Mrs B
Well-Known Member
As an aside: (Beware! production whinge approaching ... *blows whistle and clears the course*)
I think the quality of the coverage was WAY lower than in previous years: so many fences not covered by any camera, let alone a good shot of them ... no overheads, no quad-bike follow shots, very few jib arms ... no graphics showing the overall park layout and conveying the sheer size and speed of the thing ... no graphics of the different routes available at each fence ...
The positioning of the few cameras they DID have gave no idea of the width of the fences, nor the difficulties. Showing a corner from the front may let you know if the horse jumped cleanly, but it looked at bit 'meh'.
If you were new to the sport, or new to Badminton, I think it would have left you wondering what all the fuss was about!
The editing was also strange: at one point, we heard the live commentator say that one of the French girls had had a fall but both she had her horse were up and ok ... but we were still watching her approach the fence before that fall.
The mixing of the sound was careless too: the live feed from some fences was often left so loud, the commentators couldn't be heard over it.
Clare B and the commentators (even Mr T
) did their usual fab job and the crews doing the interviews worked as hard as ever ... but.
I noticed that there was an independent production company credit at the end and have been left assuming it went to the cheapest bidder.
A shame.
It's one of the world's greatest equestrian tests; one of the very few to be televised and the Beeb should have treated it as such.
I think the quality of the coverage was WAY lower than in previous years: so many fences not covered by any camera, let alone a good shot of them ... no overheads, no quad-bike follow shots, very few jib arms ... no graphics showing the overall park layout and conveying the sheer size and speed of the thing ... no graphics of the different routes available at each fence ...
The positioning of the few cameras they DID have gave no idea of the width of the fences, nor the difficulties. Showing a corner from the front may let you know if the horse jumped cleanly, but it looked at bit 'meh'.
If you were new to the sport, or new to Badminton, I think it would have left you wondering what all the fuss was about!
The editing was also strange: at one point, we heard the live commentator say that one of the French girls had had a fall but both she had her horse were up and ok ... but we were still watching her approach the fence before that fall.
The mixing of the sound was careless too: the live feed from some fences was often left so loud, the commentators couldn't be heard over it.
Clare B and the commentators (even Mr T
I noticed that there was an independent production company credit at the end and have been left assuming it went to the cheapest bidder.
A shame.
It's one of the world's greatest equestrian tests; one of the very few to be televised and the Beeb should have treated it as such.