Wed 7 Jan 2009 | 
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Reality (of) Television
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Enlarge textOne of the realities of television is that many of its programs are pre-recorded. There are a number of reasons for this. Apart from anything else it saves the network money. Take Global Village for example. If I were to sit in the studio at 6pm each night doing the program 'live' (as happens during the WORLD NEWS) we'd need the full complement of personnel in the studio, control room, tapes area, and on-air co-ordinators. Oh and don't forget the make-up people. This is a costly exercise and Global Village doesn't warrant such an expensive treatment. We -pre-record. In doing so we are more economical in dollar terms for the network (read: public purse) but we (read: I) face some pitfalls in the process.
The evening news bulletin because of its nature has to be live and therefore needs the full complement of staff at their beck and call. Global Village doesn't. GV precedes the news each night (except when LIVING BLACK is on) and is pre-recorded anything up to a month in advance for logistical & economic reasons. We work with acquired programs that SBS's Acquisitions Department buys. They are translated and subtitled and I then re-voice them in English as well as research and write all their introductions (including THALASSA)
topA few actually
Thank you one and all for entering our GLOBAL VILLAGE Vol 3 CD Competition. The response was huge to put it mildly. The winners were chosen electronically by a random number generator and the winners have already been advised and their CD should be in the mail.
Doesn't matter what we read about them or how much we empathise with them and their plight I really doubt that anyone can know what it feels like to be a refugee (read: migrant, displaced person, illegal immigrant) unless you've been one yourself. Just like if you've really experienced hunger you won't throw away food just because it's a day old though perfectly edible. I've been both a displaced person/refugee and hungry.
The fact that my mother, brother and sister before coming to Australia ended up as displaced people in Italy and had to trudge through four refugee camps over the following two years before we received assisted passage to Australia, was not something my mother had planned. That was an 'Act of God', I think is the phrase, when something totally unexpected throws you a very curved ball.
Happy Death Everyone! What's Rivier talking about? Has he gone potty? What exactly does he mean!? There's nothing "happy" about death unless maybe you are a Christian close to death and looking forward to meeting your Maker in the after-life. Regardless where death leads the deceased, people experiencing the death of a loved on will probably tell you that it is the saddest and most tragic event in their life. So why, 'Happy death everyone'? Could there be a reason for happiness?
No doubt you've heard the term, Danse Macabre or in English The Dance of Death? The fact it's referred to as "Dance" might suggest that it's something, enjoyable, positive, nay even…happy? Let's start at the beginning. The so-called Danse Macabre originated in the late medieval period as an allegory on the universality of death. After all, like the taxation department, we can't run away from death either. To put a more positive spin on it, death unites us all.
Thanks to some censorship/classification rules that prevent us seeing certain items at certain times, what you can't see at 6pm on television you can on the Internet, at any time. So, to all those viewers who won't be seeing this particular story in a forthcoming edition of Global Village, because it doesn't conform to the 'G' classification, we bring it to you online. Cyberspace isn't bound by such classification restrictions. Not yet, anyway.
Programs classified as PG (Parental Guidance) must not be screened before 6.30pm. Our story below is classified as PG so I had to drop it from the program. Whether a child under 15 will see the story and be influenced by it is possible. The story follows the exploits a man in Serbia, Slavija Pajtic, whose claim to fame is that he's a human conductor of electricity, a man whose highest goal was to sit in the electric chair to prove that he could survive the experience.
There's No Place Like Home?
Migrants in their adopted country spend years adapting to its way of life, its culture and language. Some eventually call it 'home' while others still pine for the motherland many years later. Why is this so?
Purely from a lay point of view I've always been intrigued why some migrants seem to pine for their motherland even though many have lived and worked in Australia for decades, raised families and even married people of different nationalities from their own. They say home is where your heart is. If seeing television programs of your motherland makes you want to pack up and go back does this mean the years you invested in building your new home were a failure?
If I said to you that a bridegroom's dagger could stand-in for him on his wedding day (should he for whatever reason not be able to make it to the altar), you might think I was bonkers.
Well if we move from Australia and make the same statement in another country and culture, then in fact it would be true. In Indonesia one such dagger, the Kris, is considered a spiritual object as well as a weapon whose essence encompasses good luck for its owner. This essence is so highly regarded in Indonesian society that the Kris can serve as a legitimate, intangible, though temporary, substitute for the lucky man!
Brother Can You Spare a Dime?
In 2000 I visited one of my most favourite cities, New York. The Big Apple! I was immediately drawn to the theatre precinct of Broadway and the Metropolitan Opera House located in the Lincoln Centre. Just before I reached the Centre I saw an African American in his late 50's I would guess, on his knees on the footpath, with both arms outstretched to the passing public and with tears rolling down his cheeks imploring them in an emotionally charged voice; "Help me - please! I got kids and I've been thrown out on the street, my wife's got cancer." No-one stopped to help.
I stopped some metres away to take a discreet look at the man not sure whether he was putting on an act or whether he was genuinely in need? Will he mug me if I approach him to help? All those crazy scenarios flashed through my mind as I tried to work out whether to help a human being in this mega-rich country called USA and thinking can this be happening here, in front of the Met? As I got closer to him I decided that the man was genuine.
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About this Blog
Join Silvio Rivier as he spotlights one of the episodes each week relating to cultures, traditions and lifestyles of people around the world.
Silvio Rivier has been an integral part of SBS since the station first went to air. He is currently the presenter, narrator and producer of the series Global Village.
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