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Opening Ceremony


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Wow, those are fantastic news!

Apropos my favourite song of "Florence and the Machine" is "Cosmic Love". This song is just awesome and absolutely epic...

http://vimeo.com/25454434

Agreed.

You could probably go through much of her work and find appropriate music that would fit well in an event of this kind, their single *No Light No Light* has a cauldron lighting appeal to it I think. I suppose music that has that tribal appeal is always going to work well with stuff like this.

I do like alot of the fusion work which comes from people who compose music for ceremonies who aren't from the traditional classic composer background.

The working of the Church with symphony in Melbourne 2006 was a highlight, and New Zealand 80s music legend Don McGlashan from the MuttonBirds (a pop rock outfit from the 80s/early 90s) has composed alot of music for New Zealand based ceremonies (the Auckland 1990 fanfare music aswell as the *All Lit Up* music from the Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony).

Will be really interesting to see where this extra money has gone. You would think technical outfitting, not completely unheard of in the runup to the ceremonies, I know the Eccles Family donated alot of money towards Salt Lake 2002 to make sure they had a memorable ceremony (I guess it was starting to look abit off without it).

I know it would be seen as so extremely self indulgent , but, there has to be a place for an epic new remix of Born Slippy in the Closing Ceremony... surely. Maybe just as the athletes are unleashed onto the field to run wild. *gets out glowstick* :D

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I know it would be seen as so extremely self indulgent , but, there has to be a place for an epic new remix of Born Slippy in the Closing Ceremony... surely. Maybe just as the athletes are unleashed onto the field to run wild. *gets out glowstick* :D

That reminds me of Safri Duo's Bongo Song that was played just before the athletes emerged for the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games. It was very dancy and worked very well in that context.

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This now puts the London budget close to the budget of Beijing. It is now 3 times the budget of Vancouver. :o

Actually, it's a little over double...not quite 3 times. :P The Vancouver budget was at $42-million from the start, then David Atkins went back to VANOC and got an additional $8-million for things like the draping system. That brings it to $50-million. A few more million after that was spent on the outdoor cauldron.

Anyway, this is fantastic news for London!!! Then again, all things considered, things cost quite a bit more in the Isles -- how much does a bottle of water cost again?...I'm gonna guess that the original budget didn't buy much.

I wish the BC/Canadian government had that kind of commitment towards the Vancouver Ceremonies.

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It did work well.

Manchester was really really good at their scripting of the PA announments. They were choreographed very well and fit in fantastically to the music being used, be it the grand orchestral *Arise* piece, or the more dancey music.

It's the same kind of feel I would like in London.

Where most ceremonies welcome may start with a *ladies and g'men, welcome to the opening ceremony of the games of the bla bla bla*

Manchester went for an energetic *whoever you are, wherever your watching.... Welcome to Manchester*.

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Mr X, welcome back! It's like Pavlov's Dog... he hear's "Vancouver" mentioned and comes running!

I have no idea how much bottled water is, only that it's about 100 times more expensive compared to the stuff that comes out of the tap. But yes, things are expensive in the UK, and even moreso in London. Still, £40m wasn't an insignificant amount of money for some ceremonies, double that and I'm expecting something special.

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Mr X, welcome back! It's like Pavlov's Dog... he hear's "Vancouver" mentioned and comes running!

I have no idea how much bottled water is, only that it's about 100 times more expensive compared to the stuff that comes out of the tap. But yes, things are expensive in the UK, and even moreso in London. Still, £40m wasn't an insignificant amount of money for some ceremonies, double that and I'm expecting something special.

Haha, I saw an article about the Opening budget being increased on my Google news feed and thought I'd drop by here.

I'm expecting great things from London 2012.

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Actually, it's a little over double...not quite 3 times. :P The Vancouver budget was at $42-million from the start, then David Atkins went back to VANOC and got an additional $8-million for things like the draping system. That brings it to $50-million. A few more million after that was spent on the outdoor cauldron.

Anyway, this is fantastic news for London!!! Then again, all things considered, things cost quite a bit more in the Isles -- how much does a bottle of water cost again?...I'm gonna guess that the original budget didn't buy much.

I wish the BC/Canadian government had that kind of commitment towards the Vancouver Ceremonies.

X, good to see you back. Well, for exact Vancouver 2010 costs, check out page 13 (in the forthcoming 2012 edition) of the GOOD BOOK, Secrets of the Olympic Ceremonies:

Recent Ceremonial Budget Fluctuations. Vancouver 2010’s Ceremonies budget was originally set at Can$58,000,000. This was an early figure bruited about when the Australian team of David Atkins Enterprises was picked to stage those winter Ceremonies. Atkins’ team was previously known for their staging the aforementioned budget-breaking Doha 2006 Asian Games ceremonies. Of that Can$58 million, $40 million were reserved for the regular and Paralympic openings and closings; and $18 million for Awards ceremonies in both Vancouver and Whistler. By 2009, the Whistler Awards ceremonies were eliminated, bringing VANOC’s entire ceremonies budget to Can$40,000,000. Then in June 2009, VANOC released an additional Can$8.3 million for improvements to B.C. Place. That brought directly related ceremonies-spending back up to some Can$48.3 million before the curtain opened. That belated Can$8.3 mil funds went to revamping the B.C. Place sound system as well as additional requirements for the show(s).

So, not quite $50 mil exactly. ;)

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It did work well.

Manchester was really really good at their scripting of the PA announments. They were choreographed very well and fit in fantastically to the music being used, be it the grand orchestral *Arise* piece, or the more dancey music.

