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EDITOR’S RANT!

In his editorial in the latest Dress Circle magazine, editor Ross Adams comments on the
type of material screened on television and at the movies at present.

As Ross has had his say about the situation, I thought I would add a few thoughts about
my pet hates with TV. Now let me start off by saying that the TV set in the Trickett
household would have a new experience if it was tuned to commercial TV station; I am
not a fan of spending 25% of the time I choose to view TV, watching advertisements.
(Just why anyone would choose to pay for Foxtel or other Pay-TV services and then also
accept 25% of the programming as advertisements, is beyond my understanding).

Some of the issues I believe TV stations should be taken to task over are…
The presentation of “portrait mode” phone footage, accompanied by blurry, rapidly
moving garbage to the left and right the main image. Their apparent “Must fill the entire
screen with something - even if it is very annoying” approach has seen all TV stations
adopt this ridiculous format. I always thought the presentation of news footage was to
illustrate the news item and grab your attention, not present a challenge to the viewer to
concentrate on the quarter of the screen with the image and ignore the ¾ of the screen
with the blurred swirling rubbish.

To make matters even worse, I have noticed of late, the tendancy to present 4 x 3
material with the same rubbish filling the otherwise blank area to the left and right of
the main image.

With the multiplicity of TV channels available, and the ABC running five channels,
finding something other than re-runs of last year’s programs was near impossible.
There seems to be a reluctance to even contemplate screening movies older that 10
years, and the presentation of something in black and white would seemingly create a
major incident.

What about an ABC-Retro channel. Surely prints of those great TV shows and movies
of the past are out there somewhere, even if they are in black and white.

Barb and I have a Neilsen’s Ratings box connected to our TV. It in turn is connected
to my Internet service and at about 4.00 am every morning, our viewing habits for the
previous night are uploaded to their system and form part of their ratings service. They
tell me our viewing habits represent the viewing habits of 5000 people. So, I guess
that makes 5000 people in the Geelong area who don’t watch commercial TV, seek
out good documentaries and even watch the occasional old movie or TV show on the
rare occasions they are screened.

Maybe the TV stations will get the hint.

Mike Trickett

4 REEL DEALS March 2018