RDF boss owns up to Queen tape fiasco

So Stephen Lambert, the boss of RDF Media, has owned up to editing “the Queen tape” and has offered to resign. I’ve said before that I think there are some major double standards going on simply because HRH is involved. But leaving that to one side, Lambert’s comments are totally disingenuous:

These shots did not convey the interpretation that was later placed on them as being a record of the Queen storming out. All that was being attempted was to convey a brief sense of a slightly ruffled encounter.

What, in the sense that they showed the Queen berating the photographer and then walking out? I can’t see how any other interpretation could have arisen given the chronological arrangement of these scenes.

There’s also the subtle fact that the Queen is seen walking from the right to the left of the screen. As any film student will tell you, the direction of travel in editing is crucially important and, more often than not, movement from right to left indicates someone walking away from an event, rather than on their way to somewhere. I appreciate that there was probably no other way to shoot the segment but the direction of travel, when combined with the chronology, clearly creates the impression of someone “storming out”. For someone as experienced as Lambert to claim otherwise is plainly laughable.

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