It's the same kind of feel I would like in London.

Where most ceremonies welcome may start with a *ladies and g'men, welcome to the opening ceremony of the games of the bla bla bla*

Manchester went for an energetic *whoever you are, wherever your watching.... Welcome to Manchester*.

Yes, it certainly felt like a very different approach was used in Manchester compared to most other opening ceremonies. The announcer acted almost like a warm up man for the crowd. He did a great job at making the crowd very responsive to the teams coming into the stadium.

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The welcome announcement from Manchester. I really did like this music from Julian Scott too, showed to London that you can still at times stick with a traditional orchestral arrangement that is modern, powerful and regal. It's still one of my favourite pieces of official fanfare music used in a ceremony.

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The welcome announcement from Manchester. I really did like this music from Julian Scott too, showed to London that you can still at times stick with a traditional orchestral arrangement that is modern, powerful and regal. It's still one of my favourite pieces of official fanfare music used in a ceremony.

Thanks for reminding me of another copied segment by Athens -- the drum 'talking' sequence.

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Mr X, welcome back! It's like Pavlov's Dog... he hear's "Vancouver" mentioned and comes running!

I have no idea how much bottled water is, only that it's about 100 times more expensive compared to the stuff that comes out of the tap. But yes, things are expensive in the UK, and even moreso in London. Still, £40m wasn't an insignificant amount of money for some ceremonies, double that and I'm expecting something special.

Haha, well the tickets for the Opening at London are quite ridiculous -- of course, as we all know, they are the most expensive in Olympic history. This is a pretty good graphic if it hasn't already been posted here:

5084089584_7d086e6f0a_b.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg

http://www.pdviz.com/2012-london-olympic-opening-ceremony-ticket-p

I'm guessing it's a matter of inflating it to local market prices, market demand...and just because LOCOG can. :P I would imagine that some EU policies might also be in the works that are allowing tickets to be sold to anyone in the EU, not just the traditional domestic audience?

Vancouver is a pretty expensive city to work with, and I'm sure David Atkins realized that himself. Right now, I'm organizing a major global conference to be held in a few months in Vancouver -- getting ready to stage everything from the Opening Ceremony to the relighting of the Olympic Cauldron!

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It is true to say London's tickets are more expensive than past Games. It's more true to say - certainly looking at that diagram - there is a much bigger gap between the cheapest and most expensive tickets. This is because, for the big ticket events at least, the mega-expensive tickets (e.g. the £2012 Opening Ceremony tickets) allow organisers to sell more of the £20 ones.

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It is true to say London's tickets are more expensive than past Games. It's more true to say - certainly looking at that diagram - there is a much bigger gap between the cheapest and most expensive tickets. This is because, for the big ticket events at least, the mega-expensive tickets (e.g. the £2012 Opening Ceremony tickets) allow organisers to sell more of the £20 ones.

That's right! If some twat wants to pay 2 grand for an opening ceremony ticket then that's fine as long as it means it drives down the price for those buying the lower priced tickets. Of course there is also the concern that this is still rather elitist and the vast majority are completely outpriced in relation to the best seats.

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Mr X, I would be interested to see that same chart displaying the price of the average ticket sold compared to other games. I have a feeling it would look quite different.

I have only been to the Beijing Olympics. Spent about $500 Australian on tickets to 17 events, including 2 athletics finals sessions, Basketball finals, Diving, Handball semis.

So far for London have spent $700 for 11 events. No athletics, no Basketball finals, no diving, no handball. By the time the games come around and if I want to get to an athletics finals session and a couple of finals for different sports, my ticket spend will end up being at least 4 times what it was in Beijing.

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I have only been to the Beijing Olympics. Spent about $500 Australian on tickets to 17 events, including 2 athletics finals sessions, Basketball finals, Diving, Handball semis.

So far for London have spent $700 for 11 events. No athletics, no Basketball finals, no diving, no handball. By the time the games come around and if I want to get to an athletics finals session and a couple of finals for different sports, my ticket spend will end up being at least 4 times what it was in Beijing.

And yet they will easily sell out. LOCOG has reported unprecedented demand for tickets regardless of price... The simple fact is that there is a FAR weather population in the UK/Europe than in Beijing/China in general. While I know it seems unfair to the average Briton/person who want 'good' tickets to 'good' events, the fact is that LOCOG will charge whatever the market can support, which clearly the market is supporting these ticket prices as evidenced by the fact that the demand FAR exceeds the availability of tickets. Could I afford these tickets, absolutely not. However, obviously there are plenty of upper-middle class and wealthy folks who can and want more tickets than there are available.

Whether we like it or not LOCOG is not a charity tasked with handout out 10-pound tickets to anyone who wants them... LOCOG is a corporation tasked with paying for the games as best they can which mean holding down costs and driving up ticket prices while balancing that with filling all of the seats at every venue.

Were Beijing's tickets cheaper? Certainly. But we also remember the 70% empty venues that were 'sold-out'. The government gobbling up tickets and no one actually going does not equal a successful games. We know that virtually every event in every venue whether a preliminary for white-water rafting or a final for track and field is almost certain to be packed, which is a good thing. Just think back to how Canadians and Vancouverites specifically embraced the 2010 games with packed, lively venues, packed and overflowing streets and celebrations, and the jubilation they showed to the world. I have faith that in the end, Londoners can and will find it within themselves to do the same when the Olympic flame finally comes to town. Can London meet or exceed Sydney's organization and positivity? I think they can! I won't be there in person but I look forward to seeing it on NBC in HD. :D

Edit: ...far wealthier population in the UK...

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