Jurassic Park Machine To Facilitate Pageant Telecast

Seemingly unmindful of the controversies that have dogged the Miss World pageantry, Combined Artistic Productions of South Africa is leaving no stone unturned for producing a technically superior Miss World 1996 telecast.

The telecast will be beamed in 115 countries to more than 2 billion people. Realising the global attention that will be lavished on India, the South African production crew has hired Firer, a high-speed editing machine used by Steven Spielberg in the making of Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park.

We got Firer after a long hunt, says producer Mark West of Combined Artistic Productions, known for its 60 minutes show in the whole of Africa. The Firer is a sophisticated giant production machine that allows fast editing. Eight weeks of editing can be finished in half the time with it, Mark West explains.

 

The crew faced the challenge of acquiring the right equipment for the show when it made rounds of Indian film and television studios. The Miss World event starts in Delhi, spreads to Seychelles and then comes back to India to different locations. Then there is the aerial shooting in Bangalore and Delhi. Besides, reels of film rolls taken from remote and Piter cameras mean more editing. All this puts pressure on the crew, which needs powerful equipment to quicken the production process.

Both Mark West and Cathy Ferrara were here for the television coverage of the cricket World Cup, an event telecast across the globe.

Like last time, they have brought an OBV (outside broadcasting van) for the Miss World telecast.

From the shooting point of view, we wanted to show the world what India was all about, Mark West said, and we wanted to add something new every year.

Landmarks like India Gate and Red Fort in Delhi and Lalbagh and Vidana Soudha in Bangalore will form the backdrop. In Seychelles, it will be the beach. For the main event, the crew is working hard on the giant stage that spans 90 feet in width and 50 feet in height.

ABCL also plans to bring Miss World to the viewers on a souvenir CD-ROM and on-line on the Internet.

Besides Combined Productions, Mumbai-based Raja Interactive, which specialises in event-focused management, is working round-the-clock to provide a multimedia delight during Miss World show. It has already set up a Miss World site on the Internet and is the licensee for the CD-ROMs to be released on the pageant.

The company is engaged in designing and implementing customised solutions for clients in providing Internet solutions, multimedia technologies and event management.

The list of others involved in the Miss World multimedia show reads like a who is who of Indian IT industry.

Indian Interactive Realities, which concentrates on advanced graphics development for websites, is doing the pre- and post-Miss World CD-ROM development. QuantumLinks, which set up the countrys first dial up Internet system called Virtual Community, is taking care of the Internet site development.

US-based Netcrawler provides Internet services, sets up websites and home pages on their server in the US. It is now providing Internet space for the Miss World site.

The server has multiple connections to the Internet and also has audio, video, Oracle 7 database and secured transactions with credit cards.

ABCL is offering corporates marketing space on the Miss World Internet site and CD-ROM.

One-third of the 115 countries receiving the Miss World telecast will not get it live. Besides, the time difference will make the live telecast hour inconvenient for viewers in some countries.

The Miss World Internet site will be up for six months. Internet buffs can either log in on-line to watch the event or relive the moments at leisure.

The site will offer options to the web user to view a section or sections of a site which holds interest for them. This interface is not possible on television.