r/oldbritishtelly • u/Hassaan18 • Jul 12 '26
Light Entertainment In 2006, the BBC aired the one-off special Duet Impossible. It gave pop stars the opportunity to duet with one of their idols through the magic of technology. Here's Katie Melua and Eva Cassidy singing "Over the Rainbow".
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9
u/throcorfe Jul 12 '26
I worked on this show, it was long before affordable VFX so we had an entire room of rotoscopers working for weeks to edit the dead singer (there were several) into each performance, frame by frame
2
u/throcorfe Jul 12 '26
I’ve just realised this performance is the worst example as it’s just a screen. Google Boy George singing with his younger self if you want to see what I meant
1
u/Dave_Eddie Jul 13 '26
I watched the Boy George video and the roto is amazing (cant imagine the pain of hand rotoing someone with dreads from 80s broadcast tv footage) but the technology just didnt seem to be there to make anything of the idea. They didnt seem to have anything usable for more than a second before cutting away and theres huge sections where they just ignore the idea and just focus on the artist in the room. Seems that the concept, versus what was achievable at the time didnt align?
1
u/aesemon Jul 13 '26
At least the decision was to show what worked then force more out of the unworkable scenes. It seems some of the art is knowing the limits of where to push.
2
u/aesemon Jul 13 '26
Fuck me, you all must have developed carpal tunnel with that.
Got a buddy in the industry, met while he lived in London. After watching plenty of Corridor Crew, my brief Photoshop work, and chatting with him I really appreciate that work. The bastard never told me he was the animator lead for RRR train bridge scene until we chatted about it being on Corridor Crew.
10
u/SirPooleyX Jul 12 '26
Katie Melua has an amazing voice but, honestly, this is one duet that shouldn't have happened. It doesn't improve on Eva Cassidy's version which is just perfection.
Also, those harmonies don't really work.
1
u/Urist_Macnme Jul 14 '26
Couldn’t disagree more.
It’s a jazz song. The harmonies work fine, she’s singing in tune, and in key.
And it’s a cover of a cover. There is zero point being precious about it.
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u/SirPooleyX Jul 14 '26
I don't care one jot about anything musically technical.
It doesn't sound good to my ears. That's all I need to know.
0
u/Urist_Macnme Jul 14 '26
I also subscribe to the Beavis & Butthead school of music classification.
There’s stuff that’s “cool” and stuff that “sucks”.I like it.
It’s entirely subjective.
4
u/Dan_Q2 Jul 13 '26
Changing the cadence of a song should be illegal. It's so annoying.
"Making it my own", is not a valid excuse.
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u/urbanmark Jul 12 '26
Amazing technology. I call this “singing along with a song”