Ohhh that'll hurt

[KennyC]

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/qvcladder.html
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/techtv.wmv

 

[love4steel]

OK now thats terrible!
[giggle giggle]

 

[Gollnick]

I'm amazed the camera kept rolling. I wonder what the extent of the injuries were?

It's live TV. And for many such programs, the crew is absolutely minimal. There often is no full-time cameraman. The Camera is on a remotely-operated mount and one "cameraman" in a control room somewhere operates the cameras for perhaps three for four programs at once. So, when they're just doing a straight-on shot with nobody moving around, etc, the cameraman ignores them. Same with sound and video technicians. The same crew is running three or four live shows and if one show is just rolling along, they may not pay much attention to it. At least the ladder one obviously had a technician at the controls who cut to a still shot quickly.

Many years ago, my highschool shop teacher had us watch a video to underscore the need for safety. This video was a collection of real accidents that were filmed while making instructional videos. There's a guy demonstrating how to use a table saw. He shows how to set up the fence, adjust the blade height, etc. and then proceeds to, on camera, cut off one of his own fingers. He was looking into the camera, not watching what he was doing, and cut his own finger right off. There were actually two cameras, the one in front that he was looking into, and one overhead looking right down. Everyone was paying attention to the head-shot of him from the straight-on camera, but that overhead camera caught the whole bloody accident. It's hard to watch, but everytime I use a table saw, I proceed with the greatest of care. And that was just one of probably a dozen bad accidents caught on film which they sliced together for the video.

I wish the sword one, though, would not have cut off. I wanted to see how the other guy handled it. You're on live TV to millions of viewers. Your trying to sell these cheapie swords. You've just been telling everyone what a wonderful product they are. You know that the control room technicians aren't paying attention to your program so you really can't ask to cut to a commercial... you are the commercial anyway. Your friend has just impaled himself and fallen to the floor crying in pain (and his voice has a sort of sound of someone heading into shock). So, what are you gonna do?