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The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

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Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#171

Post by OhMeadhbh »

jp57 wrote: post #154
joshspankit wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if we instead look at the last clip as “the one shot” Personally I don’t think that takes anything away

Well, he is standing still, the camera is stationary. For just that last segment, it is easy to answer "how did he do it?" Write out his remarks, rehearse with a timer, then figure out at what point in the countdown to begin speaking. The main thing is that he has say basically one sentence right in a single take, but he is a seasoned television announcer, so that in itself is not too surprising. The much longer segm…

Yes and no. The Saturn V he walks past was on it's side next to the Vehicle Assembly Building, which is close to launch complex 41 from which the Voyager missions launched.

But I think it's about 120 degrees to the left from where they shot the shot of Burke walking. They absolutely had to set up a different shot to get Burke and the Titan III in the same shot.

As an aside... That Saturn V is no longer at that location. Several years ago they moved it a mile to the north and built a building around it to create the Apollo / Saturn V center. Or at least I think it's the same artefact.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#172

Post by OhMeadhbh »

Thegn wrote: post #101
jleyank wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want a single, unedited shot, Neil’s ladder descent would be a candidate. If you didn’t think Stanley actually did it.

He did, but he was such a stickler for accuracy that he insisted they shoot on location.

https://youtu.be/P6MOnehCOUw (Mitchell and Webb's take on the fake moon landing.)

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#173

Post by OhMeadhbh »

snypher wrote: post #141
hyperbovine wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come now, he still managed to time the final walk scene to within <100ms of perfection. It's probably luck but still, you have to admire to feat.

You do realize he have recorded the walk at any point? The shot of the rocket launching could have been a month later.

How are you suggesting they composited the two sequences (Burke walking, rocket launching) together in 1978?

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#175

Post by dotancohen »

anonymousiam wrote: post #161
dotancohen wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean a Saturn IV-B? Those were the third stages of the Saturn V. If so, the complete Saturn V was displayed horizontally outdoors for quite a while. I was in the US in 2018 and stopped by KSC too see a Falcon 9 launch, by then the complete Saturn V was in a building. If you mean just the Saturn IV (no B), that was the second stage of some early Saturn rocket. I don't know much about those or if one was ever on…

Sorry about my typo. I meant Saturn V. If you watch the video in the parent article, you'll see James Burke walking around it with the VAB in the background.

I even remember visiting that Saturn V in Florida as a child!

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#176

Post by OhMeadhbh »

tantalor wrote: post #143
hjkl0 wrote: post #87

This is my pet peeve. I don't know the show, but when I first watched this clip (under the title of "greatest shot on television") I totally bought in to the hype and thought it really was amazing. You start out just walking alongside him, and only slowly realize where you are and what is about to happen, and everything is perfectly timed and composed: he ends his walk, reaches the conclusion of his explanation, and…

This is pointless quibbling.

It's not at all pointless! (This is a joke, where I'm quibbling pointlessly, but saying it's not. It's stupid, I grant you, but it's offered in good humor.)

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#177

Post by WalterBright »

OhMeadhbh wrote: post #165
WalterBright wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Full Metal Jacket is the only war movie that correctly delays the sound of an explosion. The sounds in combat footage of WW2 are all dubbed in, as the cameras did not record sound.

Odd Angry Shot... One scene in Gallipoli... Apocalypse Now and Big Red One do "funny" things with the sound... I'm not sure those two films trying to be accurate as much as they're toeing some fi formalist line. If you dig around, you can find more examples, but I think you're right in that the vast majority of films take liberties with physics in the service of visual storytelling.

Having a delay gives a feeling of depth to the movie.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#178

Post by WalterBright »

Zecc wrote: post #166
WalterBright wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was never impressed by that line anyway. I would have said something trollish, which is why I never would have been selected as an astronut.

> astronut I honestly can't say for sure whether that was intentional or an actual typo. Good job.

"Look, Ma, I'm on the Moon!"

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#179

Post by OhMeadhbh »

sublinear wrote: post #103
RachelF wrote: post #4

The late 1970's were the golden age of documentaries: Connections, Cosmos, Civilization, The Ascent of Man and Attenborough's Life on Earth. Perhaps it's just me, but modern documentaries are rather dumbed down? As a side note: Quite ironic that he ends up pointing to a rocket propelled mostly by solid fuels.

> Perhaps it's just me, but modern documentaries are rather dumbed down? I hear this often and believed it myself for a while, but I cannot find much evidence for it. It's just the presentation style that people are nostalgic for. These old documentaries are quite dumbed down as well (and sometimes wrong!). If you were to just read the literal text you'd think it was an excerpt from a children's book. The next time y…

I think the number of good documentaries has remained constant as the total number of documentaries has risen. So sure, the percentage of documentaries that are good has fallen as we are innundated with crap, but as previous posters have noted, there are still several good productions every year.
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