Having been a fan of the fixed camera shots of the routines since its appearance a few weeks ago, I have to say:

1) Austin's QS is indeed very sporty, bright, and one can see more movement around the floor. Also, one slight timing issue in the middle of the dance is visible (not obvious, you'll have to concentrate to find it).

2) Lisa's tango was very sharp, dramatic, almost no rise and fall, beautiful choreography by Brendan. Indeed proper tango it was.

3) Jodie's waltz was indeed very, very flow-y, romantic and soft. Beautiful. It's clear she's undermarked for that kind of *performance*.

4) Tom's paso, without having to see that bizarre expression of his, was actually very good. Beautiful lines he made. And quite 'macho' as a matter of fact (still hate the music though).

What do you think? Do you like the fixed camera versions so far?

I haven't discuss the 'bad' dance yet (such as Cherie's Salsa or Andrew's Samba), do you think the fixed camera showed bad routines up more?

Discuss!

Haven't had a chance to watch yet, but yes, I do think the fixed camera shows up the bad routines more, Mark's paso was, errr, even more not very good, watching on the fixed camera.

I wish they would do the same thing for the pro dances.

Where can you see these if you can't use I-Player (I don't have a british IP adress)?

Go to this link click here.

I am really enjoying getting the chance to see the dances from the fixed camera. It gives us the opportunity to see how well the couples move round the floor, how quickly they do so and how much rise and fall there is. Also we can see all the footwork (albeit more distant) that is cut out by the close ups and the swirly camera. Being able to watch both versions certainly give more perspective to the dance - both good and bad - and hopefully gives us more opportunity to see where the judges are coming from with their comments

Agree with Katie, would love to see the pro-dances from the fixed camera too.

Thanks for that, but that's where the problem is, it gives me the message "not available in your area". They did have them on YouTube at some point but I can't find them anymore......

Yes, it would have been great!

I have to dissent from the general view being expressed here. I would not like to rely on the fixed camera alone. Yes, it does give a better idea of movement round the floor, but is too far away to give much idea what the feet are doing. It also cuts out the close up shots which are something television allows and are not available to someone in a fixed position. So all I would like is better camera work.

I agree with that. If it was a case of only fixed cameras, obviously it wouldn't be done at that angle. I would just like for the cameras to stop swirling around and doing silly shots which obscure the footwork. I don't actually want it to be fixed, I just think that in most or all of the shots you should be able to see the whole dancer.

I also find it a bit bizarre that the pros go to so much trouble to choreograph a dance that moves across the floor, and then the cameras prevent us from seeing it by their spinning and silly angles.

I am not suggesting that the fixed camera replace the actual camera shots. But just take a look at DWTS. They follow the dancers around, but not the way BBC does (that Don cameraman!)!

Agree with all your comments SCD-Observer.

I'd just add I'm even more baffled now by the judges comments about M&C's American Smooth.
Looked nothing wrong with Christines footwork to me.
Thought she moved across the floor beautifully.

I disagree with Arlene's 'dead wood' comments. But I think it's probably too far to see all the heel leads (or the lack thereof) in Christine's routine. But it was quite clear from the fixed camera view that she didn't do ANY heel turns. That said, it didn't detract her from performing her dance well.

Even Matthew was not denying Christine probably needs now to work even harder on her footwork to stay in the competition. I still think Arlene's and Bruno's comments are OTT.

River Man, I have just posted something similar over on another thread. I do think Craig's point about her needing to point her toes is valid, but 'dead wood'? That is just Arlene going for a cheap effect with the end result that all the comments came across as far more negative than, I think, justified.

In terms of the fixed camera overall, I think the distance does create problems. I found Lisa's tango quite dull from the fixed perspective (I'm not a tango fan anyway, which probably has something to do with it), partly because she seemed remarkably undemonstative in terms of her body. Having close-ups of her face definitely helped on the night. Am now off to watch Tom's paso - bearing in mind SCD-O's original comments.

Yep, the Deadwood from the waist down and something about puddles were ridiculous.

I'm no expert so take on board that technically her footwork might not have been 100%correct, but anyone would think she was hobbling around with a wooden leg the way the judges were talking.

