The first for this station, following the fireworks flop program on July 4.
1. No produced open...joined a band to begin live. Bit of a surprise to get the hype going. Sell the program!! Short,-sighted. Port of Seattle is main sponsor.
2. Better hosts, Wixey and Mayofsky over Rose and Sabirah on fireworks.
3. #4 Weather Wizard aboard a float, her video froze the second toss in, she did pre-recorded interviews as well. Where's Claire Anderson again?? Or Brian MacMillan, talent more known to viewers from weekday morning and evenings? Ilona McCauley did a nice job, but where are your main weather wizards, Fox 13, on this big sampling opportunity??
4. Multiple, forced additional sponsor interviews before the parade even starts...Boeing guy, Alaska Airlines lady and the Seafair President who, in particular, had zero energy to sell the parade, as well as someone from Kaiser Permanente and the Port, of course. Wayyyy too much pre-game mandated stuff. These all could have been integrated later, within the parade itself without missing a participant, considering how slow it moves, using double boxes, etc. I understand the interviews have to be done, but let's start the event!! Several interviews were indeed repeated later during lulls in the show, as expected. Boring.
5. Parade finally starts on-air at 8:02
6. Several fancy cars lead the parade, with Wixey and Erin's great line: "Look at those cars!" Well, it's all scripted, so why worry about the fawning sponsor voiceovers, right?
7. Good to see McCauley working the parade route and interviewing Rick Rizzs on the fly. I guess Rick passed on the critically important Rangers road series this weekend. But then she had to read off a card to remember the name of the King County Executive to intro him along the route, along with one of the questions she asked. Ilona, you didn't memorize and learn his name and question when you knew he was scheduled??? I mean it was a softball! Preparation!
8. Good to use double boxes to show parade and commercials together, though some of the participants were badly blocked visually by overlaps. First break 14 minutes in.
9. Had to laugh at the Dick's parade entry. Reminded me of their totally squashed burgers and flimsy, greasy fries. Ugh.
10. Interview with Mayor Wilson, good to see her PR staff allowed it to happen without intervention. Lol.
OK, I have had enough after an hour. I give Fox 13 credit for better ground level camera work than I remember from KIRO, though they needed a camera on a float for a forward moving view. But the big thing was NO DRONE overheads of the waterfront/parade panorama!! That would have been a major league difference-maker to me.
Overall, I guess Fox made a good community effort, but nothing unique at all, and there was every chance to set the coverage apart. Kinda cheaped out again, nothing that I see which would justify a new three-year deal with Seafair for big improvements. They should have expected more on the TV side.
Yes, I am watching the parade and there was no drone or aerial coverage. I was meaning to ask this question during the Seahawks championship parade, do any of the stations still use choppers? As a top 15 market, you would think there would be at least one helicopter that all the stations could pool from!
ReplyDeleteChoppers were stopped years ago. Drones are the way to go. No pooling either. Those days are also long gone because of $$
DeleteHello. Important to note that Fox does not produce the show. It’s produced by a production company. Fox only provides talent and the air time.
ReplyDeleteIt's a TV entertainment show and Fox is carrying it. Viewers want to see a unique, fun program. Don't tell me Fox didn't have input. Viewers don't care about Seafair's role, sorry. Bad enough they wrote the script for this fawning program.
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