Speed's Barrett Jackson coverage - Can it be better?

[Darr]

While eating dinner tonight, I overheard the eight guys at the next table talking about the Barrett Jackson auction and Speed's coverage of the action. What surprised me, were their complaints - and that I shared every one. Since nothing changes without taking action, I decided to write.

For brevity, the top six complaints:

I'll start with the biggest complaint: Camera angles. Specifically, why does Speed insist on shooting the cars at twenty inches off the ground?

Since the average person stands well over five feet tall, wouldn't it make more sense to shoot the cars at shoulder height? That change would also solve complaint number 2: Why does the camera man refuse to shoot the interiors? We spend 90 percent of our time inside the car...why is there less focus on the interior than on the wheel wells? Leaving the interior shots to the overhead camera simply doesn't do the cars (or the bidders) justice. Don't misunderstand - we all want to see straight panels, but that alone isn't enough. Unless the door is opened or the announcer asks for something to be shown, we don't get to look inside. It's infuriating.

Complaint number 3: Panning shots.

The tent is huge. We get it. We don't need to see crane shots of the staging area and the long, panning shots of the tent/bidders/spectators every time we come back from commercial. We want to get back to the action (the cars) as soon as possible - we already lose so much of the auctioned cars to the commercials themselves, please refocus to the cars as quickly as you can.

Please.

Complaint number 4: Charity sales.

The charity cars aren't the issue - the problem is Speed's inclusion of the charity cars among the days "Top Sales". Charity sales have little (mostly nothing) to do with the actual collector car market - please don't include them in the listing of top sales.

Complaint number 5: Focus on the bidders.

We universally prefer seeing the cars to seeing the bidders. Unless the price breaks new high ground, stick to the car. It's cool to show us the winning bidder, the loser and the bidding process; not so much. The signing process and the family? A little goes a very long way.

(Side note: The current trend of allowing the buyer's children to bid is wholly obnoxious - most of us can't/won't ever be able to afford this machinery - watching some kid live out our fantasy is gross).

Complaint number 6: The extra stuff.

Are you aware that every new episode starts with ten/fifteen minutes of introductions and explanations? Tell the viewer to visit the website for further information, then quickly get to the cars. I don't think anyone dislikes Steve Magnante and his blindfolded "guess the car" schtick, but only him please; the rest of us would rather see more cars cross the block. Explaining the rules to the Fantasy bid every fifteen minutes is tiresome too - just remind viewers that information is on the website. Talking to "Maxim's" April Rose isn't really necessary...is it? For that matter, April Rose doesn't add much to the process either, does she?

I meant this to be brief and failed miserably... My apologies, and thanks for reading.


Edit: I've taken the time to read some other posts to this forum and see we (the eight guys and I) aren't alone in our complaints. I'm hoping Speed will take notice and listen to some of our suggestions.

[struns]

BJ's advertising on Speed forums is just as bad as what ^ said about the show. "Take the BJ's trivia quiz." So I fingered what the hay...click it and all you get is a frickin transport ad ....WTF<sub>tried 3 times





edit: it finally worked and was not worth the time</sub>

[Scrub]

I mostly agree with Darr, the show is just getting worse now since the last one aired. That one was just horrible.

[vettex2]

the auction is an infomercial , take it for what it is......