Great use of the robot on this evening's Nine. Wonderful wide shot after the titles.
Yes the robot sequences are consistently superb when used at weekends. Just beautiful. The music bed is the perfect pace, the shot is smooth and engaging, and the shot is the perfect length to act as a buffer without being distracting or overly brief. Really the first time that RTÉ News's titles have truly engaged with a title sequence in recent years.
By contrast, it shows up how increasingly shoddy the operation of the railcam is. Alas it would appear to be very operator-dependent in terms of their skills and ability to pull it off successfully. When it goes wrong, it does so spectacularly, ranging from not starting in time, stopping too soon, being poorly paced, crassly controlled in a way that results in jolts and shudders, and poor angling. Such a staple of the newsroom should not be so inconsistent.
Of course what remains a constant irritant is the cameras clipping into shot and the base of the desk being cropped out in the opening and closing sequences. It is baffling this was not picked up on in the planning stage, or it if was, that it was allowed to proceed. I often think of visitors to this country watching the evening news in hotel rooms and B&Bs across the state, smirking at what they think is a camera malfunction at the start of the bulletin they're watching, unless of course they see it on consecutive nights, when the truth is sadly revealed. It's such a mess. I'd nearly prefer if the robot was used in place of the railcam, it's that bad. When operated in full flourish, with a grandiose sweep in sync with the drumroll of the titles and a soft mix it looks superb, but is still let down by the distraction of the cameras. I often wonder if a wider angle lens, taking in more of the cameras, might actually work better - as unpalatable as it may be. At least it would look better resolved.
Of course the icing on the cake with the railcam is Anne Doyle's staunch refusal to act naturally in the wide shot, sitting like a rabbit in the headlights with her eyes glued to the monitor until she her cue to turn, machine-like, to the ped camera. It is so hideously cringe-induing to watch, and worse still when she gets her timing wrong, i.e., every second night. It is clearly derived from her own admission that she never ever watches herself back on television. Is it any wonder she has never improved her presentation skills. She has no idea how out of sync she is with what is going on around her, nor what the viewer can actually see and hear, and observe how transparent she is in her modus operandi. A shame, as she's still a fabulous newscaster on the occasions when she shines, but that's increasingly rare these days.
