h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why, oh why, oh why do TV link men find it necessary to stomp all over the credits of every programme to tell you what is coming next? They even split the screen to show you a trailer of what you are going to watch in 3 minutes, or even worse, what you are going to see next week in the same programme. Sometimes they only wait a brief second or so after a dramatic ending before bombarding us with trailers.

What the hell is all this about?

This is about the fact that most people do not sit through the credits but immediately change to a different channel where they can find something interesting. The announcer is desperately trying to hold on to viewers.

Still it is so highly annoying. What about those little bonus scenes often embedded into the credits? What about the music that is often a great job of composing? What about people's moral right to be given due credit for the job they have done on the movie?

But ah, it's all about making money on TV, isn't it?

Y.

Yup it is annoying but then again I did wonder if you were going to ask who Ken Morse is and what he does at the Rostrum Camera for most BBC TV programmes.

and what's a Dolly Grip?

Something to do with 'the casting couch', I believe.

I watched programme about tv production and they showed what Ken Morse and his Rostrum camera did.

The instance of that voice-over tactic that annoyed me the most was when they were airing that "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" thingie over here.

At the end of the show, WHILST the little bit about Hitler's extermination of the Jewish people and the outcome of the war was on (before the credits even), the tv channel in question started their spiel about what was on tomorrow night. That I found highly tasteless.

Oi! Can I just say that the people who do the voice overs (at least for Beeb Scotland) are the loveliest people in the building! And they have a lot more to do than just do the voice overs. I sat in on one session (after doing my own job with a lady), and you would not suspect just how complicated a job it is. They are also the people to whom the company rely on in case something technically goes wrong with the programme.

The links are all scripted and its not the Announcers, its the rest of the guys who make sure the programmes run as they should (and script writers). It is done (as Gnomon said) to keep people watching. It may drive you nuts, but it saves you grabbing the telly pages to see what junk is on the box next!

Aaaahh something I know something about... a dolly grip is a the person who controls the dolly - which in turn is a small vehicle which which rolls along tracks. The dolly is used to get those sweeping travelling shots of car chases etc.

Basically a mini-filming railway

So, what then are Best Boy, Gaffer and what else you got there?


Y.

The best boy is the first assistant to the gaffer. The gaffer's job is to look after the electrical side of the lighting on set.

And the key grip?

The guy that makes sure the door is locked when they've all gone home?

Noggin

Sky announcements must be pre-recorded as I have heard the same one twice in one evening and neither before the correct programme!

Masvaleix, why don't you make an entry about all such terms? That would be a really interesting read, for sure.

Y.

I did some research about Ken Morse on the net. He's quite a guy - he loves his job and will drop everything to do some rostrum work. He lists his hobbies as 'watching films, photography'. Talk about someone who lives for his work!

I agree with woodpigeon's comments. It's particularly annoying when you want to find someone in the credits and the credits are unreadable because they're scrunched up.

I'm with the people who hate announcers talking over the credits. The music is part of the mood of the film and talking over it spoils things. I also don't like the 'squashing up' of the credits. Sometimes I want to know who played a particular role, or who did the music. As for 'keeping the viewers', it all makes me want to switch off.

Another bugbear is the splitting of films by the news. On Wednesday ITV showed X-Men and I thought 'Great! They haven't split it with the news.' Then, just before the final segment, they had a 'news summary' of what was going to be on the news WITHIN THE NEXT HALF HOUR! The summary, plus advertisements, lasted at least 5 minutes and ruined the film.

I wonder if the TV companies actually do any research to find out viewers' opinions of this sort of thing.