French talk show resorts to iPhones to continue shooting after power outage

AppleInsider · June 27, 2016 1:35PM

Following a sudden power outage in the studio, part of the Saturday episode of a popular French talk show was reportedly shot on Apple's iPhone.

Power to France 2's equipment shut off around an hour and 45 minutes into the taping of On n'est pas couch? ("We're Still Awake"), according to iPhon.fr. After three hours the crew eventually decided to make use of limited lighting and several Plus-model iPhones to continue shooting, the results of which were edited and broadcast, as well as uploaded to YouTube.

The incident may represent one of the first times a major TV show has been shot on iPhones without it being an intentional gimmick.

Apple often touts the quality of video recording on iPhones, particulary on the iPhone 6s Plus, which can shoot in 4K resolution with optical image stabilization. It's not clear though whether France 2 made use of that phone or the older 6 Plus, which records in 1080p and limits optical stabilization to photos.

Camera technology is expected to be a major emphasis of the new iPhones shipping this fall. The "7 Plus" should in fact come with a dual-lens camera, although Apple's standard 4.7-inch model should have camera upgrades as well.

studiomusic · June 27, 2016 1:40PM

I don't much like this show. Not very funny at all. I wouldn't put it past them to have done this as a gimmick.
Especially since they had enough power for the lights, but not the cameras... cameras take a lot less power than lights do and usually have a place to attach big batteries (which are always on set in case you have to go mobile with a camera).

schlack · June 27, 2016 2:05PM

studiomusic said:

I don't much like this show. Not very funny at all. I wouldn't put it past them to have done this as a gimmick.
Especially since they had enough power for the lights, but not the cameras... cameras take a lot less power than lights do and usually have a place to attach big batteries (which are always on set in case you have to go mobile with a camera).

Yeah, seems suspicious, unless it was an emergency lighting system on a different system from the cameras? But the cameras probably do pull a lot more power than you imagine...bc of supporting hardware they need to run.

studiomusic · June 27, 2016 2:16PM

Ya, after watching it, it was probably not planned, but once they started it, they went with it.
They could have switched to batteries for the cameras and edited that footage instead of transferring all the iPhone footage, then editing.
Watching it renewed my dislike for that show.

iphonenick · June 27, 2016 2:25PM

As someone that works in broadcast engineering, I'm surprised the studio is not run on "tech power" (a UPS system that's backed up by diesel generators) that prevents any power outages. Emergency lighting is one thing, but some studio lights were also functioning which makes the outage seem suspicious. It's possible the power system they implemented wasn't properly tested.

coolfactor · June 27, 2016 2:28PM

I suspect what is seen in the clip above is not the first outage that occurred because they sure did handle it gracefully!

derfla · June 27, 2016 2:32PM

Sorry but the iPhone 6 Plus has a combination Ofoptical and digital image stabilization for both photo and video

jackansi · June 27, 2016 3:10PM

Not sure if the remaining lighting is studio or just really good emerg lights. I could see them putting in some pretty nice backup lights off the side so they wouldn't have to work around them on the trusses while still being in compliance of light output during emergency, but there are ones in the trusses that are still on... (I know in the US, it is frowned upon to locate your emerg lights on trusses unless they are hard mounted, and/or there is no other choice. Some places let it, some don't, anyway)

I can see the level of light post-blackout being a bit of a "trick of the camera's eye" as the built in light on some of the phones seem extremely bright, blooming quite noticeably.

I do find it interesting that the mics/audio didn't miss a beat. That would be the part of filming on phones that would really suffer. Yes, the body packs would be battery powered, but the receivers and recording device (or any other hardware part of that) probably wouldn't be battery/backup powered and the cameras not, unless they were using a laptop for audio...

My vote is for staged power outage.

palegolas · June 27, 2016 3:16PM

Good quick solution. Once you have the audience and you're into it, you sort of just have to keep going, like they did. Although pretty bad footage, I have to say. I'm surprised they didn't let the camera operators operate the iPhones. Perhaps some of them did, I don't know.. Or perhaps their contracts told them not to, or their pride. They could've stepped in and made it look so much more professional. I don't think it's the set light that is functional. The set light is visibly pitch dark in many of the shots. This is more like the ceiling spotlights, I belive. Probably emergency lighting, as someone pointed out. Also, to their defense, the studio cameras.. It's probably not as easy as just pop in a battery and a memory card and keep shooting. Studio systems might not even have the option to run on batteries, nor store footage locally at all.

apple ][ · June 27, 2016 4:15PM

That whole thing looks like a French scam in the making.

