1015 replies to this topic

[faster]

How come I now have the feeling that the Opening Ceremony will be the live-action version of Wall-E?

[daveypodmore]

The bell is a great idea. On the morning of the opening ceremony the whole country is to be awoken by the sound of bells ringing so its a fitting start that the bell will sound the start of the games.

I thought that too about the bell, its rung at the start and at the end it turns to become the cauldron, interesing idea.

[baron-pierreIV]

And how would a 27-ton iron bell, sit atop a 180-foot tower suddenly become the cauldron? It just sounds too much like living in a firehouse. I think that bell idea will recede in importance as the show gets put together. The "bell" idea sounds great on paper but in reality, execution-wise, there's NOT much you can do there. 84 seconds I think it was before the Countdown for LA 1984 began, they had all the church bells around LA County peel. That was it, and then the show just proceeded from there. And they didn't have to have some 27-ton behemoth structure on stadium grounds at all. There just seems to be too much fixation on one particular huge, object now.

[Brekkie Boy]

An upturned bell shaped cauldron though could be quite ugly. I'm not so sure about the bell myself - if anything I think I'd put it in a permanent home outside of the stadium within the park to start with and ring it from there rather than have it stuck in the stadium throughout the ceremony.

It does seem Diversity will be involved in some way. There has been reports this week Ashley Banjo has been asked to choreograph a large scale "street dance" routine for the ceremony and he pretty much confirmed he'd been approached on This Morning and would be involved without doing the whole usual "can't talk about that" routine.

And thankfully The Spice Girls are now talking about hijacking the Diamond Jubilee for an unwanted reunion rather than the Olympics (I suspect Danny Boyle told them where to go!).

Has any more been said about a series of concerts being staged during the games featuring several top acts. Had to laugh when I saw that in the paper a couple of weeks ago being highlighted as "giving London something to celebrate" and plans to screen them across the world. I suspect it was someone trying to get in on the act rather than a LOCOG idea as obviously the Olympics themselves are more than enough for Londoners to celebrate - and TV companies around the world will probably be otherwise engaged during the Olympics.

[afiqnadzir]

maybe the "bell" design is not the traditional looking one...maybe designed by heatherwick?who know...modern art bell..

[Ikarus360]

Ok, I think now i'm starting to get more excited for this ceremony.

The bell thing with the Shakespear line sounds like a fitting start for the opening ceremony (I already imagined the Big Ben bells would signalize the beggining until now, something a la Moscow 80 Kremlin bells), although it's true that Berlin '36 did it before (Athens did it as well, although with smaller bells, signalizing the entrance of the Olympic Flag).

The concept of a society revitalizing after industrial chaos sounds a bit like there could be some Steampunk segments involved onto it. I'm also glad that he's going to focus on a narrative. The "What we were, who we are and who we want to be" sounds like the cultural performances will be divided in three big segments. Maybe the "what we were" thing could be the typical segment which shows the ancient history of not just England but the british islands as well, like celtic culture, middle ages, victorian age, etc. I'm kinda liking as well that he's considering the actual stadium scale.

I'm not fully convinced about the nurses thing, but if it's a small part of the ceremony (like a tribute) then I wouldn't mind. (I was never a fan of Zorbing balls to be honest. I think the Sochi 2014 handover could have been done without that)

Overall, and with the promise of featuring never seen before CGI film techniques (projections, without doubt) sounds like it's going to be a very well made ceremony, which reminds me a bit of the 2002 and 2006 CWG ones so far. Can't wait to see more details in April.

PS: Pardon my ignorance but i do recall that Take That was pretty much confirmed to be at the closing ceremony, but i'm not sure about the opening.

[Citius Altius Fortius]

mmhhh - do you think that they really tell us something about the ceremonies or do they want to lay a false trail?

I don't really want to know details - I want to be surprised...

[Rols O'Bertilsson]

I've worked it out. It's Danny Boyle's next film:

[baron-pierreIV]

/\ SUper, Rols!! Just super!! /\/\

[Citizen-Seth]

Insidetherings has an awesome spoof of the ceremony. Hilarious!

