:: gia’s blog ::

10 Responses

1. Penny says:

   July 29, 2007 at 1:00 pm

   Er, what the *hell* was I watching?? These were amateur stunt drivers who were doing this…WHY??

   Or were those cars being driven by remote control with clever editing that cut to human ‘drivers’ after the dramatic crashes?

   I’m guessing from your post that it was the latter.

   I saw ‘Sunshine’ yesterday, BTW, and it was AWESOME!! :)
2. John Dodds says:

   July 29, 2007 at 2:34 pm

   The same Late Late show on which an amateur was killed rehearsing for another stunt if I recall correctly.
3. Penny says:

   July 29, 2007 at 6:06 pm

   Hmm, well that answers my question, I suppose. This sort of ‘people behaving stupidly for notoriety/cash’ stunt has been performed elsewhere, with similar results. While I’d never stand between an individual and his or her Darwin Award, I think televising this person winning the ‘award’ is disgusting and in bad taste, editing or no editing.

   However, I’m also against censorship. I think people have the right to pollute their minds, and television stations have an equal right to make money by airing whatever mental pollutant is most in demand at any particular moment, in graphic detail as necessary. Thus, if one is going to televise an idiotic stunt of this nature, I think every last gruesome scene should be shown on TV–no editing out the ugly bits. Editing for drama is ok, as long as the horrific nature of the content is left intact.

   That said, the TV camera in the clip should have been situated closer to the wreck of the second car to show any spurting blood, protruding bones, exposed viscera, etc. This is what the viewers want to see, isn’t it?
4. giagia says:

   July 30, 2007 at 12:44 am

   Yay! I’m glad you loved Sunshine, Penny!!! Weeeeee!!!!

   Re: the clip. There have been and continue to be far worse decisions made by producers than editing a *trailer* for a TV programme which was never intended to be shown to the public… You know, like continuing with a second stunt attempted by untrained members of the public after the first attempt ended in a massive crash…

   And, yes, apparently this was the programme on which someone died rehearsing a stunt.
5. Penny says:

   July 30, 2007 at 9:16 am

   This reminds me of that recent flap over the radio show in the US that had this contest to see how much water the participants could drink in a certain period of time without having to use the potty. One of the ‘winners’ of the contest drank almost *2 gallons* of water in a very short period of time. She won a Wii gaming console–and died 5 hours later from water intoxication. She left *three* children behind.

   The people who staged the contest, including the 3 DJs on the radio show, were subsequently fired. From what was said in the news, it is unclear to me whether the DJs informed the participants of the danger of water intoxication prior to staging the contest; one of the participants said later that they didn’t. In the case of the TV clip above, I can’t see how the people doing the stunts *couldn’t* know that what they were doing was dangerous.

   As I’ve said, I have mixed feelings over shit like this. Both stunts were in piss-poor taste, regardless.
6. Tim Clague says:

   August 1, 2007 at 9:37 am

   A follow up clip…

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdakKgmYH7I
7. Tim Clague says:

   August 1, 2007 at 12:04 pm

   I’ve written a TV Producer’s Manifesto which may help – or at least help debate…

   http://projectorfilms.blogspot.com/2007/08/tv-producer-manifesto.html
8. christopher says:

   August 2, 2007 at 8:54 pm

   i’m a bit confused by this. i assumed (not being from the uk and not knowing anything about this), that from the comments about editing that this was a bit of trickery. that a professional jumped a car, and then another car was used for the crash. both jumps were edited in the middle of the jump – why do that if not to edit between different jumps?

   this isn’t a hoax?
9. giagia says:

   August 3, 2007 at 12:51 am

   No, no, there’s been this big (pointless) hoo-ha about ‘editing’ in television (basically a private ‘advert’ for a programme had edited some footage of the Queen to imply she had stormed out of a photo session, when in reality she was storming *into* it…:roll:)… Now the whole tv industry (well, merely the people who don’t really actually do anything) are self-flagellating themselves over the whole business…

   This clip is to show that TV has, in the past, done far, FAR worse than minorly deceptively edit footage together for a private advert for a programme before….
10. Ian Appleby says:

    August 5, 2007 at 7:00 pm

    That is truly a shocking clip – who would have thought that the blessed John Peel would have had anything to do with Noel Edmonds over and above his contractual obligations at Radio 1?