The result last night wasn't that shocking to me. I was shocked that Macedonia and Belarus did not go through, with Romania and Hungary presumably going ahead instead. I was pleased that the popular songs of Estonia, Albania, Russia and Georgia went through.
Because of Hungary's surprise result, I think Albania did better than presumed, I also think Armenia was 9th, not 10th. I'm unsure whether Estonia won the semi final or not since I think a bit of momentum may have been lost there. Armenia must have gone through via juries, and presumably Hungary as well.
For semi final 2, it will be much closer, and we may be in for more shocks.....
Hats off to ORF who managed to get their logo in shot at the end of each pre-act postcard vt. I've always wanted to direct the postcards, because I've thought it a nice idea to have the singers/group interact and briefly in some way in shot get with that nations ESC broadcaster logo on the screen!
Talking of the postcards, anyone else notice the three note sting at the end of the vt/name caption overlap, sounds almost identical to an the end of an old arrangement of the NBC Nightly News theme?
Really not a fan of the direction this year. And when they do go from a decent shot to another, its not cutting in time to the music.
And why is every song lit in white?
They are using CuePilot automatic vision mixing driven by the timecode of the backing track (as DR did last year, and as Melodifestivalen has for the last two years). That means the cut happens where the director wants it, precisely down to the frame. If they enter the wrong cut point, it will consistently happen off the beat...
Or they may have had to ditch CuePilot and go manual for some of them? It was very ragged in places.
I had read that CuePilot was just the PA which shotlisted and timed back to shots as needed - it's actually quite a cool piece of kit and makes setting up music pieces easier if you need to change etc.
Quite clever if it's running the switching too, as with quite a few automated cameras in the arena I suspect it's also controlling their movements!
Yep, we sure are. I'm not sure though whether we'll be in the first 2 songs in the running order, that's what we should be avoiding. We will if Israel qualify, they may open the final.
RS
Rob_Schneider
Opening or closing the show doesn't really do you any favours, but second is considered the death slot, with the pimp slots being late teens/early 20s. It really needed to be second half so everyone was tipsy by the time it came on.
And up until now I was so sure we were on to a winner.
RS
Rob_Schneider
I think Engelbert is a textbook example. It was a pretty good song, and despite his grand old age he put out a brilliant, well-delivered vocal. Had it gone on after a run of uptempo numbers in the second half it would have stood out and may well have even hit the left hand side of the board. Going on first is what did him in.
I think Engelbert is a textbook example. It was a pretty good song, and despite his grand old age he put out a brilliant, well-delivered vocal. Had it gone on after a run of uptempo numbers in the second half it would have stood out and may well have even hit the left hand side of the board. Going on first is what did him in.
I don't know. I agree that it was a rather classy number, and it was unfortunate that it didn't make an impact. But it was soporific and quite poorly staged, so I don't think the left hand side of the board was ever a realistic aspiration. It deserved better than it got, though, I'll grant you that - and I quite agree that going on first was also very unfortunate. I just don't think the song had any real impact. I wouldn't have voted for it, had it been the song from another European country, not against some other excellent entries.
RS
Rob_Schneider
That's why I think on reflection Sweden will do it. Arguably it's the most current song in the field.
I have to say it was nice not to hear Russia being booed. The singer is not respnsobile for the actions of her Government. And unlike Shine, it's a really strong song in its own right. However I do worry a return to Moscow next year won't exactly be greeted with smiles all round.
There was some hearty booing during the first take of Dilma Bilan's performance at Eurovision 's Greatest Hits but they redid it after Graham pointed out (very well in fact and rather politely) that this was a celebration of Eurovision, everyone was a winner and that booing should be saved for Vienna. I fully expect a significant boo to accompany Russia's entry on Saturday!
As for the UK drawing first half, let's hope we don't end up performing 1st or dreaded 2nd!!