Johnnie from BB01 posted this tonight. Aside from the very heartfelt message, it is great to know the original seasons of BBAU (or at least the very first) have been officially archived.
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Archiving of BBAU - widescreen from the start
- Thread starter the Theorist
- Start date
Johnnie from BB01 posted this tonight. Aside from the very heartfelt message, it is great to know the original seasons of BBAU (or at least the very first) have been officially archived.
It’s Not
Well-Known Member
Probably will never happen but I would love the old Big Brother seasons (preferred Widescreen - I know these exist) to be added to a streaming service. Could you imagine?
But I’m sure there is many things stopping that from happening like rights issues and royalties. Would they have to rewrite contracts again? Get permission from and have to pay the seasons cast? And more...
D Space
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure the recordings from that era were not filmed in widescreen when it was filmed for TV. It only really became a thing in the mid 2000's, so it wouldn't surprise me if it's not possible.
buck07
Bucking the system
The US lagged somewhat due to not filming in 16:9 SD - there a switch to widescreen meant a switch to HD. Big Brother was pretty much the last US show to go widescreen and HD - and that wasn't until 2014.
Didn't realise BBAU was in widescreen from the start - knew it was from 2003 onwards, but didn't think the first two were. Indeed I thought the reason they ditched the in-house cameras from the third series on (IIRC) was due to filming in widescreen - as the remote cameras at that time were generally 4:3.
Didn't realise BBAU was in widescreen from the start - knew it was from 2003 onwards, but didn't think the first two were. Indeed I thought the reason they ditched the in-house cameras from the third series on (IIRC) was due to filming in widescreen - as the remote cameras at that time were generally 4:3.
Correct - impressively, BBAU was filmed and broadcast in 16:3 SD from the very beginning. It's just that not many homes at the time owned widescreen televisions. I don't even think BBUK introduced 16:9 filming until a couple years into the series?
I think this fact is often forgotten about with BBAU only because most of the uploaded caps from the early seasons are in 4:3. But it was definitely filmed in 16:9.
You can actually view most of the 2001 widescreen footage on the officially released VHS (below), as well as throughout the Uncut/Unseen/Unreel DVD (on which it looks glorious on the latter!).
The original 16:9 shots were also used in the series tribute from 2008, as well as any other time the later seasons flashbacked to seasons 1-2:
Now here's hoping a widescreen copy, or at the very least a better resolution, of Celebrity Big Brother from 2002 surfaces one day...
Oh. Before anyone comes for me, this is supposed to say 16:9... I can’t edit my post but y’all know what I meant.
I just managed to locate the original 16:3 version. Here's a screen shot:Oh. Before anyone comes for me, this is supposed to say 16:9... I can’t edit my post but y’all know what I meant.
BBUK didn't actually go widescreen until it's 7th series in 2006. We thought it would happen for BB3 in 2002 when they moved houses, but alas it didn't. The show went HD with the move to C5 in 2011. I'm guessing BBAU didn't actually go HD until this year as I don't think 9HD was around (thanks to Gem being in HD) for 2012-2014.
This is a slightly naive comment to make. Of-course it’s not pointless. It’s not specifically Big Brother that they’re archiving - it’s part of a wider initiative to digitise all Australian analogue media, which is incredibly important.
TV and radio treasures preserved for nation
$5.5 million to turn old-fashioned tape into digital archive
Australia's archived history at risk of being lost
Time is running out for Australia to digitise tens of thousands of hours worth of cultural history currently stored on magnetic tape, according to the National Film and Sound Archive.
www.abc.net.au
This piece by ACA a few months ago is absolutely worth the watch: