With around 600 lots a day going under the hammer at an antiques sale, there's rarely a dull moment. BBC Producer Peter Smith explains the process of filming auctions.
Auctioneers measure their performance not only in how much money they raise but also in how fast they can go or how many lots they sell per hour - and some small lots take only a matter of seconds to sell. So, capturing everything on camera at this speed can be tricky. Most television filming is done using a two-man crew - a camera operator and a sound recordist - but we need more than this to capture the atmosphere in a saleroom for Bargain Hunt, Flog It! or Cash in the Attic, to make the programmes feel spontaneous and exciting.
The essence of an auction is the bidding. We try to catch all this on camera, to portray the thrill of the sale. So there needs to be at least one other camera in the room. This additional camera films the auctioneer as he or she sells the lots crucial to the programme, which will only be a small part of the sale. In the past, programmes would then use the time between the lots featured on the programme to film people bidding on other lots in the sale. These shots were then used to show people bidding whenever and wherever was required, to make the sale feel dynamic and entertaining when shown on television. But some people, quite understandably, objected to being shown bidding for objects for which they didn't actually bid on. We have therefore changed our method of making the programme, and we now use an extra camera to make sure this doesn't happen.
This extra camera has the tricky job of spotting the people bidding on a featured lot and filming them as they raise their hand, nod their head or wave their auction catalogue to attract the auctioneer's attention. In this way, if someone is seen on screen bidding for one of the featured lots, you can be sure that that is exactly what they did. But if you've been to a sale, you will have noticed that it is difficult to tell exactly who is bidding because the professionals do it very discreetly. So this cameraman has the hardest job of all and might have another member of the production team on the lookout for bidders to help him.
When the lots not being featured in the programme are sold, any of the cameras can be used to shoot general shots around the room; the auctioneer in action, big close ups of the gavel falling, wide angle shots of people watching the sale etc. These all add to the atmosphere as the auction is introduced on the programme or can be used in music montages of various saleroom shots, which are helpful in breaking up the individual lots appearing on the show.
Many editions of these programmes are repeated and so the earlier methods of production can still be seen on air from time to time; but all new episodes are produced using more cameras and only feature the people who actually bid for the items shown.
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