Posted by Peter Ceresole on January 09, 2009 at 20:40:57 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: AR YouTubing [was Re: Esperance posted by Jock on January 09, 2009 at 13:37:47:
It's a BBC technique when doing a biography of a literary figure to dramatise a fragment of their creative output.
Not really 'BBC', more universal. There are reasons; making drama properly is extraordinarily expensive, because nothing happens unless you make it happen. Every tiny thing... So beyond very very short excerpts, the cost expands exponentially as invention breeds invention and the cast list lengthens. I've been there, done a bit of that, and the boundaries of a 'factual' budget are shredded in no time. These considerations are important; the lifeblood of TV is money. I never had enough. But then nobody ever does...
When I gave internal BBC talks for young Current Affairs producers, I used to outline the main questions they should ask themselves before they started on a project.
1) How much money do I have?
2) How long is it supposed to be?
3) What's the transmission date?
When they would ask, what about the story? I knew we were getting somewhere. The answer being, of course, you already know that because otherwise you wouldn't have got to the stage of thinking about the other things.
But the cheapest things you can do are shots of individuals; John in the cockpit of Goblin, as a single shot but not sailing into Lowestoft harbour as that needs coordinating the sailing and the actions in the cockpit and believe me those get out of sync so easily that herding cats is simpler... Best shoot them at night, lit by the compass light, which of course has to be a craftily shaded and positioned light of another kind...
You get the idea. Keep it small... It's amazing what you can suggest, though.
Oh, it was such a lovely life! And amazingly, they PAID me...