Beauty on tv is Dangerous

It looks that TV direction will have to choose between the actual content and the sex appeal of female TV presenters. According to a study conducted by the European society of psychoanalysis, male viewers often have difficulties understanding news when a pretty woman is on screen. Three fourths of 1500 of respondents could not recall the first minute of the monologue; all their attention has been driven to admire the beauty of the female presenter. Only 40% of men were able to recall the program's highlights. At the same time, more than a half of them admitted that they have been constantly distracted by the movement of sensual lips of the presenter, and could not understand the meaning of the words.

(http://funreports.com/2004/11/01/56908.html)

London Academy of Radio, Film & tv

TV Presenter Masterclass

Welcome to London Academy's TV Presenting school offering you the opportunity to expand your creative talent in becoming a TV Presenter.

As a beginning TV Presenter anything can happen, the way you look, the way you dress, the way you speak, all has a dramatic impact on how people feel about you. Understanding who you are and how you are perceived by the onlooking public is one of the many surprises during this course.

"Your tutor, Michael Watkins, is 36 and has twenty years' broadcasting experience: He has been a freelance SKY NEWS presenter since May 1999. In that time he's presented coverage of three wars and other breaking stories. Michael's approach is friendly and practical. He will show you what's REALLY important and what to concentrate on before you go on air. He has been training for several years, including at Sky, the BBC and with private clients."

A diploma in 'TV News Presenting' is awarded by The London Academy of Film & Television to students who successfully complete this course.

(www.media-courses.com/coursepages/supercourse.asp?id=02)

How to Become a Cameraman

First two scenes:

Serbia, 1993: It was so cold that ice was actually dripping from my nose. The camera felt like a stone on my shoulder. Inside the building I could see people enjoying hot tea. It had been eight hours since my last warm moment, eight hours out here in the cold and I was getting desperate. Finally the man I was waiting for stepped outside. "Sir, can we ask you a question for American News?" I aimed the camera at his face, ready to roll. "Go away", he replied as his security man roughly pushed me aside.

Croatia, 1994: The military Hercules was waiting at the far end of the runway. I could hardly see it; the heat waves from the asphalt were blurring my sight, making the plane look like a mirage. Nobody to give me a lift, I would have to walk. Rucksack on my back, camera case and tripod on right shoulder, camera on the left. Weight: 60–70 kilos. Distance: one kilometer. Temperature: 38 Celsius. Duration: For Ever.

Suffering and despair, these are just some of the things cameramen go through on a daily basis. The above are only two examples of en endless stream of miserable memories I have connected to my noble profession. Yet despite all this, the amazing thing is that cameramen continue doing what they are doing. And even more amazing: that many more aspire to join our ranks.

Over the last years, the tvcameramen.com web site has received hundreds of questions from would-be cameramen. "I want to be a cameraman, how do I go about it," is the question. Well, there is no one answer. So we decided to ask real-life cameramen to tell their stories, how they did it, how they got where they are and how they plan to stay on top of things.

Their experiences have one thing in common. This is passion for the job; passion for the story, passion getting the picture and passion even for the more depressing aspects of the work. You may call it his "vocation". They simply love what they do so much – waiting for eight hours in the cold, or walking for miles in the heat. These, they say, are just inevitable side effects of this wonderful profession.

Childhood fascination

Most of us have had a fascination with camera work since a very young age. Barry Paton currently living in France, became fascinated with the magic of photography when he was about eight or nine years old when he watched his elder brother develop a roll of film in the bathroom basin. As a child, Chris Mattlock a Canadian freelancing in Kenya used to watch news on TV. He says that once he realized that there was a cameraman behind what he was watching, he wanted to be one.

Stop the recorder from falling

Others got into the business by family connection. It is a mistake however to think that a family connection makes things easier for the future cameraman. As Robbie Wright explains: "I still needed to go to the newsroom at the weekends and annoy everybody to the point that they finally gave me a job. My first job was to stop the recorder from falling on the ground in the days when video was replacing film and the recorder was a separate unit."

And finally there is the group of people that have neither family connections nor a childhood passion for the business. They discovered their vocation by fate.

Joe Yaggi, currently living in Bali, was studying anthropology when his professor showed the class an ethnographic film. "I was very much impressed. A few days later he showed another and I knew what I wanted to do".

Most cameramen never officially studied for the job. Yet all of them got where they are by patiently working their way up. Starting at the bottom of the broadcast ladder, like Robbie, they describe how they spend many hours – often at night – working all kinds of broadcasting jobs just to observe the professionals and to accumulate work experience.

Kerry: "In my mid-teens, I started doing some teenage radio shows on the local community access station. When a regional TV station opened up in our area the group of us at the radio station decided that a teenage show would be a great addition to it! After meeting with a producer and discovering our lack of TV experience, a few of us (the more "technical" ones of the group) started doing weekly work at the station."

"Over time I learned a lot," Kerry continues, "just from work experience. Soon I was offered to assist on a weekly sports program, which would be paid work. Hurrah! My climb through the ranks had begun, and what better place to learn than on an outside broadcast…"

Starting from the bottom up means grabbing every opportunity. Joe says that during the school year, he shot weddings ("to this day the worst job I’ve ever had. The first six months were a struggle," he says).

Staying on top

In TV technology things change quickly. Being a cameraman therefore means trying to stay ahead, especially in the technical field. And the best teacher, as the professionals say, is your own mistakes.

The road to becoming a cameraman is neither short, nor easy. But the suffering while climbing your way up is nothing compared to the hardships awaiting you. Especially your personal life will suffer. Camerawork will simply rule your life. In Kenya, an old friend of mine missed his own wedding day twice. Birthdays, anniversaries and other important days in the lives of loved ones are there to be missed once you put that one-eyed machine on your shoulder. "This is most certainly not a glamorous industry. It means long days/weeks and broken marriages," says Nigel Fox from Australia.

Yet the lesson learned from these stories is that if you are willing to work hard, show initiative and develop contacts (because after all, it is still very much a who-knows-who business), chances are that you will get there. Get that job and be good at it.

Being a cameraman is still one of the most beautiful professions in the world. Not just that. It is indeed a vocation, a passion, a love story. As Barry puts it: "It has not been easy – it was not planned that way and it will never make me rich, but the joy that I get when I put my eye to the camera is absolute heaven – on top of that I get paid for it – and I am a cameraman!"

(www.hollywoodreporter.com)