Drilling The Ushers

It all looks a little cleansed and standoffish to me. Smiling ALL the time may well freak people out a little bit. After all, all sunshine makes a desert.

This is so creepy. It is like they are smiling for their lives.

I automatically thought of the Stepford Wives too! I love this unique, behind-the-scenes look at the preparation for the Olympics though. It's an aspect of the Games that never would have occurred to me.
Beautifully shot and good use of music. Would love to see this expanded and given more context and data... like how sought after are these jobs? Who are the types of people they are hiring? How long does training last? etc

Will these trained ushers be handing out air filtering masks to attendees due to the pollution levels there?

Cool Pod.

I didn't realize that they were getting ushers and bartenders trained already. It looks pretty tough!

I think this could be an even stronger piece if you could follow one character throughout. Maybe follow a girl on her daily training.

I thought you did a good job of showing us several aspects of the training for both ushers and bartenders. Adds good movement to the piece. However, I think if you do follow a single character you could add even more.

Keep up the good work.

Very interesting pod with a humorous tone throughout. However, I found that it was hard to really care about these people. There's no one person we're following or supposed to pay attention to, and while that may have been the creator's intention (presenting this group of people as an "army") it prevents the viewer from actually connecting with this unique group and we forget about them soon after the pod ends. Also, the lack of a narrator's voice bothered me too; by only have text boxes there wasn't even a narrator that the audience could connect to, and we're left with a voyeuristic feel that, again, distances us from the subject matter. With that said, however, this pod has found an interesting aspect of the Olympic Games and does a good job at showing the people of China (and the hard work they’re doing) whose lives have been effected by the 2008 Olympic.

Their smiles are so hypnotic!

this feels like the beginnings of "happy" world domination!

It seems funny, but I'd like to express my personal understanding of watching this video and explain something to the host and everyone who seems not quite understand why people (young) are spending time on this drill and take it so seriously.

As we all know, young people in North America are more apt to / are educated to enjoy their own lives. They might take summer camps for fun, for socializing, for gaining common sense or knowledge off the books. The difference here in China is that young Chinese generally have a great sense of mission and commitment. They, according to the interview and indeed, cancel their vocations, take the drill and feel proud of participation, because they believe it is his/her mission or responsibility to show the groove of themselves and Beijing to the world. The whole nation in fact feel committed to fulfill their promise to the Olympic game...It's quite something...perhaps even scaring..

Chinese is raising, but for thounds of years this nation has never been aggressive to other nations. She was once the strongest one in the world and wants to gain its position again, be strong again. China is never a threat, but a good friend that invites everyone to grow with her, face and solve the global problems together with her.

As the Olympic theme of Beijing says: ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM. The door is open widely - "Welcome to Beijing"!

Hope people from different cultures try not to mock at each other for things that they don't agree to....like the US should have never tried to forcefully introduce its values of life into middle east area...stop here, no polictics:-)

Good day, everyone!