PBS blurring "advertising" in old newsreel?

Cafe Society
1

I was watching a PBS documentary – “Fort Peck Dam” from Montana PBS to be precise – and during a clip from an FDR speech, there was a gray rectangular box floating in the middle of the screen below FDR’s head and above the Great Seal on the podium. It took me a few seconds to realize what was being obscured: the radio microphones prominently marked with the networks’ name or acronym. :smack::confused:

So what was up with that? I’m sure I’ve seen the radio mikes in old newsreels on PBS before. Is/was this the result of a rule of the Montana PBS station, an affectation of the documentarian, or something else? IMHO it was way more distracting than leaving the newsreel as-is. :rolleyes:

2

PBS might not have put it there. It might be like that in the source they got it from.

3

Was it footage of FDR’s first inaugural speech? The grey rectangle is just the front of the podium.

4

Elmer J. Fudd: Yes, it was the First Inaugural, but no it wasn’t just the top of the podium as in that photo.

Oops, Youtube to the rescue. :smack: Here’s a newsreel with the blurred microphones. Newsreel. (2:12-5:25 to avoid the preliminaries – and the newsreel company slapping itself on the back. :D) In short, it seems that Miller is correct that the mikes were already obscured in the newsreel used by PBS.

5

I see what you’re talking about in the newsreel, but comparing it to the photo I posted, it isn’t actually obscuring anything but the top of the podium. Was the podium, perhaps, causing a distracting reflection that the newsreel producers decided needed to be removed?

6

You’re right; plenty of images of the First Inauguration bearing out the plain top of the podium with no visible mikes. Odder and odder.

7

I don’t think it’s fuzzed out; I think the poor quality of the print just gives that block of solid color that effect.

8

Looks to me like a piece of fabric being used as a windscreen.

9

It’s just the top of the lectern.

(Nitpick – it can’t be the top of the podium because FDR is standing on the podium.)

10

I’ve seen that done before, where a logo on a tee-shirt is blurred out. Seems like overkill.

11

I agree. It just looks like the top of the lectern to me, too, not some kind of intentional blurring effect.

12

The leaves around the eagle are blowing in the breeze; combined with the poor quality of the print, it creates a shimmering effect that makes the lectern look like it’s been blurred out.

I doubt corporate logos would be prominently featured at a presidential inauguration.

13

It looks like typical compression artifacting to me. A low quality film print, compressed by both low resolution and low grey-scale range, turned the lectern into a floaty grey rectangle. Having taken a couple of grad school classes in H.264 digital methods, it is painfully obvious in the same way that those who dare to read about kerning are forever tainted in their ability to enjoy media :slight_smile:

14

Here’s aphotograph of FDR’s first inaugural. The podium is plain, no visible microphones. I would imagine that either there was a single hidden microphone which fed all the radio networks and public address system or each network had a microphone on the podium, but hidden from view, depending on how the technology was at the time.