They were:
1: Credit squeezing, where the end credits are scrunched into a small box while an announcer previews what's coming up next on the channel you're watching and other BBC services. Helen Kellie the BBC's Head of TV Marketing told the programme they were reviewing credit squeezing and would be changing practices in response to viewers' feedback.
2: Loud backing music. I'm always telling my students about this one. Loads of complaints about the background music drowning out the narration or dialogue of a programme. Of course music is important in setting the tone and atmosphere of a programme, but the message is carried in the words, not the music. If viewers struggle to hear those words they'll switch off.
3: Creative production techniques. Lots of comments about steadicam use, camera angles, extras crossing in front of the camera during a scene and other stuff that bothers people. Some of this will come to be accepted as part of the grammar of telly in a few years, and creativity involves some risk taking and inevitably getting a few things wrong.
Jeremy Vine makes a strong advocate for the viewer, and encourages contributions that he says will be heard and, as with the credit squeezing, result in changes.
Technorati Tags: BBC, Points of View, television
3 comments:
Garn, who cares what these people think? There are always moaners who find it hard to cope with change. If they had their way we'd still be watching our news in black and white in the cinema. It's obvious that the huge, satisfied majority aren't going to write in to complain. But why should they be held back just because of a vociferous minority with time on their hands? (Apart from the credit squeezing, which is aggravating.)
So people shouldn't complain unless they're complaining about things you don't like too?
I'm not suggesting for a minute that any broadcaster should make policy based purely on audience feedback, but I do think that given the way it's funded the BBC has a responsibility to at least listen to complaints and give a voice to some of those with reasonable points.
People should complain if they are unhappy. I'm saying that they will complain, one should expect the complaints and keep them in perspective. People complain about parking tickets, the fact that cake makes them fat, the weather, all sorts of things. That doesn't mean that even they expect anything to happen as a result of their moaning.
Every organisation should listen to complaints and if you're a programme maker you should use audience feedback to help you look at things in different ways. You should ask yourself Is this a problem and if it is then change it. You shouldn't change it just because someone else thinks it's a problem.
I think the BBC worried too much about complaints. It wastes a huge amount of time and money which would otherwise be spent on making better programmes. For such a tiny country we are lucky to have the best broadcaster in the world serving us. Part of that success comes from learning from the audience and a much greater part comes from leading the audience gently into things they didn't know they were ready for.
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