Filming styles

[Rhonda]

Watching a Tara King episode recently, which happened to be Killer, it seemed to me the filming was really interestingly done. Of course the use of bright colours (as in the Emma Peel colour series) feels like the directors were having a lot of fun shooting Colour TV really colourfully. But many of the scenes in the Tara King episodes seem to me to also have a particular three dimensional look. I really like this way they are shot. In Killer I noticed things close to the camera like a tree trunk, or scaffolding, which give the setting more context than just a straight shot of the action. The more I became aware of it during Killer the better it seemed to get.

What I'm wondering is whether you also think that this last series of the Avengers often has a particularly 3D quality?

I notice that in addition to many different directors, the camera operators are also different in the Tara King series. Perhaps their influence on the filming hasn't been considered very much. They were certainly very good! I got this information from Avengers forever :

Camera Operators
Cathy Gale
?
Emma Peel B/W
James Bawden
Godfrey Godar
Val Stewart
Ronnie Taylor
Tony White

Emma Peel Colour
James Bawden
Frank Drake
Tony White

Tara King
Brian Elvin
Ernie Robinson
Geoff Seaholme

[ivanpledger]

You have intrigued me. I will watch Killer asap and have a look.

Regards

[darren]

A cameraman skill mustn't be overlooked but mostly they are responding to the wishes of the director. In 'Killer's case it was one time series director Cliff Owen. He has a very energetic style.

I think the directors contribute massively to the style of the Avengers. It's a strong part of the appeal for me that the directors on the show were so imaginative and stylish, in a ways that the ITC series like The Saint, etc weren't.

Visually I found that season 5 doesn't excite me in the way that other seasons. Mostly it seems more that the design is creating the look.

[helenofirvine]

The use of the camera in the B&W Emma episodes is so wonderfully stylish and surreal. It gave the episodes a feeling that this is a darker, yet more whimsical world.

[Rhonda]

Just watched Killer again myself.

A few spontaneous thoughts! :

I agree of course that the Director dictates the shots, but maybe he says I want a tree in the foreground in this one and the camera man decides how much and the director maybe likes it. So the cameraman can have an influence.

I agree Helenofirvine that the B/W Emma Peel episodes are often very surreal. The Hour That Never Was comes straight to mind. In B/W maybe we can relax visually and so the events become a little unreal.

In the colour Emma Peel episodes, such as From Venus With Love, Dead Man's Treasue or Mission Highly Improbable, special effects or gadgets are used quite a bit.

Some of the Tara episodes have a lot of action and 3D like Killer. All Done with Mirrors also comes to mind. Then again there are episodes such as Pandora which are quite different.

What a variety there is.

[dissolute]

Camera Operators
Cathy Gale
?
Emma Peel B/W
James Bawden
Godfrey Godar
Val Stewart
Ronnie Taylor
Tony White

Emma Peel Colour
James Bawden
Frank Drake
Tony White

Tara King
Brian Elvin
Ernie Robinson
Geoff Seaholme

I credit all the known crew for every episode, and I've recently added the newly unearthed material for Season 2.

Season 2:

cameras/senior cameraman
Mike Baldock
Tom Clegg
Richard "Dickie" Jackman

For Season 1, the "A Change of Bait" script credits Mike Baldock as senior cameraman and lists the others (in biro) by first name only:

1. Mike (Baldock)
2. David
3. Brian
4. Dave