Tuesday 12 August 2008

A freudian slip perhaps?!?

I simply do not watch television if there are no subtitles, even if it is a film or programme that I know well as I do not get the same level of understanding that I would if it did have subtitles.

There are very few programmes or films that do not have subtitles these days, but they do crop up every now and then and that does annoy me rather. So, despite the fact that my oldest brother says that live subtitles are crap and the providers could do better, I am very appreciative of the fact that there are indeed live subtitles as I realise that they must difficult to provide.

A rather good side benefit of live subtitles is that they go wrong sometimes, usually in a very funny way, and the example that I am about to give you is no exception!

I was watching the 7pm coverage of the Olympic opening ceremony, it wasn't actually live because this was seven hours after the event, but the commentators were live at that point telling us about it although the ceremony itself wasn't - did that make any sense to you!!?

Anyway, I was very impressed with the ceremony, the drums were fabulous, I loved the way they lit up when hit, the fireworks were good too (but that's apt seeing as China is the birthplace of fireworks). The commentators were telling us all about the ceremony and the subtitles were having a bit of a job to keep up and there was a point where they should have said "One world, one dream" only it came out...."One world, one Downing Street".

That still makes me laugh even now, was the subtitler trying to tell us that our government are intent on taking over the world?!

2 comments:

lemonologie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lemonologie said...

Sorry - my delete. I hit the publish button too soon! Anyway, I missed the opening, but I heard it was spectacular. You are completely right about the whole "live" thing. If they aren't going to show the events truly "live", then why bother. I've stayed up way later than I wanted to in order to see an event that actually took place the day before!