Maar waarom is er besloten op deze manier de serie te kopiëren? Linda de Mol is de zus van één van de creatiefste geesten die de Nederlandse TV industrie kent. De man die ons en de rest van de wereld Big Brother bracht en recentelijk een nieuwe megahit scoorde met het originele concept van The Voice of Holland, dat inmiddels aan tig landen is verkocht. Waarom oh waarom komt Linda de Mol dan met een slap aftreksel, een schaamteloze kopie, van een Amerikaanse hit serie? Je zou verwachten dat ze de kneepjes van het vak wel kent, zeker met hits als Gooische Vrouwen op haar CV.

Helaas is Gek op Jack alleen grappig voor het groepje kijkers dat Everybody loves Raymond nooit gezien heeft. De humor is flauw vergeleken met het origneel, het acteerwerk is slecht en de cameravoering is al helemaal een geval apart. Waar het origineel groot is geworden met simpele vaste shots moet alles in de Nederlandse versie blijkbaar bewegen, draaien en het liefst allemaal met de hand, want statieven en dolly’s zijn zo 2010.

In het verleden zijn er natuurlijk wel vaker buitenlandse series naar Nederland gehaald, vertaald en uitgezonden. Sam Sam is bijvoorbeeld gebasseerd op Man About The House. Ook het succesvolle improvisatie programma De Lama’s is op zijn beurt gebaseerd op het Amerikaanse Who’s Line is it Anyway?. Waarom zijn die producties wel goed ontvangen en wordt Iedereen is gek op Jack op Twitter volledig met de grond gelijk gemaakt? Heel simpel. Sam Sam heet geen ‘Man van het Huis’. De Lama’s heet niet ‘Wiens tekst is het eigenlijk?’. Die programma’s hebben allemaal hun eigen draai gegeven aan de uitstraling en scripts van de serie.

De grootste fout is echter dat het leeuwendeel van de ‘acteurs’ in Nederland totaal niet kan acteren, laat staan comedy kan acteren. Linda de Mol is een geboren presentator, laat haar lekker in de camera kijken en de volgende kandidaat aankondigen. Ze is totaal niet op haar plaats in een TV serie, ook niet in Gooische vrouwen want haar acteer prestaties zijn daar al net zo waardeloos. Jeroen van Koningsbrugge is meer een man van typetjes en korte sketches. In series als Neon Letters kan ik enorm om hem lachen, maar in dit soort programma’s is het zo overduidelijk dat hij een script opleest dat het meteen niet meer grappig is.

Het is een gemiste kans, want ik kan enorm genieten van de humor in Everybody Loves Raymond. Maar een serie vertalen in het Nederlands is meer dan een script opvragen, door Google Translate heen halen en uitzenden. Als de serie meer dan dertien afleveringen krijgt hoop ik dat ze iets met al die kritiek doen, maar stiekem hoop ik dat de kijkcijfers tegen die tijd al ver onder de 100.000 liggen.

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De serie Stargate SG-1 is gebaseerd op de film Stargate uit 1994 waarin de vondst van een grote metaal/stenen ring centraal staat. De ring, de stargate, bied je de mogelijkheid om in een fractie van een seconden van planeet naar planeet te reizen zonder daarvoor in een groot duur ruimteschip te hoeven stappen. De film en de TV series vertelden uiteindelijk het verhaal achter de stargates.

Het vierde hoofdstuk, of een nieuw verhaal?

Met Stargate Universe lassen de makers van de series het vierde hoofdstuk van het verhaal in en ze zetten meteen hoog in. Door de serie bijna compleet los te koppelen van de verhaallijnen uit SG-1 en Atlantis hopen de makers dat ze een nieuwe publiek zullen trekken dat meteen kan mee kijken, ook al hebben ze nog nooit van Stargate gehoord.

Helaas heeft dit plan, hoe goed bedacht ook, weinig kans op slagen. Alleen in de eerste aflevering van Stargate Universe zitten al een dozijn termen waarbij van de kijker verwacht wordt ze te kennen. Termen als stargate en wormhole zijn nog vrij makkelijk op te pikken als nieuwe kijker maar zodra er wordt begonnen over de Ancients, chevrons en zero point modules ben je elke nieuwe kijker vrijwel meteen kwijt.

In Stargate SG-1 en Atlantis werd de werking en het verleden van de stargates tot in detail uitgelegd. Beide series zijn in totaal ruim 16 jaar op TV geweest. Je kan een nieuw publiek simpelweg niet midden in zo’n lang verhaal gooien en verwachten dat ze het op een zelfde niveau zullen volgen als de fans die het al vanaf het begin volgen. Naar mijn mening is dit de grootste inschattingsfout geweest, maar absoluut niet één die de nieuwe serie minder goed maakt.

Volwassen

Met de pilot* van SG-U werd meteen al één ding duidelijk; de serie moet en zal volwassener worden. Alles, van de camera shots tot de verhaallijn is volwassener geworden ten opzichte van hoe Stargate SG-1 twaalf jaar geleden begon. Zo kregen we al vrij snel in de serie een ‘bedscene’ voor onze kiezen (hoewel er niet echt spraken was van een bed, eerder een bezemkast), iets wat zeer verrassend is voor de oudere fans omdat zoiets gewoon niet voorkwam in de vorige series. Afgezien van één half naakt scene in de pilot van SG-1 (er waren alleen borsten zichtbaar) werd er verder nooit echt naar seks verwezen.

Ook de aanwezigheid van bloed en geweld is in vrij grote mate omhoog gegaan. Waar de oude series vrij weinig bloederige scenes hadden wordt er in SG-U niet voor geschuwd om redelijke hoeveelheden bloed te laten zien. Het sterven van personages is overigens ook op de schop genomen en sterfscènes zijn nu meer aanwezig dan ooit in tegenstelling tot de vorige series waarbij de dood van personages vaak suggestief waren of volledig buiten beeld werden gelaten.

Over het algemeen hebben de makers van SG-U een goede beslissing genomen om de serie met de tijd mee te laten gaan. Hoewel de serie nu wel iets meer lijkt op andere sciencefiction series en niet meer zijn eigen stijl heeft doet dat absoluut niet af aan de kwaliteit van het verhaal. Stargate Universe is een sterk vervolg op zijn voorgangers en zal in ieder geval de oude garde goed weten te amuseren.

Robin

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1. Backstage: Stargate Atlantis First in a long list of backstage material is a...

This year was no different. As usual the students from the fashion department had to organize a complete fashion show for their practical exam assignment, taking care of clothes, make up, music, choreography, you name it. The exam location for fashion changes each year as far as I know and this year the location was the old Gooiland Theater, right here in Hilversum. Great of course, because that makes it really close to home.

The Stage

Since we had exams earlier that morning, me and the classmates who were also coming to help out arrived at the theater around noon. A lot of the work had already been done; moving heads were already in position above the stage, audio equipment was already up and working and they were just about to begin building the primary stage construction. The idea was to create a sort of banana out of cloth on which we could project colors and shapes using a set of 3000 Watt moving heads and another set of 2500 Watt. Needless to say these things emitted a huge amount of light but the effect in combination with the ‘banana’ was very cool to see. My compliments to the stage designers (probably my teachers… cheers!).

The Spotlights

When the stage was done, all lights had been programmed, every cable taped down and everything was working it was time for the waiting game. Most of us hung around aimlessly while the light guys were doing their best to program the light table in time for the big show.

After about an hour the dress rehearsal started and me and a classmate were sent up to the balcony to operate the two spotlights. I’ll tell you right now that being a spotlight operator is not as easy as it looks since you have to try to predict every single move a person is going to make. Especially the first act was hard to follow since it was a sort of African dance, this guy was jumping all over the place. I’m actually glad I got to see it during the dress rehearsal a couple of times otherwise I would have majorly screwed up during the real performance.

In the end we did good though. We got a lot of compliments from people sitting at the Front of House about how good we spotted for a first time which did make me feel good. It’s always nice to be appreciated.

You Break It, You’re Broke

When the show was over and the audience had left the theater the entire crew started to break the stage (which luckily always goes a lot faster then building it). The ‘banana’ was being torn down again, audio equipment packed up and cables rolled up and tossed in crates.

However in our hurry to be done as soon as possible me and one of my teachers kind of forgot that especially the 3000 Watt moving heads might take a while to cool down again. As we lifted one up and tried to tilt it over, the head had a sort of ‘FUCK YOU’ moment and started twisting and turning in all directions, making us lose our balance and almost dropping the damn thing lens down onto the stage. And just to paint a picture, regular 250 Watt moving heads already cost about € 3000,- a piece. These 3000 Watt moving heads cost about € 15.000,- a piece and we almost demolished one. Quick as I am I managed to save it by quickly grabbing the head and holding it up, but that also came at a price. Since the lamp was still hot I received a small yet very painful burn on my hand which proceeded to bleed for the remainder of the evening. But hey, at least I won’t have to cough up my share of 15 grand.

Holland’s Got Talent

A fun fact about this particular theater is that Holland’s Got Talent was done in this very theater, on the very stage we were working on. I generally don’t like those kind of shows though I must admit the *’s Got Talent shows were a lot more amusing than their Idols and Popstars counterparts, mostly because of the live audience present at the auditions.

It was very fun to see and reconize parts of the theater, such as the place where the jury sat and some spots backstage. Check out the video’s and photo’s below and see for yourself.

Final Thoughts

I have to say it was a very fun project to work on. For the first time I’ve actually worked in a theater and also had a chat with people who work there on a daily basis. Speaking to one of the employees really informed me about how things work in an actual theater.

After the stage was clean and everything was loaded up the entire crew had a few drinks in the theater’s bar. It’s fun to be socializing with your teachers after an event like that, especially because you start to know them from a completely different angle. I hope to participate in a few more projects like this next year. For now all I have to look forward to is building and breaking the school dance, but you will read about that next week.

Robin

Photos and Videos

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And it wasn’t even that hard. All we had to do was build a small piece of stage, install four lights and install some audio. The catch was that we had to follow the rules of the Labor Inspection. Things such as lifting with your legs, not with your back. Or carrying certain things with two persons instead of one. They are simple rules but also very simple to forget when you’re on the job.

In total we had four hours to load up the equipment in our studio on the ground floor, transport it all to the first floor, build the stage, break it down and then transport it back to the studio. The timer would be stopped when all of the equipment was back downstairs and everything accounted for. Me and my teammate managed to do the entire assignment in a little under three hours, clocking in at 2 hours and 57 minutes. And that included two small breaks.

Of course this exam was not a race for the best time. We were being graded by our teachers on following Labor Inspection rules, the way we work, neatness, logic and safety. And judging by how little they had to say during and after the exam, I’m assuming for now that we didn’t make any huge mistakes. In fact, we even caught a few mistakes they put in the exam on purpose. More points for us!

The results of the exams so far will be announced next wednesday.

Robin

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Last year I went to the Open School Night since I was in fact looking to join the Media department. I knew what I wanted, so I had planned to just go there, get what I need and go home. But when I got to the Media stand the first thing I heard was ‘the department is full, we don’t take new registrations. We can put you on the waiting list, though.’.

Really?! If it’s full then why the hell did you put a damn stand there? No way in hell I’m going to wait 2 years to do a damn study. I was twenty for crying out loud. Obviously I did manage to get in eventually, otherwise this blog would be a whole lot of wasted server space.

Anyway, yesterday was no different from the night I had gone there to register. The media hallway (as it is known to most people in the department) had taken every piece of equipment we have from storage to create a very awesome display in our TV studio, obviously meant to show off the kind of stuff we do around here. Absolutely everything was there, from the expensive moving lights to TV cameras and even an auto-cue (I have no clue why we have such a thing at our school). It was very impressive to see when you walked inside, but you couldn’t exactly see anything going on from the main hallway. To solve this, me and a friend from class came up with the idea to set up a simple audio installation in the hallway, indicating to people that something was going on. And it worked, in less then five minutes from setting up we attracted a lot of curious people from down the hall.

We played some music, had two girls from another class do some chit chat over the microphone and generaly just had a good time. That day I think I was at school for a good twelve hours.

Pictures
Taken with the camera phone as usual, excuse the quality.

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Robin

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That idea belonged to David Crane and Marta Kauffman and that idea would grow out to become the insanely popular TV sitcom Friends. The humorous adventures of Joey, Chandler, Ross, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe did not take very long to be liked by the American audience. New episodes kept being made, new seasons kept being ordered and ten years later the six unknown actors have become true moviestars. David Schwimmer for example played the role of Captain Sobel in the TV miniseries Band of Brothers. Matthew Perry made appearances in, among others, Beverly Hills 90210 and played the main character in The Whole Nine Yards alongside Bruce Willis (who later featured on Friends after a bet between Matt and Bruce).

The series final episode aired on May 6th, 2004 and drew a mind blowing 52 million people to the TV screen in America alone. Of all the actors from Friends only Matt LeBlanc (Joey) stayed in his original role and started his own sitcom, following Joey’s life after splitting up with his friends from New York.

Of course there have been a few Friends wannabees in the years after the finale. However it has been proven quite difficult to live up to the standard Friends set in those ten years. New sitcoms have come and gone, all with their own magical ideas about what would make their new sitcom unique.

On September 19th, 2005 however, it became clear that the spiritual sequel to Friends didn’t have to be unique in it’s own way. The only thing that sequel needed was more of the same; the adventures of five friends in their late twenties living in modern New York City.

How I Met Your Mother

To me also known as Friends 2, How I Met Your Mother is one of the best and funniest TV shows I’ve ever seen. The story of the show is that of a father telling his children how he met their mother in the year 2030. Most of the show just takes place in 2005-2009 though with only tiny moments from 2030 here and there.

The writers of HIMYM are doing a fantastic job coming up with original characters, situations and jokes. However the character Barney Stinson (played by Neil Patrick Harris), has really boosted the shows popularity. Barney’s one liners and hilarious ways of scoring chicks have quickly captured the hearts of many viewers to the point where Neil already has a huge fan base after only four seasons. Various people are selling t-shirts with some of Barney’s most famous quotes on them.

I for one am a big big fan of How I Met Your Mother and hope that it will be at least as successful as Friends was back in its day. I hope very much that the show will continue for a good 10 seasons or even beyond that.

To the writers of the show: You’re doing a legendary job! Keep up the good work for years to come!

And of course, to keep with the spirit of the site, some backstage material and a blooper reel. Enjoy!

Behind the scenes footage (Couldn’t embed this, sorry!)

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After a little speech, detailing how they got their hands on some of the latest equipment for the school (ten audio mixers and twenty eight speakers), it was time for some hands on experience with mixers and speakers. Our objective: Set up two speakers and a mixer.

In groups of two we got to work and in a few minutes time we had an entire row of speakers and mixers with a whole lot of cables dangling between them. One little tip when you’re setting up professional equipment; tape off any dangling cable. Obviously our teacher gave us an ear full for just leaving the cables like that where anyone could trip over them and take down some pretty expensive equipment along with it. But since this was just a quick test it wasn’t that much of a problem.

Some other teachers came to watch and we got a few group photo’s. If I manage to get my hands on to them (which shouldn’t be too hard) I’ll make sure to post them up here.

Sold!

Remember that I moved house a while back? Well tomorrow is the final wrap up concerning the old house. Signatures will be put on paper and I will finally receive the money for my old house so everything can get back to normal. Happy days!

Well, pretty random entry for today but don’t have much more to share right now.

Robin

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The following Monday was the first of a three day event over in another ROC building in the center of Amsterdam. The event serving as a sort of informational meeting mixed with some fun team play events. My teacher and some hired help (including me and a classmate, though we didn’t get paid unless you count a 25 euro gift certificate as being paid) were responsible for everything audio visual. Everything from building the stage to operating the lights and sound installation was done by us. And, like with any event, the first day started with building.

Monday February 9th – Day 1

My day began at the ungodly hour of 4:30 AM. I didn’t have to be at school until 7:30 AM but I don’t like rushing in the morning like some people do. Do you know there are people out there who shower, dress, eat, watch the news, walk the dog and pack their bag in less then half an hour? I’d go crazy every single morning!

Anyway, after I took my time preparing for what would be quite a long day, I got in the car and headed to school where I would meet with my teacher and my classmate. By 8:00 AM we were all in my teacher’s car, heading to an AV supply company who would be supplying all of the equipment for the event. After a short introduction we got in an already loaded truck and headed off to Amsterdam, hoping to arive there before 9:00 AM. Needless to say traffic around Amsterdam sucks at that time of day so we didn’t get there until about 10:00 AM or something.

We quickly got a move on and started building seeing as we were already late. While the more experienced guys started working on assembling the trus, I unloaded the speakers and dragged them and their standards to the right place. All in all work went pretty smooth and the entire stage + control booth was set up and ready to go around 4:00 PM.

Tuesday February 10th – Day 2

For the event that would be taking place today the attendees would be guided through the building and attend presentations in various classrooms about stuff so boring I don’t even want to know. These presentations did require a computer and beamer to be present though and setting those up was our job.

The event at the main stage started at 9:00 AM and the classroom presentations would start at 11:00 AM, meaning we had two hours to get everything set up. But as usual everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and we ended up with a rather primitive blueprint of the building which, on top of things, was marked incorrectly. It took some doing and a lot of talking to people to figure out in which classrooms exactly the equipment was supposed to go. But in the end all beamers were working at 11:00 AM and everyone was happy.

As for the rest of the day, we did absolutely nothing. The only time we were needed was when the stage was actually being used, which wasn’t even that much during the day. The entire crew spent more time on Solitaire that day then on anything productive.

By the time the entire thing ended, which was around 9:00 PM, we got started on turning things off and covering things up for the next day. I got home at about 10:00 PM.

Wednesday February 11th – Day 3

Just out of curiosity I asked my teacher how long we would be working today. He took a look at the schedule and told me that the event itself would be lasting until 9:00 PM, minus the breaking and packing of the equipment. We were in for another long day.

