Steve Backshaw, The BBC & The Deadly 60

We are in London this week to run another session of The Guardian Media Academy in partnership with The Guardian.

Still not too late to sign up!

In any event, we checked into Claridges and the TV in the room was on.

It was set to BBC1, which is their primary network, but it was playing a show called The Deadly 60

This apparently is supposed to be a CBBC series (or Children’s BBC), but I have to admit I was immediatley taken by the host Steve Backshaw has he searched in Brazil for the deadliest animals in the world.  In this first series, he came across a giant spider that eats birds!

OK.

CBBC or not, this was pretty compelling stuff.

I also liked the idea that he opened the show by introducing the team – a cameraman, a soundman, a producer, a local guide and himself.

Very BBC.

Of course, you get the idea. They wander around the jungles of the Brazilian rainforest seraching for creepy things – and they find them.

What made it particularly intersesting to me (besides the ants which can apparently ‘strip a man’s body to the skeleton in a matter of hours’. or the vampire bats) was that in many of the shots you saw the cameraman schlepping (as we say at The BBC) a gigantic betacam on his shoulder with a massive lens, batteries, and God only know what kind of other stuff. And this is through the rainforest of Brazil.

Those shots were made by the soundman (I think) who was carrying a small hand-held digital video camera. (I think it was a SONY 9).

Now, the more I watched, the more I could see that maybe half the footage came from the SONY handicam.  Particuarly in the bat caves and low light situations – also the ECUs on the spiders. It’s just easier

What was most interesting was that I could not tell the difference between the ‘quality’ of the shots.

Yes, I understand the theory, but in point of fact, watching it on the screen, I just could not tell.

All of which makes me think that as they continue this series, they would better served to send the cameraman and the sound guy into the next adventure with a couple of SONY 9s. Think of how much less junk they would have to drag around with them. I mean, what is the point?

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 30 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.