Light the damned torch already

Posted on February 10, 2006 by Gene

After the rough High Def coverage of the last Olympics, I wasn’t expecting much from NBC — but boy, they’ve finally got their act together when it comes to high definition. The graphics are crisp and gorgeous, the high def footage is beautiful, and there’s lots of it. It looks like this time they are doing everything in HD and then downconverting for regular viewers — last time, the HD was supplementary and hosted by second stringers.
Even a good percentage of the commercials are in HD, which is astonishing! At the beginning of tonight’s coverage, there was a long commercial for United Airlines, in HD, animated with cut paper, which was probably the most beautiful ad I’ve ever seen. I’ve got to capture this one and save it.
As for the coverage itself… well, I’m one hour into the “opening ceremonies” and they have yet to show any opening ceremony — it’s just talking heads for an hour. Considering that this is WAY tape delayed, you’d think they’d have gone right into the edited tape without wasting my time…

So, an hour later, they’ve finally started showing the opening ceremony.
I really love stuff like this, the pageantry and symbolism paired with avant garde design. Of course, it is somewhat annoying to be getting into something symbolic like this and then being interrupted by some announcer reading the official synopsis of what’s happening. If you can’t figure it out without Bob Costas telling you what’s happening, then you shouldn’t bother watching. I mean, couldn’t they just put it into captions or something across the bottom of the screen? Or do away with the symbolism and costumes and whatnot altogether, and just have a guy sit in the middle of the stadium and read the story.