Outside Broadcasts

WHEN tackling a fresh event the Producer must work out the mechanical framework necessary to achieve the best results. This requires a broad outline knowledge of the event, and a visit to the venue with the Unit planner, who must obtain and cope with, the right equipment — the lighting engineer, who must ensure perfect lighting, and the communications engineer. The tricky planning to get the programme on to the television screen in the best possible way.

Tackling an O.B. programme is quite different from filming an event. The O.B. Producer has the difficult task of editing the show as it happens, unlike the film man who can edit the film after the event. The success of the venture also depends on the adaptability of all the crew. It is important that each member of the production staff slip into the mood of the programme and be at one with it. Recently, for example, the A.T.V. crew covered a religious programme and followed it after a short interval with an “All-In Wrestling” event. For the first O.B. it was necessary to feel the solemnity of the occasion and adjust the speed of presentation to fit, so that all the solemn atmosphere was portrayed to the viewing audience. Then, shortly afterwards, came the brash excitement of the Wrestling match.

The idea that the O.B. people are a leisurely crowd who point their cameras at cricket matches and get sun-burnt or weatherbeaten at leisure is a fallacy. It takes initiative, a liking for hard work, planning and split second timing and as one O.B. Producer said, “Above all a liking for the challenge of the unexpected, for Outside Broadcasts are not rehearsed, and one never knows quite what is likely to crop up at the last minute.”