Book Research

Television Studies, by Sue and Wink Hackman, London, 1988:

• "The camera crew set up and operate the cameras"
• "The pictures from each camera are shown on a screen"
• "The director chooses which pictures to show. This is a tough job if the event is being shown live, because decisions have to be made on the spur of the moment"
• "The fact is that you can't actually get the viewer there. There's nothing like being there - the Olympics, the World Championships; you can't recreate that atmosphere on screen"
• "Our responsibility is to represent the whole event fairly" 
• "We must give fair coverage of the whole event"
• "You rely on the camera operator finding an interesting picture to offer you"
• "One of the most important decisions is where to put the available cameras, so that the viewers at home have a good view of events"
• "One very important point is that they must all be on the same side"   

I found this research useful because, it allowed me to explore live tv and television shows from a different angle and perspective. This gave me ideas for my cameras and where I could put them. It also made me realise that I should only show the very key highlights because I can't recreate the atmosphere so its better to get it out the way and just talk about the game and move onto the next one. I didn't know much on this topic so this book helped me understand it better.