Since the morning part of the day was not really that busy and we didn’t need 6 people running around doing nothing, I requested to come in later. Luckily I was granted that wish, so on that last day I got to sleep in a bit at least. But even when I got there, things were still boring. For the biggest part of the day we just sat around again, doing nothing. At that point you’re glad when the entire thing is over because that’s when you actually get to do something.

As soon as the last guests left the building we started tearing down the truss, ripped apart the stage and threw everything (ever so gently) in their respective cases. All in all it cost us almost 2 hours to get everything loaded in the trucks at which point everyone was glad the day was over.

We said our goodbye’s and all headed to our respective homes. I reached mine at about 10:30 PM, at which point I was just about ready to fall asleep on the sidewalk.

All in all it was a very cool job and if there’s one thing I learned it’s that I am NOT going to go into the lighting business after I’m done with this study. As fun as the work is, the hours are hell and I do not want a job with hellish hours.

Robin

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The funny thing about this story is that the entire thing was recorded, by accident or on purpose, who knows. Be advised before listening though, it’s a pretty intense audio clip and not exactly safe for work unless you’re allowed to swear a lot.

Download the audio clip here.

I’m kind of two sided on this entire thing and here’s why. I go to school to learn about stuff like backstage work particularly, so I understand how this guy must have thought “let me just check the light real quick, otherwise they have to redo the entire scene just because I screwed up a light”.

That right there is doing more then you’re hired to do. If the director thinks the view of the scene is bad because a light is busted or aimed wrong then he’ll tell you and THEN you can go fix it. Unless you are specifically told to get on the set to fix something you should be as far away from the damn thing as a possible. And according to the audio clip this guy walked right onto the set twice in a row, in my books you’re just dense if that happens. As if everyone on the set being in position to shoot isn’t enough indication for you to stay clear.

So does that justify how Bale reacted? No of course not, but it’s understandable. Acting isn’t an easy job. As much as we all like to bitch at people for bad acting, we couldn’t do it any better ourselves if we tried. So when you spent a week memorizing a scene and have to do it for real it would be nice if things could go right in one try. Can you imagine some dude ruining your scene twice in a row? I think I would be pissed too.

Anyway to make something good come from a bad situation someone took the above audio clip and used it to make a remix. It’s quite nicely done, you can download it here.

Robin

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Today was particularly fun day because today we got to build the stage for the very first time! Together with our teachers from light class we went up to the cafeteria to prepare the stage for a short performance by RED!. We basically had to put the lighting into the stage truss (the construction above the stage) and help out with guiding cables and making sure the stage was ready and safe for the performance.

When the stage is not in use there are generally a few lights on the truss, though not connected to anything. They are mostly there for the show of things and to keep the storage from getting to full. However the lights that are normally up there are generally not used with an actual performance. So before we could put the performance lights in we had to take those other lights out.

When the truss was empty we got together to have a quick look at the light plan. This a top view of the stage and the truss that displays which light is supposed to go where. In this case we were using the standard PAR Lights, MAC 250′s and MAC 300′s. The latter two also being known as Moving Heads since they can pretty much move in every direction and are programmable to even the tiniest little details using a light mixing table.

We spent about four hours getting the lights in position and securing all the cables to the truss. You don’t want to ruin a good stage by random cables dangling from the truss above you. So when all loose ends were literally tied up (or in this case taped down) we could start inspecting all the safety cables.
To make sure a light doesn’t just fall down on someone should it come loose one way or another, every light has to be secured to the truss with a special safety chain or cable. In the case of PAR lights the barn-doors (the flaps you sometimes see on these lights) have their own safety cable.

When we made sure everything was secured as it should be the more experienced light guys could start programming the lights. I watched along a little as they did, but there were so many buttons there that I quickly lost track of what the hell he was doing. In any case, programming those lights is a lot of work.

Before the performance could begin there was only one more thing that needed to be installed: sound. Luckily we were not responsible for providing the sound as RED! brought their own installation for that. We just had to help unload it from the truck and get it up to the stage.

Setting up the audio took the guys only fifteen minutes or so and fifteen minutes after that the show finaly started. Many of the school’s students had gathered in the cafeteria to watch and the good news was: all our lights worked!

It’s pretty cool to see something you’ve worked for hours on come to live like that. It’s to bad it doesn’t last, tomorrow we have to take the entire thing down again. It’s been a very educational experience though and I hope we have many more projects just like today.

Pictures & Videos!

Of course I did take some pictures and shot some video. What would the world be without camera’s in your phones these days, right? Hope you enjoy watching these as much as I enjoyed making them!

Oh and excuse the quality of the photos. It’s just a phone camera afterall.

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Robin

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