Fireworks fakery annoys America : Is it really OK to shuffle the landmarks?
Ah technology! When the producers of the Independence Day fireworks decided on a little tweak to Boston's annual patriotic orgy, they didn't realise they were lighting a fuse to trouble!
But it was a big fake.
Boston natives all across the country realised you couldn't have seen fireworks behind these landmarks - since the display came from a barge in the Charles River - in a totally different direction.
Now the organisers have admitted that the broadcast although live was "digitally altered" with the landmarks pasted in.
David Mugar, the local businessman and philanthropist producer of the show for nine years, said this was the first year such alterations had been made.
The added images were above board, he said, because the show was entertainment and not news.
“We’re proud to show scenes from our city,’’ Mugar told the Boston Globe . “It’s often only shown in film or in sporting matches. We were able to highlight great places in Boston, historical places with direct ties to the Fourth of July. So we think it was a good thing.’’
The footage of the landmarks was shot weeks ago. Camera crews criss-crossed the area shooting videos of famous landmarks one evening in May.
“I’d say we shot from about 8 p.m. till 4 or 5 the next morning,’’ Mugar said. “Among other places, we got video of the Old North Church, the State House, Quincy Market, the statue of Paul Revere, Fenway Park, with the full cooperation. The Red Sox even turned on certain lights for our shoot.
"We did it all with the intention of superimposing the fireworks over the images. The technical process is called matting.’’
Entertainment or not, some viewers were not amused to learn that the footage was altered
T.J. Jeffers said the fireworks and the crowds took him back to his childhood..
" I’m shocked they changed stuff on TV, because they didn’t need to. The fireworks don’t need dressing up. They’re fireworks.’’, Penny Thompson, said. “I just don’t like knowing it wasn’t real. That’s not cool.’’
Eric Deggans, a panelist on the CNN media show “Reliable Sources,’’ said the altered video presented a credibility problem for CBS.
“In today’s media environment - the most important commandment for media is to not mislead the viewer. If you’re a viewer who doesn’t know Boston, you’re getting a picture of the layout of the city that doesn’t exist,’’he said.
David Perry, a Massachusetts native , who watches the televised fireworks each year from his home 800 miles away in Ohio, was the man who alerted the Globe about the altered video.
“The shame is I’ve always thought the fireworks were among the best in the country. So there was no need to add anything. The fireworks by themselves would have been good enough.’’
A CBS Television spokesman wouldn't tell the Globe whether the network was aware of, or approved of, the fireworks show being digitally altered.