The 50th Eurovision Song Contest

And what about the set? This has always been my hook for Eurovision.
It looked at its most spectaular with Malta's entry - really good.

But these Eastern European sets are getting increasingly boring though - this is the third year in a row that a black shiny floor has been used. All that varies now is whether the floor is a large screen or just under-lit with lighting as with this year.
There's no definite form to stages anymore - just morasses of screens and lighting, almost as if the EBU is offering standard guidelines now to inexperienced broadcasters as to what goes.

Every year it's the same - glitzy shiny black floor, rotating changing screens as background, and exposed lighting grids above - topped off by 'feature lighting' to hang from the ceiling of the venue for the jib-arm cameras to float past.
It's all just becoming very standardised now which is a great shame; you could always instantly recognise the sets of the 80s and 90s.

I don't know if it's just Euorvision, or just the way big stage events are nowadays.

I have to agree with Telefís; watching this year's contest was like re-living ESC 2004 all over again. The camera angles, voting patterns etc. and even the arena seemed eerily similar...

Yes - these 'Palaces' of Eastern Europe are a rather strange phenomenon - used for sport and conferences etc.

But their rectangular, cavernous shapes make Eurovision so predictable ever year now. And as you say, the camerawork has become equally standardised: stedicam has just taken over the event - what I tend to call the lazy director's option.

Okay it can look fantastic, but not for every single shot!
Now everything has to have movement, and fast dissolves between every shot, with increasingly little attention paid to the nuances of songs. Suppose that's partly down to the fast nature of most songs now, but it's a shame how ubiquitous everything has become; most people probably couldn't tell the difference between the sets of the past 4 years.

Some pics here of RTÉ's sets from the 90s, I think the best ones every produced for what was really the golden age of Eurovision before all the really crazy stuff came in.

1993
http://indigo.ie/~alanf/evs'93-6.jpg

1995
http://indigo.ie/~alanf/evs'95-4.jpg

1997
http://www.eurovision-spain.com/imagen/escenarios/1997.jpg

Though Estonia's could look fantastic at times, albeit a complete rip-off of 1997 :
http://www.ttlicht.com/web/german/products_g/consoles_g/avab-pronto-presto_g/esc_stage_nice.jpg

According to a dear on my MSN list, ARD carries adverts.

No surprise. Sven has become the in-house song contest director for the past few years.

2 years ago the Eurovision website put a live stream from inside his OB truck. It really was surprising how pre-set everything was in his direction. All the shots were pre-set, and he mearly spent the entire song performance reading the camera change cuts from a script. During some songs I noticed he never once looked up at the monitor bank to see what was going out.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next year though. You can't say Greece don't have the facilities to hold the contest, and I wonder if ERT will produce and direct the show themselves (cant remember if they did the opening/closing cermonies at last year's olympics) and give Sven and the lads at Premia Sweden the year off.

That's all (in theory) a good director need do! If he's planned everything correctly and thoroughly and told his production team excatly what he wants and when he wants it, then all he needs to do during transmission is guide his team through it. It's only when unrehearsed or unforseen circumstances come to the fore that a director needs to shout and wave his/her arms around and make it up as he goes along.

Some images of the night...

From BBC's coverage, keep an eye on the little box that seems to have appeared on the top right of the aston (above the 07 on the right)...

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/esc2005v1.jpg
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TVEi's coverage, clean astons, including the sponsorship that the BBC had to hide (a couple of occasions saw the box not faded up in time on BBC exposing all...)

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/esc2005v2.jpg
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And the widescreen scoreboard/two-way, the following image is how I saw the coverage on a 4:3 set...

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/esc2005v3.jpg

Who's the broadcaster presenting the results in Monaco then?!

Is that last one not Latvia 2003? That was the best ever ESC stage IMO.

Yes it is . I realised after but didn't want to have to edit for a third time!

Yes TV Archive, that's the standard 4:3 image with the link-up station's logo lost



Excactly what happened on a massive scale in 1994 I believe when it was in Dublin. Very simply, the director had a heart attack!
She had to be carted off, while the VT of the rehersals that they had playing simultaneously in case of such unforseen events was kicked in for the remainder of the performace on air, if not longer!

Don't know who took over - the coffee lackey or someone

Yes the Swedes have it tied up at the moment - I see no reason why the Greeks can't handle it themselves next year. Hopefully a bit of diversity in production will feature.
Wonder what sort of set they'll have - alas the giant portico craze went out with the 80s so something a bit more original will have to be concocted

Hmm... they changed the scoreboard a bit, didn't they...?
http://www.esctoday.com/images/2005/scoreboard_2005_0.jpg

Just thinking - could they use the Olympic Stadium and do an outside event - risking the weather I know - but the stadium audience would be huge.

does anyone have any caps of when the BBC last did it?