TV addictions

I confess I'm also addicted to some TV programmes. What is surprising about this is that I'm starting to like some American TV. West Wing, I like that, fast paced dialogue and the characters are static only when necessary.

Having been in a bit of TV (Herc, Xena, Shorty St, City life, Street Legal and so on. The sort of stuff that just about every journeyman actor in NZ has done.) I know how directors and especially sound trogs hate dialogue delivered on the move. It's a bitch, the Boom Operator has to be right on his game and given that in a TV crew, the Boom Operator is often at or near the bottom of the food chain the chances are slim especially in NZ where we tend to be generalists rather than specialists.

On top of that you see the way they dodge through passage ways , corridors and doorways and in and out of offices all while the dialogue is going on. That means Carrycam or the Cameraman strapped into harness so he can carry a damped camera mount. This raises all sorts of other issues. Cameraman has to have his eye in the viewfinder while going backwards at the same pace as the actors are walking. Film cameras have notoriously shallow depth of field and so Cameraman has to maintain the exact distance between actor and lense. Behind him is Asst Cameraman rolling up cable while steering No1 backwards through the maze all the while avoiding the Boom operator also going backwards. If the head sound dude is a nice guy, then boom-guy's mike is plugged to a wireless transmitter at his waist, if not then he's rolling up cable as well.

It's all a recipe for chaos but if you can pull it off, which the West Wing crew seem to do week after week, it makes for great pacey drama. It's production values and it can't be beat as long as it's got good writing to go with it. Awesome. And disturbingly the Americans seem to be getting it right a lot.

As well as West Wing, add 24 and Huff. It makes making decisions about what to watch bloody hard. Friday night at 8:30 especially.

Mind you as soon as it seems the Americans seem to be catching up, Aunty Beeb or ITV or whoever in pommy land comes up with something like Rome. Ha! Cool.