I'd love to see this

[den]

SMH Story

Comments

[lonita.livejournal.com]

That actually woke Carl up this morning, but he can't see on to the road of the bridge from his flat, just the outer rails.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I'd love a Sydney F1.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

I'm avialable for this you know...

CYa!
Mako

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Australian Formula One ace Mark Webber today fulfilled the fantasy of many a frustrated Sydney motorist when he drove across a deserted Sydney Harbour Bridge.

As part of a television promotion for next week's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Webber piloted a 2004 BMW F1 Williams car across the icon five times, supposedly at no more than 90kph.

The 28-year-old from Queanbeyan said he had "not a clue" about what speeds he recorded during his seven minutes on the world's largest single-span arch bridge.

He said it was "pretty eerie" driving on an otherwise empty bridge and he was "quite nervous".

"To go over a bridge, there's a lot of expansion and movement over the years, so to drive a Formula One car over there I was expecting it to be bumpy, but it was a bit bumpier than I expected, but no problem," Webber said.

The Premier, Bob Carr, today apologised to motorists for the closure of the Harbour Bridge between 5am and 10am.

"I apologise for the inconvenience that some motorists will suffer, but this is an unbelievable opportunity for us," Mr Carr said shortly before Webber's drive.

The Premier said pictures of Sydney's major landmarks including the Bridge, the Opera House and the Harbour would be beamed to millions of viewers throughout Asia today and Europe.

"It's terrific promotion for a city that's earning a buck out of tourism."

He refused to start any Sydney-Melbourne rivalry, declaring the latter was "entitled to its unimpeachable, unstealable day of glory which the F1 Grand Prix represented".

"Nothing can steal the attention Melbourne gets with this major event, that's Melbourne's, it will stay Melbourne's but my philosophy is if its good for one part of Australia, it's good for the rest of Australia," Mr Carr said.

Webber today hinted he would be okay with sixth or seventh place in next week's season-opener and predicted some tough early races for his new employer Williams.

Driving the old Williams and using "very, very hard" tyres, Webber said today's exercise was purely promotional and provided no information about his prospects for next week.

Both Webber and Williams boss Frank Williams had previously stated the 2005 car would not be at its quickest for next week's race and the Australian driver had modest expectations of the car's early season performance.

"The ppposition we are up against is incredibly strong, but Williams knows that and we will also be a force in the future," Webber said.

"I think the first few races could be a little bit tough for us, we are not hiding away from that, but we've got to be real with ourselves.

"We are setting tough goals for ourselves, there's no point in saying we are happy with sixth and seventh and places like that, that would be okay to get underway.

"But during the course of the season, we can't stay there all year."

A spokeswoman for the Roads and Traffic Authority said no major delays were caused by the five-hour closure of the bridge.

"There was no problems at all," she said.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

shooting times

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

That's not too bad really. I used to live near the Granada studios where they make Coronation Street and I've often seen them take a couple of hours to get thirty seconds of useable footage when they're on location. Things will keep going wrong, lights fail, there's a sudden extraneous noise, cameras lock up, actors foul up...

In this case they probably shot an hour or so of tape and it will be edited down.

Re: shooting times

[skipai.livejournal.com]

Heh, I ain't surprised there. Soap opera acting. Sheesh.

Only soaps I know that they shoot here are A Pint and Two Packets of Crisps and Mersey Beat. Nothing else really, Brookside went when I was in Liverpool.

Re: shooting times

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Re: shooting times

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind if half of the scenes I've seen did require acting. One of the first scenes I saw only required one character to walk down a slight slope, pick up a half brick and throw it to the right, out of camera shot. It only took them about twenty attempts, with makeup, costumes lighting, sound, etc, etc fussing for fifteen to twenty minutes between every take. And they did dub in sound later, a cat complaining about the low flying brick.

[bobbain.livejournal.com]

If they close the bridge millions of motorists and (readers of the Sydney Morning Herald) will become aware of the promotion. Closing the bridge is the major part of the promotion. The New South Wales government will no doubt be more than compensated for lost revenue. The bridge is a tollway.

A few dollars in the hands of the Minister for Roads (perhaps).

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[bobbain.livejournal.com]

Well (if one wishes to be a cynic) it isn't (with modern technology) necessary to actually inconvenience thousands of commuters. All one needs is a picture of Sydney Harbour Bridge, a sports car and flag AND and willing journalist willing to write the story.

The commuters may wonder when the inconvenience actually took place and assume that it took place when they weren't around.

The story also makes it to the Melbourne Age (which is part of the subscription to the Fairfax group) via printed medium and the readership would be several million people.

This is known to happen with commercials at sporting events where the ads in the stadium or or on the player's costumes change to suit the area in which the broadcast takes place. In New South Wales the ads are for New South Wales beer, in South Australia for an Adelaide brew etc. This was sometimes discussed at the meetings of the Australian Computer Society "Artificial Intelligence" group.

It's a technique used in wartime footage from Iraq (this has been demonstrated).

Watch the film "Wag the Dog" :-)

[davidcook.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like that ... "unstealable day of glory" ... which Melbourne stole from Adelaide in the first place.
(not that I'm bitter :-) )

[skipai.livejournal.com]

Heh. I still like zooming about in London on Midtown Madness 2 in a F1 car. Mind you, the city isn't that good for it. There isn't that many roads that would get a F1 car to go at full pelt anyways.