The BBC Four documentary broadcast tonight is worth catching, though it has a very UK-centric slant. The talking heads, whilst relevant, were quite thin on the ground.
Vienna's suffering from coming off the back of two amazingly produced contests: Malmo had the best host in recent times, if not ever, in Petra Mede (doing it all on her own by the way) and Copenhagen's staging was the best I've seen. I'm hoping they're holding back some WOW factor for the main event as even the kinetic lights seem to be underused at the moment and always on white, and some plastic on the floor from the green room to the stage "a bridge of light" does not make.
Really don't get why this year they feel the need for effectively 4 hosts - indeed Conchita seemed to do as much as any of the other three during the semi-finals. Malmo hit gold with Petra Mede and their staging wasn't too shabby either - at least they had a bridge, not a bit of carpet.
Very interesting, thanks for the share. Sorry if this is a dumb question - how much influence do the entries themselves have when it comes to the TV direction? Obviously the staging is planned out by the delegates, but do they also contribute to the shooting script? i.e. do we have the director on the evening to blame for these problems with the direction, or is the the fault of the British entry?
A significant amount. Some years the Eurovision shooting script for a song has been very similar to the original pre-selection show.
Both Sweden and Norway are pretty similar to the original MGP and MF performances - though ORF aren't covering either as well as MF/MGP in my opinion
You have to shoot the projection in Heroes frontally, and can't cut high or oblique until the chorus - and they go early, destroying the last bit of the video animation. Also think MGP doing the whole of Norway on a Steadicam shot worked better than the half-way house that ORF are doing. The minute they cut off the steadicam it feels a bit 'cheap'.
I think one real issue this year in Vienna is that they don't have a camera platform mid-arena. Most of the eyelevel frontal shots of the performers on stage are effectively being shot from the back of the arena, from an area just in front of the green room. This flattens the whole stage - as there is very little relative depth between people at the front and back of the stage. The Furios (or similar) mid arena give better perspective, as do the similar tracking cameras much closer to the stage. It's a pity - because shooting from that far back makes it all look a bit 'sport'.
Vienna's suffering from coming off the back of two amazingly produced contests: Malmo had the best host in recent times, if not ever, in Petra Mede (doing it all on her own by the way) and Copenhagen's staging was the best I've seen. I'm hoping they're holding back some WOW factor for the main event as even the kinetic lights seem to be underused at the moment and always on white, and some plastic on the floor from the green room to the stage "a bridge of light" does not make.
Really don't get why this year they feel the need for effectively 4 hosts - indeed Conchita seemed to do as much as any of the other three during the semi-finals. Malmo hit gold with Petra Mede and their staging wasn't too shabby either - at least they had a bridge, not a bit of carpet.
Quite. None of the hosts have a really distinct role, and it's not as if they are bouncing off each other... There's no reason to have three main presenters. Two possibly (as you can split between two locations - which makes staging easier) - but you need roles for them. There's no point having three people stood in a line just reading alternate paragraphs of script. (And badly written script...)
They seem to be favourites pretty much every year but I thought tonight the staging was much more impressive than the performance. I'd quite like to see it go to Italy considering they've not that long returned and would offer something quite different I think.
How many countries actually air the contest without ads now - I'm sure at one point it was just the BBC but I know France has restrictions on primetime ads now and I think Russia have just introduced them too.
Sweden, Norway and Denmark all air it without adverts - as SVT, NRK and DR, like the BBC, don't carry commercials at any time. (SVT and NRK do allow some programme sponsorship. Apparently SVT are only allowed sponsorship on international productions - which is why the MF Final is on Eurovision...)
Loving the YouTube feed... I'm opting out of the opt outs!
The ORF VTs - with a few exceptions (like the 60 Years of Voting - which the BBC didn't opt-out of) - were hardly TV Gold were they? Not a patch on the SVT or DR VTs.
The SF1 VT - 3'00" of a horse, a dog and a cat travelling round Vienna? With comedy 'pov' stuffed animals? Really?
All the app does is direct your phone to call the number. Useless!
Probably the only way to avoid the car crash that was the Melodifestivalen app voting fiasco though...
In the UK, at least, the only reliable way of doing mobile voting for ESC volume voting (which is quite high I believe) is short-code phone calls. IP voting and SMS voting are still not reliable enough.
Loving the YouTube feed... I'm opting out of the opt outs!
The ORF VTs - with a few exceptions (like the 60 Years of Voting - which the BBC didn't opt-out of) - were hardly TV Gold were they? Not a patch on the SVT or DR VTs.
The SF1 VT - 3'00" of a horse, a dog and a cat travelling round Vienna? With comedy 'pov' stuffed animals? Really?
I was very disappointed with the 60 Years of Voting VT, it could have been very good and rather amusing, instead it was as of someone who didn't quite understand English had edited it... And why on Earth didn't they include the bit where Ulrika hilariously insults a former contestant who's about to announce the results by asking "A long time ago was it?" followed by much laughter from the audience in Birmingham.
I'd also like to see a close voting VT, where the result has been decided by the very last vote. There have been quite a few over the years and they're by far the most exciting voting sequences to watch:-
And why on Earth didn't they include the bit where Ulrika hilariously insults a former contestant who's about to announce the results by asking "A long time ago was it?" followed by much laughter from the audience in Birmingham.
That's a clip that's always taken out of the context though, she doesn't really insult her. Immediately before Ulrika's comment, the Dutch spokeswoman says that her appearance was "long ago" but no one hears that as Ulrika was talking over her, hence Ulrika's response of "long time ago was it?" came across sounding like an insult.
I cannot wait till tonight. My prediction is a Swedish win, Italy 2nd, Estonia 3rd, but it will be the closest Eurovision in decades. UK will either finish last, or 26th ahead of Hungary. I also believe Albania will do better than what people are saying.