Behind Appearances

We had another one of those training workshops today, and at the end of it, the trainer chose to show us a somewhat unrelated but presumably he hoped, inspiring, video with some kind of moral message.

My nose was having leaky sinus issues the whole full-day session and I'd finally run out of the tissue paper stored in my pants pockets, so I bolted out for a brief toilet break and honking relief, hoping I'd get back soon enough to catch the video because he was taking quite a while to introduce what he wanted to show us.

I managed to get back just in time to see some kind of singing reality tv show with Simon Cowell and two unrecognizable judges complimenting the heck out of a dowdy-looking singer called Susan Boyle and saying 3 'Yes'es but missed her actual song.

Being the internet savvy sort, I dug up the video on youtube myself to have a listen:
Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent 2009

Maybe I'm just trying to console myself that I wouldn't quite have the initial reaction as millions of other people who judge by appearances, but I frankly find the whole thing faintly smelling of one of those reality tv show setups, where there are behind-the-scenes folks angling for a good story and pulling strings on real people to manipulate them into certain emotional reactions.

Let's face it, they do makeup on these people before they film them. You think someone wasn't given instructions to keep the grey in her hair and make her look significantly middle-aged, somewhat messy and fat like a crazy cat lady. You think the intro questions aren't scripted by someone to instill a 'first impresions' hook in the viewer, oook, heavy scottish brogue, living in a village, stuttering like a village idiot...

After all, the "preliminary round = fat geeky people we can laugh at trying to sing but squalling like an alley cat" mindset having been built up by seasons and seasons of American Idol.

Then the choice of song... meant as a happy moral message juxtaposition to her image.

Come on, before they let contestants onto the show to get film, SOMEONE somewhere has heard her sing a few verses to at least establish that she can indeed sing. Someone has done a background check on her (which can now be read, after her fame, on Wikipedia) and realized that this woman has been singing since age 12, has had vocal coaching and a singing instructor, has been singing (and thereby practising) in church choirs and local bars, etc.

And if you think about it logically, as my mind was busy working during the viewing of the performance, if you watch a dvd of the Les Miserables singers in concert, they look amazingly like ordinary people because they were cast based on their voices first, their silhouettes and musical acting ability second, and their personal dolled-up facial beauty a further off third - because on a stage in a theatre, you hear the voice first, the figure second, and only the front row seats can stare searchingly into a stage actor's face anyhow. So it's not as if there hasn't been prior precedent before.

Not to mention, Susan Boyle's figure is amazingly akin to a stereotypical opera singer's. Now why is that? Could it be a certain amount of physics and body physiology at work, that the heft and big chest cavity allow the person to produce that sort of powerful operatic voice (training and practice needed too, of course), just as talented fast swimmers naturally have built up large muscular arms and broad chests and long powerful legs?

Yeah, the logical intellectual part of myself quite ruined the emotional moment for me - though I have to admit, the freaky video editing where they keep jump cutting to the judges' reactions and the stupid hosts going "hahaha, you didn't expect that, did ya?" like a pair of schoolboys in on the prank also played a part.

Here's the thing I do enjoy watching though. Simon Cowell. The man the world loves to hate. I always feel he's a lot smarter and sneakier and double-layered than the world gives him credit for either. To me anyhow, if you watch him carefully, this is a man that knows. Knows his good singing. Knows the music industry and what they really want, stage presence and good looks in addition to good singing. Knows that the twain don't meet in all folk, many folk even, and has to play a certain bad guy role.

He's not really surprised when Susan Boyle sings, imo. He's probably in the know already. All his broad beaming smile is the enjoyment of a man who really appreciates good singing and is glad this plucky woman is finally getting her five seconds of fame, despite all the crap in the music industry saying there's no way in hell she's making it based on how she looks.

You know what seals it for me? The finals video.
Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent 2009 Finals

Wikipedia says Susan Boyle didn't win. She placed second. Some band called Diversity or whatever placed first.

