Does Film Look More Real Than Tape?

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 12:40 PM - 4 Comments

The question of film vs. videotape is increasingly becoming irrelevant as HD starts to take over everything, but some shows are still recognizably one or the other, and this Ken Levine post caught my eye:

Back in the days when some multi-camera shows filmed while others taped, the taped shows never looked real. They always looked like you were watching a play. They featured stark lighting and a very flat look. The sets looked like, well… sets. Audiences were used to film – either on TV or at the movies. So multi-camera filmed shows felt more real. So real that CHEERS had to announce that each show was filmed in front of a live studio audience. Otherwise viewers didn’t believe the laughs were real.

I’ve heard similar things said by other TV professionals, that video looks fake and film looks real. As a non-professional viewer, though, my impression was exactly the opposite. When the networks had both video and film shows, the taped shows looked more “real” to me than the filmed ones. Yes, the sets were more obviously artificial in the harsh video lighting, and one of the reasons professionals tend to prefer film is that it creates more verisimilitude: the Cheers set looked like a bar on film, whereas on tape it would have looked like a studio set with some chairs and a big, weird speed-bump in the middle. But I always felt that the action, and the people, seemed more believable in taped shows. The “live” look of tape (since it looks the same as a live broadcast) made it seem like the action was happening there in front of me, while film had a sort of distancing effect. Most of our TV-viewing time, outside of prime-time, is spent watching shows that are either taped or live, so videotape conveyed the impression that these were people talking in front of you, just like the local newscaster or weatherman, while film conveyed the impression that these were actors on a soundstage.

That’s one of the reasons it was easier to believe that the audience laughter was real in a taped show, because it felt like it was happening live and nothing was dubbed in after — even if it was. The other reason was that for technical reasons I’ve never fully understood, sound recording used to be more distant and reverberant in film, making everything sound a little fake — even if it wasn’t. Some of this still applies today: people complain about “laugh tracks” even on filmed shows that have real live audiences, while few people object to the audience laughter on The Daily Show or Saturday Night Live. There’s something about tape that makes us accept what we’re seeing and hearing. Just imagine if Cronkite had done the CBS Evening News on film. Would anybody have believed a word he said?

He doesn't believe any taxes are good taxes

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 12:11 PM - 34 Comments

Except maybe for those taxes that pay for cool stuff like this. (Video courtesy of David Akin.)

Harper’s recovery?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 11:40 AM - 61 Comments

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, summoning all the passion this was due, “I am pleased to formally announce today the creation of the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario.” He held for applause. “Or,” Stephen Harper continued, “as it will be known by its short title, FedDev Ontario.”

After a few more sentences on this bureaucratic achievement—of the sort that must feel unnatural to a man once so suspicious of government intervention—he reached for meaning with the aplomb of an inspirational office poster. “As Winston Churchill once noted,” the Prime Minister said, “ ‘Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.’ ” Continue…

Israel angered over organ-harvesting article

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 11:19 AM - 3 Comments

Israel and Sweden are at odds over an article appearing in a Swedish newspaper. Last week, the Aftonbladet tabloid implied that Israeli soldiers harvested organs from Palestinians, and did so without offering any proof. The Israeli media is comparing the article to holocaust-era propaganda, and Israeli officials are calling on the Swedish government to condemn the article. So far, the Swedes have refused, saying they don’t want to violate the paper’s freedom of speech. This prompted an online petition demanding the boycott of Swedish retailer Ikea, and a threat from the Israeli finance minister to cancel a visit by the Swedish foreign minister.

CBC News

Protesters raped in Iran: “My life is over. I don’t think I can ever recover.”

By Michael Petrou - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:53 AM - 26 Comments

Several weeks ago, I blogged about the useful idiots in the West – including in Canada – who work for Iran’s state-run propaganda organ, Press TV.

The online comment board discussion diverted to a discussion about Iranian regime thugs raping prisoners, especially young women who had been sentenced to die. The Jerusalem Post had published an interview with an Iranian prison guard who had this job and discussed it in detail.

