jaunthie | Superstars of...really bad framing shots?

fisherbear is still sick, and I came home from work thoroughly exhausted. As a consequence, we're doing something very unusual for us: we're both sitting watching television this evening. Specifically, we're both watching a show called "Superstars of Dance" with the vague idea of being entertained until Bourdain comes on later. We both like dance, and we've enjoyed watching some other dance shows occasionally, so we thought we'd give this a shot.

Overall, I can't say that I think much of the formula. The judging is frankly incomprehensible at times, and occasionally downright rude. Michael Flatley is the host...and I won't make the obvious joke. But the worst of it is this:

I can't tell how good or bad most of the dancers are.

Not that I'm some kind of expert. Far from it. But I do have some experience with dance, and I can generally tell whether something is working for me or not.

If, that is, I can see the dancers in question.

Which mostly I can't on this show, thanks to an astonishing amount of truly awful camera work. You'd think that on a show that is all about a dance competition, they would hire cameramen who actually understood some of the basics about filming dance. You know, little things about hey, make sure you keep the feet in the shot, and forget all about tight closeups on faces except maybe in static poses. When in doubt, pull back and get the group action. Don't focus in on a single dancer unless it's a solo, and for the love of all the gods, DON'T keep spinning the camera around in rapid circles on the boom! Simple stuff like that.

But no! Whoever's in charge of principle photography or directing the cameramen on this show clearly knows zip, and mostly hired hyperactive camera monkeys who mostly also know diddly. Which makes this show pretty much useless, not to mention a headache to watch.

Sigh.