Quote

Sir Trevor: "And finally..."

An early draft of the London 2012 Opening Ceremony has come intoinsidethegames's possession

The draft includes a number of handwritten annotations mainly signed 'DB'; these are reproduced in italics.

9pm sharp. The Great Olympic Bell tolls. BONG, BONG...

Cue Sir Trevor McDonald (applause)

Sir Trevor: "And finally...

"Oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clement's..."

As Sir Trevor reads the words of the children's rhyme, which have been modified to capture the Olympic spirit, church bells across the city of London begin to peal out.

By the time the last line - "I do not know, says Sebastian Coe" – is reached, every bell from Heathrow to Harlow is ringing. [Muezzins? DB]

9.10pm The main stage rises up from the centre of the stadium to reveal Pink Floyd, the great British rock band, who play the song Time from Dark Side of the Moon, the great British rock album.

As they play, children from East London schools act out the lyrics; on the line, "No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun", they are joined by Usain Bolt.

Meanwhile, a giant plastic pig floats slowly into position above the stadium. [Memo to self: Get Dave to tweak that line "Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way". Too close to the bone...DB]

9.15pm As Gilmour sings "The tolling of the iron bell...softly spoken magic spells" we realise that the Great Olympic Bell has indeed started tolling again.

9.16pm Lights down. Silence. Spotlight on the figure of Caliban (actually David Tennant), who addresses Olympic dignitaries: "Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises..."

As he speaks, children from East London schools appear and cavort around the arena waving the Official Caliban Puppet ™, available in Official Olympic Merchandise Outlets from tomorrow.

An Underworld soundtrack, incorporating blaring horns, sirens, pneumatic drills etc, starts to play.

9.20pm and 12 seconds [See what we've done there? DB] As Caliban/Tennant declaims "I cried to dream again", the procession of great British institutions begins.

Pink Floyd provide the soundtrack – Wish You Were Here, Another Brick in the Wall and so on.

The procession includes:

- Arthurian knights [Antonio is requesting exclusively black horses. Seems harmless enough. DB]

- Eton College schoolboys [actually children from East London schools in costume]

- Bobbies on the beat (from the forces which won a clean sweep of Olympic Tug-of-War medals at the London 1908 Games).

- Posties waving sheets of Official Gold Medal Winners stamps ™, available from tomorrow

- NHS nurses [Lansley assures me he can find at least half- a-dozen who can be trusted not to use the occasion to protest against his bill. DB]

- Bank of England [May need re-thinking if Euro-zone collapses. Too provocative?]

- The obligatory London bus, open-topped, with proverbial 'Man on the Clapham Omnibus' (in this case, the member of the London 2012 backroom team who came up with all those useless but endearing London bus-related stats) waving from the upper deck.

9.45pm sharp. Athletes' procession starts. [To prevent viewing figures from imploding, this MUST be kept moving briskly. To that end, as well as the upbeat Underworld soundtrack...]

Each team to be led by a man in unkempt blond wig riding a penny-farthing bicycle. [As luck would have it, the Coventry factory where penny-farthings were made was called "Ariel". Ariel/Caliban. Geddit? Doncha love it when a plan comes together!? DB]

[Memo to self: Don't order the wigs yet. We may need to rethink some of this in light of the result of the London mayoral election on May 3.]

By convention, the Greek team is first to enter the stadium [Apparently the Germans want them to go up to the crowd rattling collecting buckets to help pay for the 2004 opening ceremony. What do we think? DB]

11.59pm (Following all the solemn Olympic pageantry) Cue Sir Trevor McDonald (applause)

12 Midnight. The Great Olympic Bell chimes twelve times.

As the twelfth chime dies, the Olympic torch arrives in the stadium, carried by...Ariel, Shakespeare's "airy spirit", or in this case the Procter and Gamble employee who did most to lift the company's profit margins in 2011, as assessed by an internal global competition.

[For pete's sake, make sure the costume doesn't look too much like a packet of Excel Gel. DB]

As the cauldron is lit, "Ariel" turns to the crowd and speaks a single word: "Brrrrrilliant!"

http://www.insidethe...biz/blogs/15684