Two commentators doubted the veracity of the Jerusalem Post story. One, Robert McClelland, dismissed it outright and added the bizarre claim that “Canadian media has shut out Muslims who refuse to become an uncle Tarek” – presumably a dig at Muslim Canadian Congress founder Tarek Fatah, who has apparently sullied himself in McClelland’s eyes by taking a stand against Islamism and advocating the separation of religion in state.

Anyway, I doubt that any amount of evidence will convince people like McClelland that reports of the barbarous treatment suffered by democratic dissidents in Iran are anything other than fairy tales concocted by anti-Muslim fanatics like me. But I suspect other readers will be disturbed and saddened to read about this 15-year-old democrat, whose body and spirit has been broken by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s rapists.

His family is exploring ways to leave Iran. I wish they might find a home here.

9/11 torture investigation recommended

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:47 AM - 2 Comments

Some CIA employees and contractors may be prosecuted for crimes committed against prisoners after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The U.S. Justice Department has asked the Attorney General to reopen cases closed by the Bush administration and investigate alleged abuse. This comes while the Justice Department is set to release a 2004 report detailing the treatment of prisoners. That report is expected to show that interrogators violated U.S. anti-torture laws by conducting mock executions and threatening at least one man with death.

CBC News

Ryan Jenkins found dead

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 7:07 AM - 4 Comments

The search for Ryan Jenkins is over. Jenkins, the former reality TV contestant sought in the gruesome murder of his ex-wife, was found Sunday morning, hanging from a belt in a motel room in Hope, B.C. The beaten and mutilated body of Jasmine Fiore was found near Los Angeles, Calif., just over a week ago. Shortly thereafter, Jenkins was identified as a person of interest in the case. Originally from Calgary, he was the subject of a North American manhunt before a motel manager in Hope decided to check on a guest who had not checked out as scheduled. According to the manager of the Thunderbird Motel, Jenkins may have been checked in by an as-yet-unidentified woman. Jenkins’ mother, Nada, continues to maintain his innocence. “I think he panicked, my little boy, and we had to protect him, even now that he’s dead,” she said.

Vancouver Sun

So what was that all about?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 1:44 AM - 57 Comments

The Nunatsiaq News calls it “the most expensive photo op you’ll ever see.”

Torch blogger Mark Collins laments the “jingoistic nonsense” of it all.

And then there is what our own Andrew Coyne wrote. A year ago.

In fact, Canada’s Arctic sovereignty is getting along just fine, thank you. For all the emphasis the Conservatives have placed on it — “use it or lose it,” in Harper’s famous formulation — and for all the reams of hyperventilating, the-Russians-are-coming reportage it has received in the media, no one is actually threatening to invade Canada’s frozen North. Neither is there much dispute over Canada’s territorial waters — the ribbon of sea along our coast, 200 nautical miles wide, that international law acknowledges as ours. Even the much bolder claim we have lately advanced to the waters beyond the 200-mile limit, reaching as far as the North Pole, is for the most part uncontested…

It can’t hurt our case, and may help, if we bolster our physical presence in the North. Certainly we should hope that the Arctic spoils are divided by something resembling a legal process, rather than by military force or international free-for-all. And there are good reasons — environmental, security — why it would be in everybody’s interest for Canada to continue to police the passage. But on its merits, the question of Arctic sovereignty would not seem to warrant anything like the attention it has received from this government.

It does, however, serve an important political objective — namely, as part of the Conservatives’ efforts to rebrand themselves as the Canada Party, or perhaps to redefine Canada itself: to devise an alternative language and symbology of patriotism to the one so successfully exploited over the years by the Liberals.

