matts bb
Always Watching 👀
Agree. This is one of my main concerns. I don’t like the idea of all hot head cameras. Maybe the cost of two way mirrors are too expensive these days? Haha
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BBAU 2025 house in Dreamworld Exhibition Centre
- Thread starter the Theorist
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dasnico
Active Member
Nah they’re just panes of standard glass with a reflective film on them, akin to tinting your car windows. With what any set construction costs would be those would be a drop in the bucket.
My assumption at this point is any number of the following:
- it’s cheaper to have a couple people in the control room operating a group of hot heads.
- manned studio cameras are too expensive and/or having the extra crew to run them is too expensive.
- there were concerns about space for added camera runs
While hot heads are a staple of BB, there’s an organic element of using manned studio cameras. Hot heads are typically used for wide and static shots. It could look weird just cutting between static angles without any fluid movement included. Also for every 10 cameras (or so) there’s one person attempting to operate them simultaneously remotely. Just weird.
I’d be surprised if the bathroom area get runs added/cut out given the wall decoration already seems to be added.
potentiallybray
it's time to go
Also looks like, given the recent floor plans that the old gift shop is also included in the house space so that adds at least another few hundred sq metres. Problem is, I literally can't work out what is what and whether there's camera runs. There's SOME doors marked, and others are not.
matts bb
Always Watching 👀
I was actually kidding on the cost of the mirrored windows haha
I don’t even feel like manned cameras need to be installed in the runs. Even if it was a case of BB03 with many of the hot heads back then behind smaller mirrored surfaces. My idea would be to have the “runs” even if smaller to accomodate hot heads or remote controlled railed cameras. It’s 2025 and people don’t necessarily need to physically man them anymore.
The reason visible hot heads were removed in 2003 was because the housemates were acting for the cameras in that sense. We didn’t see them again until 2012 in the Nine era. The idea of them all being hidden IMO makes it more voyeristic and more of the OG social experiment feel, than pretty well having hot heads everywhere like a prison or a film set, it loses that vibe.
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I did have a thought that maybe some of that area is behind the scenes/ 'runs' and not part of the house and most of the house the housemates will be using is under '2'. The layout isn't making sense to me at the moment, but all will be revealed within the next few weeks.
andrewpatrick_
Well-Known Member
I’m just curious to know if they’d ever build a dedicated structure again, but as others have said, seemingly those days are over.
This is my thinking as well. Hot heads on a rail which have the advantages a camera operator would have without them being stuck in that dark space. Not to mention not being visible to the HMs.
Kingston
Canadian Royalty
Not at all concerned
James T
Your eviction prediction priestess™
Neither, I think it will really help to modernise the format in Australia and appeal to the same kind of audience.
kamui
Well-Known Member
Might be wrong about it and would have to pay attention to it during tomorrow's marathon, but I don't think they've used that many "fluid movement" shots anyways.. maybe when there was an argument and somebody walked away from it. But I feel like most of the times it was just the camera rotating anyways, but not really moving on the tracks.
Kingston
Canadian Royalty
That might be taking it a little far but I think it will definitely give this eras house a different look and feel.
dasnico
Active Member
I agree. Smaller mirrors with them mounted behind them is ideal, at least to me. During these marathons I've noticed many hm's say in their exit interview "you forget the cameras are there" - well yeah, you couldn't even see them. Gretel even mentioned that they can't show them too much footage while they're in the house because they'll figure out where cameras specifically are. Beforehand, you would see them watching the cameras move and asking for them to move certain ways. Idk. Just my thoughts.
That said, I remember 9 also obscuring most if not all of their cameras? All I can recall is Tim's season honestly.
BB need to make a solid effort to not make it anything like love island. I think it will attract that specific audience (reality TV is reality TV) but I feel they're appealing to the older crowd with the nostalgia as well.
Kingston
Canadian Royalty
At the end of the day I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Removing visible cameras was an interesting experiment but doesn’t really seem practical or cost effective in the modern era. While the one mirrors are still a fixture in the majority of houses their actual use is becoming less and less common. I know BBUK pretty much only uses them during tasks and on eviction night. As far as I know Australia is the only franchise that cared enough to completely remove visible fixed cameras so it doesn’t seem like it’s really THAT much of an issue.
Ultimately, I think it's one of those things that as "superfans" we'll notice the difference and if the camera runs aren't there but the general viewer probably won't and/or if they do, they won't care.
If BBAU 2025 is a failure, I'm not sure it'll ever boil down to the fact that they didn't opt for camera runs.
If BBAU 2025 is a failure, I'm not sure it'll ever boil down to the fact that they didn't opt for camera runs.
dasnico
Active Member
I agree. Again, just my thoughts and preference as a “super fan”
kamui
Well-Known Member
They say that on other franchises, too, even if those franchises don’t use two-way mirrors anymore.
Personally, I’ve never believed that you forget about the cameras, I think it’s more that you don’t think about the cameras after a day or so…
But there are so many moments these days that remind you that you’re on a TV show. If it’s not the studio audience screaming, if it’s not competitions with "Ninjas" and potentially visible camera people, if it’s not the live shows where you know that a huge audience watching, it will for the very least be the person that tells you to wear your microphone.
And if you get reminded that you are on TV, you should at least be aware that there are cameras around, too.
I’ve tried to remember situation where they’ve visible moved the cameras around. All I could think of is the Paul/Merlin fight, the "were in the runs ans hopefully the housemates don’t… oh no, they saw us again” bits on the UK spin-off shows and otherwise, the scene transitions on some franchises when they would move between the windows and get to see the window frames or whatever you want to call the piece of window.
I liked those transitions and the backstage vibes they gave. But hardly anyone will see them as the definitive shots for Big Brother.
Camera technology has moved on in 25 years. If you were launching the show now you wouldn't even contemplate using camera runs and some countries haven't used them for the last 15 years.
On the other hand the mic technology is pretty much as it was back at the beginning of the century. You'd think they'd be a better way now than relying on battery packs.
dasnico
Active Member
It really hasn’t though. Sure the resolutions and picture quality has improved in leaps and bounds but the general physical technology is the same. BB has always used robo cameras. AU had them hidden behind mirrors for years. Aside from the sensors in them they’re basically the same, albeit linked over a network now rather than a serial protocol. I operate robo cams on certain reality shows and production always uses (the larger) manned cameras when able just due to they look better on screen.
Robo cams are considerably less resolution than manned studio cameras, which are much bigger and have much better guts in them.
The only thing that’s changed is motion control, I.e. motorized sliders and rigs, which in a professional capacity are considerably more expensive than using a human.
Even in feature films, film cameras are still preferred when budget allows because the image quality of film will always be better than anything digital. The technology has been the same for 100 years, but the manufacturing process of film stock has gotten better.
Anyway, not to flog a dead horse. That’s my Ted talk
Ditto. I always disliked the mirrored camera runs in BBAU, for reasons:
- Seemed cheap
- Made the house more boring to look at because you had to have the same mirrors everywhere
- Housemates constantly reminded of cameras
- From the various stories that came out, it seemed like the housemates knew exactly where operators were, and could hear them speaking.
- It made the show more visually boring to look at in the long run because camera angles were always at the same position.