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Topic: Is it my imagination or.... |
Smiley Roberts
From:
Hendersonville,Tn. 37075
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 9:54 am |
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...are most tv cameramen/tv directors just plain STUPID??? How many times have you watched a tv show where,the steel/lead guitar takes an instrumental break,& the cameraman has the camera on the piano player??? (or the fiddle player?)  Its not,completely,the cameraman's fault. He's only doing what the director's telling him to do,but,since he does have communication w/ the dir.,via a headset,he COULD inform the dir. that its the steel playing. DUUUH!
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©¿© It don't mean a thang,
mm if it ain't got that twang.
www.ntsga.com
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 10:06 am
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Sadly, It has been that way for many, many years in "variety" show productions (i.e. Letterman, Leno, etc.) Typically the director picks up on the steel break source too late for a camera change.
At least on the GOO they know the tune and know when to switch (most of the time).[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 27 April 2006 at 11:08 AM.] |
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Walter Stettner
From:
Vienna, Austria
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 10:15 am
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Especially in bigger productions, if they use several cameras, it is only the director who is deciding which camera is on. Each cameraman has his area, the director is looking at different monitors and then....makes the decision to put the camera on...shooting the piano player...or take a shot of the audience...or the stage lights... or try something new and show us the shoes of the singer or....anything but the steel guitar!
Kind Regards, Walter
www.lloydgreentribute.com
www.austriansteelguitar.at.tf
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Rick Johnson
From:
Wheelwright, Ky USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 10:37 am
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Smiley
This the biggest complaint that I have
with the televised portion of the GOO.
Just last week end almost every shot
of Tommy was late and coming from
over his left shoulder.
You would think the producers would
be there at rehearsal and make some
notes.
www.rickjohnsoncabs.com |
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 11:56 am
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We once gave a director a complete list of our arrangements. Intros, solos, who was singing, etc. It was totally ignored. We ended up with a lot of shots of our girl singer "grooving" during the solos, and even when someone else was singing the lead vocal.
I guess he thought the rest of us weren't photogenic enough.
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 Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Williams D-12 E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (E13, C6 or A6) My Blog |
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Smiley Roberts
From:
Hendersonville,Tn. 37075
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 12:03 pm
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| Quote: |
| ...shooting the piano player... |
Hey Walt,
Not a bad idea! 
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~ ~
©¿© It don't mean a thang,
mm if it ain't got that twang.
www.ntsga.com
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Richard Bass
From:
Sabang Beach, Philippines
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 12:16 pm
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Smiley the camera is controlled by the director, he calls all the shots. The lack of a shot of the musician playing the ride is especially noticable with shows that are not produced in Nashvile by experienced Nashville producers and directors.
In fact I noticed thru the years of doing TV shows that I always looked like a big fat guy, go figure, and me a petite 260 lbs.  [This message was edited by Richard Bass on 27 April 2006 at 09:22 PM.] |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 12:48 pm
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With all due respect, the problem is usually that the directors don't know anything at all about music. They've been trained in video and audio, period! They don't even know a piano when they hear it, let alone something as rare as a pedal steel guitar. To them it's "instrumentata obscura". I guess they get directors off of news shows, where all they have to worry about are talking heads and the now highly overdone "remote feeds" from the equally-boring talking mannequins at the scene.
Having a non-musician as a video director of a music show is like having a dentist take out your appendix. In plain language, once he starts, he doesn't know his asterior from a void in the terra-firma.[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 27 April 2006 at 01:49 PM.] |
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Roger Kelly
From:
Bristol,Tennessee
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 12:51 pm
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Lawrence Welk never seemed to have that problem on his TV shows. He must have had his own director that not only knew the difference between a Flute and a Saxophone but also knew the arrangement. I never saw a miscue like that on his shows.
When I played with bands on TV, the Band Leader would give the TV director a song list broken down as to what Instrument was going to do the kick on song #1 and the Break and so on....until the entire show was charted out for him. He also made sure that the director knew the Steel was on the right of the Set, Bass to the right rear, Guitar on the Left and so on....then you might have a pretty good show where everything went like it was supposed to but..... things sometime happened in spite of what you tried to do to prevent it, it seemed. |
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Walter Stettner
From:
Vienna, Austria
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Larry Petree
From:
Bakersfield. Ca. USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 2:25 pm
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| Smiley, I know exactly where you are coming from. Here is an example I ran into years ago. There was a small TV station in a small town about fifty miles out of Bakersfield, that I was doing a weekly show on. They had a remote camera that was very slow. When it came to solo time, the camera would move very slow to the instrument doing the solo. Well by the time the remote camera got to the instrument, the vocalist was singing again. Not a fun time, Larry |
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 2:56 pm
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| Forget it. [This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 April 2006 at 05:37 PM.] |
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 5:35 pm
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The other day I watched a video of the KINKS, You Really Got me, From the Ed Sullivan Show..
www.youtube.com
Dave Davies playing Lead Guitar at age 16..When it came time for the Guitar break the camera was on the Bass player for the entire solo ! |
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Alvin Blaine
From:
Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2006 10:40 pm
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It's not just TV directors.
The Merle Haggard show I went to a couple weeks ago had the same problem.
Every time Norm would do a steel solo the "follow spotlight operator" would shine the spotlight on the keyboard player.
The first time it happened the keyboard player stepped back and put up his hands, kind of gesturing "it's not me". Finally by about the third of fourth song Merle announced Norm's solo and walked over and stood by him, and the whole band pointed to Norm so the idiot.., I mean the light operator knew who was playing the steel. |
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Chris Forbes
From:
Beltsville, MD, USA
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 2:20 am
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| How odd, I had the opposite experience when we were taped for "Sounds like Country." The cameraman would ask us before each song, "who kicks it off?" When I saw the finished DVD of the show I was actually embarrassed at how much air time I got. I'm sure I would be the exception to the rule though. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 2:39 am
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| You know, if you took a poll of a cross-section of average TV watchers, I think you'd find that not everybody in the whole world would agree that watching pictures of people's fingers moving back and forth is really the most exciting use of their time. I'm sure that hard-core knitters would like to see closeups of the pro's fingers on the Knitting Channel so they could try to cop their stitches, but ordinary folk are more likely to focus on the drama? |
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Bob Hickish
From:
Port Ludlow, Washington, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 6:06 am
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Smiley
Have you ever bought a toy for
the grand kids - it will say something
like " For age 3 to 5 " Most TV programs
should have this information on the credits ,
If they did , I doubt that you would see one that
would list anything past the age of 8 .
You said it all in you comment " just plain STUPID "
Question ?
Are you telling me that Don Helms didn't play
a Pipe Orgon when he was with Hank ?
the truth is out there !! |
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Richard Sevigny
From:
Salmon Arm, BC, Canada
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 6:49 am
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| Quote: |
| I'm sure that hard-core knitters would like to see closeups of the pro's fingers on the Knitting Channel... |
Yeah, I'm sure that's what the director is thinking..
But it wouldn't hurt to show the soloist having a good time whee it's his turn to show off.
But being as the director would rather see..
| Quote: |
| a lot of shots of our girl singer "grooving" |
...that's what the public sees  |
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CrowBear Schmitt
From:
Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 8:36 am
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Shoot the steeler & you can be sure that'll be filmed
otherwise you gotta brief 'em Smiley |
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 11:40 am
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| . [This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 April 2006 at 05:38 PM.] |
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Gaylon Mathews
From:
Jasper, Georgia
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 1:34 pm
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Yeap. That ticks me off too. But here's what makes it even worse. We done Regis & Kelly a few weeks ago. We had to be there way early in the morning for camera run throughs. You know, where we play the song repeatedly while the director picks his camera shots. Well, during each run through, they nailed it. I had the steel ride on "Politically Uncorrect" and the camera was on me during each run through. Now we went live about an hour later and during the steel ride who do you think got the camera time.......Fiddle Boy!!!!! Standing there smilin' and chunkin' away on rhythm chops with his bow. I mean what the @#*$ was that all about? Oh well, the one good thing is it all pays the same!
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Gaylon's Homepage
www.gaylonmathews.com
Gretchen Wilson
www.gretchenwilson.com
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 2:40 pm
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| . [This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 April 2006 at 05:38 PM.] |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 3:12 pm
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| Quote: |
| ...watching pictures of people's fingers moving back and forth is really the most exciting use of their time. |
For cryin' out loud David, we're not talking an instructional video, here! We're talking about simply getting the cameras on the people who are playing or singing. Is that too much to ask? We don't need a detail shot that reveals a nasty hangnail, we'd just like to see the right body!!!
It's not rocket science! |
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Jim Phelps
From:
Mexico City, Mexico
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Posted 28 Apr 2006 3:27 pm
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Forget it. I give up.
Yes, everyone's stupid except you.[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 28 April 2006 at 05:40 PM.] |
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Pat Kelly
From:
Wentworthville, New South Wales, Australia
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Posted 29 Apr 2006 12:11 am
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| .......... [This message was edited by Pat Kelly on 01 May 2006 at 01:25 AM.] |
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