Kidnapped in Somalia—one year later

By macleans.ca - Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 10:02 PM - 3 Comments

It was a year ago Sunday when 27-year-old Canadian freelance reporter, Amanda Lindhout, and Australian photographer, Nigel Brennan, were kidnapped in Somalia near Mogadishu and held for $2.5 million ransom. They’ve yet to come home. To mark the anniversary, the families of the two hostages released their first public statement, saying they remain united, “working tirelessly” to secure freedom for their loved ones “with little outside support.” Shortly after the kidnapping, Maclean’s documented “the tale of how Lindhout, a former Molson Canadian girl and beautician from small-town Alberta, found herself in perhaps the most dangerous place in the world.”

Maclean’s

CBC

Don't mess with Bill

By macleans.ca - Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 9:45 AM - 1 Comment

The Eastern part of Canada is being hit with heavy rain and high winds, thanks to the Category 1 storm, Hurricane Bill. Already, 32,000 people are out of power and flooding is expected. Flights have been cancelled since the morning. The eye of the storm fell 75 km outside of Halifax on Sunday afternoon and is expected to move off the coast of Cape Breton overnight, hitting land in Newfoundland Monday morning.

CTV

CTV

'I believe that all of us, even those who are atheists, seek God'

By Brian Bethune - Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 128 Comments

David Adams Richards hold a peculiar place in Canada’s literary pantheon. Going by honours and recognition, he’s an insider’s insider: a Giller prize and two Governor General’s Literary Awards. He’s one of only three writers to have won a Governor General’s award for both fiction and non-fiction. But in just about everything truly important he’s as outside the tent as can be, far more Faulkner than Atwood or Davies: the very particular regional setting (all in New Brunswick’s Miramichi valley), the biblical resonances, the avoidance of irony, the mordant fatalism and equally striking moments of transcendence, the muted questions of class resentment, the way in which questions of faith, morality, and unseen forces arise. So it’s no surprise (even if it is an act of bravery), to see him write an idiosyncratic book of personal faith, God Is (Doubleday). In it Richards charts his on and off relationship with the Catholicism of his childhood, his battles with alcohol, despair and black rage, the resentment he has always felt against those who mock the faith of others to bolster their own conventional pieties, the murderers and victims he has known, and the sheer number of miracles he’s seen. It’s not the easiest polemic to follow—it’s difficult, for one thing, to grasp what he thinks of religion as opposed to God—but it is fascinating reading, illuminating of his fiction. Richards insists that the presence of God cannot be denied, and that we all know it, though may will not admit it even to themselves. “I believe that all of us, even those who are atheists, seek God—or at the very least not one of us would be unhappy if God appeared and told us that the universe was actually His creation. Oh, we might put Him on trial for making it so hard, and get angry at Him, too, but we would be very happy that He is here. Well, He is.” Shortly before the publication of God Is, Richards had this email exchange with Maclean’s Senior Writer Brian Bethune: Continue…

The Buckley's election

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 11:33 PM - 52 Comments

Jack Layton consults with with his own real people.

“I haven’t heard a stampede of people saying they want an election,” Layton told a news conference. ”But ironically, you’ll also get the same person saying, ‘Get that Harper out of there!”‘

Layton compares an election to a popular brand of cough medicine. ”Canadians live in this kind of paradox all the time,” he said. ”They have an opinion about their government and whether they like it in or want it out. But they also, if you ask them, won’t generally stampede towards an election. It’s like that cough medicine – you know, it tastes bad, but sometime you’ve gotta take it.”

'80s Syndication Smackdown: Evie Vs. Vicki

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 10:23 PM - 5 Comments

Based on an earlier post, this is a showdown: which long-running ’80s syndicated sitcom is worse, Small Wonder or Out of This World?

I used to say it was Out of This World, but I just think I was being fashionable (insofar as even thinking about these shows is fashionable). I hated Small Wonder way more as a kid, and I think I was right. The kids on Small Wonder really make it something special in terms of pure evil; just when you think nobody could be a worse actor than Vicki, the “human” kid comes along.

