Oct. 2017: This is an impromptu shoot of the Macao Chinese Orchestra (yes, this is how they spell ‘Macau’) It is the celebration of the People’s Republic of China’s National Day which starts October 1st each year and lasts a few days. Well that is what we thought, but when we got to the reception, out pops The Macao Chinese Orchestra for an absolutely wonderful display of musical talent. Unexpected and unprepared, with not enough cameras and no sound set up, we shot what we could under the circumstances among the tables and waiters et al running in front of the camera constantly. With the hand held footage, this borders on bootleg appearance, but pretty good we thought without any preparation or organised placement.
The footage is not in order (creative licence). The orchestra actually started after Ambassador Qi Zhenhong‘s speech and we have not shown all the performances. Unfortunately some footage unusable.
We get to attend quite a lot of similar events but generally, few nations put on such a display due to the logistics of bringing entertainment to Bahrain. Yep, we thought the usual speech and cake cut, the normal greeting, some lovely food (oh yes) and night night. What a surprise, The Macao Chinese Orchestra in its entirety it seemed, flawlessly playing their hearts out with their traditional instruments. Absolutely superb!!! You will no doubt enjoy this little soirée.
Note & nag: Unbelievably, so-called professional photographers were blatantly standing in front of our cameras, absolutely oblivious, shooting video on DSLRs looking right down the lens of our camera even, filming people eating when the orchestra are playing. WTH is that all about? So much footage ruined. If you are one of those watching this video and guilty; no forgiveness. You are quite simply unprofessional and ignorant and we will embarrass you if we see you again. Yes, it can be a rat race out there to get the shots, but we ‘considered’ professionals normally try to work together avoiding blocking each other, but of course it inadvertently happens and we apologize. Still, in post we tried to clean it up as much as possible, so a little forgiveness, it was the best we could do under the circumstances.