Tracy Quek asks if pre-recording is taking a perfect 10 a little too far.
TO PUT on a perfect, spectacular opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, it appears that producers "cheated'' a little but justified their decisions saying that it was all in "national interests''.
TV audiences will remember being thrilled by those amazing, "footprint'' fireworks leading up to the Bird's Nest Stadium at the start of the show. It turns out that these were digitally added to television footage because producers were worried that not all 29 "giant footprints'' would go off as planned.
And that radiant, beautiful little girl in a red dress, angelically singing "Ode to the Motherland''? Well, producers yesterday admitted that nine-year-old Lin Miaoke was merely lip-synching to another little girl's voice. Did she sing?
What audiences heard on Friday night was the voice of seven-year-old Yang Peiyi. But Peiyi was not judged "cute'' enough for the ceremony and was substituted with Lin Miaoke even though organisers used the recording of her singing.
The ceremony's chief music director, Chen Qigang, said in an interview with Beijing Radio: "The audience will understand that it's in the national interest.''
He added: "It was fair both for Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi. We combined the perfect voice and the perfect performance."
The "doctoring'' that took place in pursuit of a flawless show has set the Chinese blogosphere alight.
Some netizens condemned the move as "unethical'' and "misleading for spectators''.
What about little Peiyi? She of the angelic voice? She told a China Central Television reporter that it was an honour just having her voice used.
It seems that learning how to make sacrifices for the glory of the motherland begins at a young age in China.
Movie star uses stuntmen - so where is the pride of the stuntmen? Singers uses recording with all kinds of digital help. Even normal folks do plastic surgery. Nothing we see these days in the movies and TVs are "original" ...... If we are OK to live with animation etc why pick on China?
Given that the Olympics is an event unfolding on a grand scale, it's understandable China wants everything to go on smoothly. Who want's to be judged especially with the whole world looking on? That said, the reveal of digital imaging and lip synch does somehow make everything look extremely rehearsed and stringing audiences along. It's a pity the little girl's voice could not put to her own face. Maybe next time, they should just do a recording and broadcast it to the world while proclaiming it's 'live'.
Though it might seem that all these are done to make the event look flawless, but I certainly don't agree a little girl's pride being sacrificed in the process due to doubts cast on her looks.The definition of 'national interest' in this sense is ambiguous.
Given the amount of attention and hype surrounding the opening ceremony, I think it is acceptable to have some of these pre-recorded and digitally enhanced images as China would have wanted to avoid any hiccups. As long as the authorities admit to these "staged" events, the majority of the viewers would have no problems putting up with it. The news of these pre-recordings should not take away the limelight from the outstanding show that was put up on the opening night. sambhar.mafia@gmail.com
Movie star uses stuntmen - so where is the pride of the stuntmen? Singers uses recording with all kinds of digital help. Even normal folks do plastic surgery. Nothing we see these days in the movies and TVs are "original" ...... If we are OK to live with animation etc why pick on China?
Given that the Olympics is an event unfolding on a grand scale, it's understandable China wants everything to go on smoothly. Who want's to be judged especially with the whole world looking on? That said, the reveal of digital imaging and lip synch does somehow make everything look extremely rehearsed and stringing audiences along. It's a pity the little girl's voice could not put to her own face. Maybe next time, they should just do a recording and broadcast it to the world while proclaiming it's 'live'.
ssk_48@hotmail.com
Though it might seem that all these are done to make the event look flawless, but I certainly don't agree a little girl's pride being sacrificed in the process due to doubts cast on her looks.The definition of 'national interest' in this sense is ambiguous.
Given the amount of attention and hype surrounding the opening ceremony, I think it is acceptable to have some of these pre-recorded and digitally enhanced images as China would have wanted to avoid any hiccups. As long as the authorities admit to these "staged" events, the majority of the viewers would have no problems putting up with it. The news of these pre-recordings should not take away the limelight from the outstanding show that was put up on the opening night.
sambhar.mafia@gmail.com