in the comment box at the end as it would be interesting to know what other 'niggles' regarding today's television people can come up with.

Why do sports programmes have to have people talking on them with very loud voices? As a person who has no interest at all on the subject of football (and, indeed, a great many other sports, apart from athletics and possibly rugby.) These persons seem to speak in CAPITAL LETTERS as if those to whom they are talking are either incredibly deaf or stupid, or else, to someone who has English as a second language and can barely understand what it being said. Or they speak with such basic English it's an insult to the average person who has an I.Q. above about 120 or so. Or as if they were Sun readers, or at least, tabloid newspaper readers, which always seem to use very basic language (from what I've seen of such papers when I've visited the supermarket and have inadvertently seen the headlines of them. Generally in huge bold, very black print with about a 2inch square block of type for the story the headline is for.)

Then there's the patronising tone that some presenters have. A sort of Primary School teacher-type voice. Kate Humble uses this voice whenever she's presenting certain programmes, usually with cuddly animals on. A lot of the presenters on Countryfile speak like this. A sort of 'we know better than you, so shut up and listen' type of voice. Infact, Countryfile has a sort of smug tone to it, a very patronising and insulting sound for townies who know nothing about life in the country, where their food comes from, the fact that meat comes from animals bred and living on farms and are ignorant of how it is slaughtered and butchered and don't think the nice little plastic packets they buy in supermarket which contain meat, neatly presented and covered in cling film, comes from a living animal.

Let's move on. How about this niggle? Why do the credits at the end of television programmes have to go past so rapidly you can't possibly read them? Why do they have to be crammed into a very small box, generally squeezed up so small you can't read it and the other half of the screen will then have a trailer for another show that's coming up, or about the next show, and an announcer will talk over the music from the previous show? What is all this about? Is it because the television schedulers are scared you're going to loose interest and turn over to another channel? Because we now have so much choice, so many channels on multi-channel platforms, as well as down-load, catch-up, streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix? All this is so annoying when you want to find out the name of an actor in such-and-such drama or film, or even, who wrote the music, directed the thing or any other detail that the credits should show. It's a bit of an insult to those who have laboured long and hard over a piece of television to then have their name rushed past the viewer in such a fashion.

Advertising. A general beta noire of many television viewers. I realise that many channels have to be funded by advertising, but why do many of these commercial interruptions (for want of a better way to describe them?) have to be so CRASS and AWFUL? We now get 'sponsored by . . .' promotions at the beginning and end of programmes as well as during the ad breaks ('wrapped around' is probably the technical term.) Adverts for sofas get on my nerves. Do companies such as D.H.L., Sofa World and others ever sell their products at full price, and do people always want a new sofa at Christmas or Easter? Why do they insist on using that stupid woman with the high-pitched voice, very annoying (almost as annoying as Kate Humble) nauseating and awful. Then there's the constant ads for such things as stairlifts, funeral insurance, P.P.I., Saga holidays and so on, which seem to be aimed at people of a 'certain age.' Something of an insult in a way and generally on the, how should I describe them, the 'lesser' digital channels, the ITV channels 2,3 etc which seemed to show programmes aimed at older people, with repeats of Midsummer Murder, Poirot etc etc.