Exactly. Dead wood gives an impression that she didn't even try to get 'in step', and perhaps just letting Matthew carry her around the dance floor. And this silly comments about 'crying in the puddle', what exactly does that mean? And that stretching exercise he did! Oh, how I wish his trousers split!

Oh, on that note, I don't wish his trousers split for he might be going commando and the ladies sitting near him might faint in disgust!

Cripes, SCD-O, I was coming on to post something semi-intelligent about Tom's paso and you give me that image! I have now completely forgotten what I was going to say!

*hurries back to the Beeb site to re-watch Tom's dance in an attempt to cleanse her mind*

http://uk.youtube.com/user/SCDancing34 <- this youtuber has several of the fixed camera things up, though not the most recent routines yet.

I managed to watch A&E's QS (lovely, though there were two slightly wobbly bits) almost to the end and then the BBC site gave up on me. Ahh well.

Ooo, what sharp eye you have to spot two 'timing' issues! I don't like the bbc site, it's so SLOW sometimes!

But I like the fixed camera versions of the dances. Give us another perspective to the routines. Marvellous!

It is sooooo annoying

I couldn't tell you if both were timing issues exactly, but for information (and so you can argue if you think I'm wrong ):

first is 0.35/0.37, I remember noticing this on the night too - I'm not entirely sure what happens but they lose body contact as they come towards us, (they're going into what I think is called promenade, but it just doesn't look quite right) and Austin seems to be going up when Erin is going down, and vice versa. At the end he seems to do an extra hop - makes me wonder if he ended up on the wrong foot. At any rate they don't appear to be completely in sync.

At 0.55 ish, I'm not certain of this one because it's hard to see Erin's feet to compare, they're more or less hidden in her dress with her standing away from the camera, but I'm not convinced again that they are in sync, and coming out of that Charleston section, they are clearly not in time just for I think a beat, I've watched it several times and can't quite work out who goes off first and who is waiting for whom - I think they recovered marvellously!

I also think that the final pose was out of sync with the "stab" from the orchestra, but that may have been the orchestra's fault!

I don't know if the two issues that I spotted are the two issues that Craig spotted, but I'm reasonably sure that things were not quite perfect at those two spots. That said, I thought Austin and Erin were fabulous, the errors were very small, and well recovered from, and I thought 36 was fair overall so I ain't complaining


Yeah, me too - it's really interesting to see them from that angle. Although obviously it's still different from what the judges are watching, it gives a better (if rather distant at times!) idea of what is being marked, instead of the nauseating swirling that often covers up both good and bad points.

Yeah, me too - it's really interesting to see them from that angle. Although obviously it's still different from what the judges are watching, it gives a better (if rather distant at times!) idea of what is being marked, instead of the nauseating swirling that often covers up both good and bad points.[/quote]

I shall be taking my Kwells before Saturday's show begins. Gives me motion sickness.

I can see from the fixed camera why the producers try the various camera angles. It can all look flat from the single viewpoint if you don't know much about dancing. But there's a difference between not knowing much about dancing and just not knowing WTF what you're looking at, at all- the spinning camera views could only engage an Extra Terrestrial with ADD, watching TV through the window at Currys.
Last edited by lynxmale : 06-11-2008 at 10:28

The camerawork (or direction) in DWTS is much better. Less frantic. The camera shots are there as a channel, you watch through their 'eyes', not something jarring and flashy like the SCD teams comes up with time after time.

Ironically, the celebs/pros/judges in DWTS generally don't care much about footwork (they are oftentimes rubbish tbh), so even though they are shown their footworks, they weren't the prettiest sight to behold.

OK, wobby screen - fantasy sequence coming up.

The guys from Animal Park are brought in to dart and stun the judges and fix tiny cameras to their heads (only wide angle ones) so that we can see what each of the judges sees. I would love to know what the heck they are talking about some of the time because they certainly talk about faults that I am not aware exist. What do you think?

Bruno's camera will be shaking so much we will be sea sick after 5 minutes.

Arlene's lens will fog-up (with heat) whenever a macho contestant takes the dancefloor.

I think Craig's camera will be the most informative.