Austin city limits

Hap Young · Post by **Hap Young** » 30 Nov 2002 7:23 am

I caught Austin city limits last night and watched Alan Jackson. I didnt get the steel players name but the steel was fetured on almost every song. The steel player also doubled on the Dobro. The camera man must have known what a steel guitar was, because he would get on the steel whenever there was a solo. Good show, good steel good band......Im happy<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Hap Young on 30 November 2002 at 07:28 AM.]</p></FONT>

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 30 Nov 2002 8:09 am

Robbie Flint

Jim Thompson · Post by **Jim Thompson** » 30 Nov 2002 9:01 am

Hap, You're right. That was a very rare occasion for a camera man to give the steel player that much exposure. It was a re-run from 1995, maybe that has something to do with it. Times have changed since then.
Since it was 1995, was that Robbie Flint back then. He did a great job. I loved his intro to Midnight in Montgomery.
How about the Christmas special that was on right before that With AJ. I was surprised to see Lloyd Green on steel. Of course the camera man didn't know who he was. The first close up they did only showed his hands and the neck of the guitar. I told my wife, who ever it is, is playing a Sho-Bud. Couldn't tell at that time who it was. They showed him later and you could see it was him. The credits at the end confirmed it.

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Zum U-12 8&6
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Arty Passes · Post by **Arty Passes** » 1 Dec 2002 1:43 pm

I work in TV here in Austin, and have lots of friends and co-workers who work on the show. Just for the record it's the director, Gary Menotti, who determines what gets shown. Not to take anything away from the camera operators, because they have to be there to get the shot. The songs are rehearsed in the afternoon, and mapped out by the director, who gives each camera op a full run sheet of each song, saying who gets what kind of shot, exactly when. Also, some cameras are isolated and recorded, and some editing takes place in case something is missed in the live mix. The sound is recorded multitracked and mixed and added back in in post-production. Most of the crew has been with the show a long time, and they work well together, and it shows - they're all real pros who know how to do music TV. They're really good about stuff like knowing who has the cool fill or solo coming up, and making 5 cameras look like 10. I've been to a few tapings - it's a lot of fun.
just thought you might be interested.....
Arty

Jim Thompson · Post by **Jim Thompson** » 1 Dec 2002 8:58 pm

Thanks Arty for the info. I, guess what you're telling us is that on most of the shows, when the steel player takes a solo and doesn't get shown, it's really no accident. It was probably rehearsed earlier to do it that way. It's not really the camera man, it's the director that call the shots. They must be related to sound men.

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Zum U-12 8&6
John Hughey's biggest fan

Bill Cutright · Post by **Bill Cutright** » 5 Dec 2002 2:05 pm

I don't get to see every episode (wish I did) but it seems like, on the ones I do see, (that have steel players), they intentionally do not show the front of the steel guitar, as if it's free advertising. Anyone else notice this?

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 6 Dec 2002 6:35 am

That's usually the case, for whatever reason, but there were plenty of views of that black Sho-Bud last night - logo as well!

Dan Farrell · Post by **Dan Farrell** » 6 Dec 2002 1:12 pm

Bill-- yea, I notice too that the front of the steel is rarely shown enough to make out the brand. The only exception is a 1980 episode featuring Waylon Jennings with Ralph Mooney on steel. Everytime he played a lick, you could see the Sho-Bud logo big as life. I wish they did that for all of them.

Dan Farrell
'97 Carter D-10
Nashiville 1000

Fred Brown · Post by **Fred Brown** » 6 Dec 2002 4:22 pm

I gotta second Arty's comments. I have worked crowd control on several of the tapings and have spent a lot of time at the studio for pledge drives. So I have seen both sides of the camera there. The camera sets are planned and footage edited for the airings. They even have the lighting changes planned out. I should add that they do have several "stealth" camera men running around with shoulder carried cameras. This seems to be for the more spontaneous stuff. It all seems to work pretty well, especially since the stage is sooooooo small.

Most of the tapings last several hours, some longer. Lucinda went almost 3hrs. But most of the airings are only 30 minutes, at most 1 hour. So they've gotta hack out something. The less "upfront" stuff is less likely to get the camera time. I think this is pretty much the way it goes for other TV stuff.
Fred