Eurovision 1996: Ooh Aah... all the VFX! | Super-cut with animated scoreboard

An edited down version of the 1996 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo with a scoreboard using today’s technology. Nothing but a fun lockdown project.

This edit will give a flavour of the evening (18th May) with Terry Wogan’s commentary.

My favourite bit of 1990s history is the sheer rate of technological change that occurred. No one could argue that RTÉ hadn’t produced three excellent shows but NRK’s production feels light-years ahead. Perhaps it was because I got to edit this show based on HD upscaled footage, but everything about 1996 felt fresh, although not universally successful.

I feel some entries in the second half of the show weakened the show a bit, and ultimately the running order wasn’t great, but it was strong year nonetheless. The UK being stuck in second was the first issue, when really we could have done with some techno to break up the ‘new age’ floaty-ness elsewhere, Malta being so near to the UK didn’t help either. Based on the pre-qualifying round this should’ve been a walkover for Sweden, but perhaps the juries had heard enough of ‘Enya-lite’ by song 23. A ‘97 show in Tallinn, Stockholm or even lovely Ljubljana felt possible. In the end, I think it should have gone back to Oslo but the power of Irish culture at this time was difficult to beat.

The re-order board really exposes some interesting trends this year which aren’t visible in the VR studio. Lop off Ireland and you have a dazzlingly close race. Sweden’s rise, and Croatia’s demise are fascinating. Norway receiving everything but 12’s meant that Ireland’s win came almost quietly, the crowd cheering preferring to cheer the home team. A 3-pointer to Norway just tips Ireland over the top.

Norway really felt it was showing itself off this evening – such a contrast to the formal production of 1986. NRK may be guilty of spending money where a simpler solution would have been better and, as the last year of ‘jury-only’ voting, we know new ideas bring fresh uncertainty. As with the relegation, ideas needed to be tested, and dropped if they don’t work. It seems this would happen to the VR, and hopefully to Morton’s non-2020 friendly turn of phrase. As for the music, for now, it’s the familiar New Age stuff that won the day – perhaps bigger change will come in 97.

DESIGN AND THE BOARD
This year was always going to be tough, mainly because the Silicon Graphics VR solution meant there were several conveniences that I couldn’t get around. The mix of presenter, scoreboard and green room feed meant I couldn’t just replace the boards as I have done so far. The solution? I made my own TV studio and added screens so we could jump back to 1996 when we needed to. The price? I can only fold in the ‘full frame’ shots of the green room, where the 96 board simply had reaction shots in the background. A nice idea, but I feel the set failed to improve on the core product. Technically impressive, but it doesn’t help tell the story at all, although I notice Terry certainly has some better in-booth information for commentators. He could read off the ordering pretty quickly – why not make it viewable to the audience?

It was clear the main theme of the studio was industry, but then some musical instruments were included in the branding and the main shape appears to be some sort of hammer? Jagged-edges seems to be a theme in the mid-90s and that was the first to go, as well as the fussy elements of the logo. I’m using simpler shapes with lighting to add some complication to it.

With cleaner edges, and a rounder studio, I used a bold statement font based on Bauhaus posters of the 1920s – Staatliches (Brian LaRossa, on Google Fonts) together with the IBM Plex Sans font. Old and new together! The theme being ‘change’ throughout this show, and nothing signifies change more than steel flooring and giant cogs, right?

I must admit, this is my first go at a studio build and it’s very basic but I hope it gets the job done and has some fun with it too. I’m also not hooked up the broadcast quality graphics cards, so some of the movement might seem to stutter too - cottage industry!

An added complication was the new relegation - (R)elegated = (N)edrykket system. The board now has all 30 countries scores from the previous 3 years, is adding the current score and ordering (behind the scenes) the relegation table. Countries that are below the threshold are flagged, as live. The Top 5 will show which countries are due to return in 97.

TRANSFER NEWS (source: Wiki)
See the 96 pre-qual vid!

INTERVAL ACT
Great camera work and some diddily aye-ing.

CREDITS
@Eurovision Russian Fan for Terry
@Schlagerarkivet for HD-ness
Grunge effect image Freepik.com created by kjpargeter
Flags: countryflags.com (Cyprus altered), Bosnia: Wikipedia.
All Copyright goes to BBC for Wogan, and to NRK.

00:00 Intro
06:37 Song super-cut
32:09 Interval act
37:02 Voting intro
38:28 The reorder board 96
1:24:33 Recap & reprise