Focus - Institute of Videography

ArticleThe eyes have itDoesn’t it annoy you? It annoysme. It happens in just aboutevery TV drama or cinema filmthat I watch that features ascene with a car driver talking toa front seat passenger.The driver, instead ofkeeping his (or her) eyes on theroad, turns his eyes towards thepassenger as he speaks, oftenfixing the passenger with hiseyes for five or six seconds (ormore sometimes!). Next timeyou’re driving a car try this foryourself (actually don’t - it isphysiologically nigh onimpossible to do it unless youhave a death wish).Don’t drama directors drivecars? Or do they think that thisis ‘poetic licence’? Well it isn’tand simply distracts the vieweraway from the drama and into a‘will-he-won’t-he-crash’ mode ofthinking.Strange KeywordsHave you noticed how often youhave to type in a ‘funny’ set ofwords when first registering ona web site for a service orwhatever. I wouldn’t mind if the‘funny’ words were at leasteasily readable but quite oftenthey defeat me and one findsoneself having to re-start theentire registering process all thetime hoping that the next set of‘funny’ words are readable.Maybe it’s just me. But Idon’t think so.Scan scamDuring the trials in Berlin of thevarious 20 July 1944 plottersthe Nazis used to deprive thedefendants of their trouser beltsand so oblige them to standholding up their trousers withtheir hands. It was a form ofhumiliation which appealed tothe Nazi mind set.Flash forward to any modernairport and trouser beltdeprivation is now the norm asone moves through what passesfor airport security. But on ourway back from Turkey recentlymy wife and I experienced anew cynical variation.Having passed through the‘give us yer trouser belt’scanning ordeal and given upour full bottles of water as weentered Antalya airport insouthern Turkey, we made ourway to the departure area. Heremy wife was, to her delight, ableto purchase some more bottlesof water (she gets very thirsty -unlike her husband who has amore camel-like water-retainingcapacity). So we then go toboard the flight home but -would you believe it - we haveto go through another securityscan check. And of course wehave to give up our newlypurchasedwater bottles.No amount of pleading orexplaining would change themind of the security folk.Meanwhile - just yards away -there is the shop that sold usthe bottles without a word ofwarning. As this shop is situatedwithin the departure area theyrip off every single person whobuys their water.Whaddya think of that?Always use yourcheck listThe other day my mother’sphone stopped working. Iwalked around to her flat (she’sonly eight minutes walk away)and carefully checked all herconnections and concluded thatthe fault was with the BTconnection. I advised mymother that I would report thefault and, after discussing herforthcoming 90 th birthday partyat which my little band will beperforming, I went back home.The last time I reported aphone line fault it was a quick,easy and efficient process so itwas with a carefree attitude thatI phoned BT to report the fault.The first disappointment wasthat I had to negotiate anautomated response whichobliges one to press loads ofbuttons including the number ofthe line which has the fault. ThisI did and eventually got ahuman to deal with. I started byexplaining that I was phoning onbehalf of my 89 year oldpartially-sighted mother andthat I was phoning from my ownhome not hers. I added that herphone was completely dead andthat I had carefully checked theconnections and phone socketbefore returning home to makethis call.So his first question was“What is the number of thefaulty phone?” I explained that Ihad already entered this on theirsystem but he insisted that Irepeat it to him.“Are you phoning from thephone with the faulty line?” Iexplained that I was not at mymother’s address and that thephone with the faulty line wasfaulty.His next question was “Canyou please check the phonesocket?” I again explained thatI was not at my mother’saddress and that I had alreadychecked the socket connectionsand found nothing wrong withthem.“Okay can you phone yourmother and ask her to check?” Iexplained that my mother’sphone was dead and that I couldnot therefore call her.“Doesn’t she have a mobilephone that you could call?” Iexplained that as my motherwas partially-sighted she couldnot use a mobile phone and thatin any case it was a little muchto expect a partially-sighted 89year old to go around her flatsearching for a phone socket“Okay I’ll check the line fromthis end. “ A few momentspassed and then “Oh by the waydo you have broadband on yourhome phone?” I declined toanswer this question on thebasis that it had no relevance tomy mother’s faulty phone line.After a few more momentshe advised me that he could notcheck the line as he seemed tohave a problem at his end. Hethen went on to say that hewould pass on the problem tothe regular engineers and that itwould be fixed by Thursday (thiswas Sunday). “Please let mehave your mother’s mobiletelephone number so that wecan text updates to her.”At this point I sighed andrepeated my earlier points andgave him an alternative numberto text. By this time twentyminutes had just flown away.His final parting shot was:“Regarding this call - have youbeen dealt with satisfactorily?”I won’t tell you what myresponse was. Stuart Little M.M.Inst.V.www.iov.com Focus Magazine December 2010 25