Entertainment For Lively Minds
Short question; may contain "The Wire" content but absolutely no Bob
Posted by spinoza013 on 27 May 2009 - 1:40pm.
Actually it's all about "the wire"
Considering all the other high tech equipment in use by Baltimores finest Is there any specific reason why all the surveillance in "The Wire" is done with film cameras rather than digital?
It's bugging me.
I realise it's not a documentary. :)
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Court evidence?
There was a rule in this country some years ago, which may well have been overturned by now, that digital film couldn't be used in court because it was comparatively easy to manipulate. This may have been the case in the USA.
Another reason could be budgets and the failure through lack of finance to invest in digital.
Digital in court
Just asked someone "who should know"!
Apparently there used to be concerns in UK courts about digital but thats all in the past and the police here have embraced the digital age.
Whilst its easy to change a photo etc I understand that the change is apparent to experts thus rendering the use of digital reliable.
I've been reading Spycraft by Robert Wallace and Keith Melton
- both ex-CIA - and they explain that, until about 2005, digital cameras simply didn't have the quality for surveillance work where it's often necessary to blow a picture up many times to see the fine detail that's needed.
They reckon the cut off point was when digital cameras reached 10mp at which time the resolution matched that of 35mm film. The problem then of course was getting a 10mp camera small enough to conceal, especially when compared to the sub-miniature cameras being turned out by the CIA's own workshops.
That was written a couple of years ago so I suspect, by now, the problems have been resolved.
yeah the improvement
in digital technologies has been really rapid and impressive...
with the aid of a PDA or small laptop you can send your photos via wifi straight to headquarters from surveillance site...
that indeed makes sense
Although you can in effect digitally scan a photo, manipulate it and reprint it...a safeguard may be special paper it's developed onto as well, maybe with a watermark.
Just thought a high Frame per second DSLR would be much more useful..
Pretty sure you can set up digital watermarking that can't be altered.
forget about the cameras and the pagers
Is there some unwritten rule that every major female character has to get her top off?
HBO's USP
If subscribers weren't flooded with swearing and bare-neckid body parts, they'd all demand their money back and stick with the networks.
(mildly sexist comment alert) - can't see
the problem with that rule myself
(Vague non specific spoiler alert)
A certain scene is series 3 involving two ladies caused minor harrumphs from Mrs Ganglesprocket who has so far been unimpressed by the lack of man on man action in the series. Especially as she finds Omar oddly "hot." No idea if 4 or 5 rectifies this...
It just seemed a bit obvious
that's all as does the dreadful coincidences they go in for ie. cops get to a scene 2 minutes too late or a major villain walks past just after they detective have just left it seems oddly clunky at times.
Heh
One of my reasons for liking The Wire is that it doesn't go for those soap-opera style coincidences. Just goes to show: one man's meat, another man's poison etc...
Oh it does
In the second season the police get to a container ship 5 minutes after the witness has been whacked by the bad guys. last night they were tailing one greek guy only for the major domo to wander into the hotel 2 minutes after the cops had left. They are so jarring because the the rest of the show is so well paced.
It's been a couple of years since I saw this...
But doesn't the latter's appearance only impact with the viewer? The police don't know who he is, so his arrival doesn't affect things one way or the other. The plot remains unaltered. I could be wrong - as I say, it's a long time since I watched it. Either way, I'm sure they keep this kind of thing to a minimum.
I'm sure you're
right it just seems a little heavy handed "the Police are one step behind the bad guys". They must be doing something right because I sit through crappy party political broadcast to watch life after newsnight all bleary eyed most nights.
Don't misunderstand
I am thoroughly enjoying The Wire as a first time non-boxset viewer and find it a high quality drama several cuts above.
But I do feel the 2nd series isn't of the same calibre as the 1st.
That was crisp, linear, tense and methodical. You felt the frustration of the characters and you were allowed to observe them proceeding through the b.s. to great effect. As a result the climaxes, when they arrived, were sharp and wicked and worked brilliantly. Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale came across as almost Shakespearian - the nemesis to so many of the cast.
This time a little more writers license seems to have crept in. Frank Sabatka appears, almost, as a standard American dramatic cypher - the hard-woikin' stiff doin' wot he gotta do for da guys. And the cartoonish Ziggy was labelled as the pivotal weakpoint in his game from episode one.
Having said all of that none of it has led me to miss a minute.
yeah I agree
things were more predictable and "signposted" in the second series... still top notch programming.
In the first series I thought I'd been finally allowed into a hidden world that had only been "alluded" to previously by heavy handed and formulaic Dramas and Movies.
The problem with series two
The problem with series two is that it takes a while to adjust to the new characters. I found myself wanting the drug dealers back, it all comes together in the end and is a really strong series.
Start The Week
This weeks edition of Start The Week has David Simon talking about the War On Drugs.
For good measure you also get historian Anthony Beevor and physicist Michio Kaku.
Available on Listen Again or as a podcast.