"Planet Earth" vs. VJ's

[TexasDave]

We've seen the wonderful Planet Earth series, and I think its safe to say we all enjoyed the quality of the series.

We all know about the role of VJ's and how they are infiltraiting the newsrooms.

Some argue VJ's are the future (it's cheaper, OMB's, cover more stories...etc...) and we also all know that, in general, the work of VJ's does not compare to a standard crew with a reporter and a photographer.

So, I pose a thought to all my fellow b-rollers, with video content such as Planet Earth, the emphasis on HD TV's and their picture quality, how long do you think traditional viewers will put up with sub-quality stories/video? Yeah - laptop live shots, cell phone live shots...everyone says "one day...the quality will improve" - but it's not there yet.

I think we are at a crossroad where quality is returning to our television sets. Will the viewer, on their high-def widescreen big TV want to watch sub-par photography? I don't. Do you think the role's of VJ's will begin to decline and emphasis on picture quality will return?

That's just my opinion. Yours?

[Bismarck]

Well, the production of Planet Earth has no relation to the production of a local newscast except that they're both watched on a TV. But even that tenuous link might change.

[Land Rover]

I think VJ's will have a growing role in news gathering. It will grow fast as a fad for now but it will find its place where there are one or two per station in some medium to large markets that supplement the regular reporter/photog staff. They will especially be prevalent as far as gathering web material for stations and newspapers goes. And you know, that probably is just the right role for that type of position.

It’s unfortunate but most of the average viewers probably don’t realize it if something is shot out of sequence or if the white balance is not quite right. They just want to see it. Devices like cell phones do have a purpose in today’s media but only in so much that no other capturing method was available for the image to be recorded. But the quality control is not only concerned with how the image is captured. More and more in the past few years you see video on CNN of Fox that is aired unedited, or at least it looks that way, directly from the feed. How much more time would it have taken to cut out the shots where the photog zooms in from the wide to the tight shot and then back out to a medium shoot? You never used to see this kind of editing.

[Chicago Dog]

Having seen both in action, you might as well be comparing a Geo Storm to a Maserati GranTurismo.