I clicked on the one youtube video, and you can see the lights go out at 3 seconds into the video.

At 8 seconds into the video, there is already some French Text scrolling at the bottom, telling people about some "incident electrique"!

I call BS on that. That seems real suspicious. They're not that quick! They seemed real prepared, almost as if they knew what was going to happen.

palegolas · June 27, 2016 4:19PM

apple ][ said:

That whole thing looks like a French scam in the making.

I clicked on the one youtube video, and you can see the lights go out at 3 seconds into the video.

At 8 seconds into the video, there is already some French Text scrolling at the bottom, telling people about some "incident electrique"!

I call BS on that. That seems real suspicious. They're not that quick! They seemed real prepared, almost as if they knew what was going to happen.

I don't think it's a live broadcast they put up on youtube. I think when they were editing it, they patched it together this way.
But no point in getting into a discussion over this crap. I totally agree it looks like a scam, due to the low quality. But I don't know french. Looks like the ones who do, based on this little thread, don't like the show at all..

apple ][ · June 27, 2016 5:41PM

palegolas said:

But I don't know french.

Consider yourself lucky. I don't know French either. I was forced to take it for one year when I was in elementary school a very long time ago, but I chose to skip most of those classes, as it was a totally useless subject, that would not benefit me or enrich me in any way, and time could be spent more effectively on other more important things, such as going to see a movie at the movie theatre during class.

michael scrip · June 27, 2016 6:54PM

This happened to Jimmy Kimmel. Supposedly the power went out so they used the webcam on his laptop.

But I agree with others... don't they have backup power in that big studio? How did some lights work? How did the audio get captured?

nolamacguy · June 27, 2016 7:52PM

only on an online techie rumors forum would we bother to argue about whether a studio power problem for a show we'd never heard of on the other half of the world was staged or not.

newsflash: things are complicated. who knows how their studio has its power systems designed and which part failed. the presence of overhead shop lights may very well have no bearing on the production equipment's power source.

michael scrip · June 27, 2016 8:23PM

nolamacguy said:

only on an online techie rumors forum would we bother to argue about whether a studio power problem for a show we'd never heard of on the other half of the world was staged or not.

newsflash: things are complicated. who knows how their studio has its power systems designed and which part failed. the presence of overhead shop lights may very well have no bearing on the production equipment's power source.

Well at least you weren't a jerk about it

caccamucca · June 27, 2016 11:37PM

iphonenick said:

As someone that works in broadcast engineering, I'm surprised the studio is not run on "tech power" (a UPS system that's backed up by diesel generators) that prevents any power outages. Emergency lighting is one thing, but some studio lights were also functioning which makes the outage seem suspicious. It's possible the power system they implemented wasn't properly tested.

They are French after all????

moreck · June 28, 2016 1:40AM

apple ][ said:

palegolas said:

But I don't know french.

Consider yourself lucky. I don't know French either. I was forced to take it for one year when I was in elementary school a very long time ago, but I chose to skip most of those classes, as it was a totally useless subject, that would not benefit me or enrich me in any way, and time could be spent more effectively on other more important things, such as going to see a movie at the movie theatre during class.

Was this comment necessary? Who fucking cares what you think about the French language? This article is about a power outage.

moreck · June 28, 2016 1:41AM

caccamucca said:

iphonenick said:

As someone that works in broadcast engineering, I'm surprised the studio is not run on "tech power" (a UPS system that's backed up by diesel generators) that prevents any power outages. Emergency lighting is one thing, but some studio lights were also functioning which makes the outage seem suspicious. It's possible the power system they implemented wasn't properly tested.

They are French after all????

What is that supposed to mean?

cornchip · June 28, 2016 2:13AM

moreck said:

caccamucca said:

They are French after all????

What is that supposed to mean?

Didn't have to wait long for that lol

clemynx · June 28, 2016 2:54AM

apple ][ said:

That whole thing looks like a French scam in the making.

I clicked on the one youtube video, and you can see the lights go out at 3 seconds into the video.

At 8 seconds into the video, there is already some French Text scrolling at the bottom, telling people about some "incident electrique"!

I call BS on that. That seems real suspicious. They're not that quick! They seemed real prepared, almost as if they knew what was going to happen.

You, you didn't read the article !

palegolas · June 28, 2016 4:53AM

apple ][ said:

palegolas said:

But I don't know french.

Consider yourself lucky...

I love the French language. in retrospect I wish I took French classes rather than German classes back in school.

French talk show resorts to iPhones to continue shooting after power outage

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