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Connections, what a phenomenal series. Here's a 1 minute clip that is spectacular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Connections, what a phenomenal series. Here's a 1 minute clip that is spectacular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
That's an audacious bit of TV. Watching it now, it seems as though James Burke slowed down his delivery to match the timing - I bet he must have practised it a lot beforehand. My favourite aspect to the Connections series is the dry wit of James Burke. We could do with a modern version, but I'd be afraid that it would be dumbed down too much. Maybe get Hannah Fry to present it.
- timthorn 3y ago
  Richard Hammond presented Engineering Connections recently. Not quite James Burke but I'll take what I can get.
  - ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
    I only know his work on Top Gear which was mostly amusing. I'll give Engineering Connections a watch.
shmeeed 3y ago
I love Connections! Still I sometimes wonder if this particular shot isn't hyped a bit too much, with people actually wondering in the comments whether it's fake... why should it be? It's a fairly trivial feat for any good presenter (and of course Burke was very good) to get the timing of a single sentence right; /that's part of their job/. He does one or two practice runs and then knows the duration. In the event, the countdown was public, so he got the GO at T-15, stepped into the frame and delivered the line. Don't get me wrong, the effect /is/ spectacular, but in practice, it wouldn't have been too difficult to pull it off with a bit of preparation. Still I bet the production crew had a round of applause when they had the take. Of course they got only one chance for this particular shot, so I imagine they had filmed it at least once before just in case, and would then just have cut to the take-off. Wouldn't have been "The Greatest Shot in TV", but still good enough.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
  I agree that it's not technically that difficult, but everything had to be exactly right for it to work that well. I disagree about it being over-hyped as I can't think of any other shot that has a similar level of planned difficulty.

Connections, what a phenomenal series. Here's a 1 minute clip that is spectacular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoDQBhJCVQ

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago

That's an audacious bit of TV. Watching it now, it seems as though James Burke slowed down his delivery to match the timing - I bet he must have practised it a lot beforehand. My favourite aspect to the Connections series is the dry wit of James Burke. We could do with a modern version, but I'd be afraid that it would be dumbed down too much. Maybe get Hannah Fry to present it.

timthorn 3y ago
Richard Hammond presented Engineering Connections recently. Not quite James Burke but I'll take what I can get.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
  I only know his work on Top Gear which was mostly amusing. I'll give Engineering Connections a watch.

shmeeed 3y ago

I love Connections! Still I sometimes wonder if this particular shot isn't hyped a bit too much, with people actually wondering in the comments whether it's fake... why should it be? It's a fairly trivial feat for any good presenter (and of course Burke was very good) to get the timing of a single sentence right; /that's part of their job/. He does one or two practice runs and then knows the duration. In the event, the countdown was public, so he got the GO at T-15, stepped into the frame and delivered the line. Don't get me wrong, the effect /is/ spectacular, but in practice, it wouldn't have been too difficult to pull it off with a bit of preparation. Still I bet the production crew had a round of applause when they had the take. Of course they got only one chance for this particular shot, so I imagine they had filmed it at least once before just in case, and would then just have cut to the take-off. Wouldn't have been "The Greatest Shot in TV", but still good enough.

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
I agree that it's not technically that difficult, but everything had to be exactly right for it to work that well. I disagree about it being over-hyped as I can't think of any other shot that has a similar level of planned difficulty.