Drawing Cheap Traffic: The NDP Video Saga

haha… Ok, just that I wanna put in my little thoughts about the whole event.

I think people are angry cos an event that is supposed to epitomize the success of Singapore through a video ended up to have elements of an idea appeared somewhere in the world (in this case, Japan).

They didn’t think ‘remake’ is acceptable as a reason, especially for a workpiece as significant as the video.

ya… I agree. Not only did the producers lifted the idea, they also remastered the same scenes (as pointed out by a STOMPer). To this end, I think it’s very… 窝囊 for the producers.

I mean, being accused of lifting ideas can be a fuzzy matter; it can be hard to establish how the idea can be protected with rights. But re-doing the same scenes was too over le. It’s like a new CD that has songs that not only sounded like Jay Chou’s songs, but with the cover concept like one of his albums.

As far as I remember, from the Engin Prof module, a work is original if substantial effort on the creator’s part is added (’substantial’ here is debatable). One can refer to the Japan’s ad for inspiration, but convey it in a local context, with styles unique to sg, such that it can be established as 异曲同工; same idea, but conveyed differently.

Like, you know, the boy can be filling up the paper not with crayons, but with mathematical equations. ah… Can also make parents (viewers) worried about stressing their kids with too much school work.

But from another point of few, cos the idea was only one of three in the NDP video, it is tough for us to say that no substantial effort was made to make the video original. The WHOLE video, yes, is original, but perhaps not a segment of it.

On the other hand, some people take it to the level that as a producer of the NDP video, they should have some personal pride to avoid such outright copying. Which I agree. He/she should have put in more effort (like what I mentioned above) prove to people out there that with the same ingredients, sg people can concoct a different flavour for tasting.

ya… That’s all.

Do relax and watch both videos after reading so many words…

p/s: I prefer Cai Chun Jia’s version… lol