Whereas on Out Of This World, Evie was reasonably tolerable, and as I said, it was far easier for a kid to identify with her than Vicki. Stopping time by touching your fingers together? Somewhat creepy in its implications if you think too much about what could be done with such a power, but far less creepy than any given scene involving a man who builds a little-girl robot.

And yes, this is really what we kids watched at strange times (whenever the broadcasters had a hole to plug with syndication-only programming) in the ancient 1980s. That’s why we’re all so well adjusted now.

Do as I say, not as I do

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 8:17 PM - 44 Comments

Aug. 27, 2008. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is sending his clearest signal yet that Canadians will be heading to the polls this fall, saying that “fundamental differences” with the opposition parties make it impossible for his government to tackle looming economic woes. “The country must have a government that can function during a time of economic uncertainty. If it’s not this … Parliament, the public will have an opportunity to decide whom,” Harper told a news conference yesterday.

Aug. 21, 2009. With the bipartisan employment insurance panel apparently foundering and with NDP and Bloc Quebecois politicians suggesting a fall election would be best to re-set the federal government’s agenda, some Conservative MPs have spent the summer talking up the merits of a Conservative majority government. But at a press conference in Whitehorse, Harper refused to fan the flames of election speculation.”I travel constantly, have always travelled constantly across the country,” Harper said. “Our focus is on governing this country, on getting this country successfully through the recession. We think we’re going to come out of this recession well. I think the emphasis of all parties in the House of Commons should be working to ensure that we’re working on the economy in the fall and that’s our focus. I have said over and over again I have not met a single real person out there who’s telling me we should be fighting an election right now.”

Canadians asked to help

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 5:51 PM - 0 Comments

The mother of Jasmine Fiore, the bikini model whose mutilated body was found stuffed in a suitcase, is appealing to Canadians to help find the man now charged in her murder. “I just want the people in Canada to help get that guy and not let him f—ing hide out and to get him behind bars,” Lisa Lepore told Canwest News Service. Ryan Jenkins, a former reality TV contestant, is originally from Calgary and is presumed to have possibly fled to Canada. He is believed to be the last person who saw Jasmine Fiore alive.

The Windsor Star

Golden hare returns to Britain

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 4:59 PM - 0 Comments

In 1979 artist Kit Williams created a bestselling children’s book called Masquerade with lavish illustrations that offered visual clues to where he had buried an 18-karat gold pendant in the shape of a hare. It was finders keepers, and thousands of Britons dug up lawns and parks across southern England. The hare was discovered in 1982, not without controversy—the finder, it was revealed in 1988, was the new boyfriend of Williams’ former girlfriend, who knew the approximate location of the cache. The pendant went abroad after it went on the block at Sotheby’s in 1988 and was bought by an anonymous foreign bidder for about $65,000. Earlier this year, as Masquerade’s 30th anniversary approached, a BBC radio show broadcast an appeal for anyone who knew the hare’s location. A granddaughter of the still-unnamed new owner put him in touch with the BBC, and last week the golden hare came back, temporarily, for an emotional reunion with its creator. “I had not remembered it being as delicate as it is,” Williams said. “When I picked it up the little bells jingled, and it sparkled in a way that I had forgotten as well.”

BBC News

Jack Layton sweats holy water

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 3:55 PM - 20 Comments

Someone should start a business that offers, for a decent fee, to round up your loved ones and assemble a series of testimonials to your greatness set to uplifting music and interspersed with video of you doing whatever it is you do each day. Sort of like a living eulogy.

Rare look inside secret meeting of MSM establishment

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 2:58 PM - 25 Comments

The second photo here captures the press gallery in the midst of negotiating the questions that would be asked of the President and Prime Minister during Barack Obama’s visit to Ottawa earlier this year.

For the record, I am standing on the right side of the picture. And appear to have been in need of a haircut.

Omar Khadr v. Nay Myo Hein

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 2:45 PM - 25 Comments

The Ottawa Citizen compares and contrasts.

