I don't know how many of you read the Globe and Mail, and if you do, if you follow John Doyle as religiously as I do, but his column today is stunning in a "you gotta be kidding" kind of way.
You know Michael Apted's "7 Up" series? The documentary series where he followed a group of British schoolkids every seven years and traced, through their lives, the changes in contemporary British society? If you haven't seen these films and you're a writer, you really should see them -- more insight per minute that just about anything else you're likely to see, when it comes to character, especially writing characters over time...
Anyway, in Canada, the CBC heavily promoted their broadcast of the latest installment, 49 Up. But when people tuned in, they found something off and wrong.
Turns out the CBC edited out an entire character for time. Boom. Picked one of the people, and cut them out of the film, every time they spoke. Start to finish. The hilarious, indelible thing? This is one of three women who were interviewed together for the first time as kids...so if you are a fan of the films, you have these three women linked in your mind. They used the other two. Just...snip. One was gone. No explanation.
I mean, really, how does that conversation even get past the "Is this a good idea?" stage?
2 comments:
It's the CBC...
For some reason, all I can picture is DMc sitting in the corner of a coffee shop tittering and typing away as an annoyed Blueglow glares over from the other corner because he's getting distracted from a G-Spot episode on his portable DVD player.
Wacky hijinx ensue.
actually in kinda makes me want to cry, when I was at the "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" soiree at the cbc a few months back, mark starowitz, seemed like the only actual human being on the stand, the rest seemed a little like the understudies from a missasuaga theatre revival of 'the stepford wives".
if he was responsible, or endorsed, trimming a documentary so that it could fit into a schedule he should quit. I mean, jesus-h, they only cut into "the national" about one hundred and fifty times during the nhl playoffs and in a bid to get some kind of ratings they show there original programming three or four times during the same week.
the apted documentary is a very special thing. it causes one to reflect on ones own life by watching how others adapt and make peace with their own diminished expectations. it shows how people can make their own happiness and sadness, it shows how life can be cruel, magical and wonderful and how people share the same hopes, fears and dreams for themselves and their families no matter where they are from. it is also a work that has taken almost a half century to complete...
so if you're gonna show the thing, show the fucking thing instead of slicing it up so I can see yet another "apply directly to the forehead" commercial.
if this broadcaster is going to continue take taxpayer's money because it provides a unique service then maybe they should stop acting like the rest of the craven greedheads out there.
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