Listen to what Simon Cowell tells her, unlike the two other judges who are quite clueless and just wafting along on the general mainstream euphoria. Tell me that isn't a man who already knows that the execs and suits have made a decision that the band is the more marketable option, blardy blah, and that this plucky woman is going to place second, and that emotionally, she may not be able to take that, riding along on world euphoria as it were.

For the cameras, he says it can go either way. Maybe you'll place first or second. Blardy blah. You ask me, behind the superficial words, he's saying, "Girl, you listen to my words days, weeks, months later when you play the recorded video again. You did good. You can hold your head up high. First or second in this stupid contest doesn't mean shit. And fer heaven's sake, modulate your expectations now when you hear this, because you're very likely getting second. The underdog story arc only goes so far."

Anyhow, for the record, she has a pretty good voice. Frankly, so do a lot of other undiscovered people. I own CDs/MP3s of two very sweet-sounding ladies thanks to the magic of the internet, but they are barely known outside their small town/country/tiny but fanatical internet network (Laura Powers and Heather Dale). I found a Singaporean singer who moved to New York but is probably not known outside Singapore/Malaysia/other limited Asian areas + the Big Apple, and she's got a nice enough voice too (Corrinne May).

So I am not surprised that good voices can come out of extraordinary places.

But yeah, I occasionally watch reality tv shows for the superficial fun of it, feeling the mainstream emotional reaction and dissecting them intellectually to see where the producers/directors/writers actually earn their keep on these things.

P.S. I also never fail to be amazed at just how clueless most people are. Mid-training session today, one of our staff who works in the Movie Studio was using 'greenscreen/bluescreen technology' as a topic for lesson design. The trainer, who is a PhD in educational pedagogy and/or physics, expressed his total ignorance of what greenscreen was about. So did a goodly number of our other staff who are life sciences or physical sciences trained.

So the Movie Studio guy played a video that demonstrated greenscreen use.
Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Reel

The fascinated and awed gasps and "oh wow" comments that reverberated about the room were just a little bit scary.

Am I the only person who watches all those 'behind-the-scenes' dvd extras?

Greenscreen and CGI has been with us since the days of Babylon 5. And probably earlier, but that's my first faithful exposure to the tech. That's...*checks IMDB* 1994.

Admittedly, the tech has gotten a lot better to the point of reducing edge blur and what not, but is it really such a shocker? Every single damn George Lucas film oozes CGI out of its pores, you're hosting a huge PIXAR exhibition wherein there are 11+ films ENTIRELY constructed out of CGI... the Matrix, 300, Sin City, the LOTR trilogy, all the superhero movies that have plagued us, all use TONS of greenscreen with CGI filling in the gaps.

TV shows-wise... how'd you think those super-cool futuristic DNA projections turn up in people's hands in CSI? How do we get special superhero effects in Heroes? And for a blast to the girly chick flick past, we have the long lasting eight seasons of Charmed from 1998-2006, where demons phase in and out of existence, and lookie, a quote from the executive producer Brad Kern himself:

Brad Kern: Often times they're acting against a green screen and we're going to put in the demon later or the special effect and they have to somehow imagine what we're gonna be doing.

(Charmed - TV Scripts)

IT'S NOT NEW, PEOPLE.

If you're a Luddite or a staunch anti-TV person who's never watched a single episode of anything in the last decade based on your principles, I'd understand. Probably commiserate too.

But if you're the average guy just sitting on your couch and at the movies, devouring special effects and popcorn, watching TONS and TONS of it...

I'm REALLY REALLY SCARED that you find this all amazing and new and OMG.

How have you not known with all the "Making Of" documentaries flying around everywhere?

My hope for the human race keeps dying a little every time I run into incidents like this.

I seem to be one of the lone maniac geeky freaks around who actually cares for and collects knowledge. Thank goodness for the internet and the knowledge there are 1-3% of us out there.