There is a strong argument to be made that Omar Khadr was a child soldier, which makes this government’s treatment of him all the more egregious. The Conservatives have made a few half-hearted attempts to explain why they won’t accept his child-soldier status; most of the time, they’ve simply ignored the question, as if it weren’t important.

Meanwhile, a 25-year-old Burmese man in Saskatoon, Nay Myo Hein, was about to be deported this month when he got the news that two cabinet ministers had intervened to save him. Granting a stay of deportation and a residency permit was the right thing to do. But it raises the question: How can Canada be so compassionate to one former child soldier, and so indifferent to another? Canada shouldn’t merely reach out to help its citizens when the courts decide it has a legal duty, or when there are rallies in the streets. It should follow a consistent, transparent policy.

Fair enough. Unfortunately, the Citizen overlooks the important fact that Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, possesses the power to determine who qualifies as a child soldier simply by looking the suspect in the eye.

Somehow, Camp Chalk River just doesn't sound right: Liveblogging RNNR's emergency hearing on isotope crisis

By kadyomalley - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 1:28 PM - 43 Comments

Yikes — ITQ somehow managed to run smack into the clock while getting ready for today’s meeting, and is now forced to scramble to make it to the Hill in time to secure a front row seat for this afternoon’s command performance. Catch up on the backstory here …

Continue…

Ottawa runs $5 billion deficit in June

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 1:13 PM - 8 Comments

My, how times have changed. Last June, the federal government was flush with cash, running a surplus of $1.6 billion. This past June, however, Ottawa sunk deep into the red, recording a $5 billion deficit. The recession, along with a sharp increase in public spending, are seemingly to blame for the downturn in the federal government’s fortunes. Revenues fell $2.7 billion from their 2008 levels, as Ottawa took in significantly less money in personal and corporate income taxes. Meanwhile, spending was up by $4.2 billion due to an increase in EI payments and the cost of supporting the auto industry. Overall, the government remains on track to run a $50.2 billion deficit for the current fiscal year.

The Canadian Press

Rats invade Swift Current

By macleans.ca - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 1:13 PM - 2 Comments

The rats have come, and the good residents of Swift Current, Sask., want answers, reports the StarPhoenix. “In the beginning, it was funny or a novelty, but at this point people are getting very angry that the city hasn’t shown more leadership,” said local resident Don Robinson. “We have had reports of rat bitings. We had a report of a person bit by a rat in their own bed.” Some believe the rats came when a number of derelict building were demolished.

The Star Phoenix

Bruised & battered travel industry

By Chris Rivers, Takeoffeh.com - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 12:59 PM - 3 Comments

It’s no secret the travel industry is suffering. The question is – when, and if, it will ever recover, and what that will mean to you.

The events of the last year have led some people to believe the industry is on life support. According to a report on the airline industry in the Wall Street Journal, “If passengers don’t return to the skies and fares don’t rise, some airlines could run low on cash, raising the specter of additional bankruptcies. Like the auto,consumer-goods, packaged-food and retail industries, airlines are suffering huge revenue declines.” Continue…

Word Bleg II: Eclectic Boogaloo

By Andrew Potter - Friday, August 21, 2009 at 12:53 PM - 58 Comments

Gimme a break, it’s Friday. Anyway, my friend Chris Macdonald wants your input on the following:

What words reliably signal that an author is not offering a neutral analysis or assessment of an issue? The first such word that comes to my mind is “agenda.” If you refer to one side’s view as an “agenda”, you’re almost certainly an ideologue.  There are lots of merely loaded terms & dysphemisms, of course, but the ones I’m interested in are ones that can be used by nearly anyone (i.e., words that aren’t intrinsically right-wing or left-wing, etc.).

I can think of a few obvious ones, like referring to someone’s plan as a “scheme”. But the trick here is to go beyond obviously loaded language and find terms that appear neutral, but frame the analysis in a way the subtly pushes you in a certain direction.

Is this the same exercise as last time?