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Opening Ceremony


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Its 2014 - the Opening Ceremony was 18 months ago now, and it is still being discussed! C'mon guys, lay off.. it wasn't THAT bad. ;)

It may be a sign of the way things will go in the future. The newly-published performer's book we've been nattering about over the past couple of days is just the latest example of a huge outpouring of information, from videos to blogs and beyond, which was unimagineable even a few years ago.

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Still not seen a key piece of background stuff though, well I've seen clips, but Im desperate to see the Pre-visualisation Danny Boyle did

I wish you hadn't mentioned that!

Illustrating my earlier point, when I idly Googled for hints of pre-vis footage, I accidentally found:

The story of the search for archive footage used in the OC

More details on the lighting with a transcript of the lighting section of the Showlight presentation we saw a few months ago

- so miuch information everywhere ......

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http://www.kimboltonfireworks.co.uk/

The Olympic year was always going to be a frenetic year, with the procurement process of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games behind us, the planning started as soon as we returned from our New Year's Eve exploits with the prospect of delivering four world class ceremonies that would be watched by over 1 billion people world wide.

The busy summer program started with the opening of the 2012 Festival in late June with a firework finale at the Big Concert, on midsummer night Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Boliver Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela performed a spectacular outdoor concert set against the stunning back drop of Stirling Castle.

Very quickly the 27th July loomed ever closer and our team of 50 pyrotechnicians worked tirelessly around the clock to rig and set up the largest display the country has ever witnessed. The Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games was a once in a life time opportunity and it was an honour and a privilege to work on such a prestigious and high profile event as the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

With over 350 firing locations spread around the Olympic Stadium and Park, the scene was set for the most nerve racking 5 minutes of our lives. As the restrictions on what we can report lift we hope to provide a more detailed case study of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Ceremonies. For the time being below is a shot taken by one of our firers, Nick Alloway.

_DSC0118+-+Copy.jpg

http://vimeo.com/58701742


http://vimeo.com/58245536

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  • 3 weeks later...

In one of the currently-absent YouTube link discussions a while ago, concerning Patrice Leconte's "Le Batteur du Bolero" as an antecedent for Rowan Atkinson's "Chariots de Feu", I mentioned a vague memory of an even earlier sketch featuring a musician who had almost nothing to do at all. I meant to ask my mum about this, but forgot, so I was pleasantly surprised yesterday evening when she mentioned the connection herself. It turns out there may be Sochi relevance, as the piece being performed is the "1812 Overture".

The sketch, created by Charlie Drake in 1959, and redone for a compilation show "The World of Charlie Drake" which won a couple of Montreux awards in 1968, contains much much more than that one gag- it's even a possible ancestor of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" video. The original sketch title was actually "The Recital".

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  • 5 weeks later...

:) Interesting to see on the latest Google Maps fly-over published, Venues all but complete, the main stadium has the Opening Ceremony "Gardens of England" and the Thames Map laid out on the arena ready...Nice to view. :)

Check out Bing Maps for the main Stadium, they are a bit older than Google Maps, but they show "Thames Map" under construction.

This imagery works only with Birds Eyes mode. (Not aerial mode). You get a sense of depth of how high the stage was to ground level, and where the trap doors were.

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  • 4 months later...
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A bit of weirdness from industrialist Sir James Dyson:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11338645/Dyson-Olympics-ceremony-nearly-made-me-smash-my-TV.html

published today in the UK Telegraph, is a hyped-up version of an article published by the BBC back in 2012:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19045639

It seems Sir James missed the point of the OC back in 2012 (he mentioned Tim Berners-Lee, but failed to grasp why he had the same place in "Thanks Tim" as the Rings did in "Pandemonium"), and then lost the plot completely looking back from 2015.

However, while trying to work out why the heck the Telegraph was running the piece today (best guess: The Times yesterday had a proper Dyson article, about his views on the state of the European Union), I discovered, thanks to a bizarre detour, the following little video about the Tower Bridge helicopter stunt, which is worth watching just for the soundtrack (unless of course that also falls foul of copyright law by the time you read this). I love the Peter Gunn theme.

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  • 4 weeks later...

A bit of weirdness from industrialist Sir James Dyson:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11338645/Dyson-Olympics-ceremony-nearly-made-me-smash-my-TV.html

published today in the UK Telegraph, is a hyped-up version of an article published by the BBC back in 2012:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19045639

It seems Sir James missed the point of the OC back in 2012 (he mentioned Tim Berners-Lee, but failed to grasp why he had the same place in "Thanks Tim" as the Rings did in "Pandemonium"), and then lost the plot completely looking back from 2015.

However, while trying to work out why the heck the Telegraph was running the piece today (best guess: The Times yesterday had a proper Dyson article, about his views on the state of the European Union), I discovered, thanks to a bizarre detour, the following little video about the Tower Bridge helicopter stunt, which is worth watching just for the soundtrack (unless of course that also falls foul of copyright law by the time you read this). I love the Peter Gunn theme.

Thanks for that. The whole video seems so Pirandellan. People filming a helicopter filming the action. The only thing missing was Lizzie herself coming incognito and filming herself incognito filming something with her "stunt" double in it.

CLip again proves what a crazy, eyesore, helter-skelter skyline London has.

JMark. Is there any other way I can read your Ceremony reflections? I don't have an eReader -- altho I am getting a new Surface Pro tablet this week. Would it work on that one??

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Thanks for that. The whole video seems so Pirandellan. People filming a helicopter filming the action. The only thing missing was Lizzie herself coming incognito and filming herself incognito filming something with her "stunt" double in it.

CLip again proves what a crazy, eyesore, helter-skelter skyline London has.

JMark. Is there any other way I can read your Ceremony reflections? I don't have an eReader -- altho I am getting a new Surface Pro tablet this week. Would it work on that one??

I remember the London skyline when it was dominated by St Paul's Cathedral.

Sigh.

Anyway: if you can't get an ePub or Kindle reader on your new tablet, then I could send you the html master file, which you can open with any web browser.

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  • 8 months later...

There was a good programme on BBC 2 last night at 8pm. It was all about British culture as an export. Its starting point was the Opening Ceremony and highlighted that as a nation that is now our culture that we export as we are no longer the workshop of the world.

Was worth a watch if anyone has an hour to spare. I think there are 4 programmes in the series.

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There was a good programme on BBC 2 last night at 8pm. It was all about British culture as an export. Its starting point was the Opening Ceremony and highlighted that as a nation that is now our culture that we export as we are no longer the workshop of the world.

Was worth a watch if anyone has an hour to spare. I think there are 4 programmes in the series.

Yeah saw it - was vv good!

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There was a good programme on BBC 2 last night at 8pm. It was all about British culture as an export. Its starting point was the Opening Ceremony and highlighted that as a nation that is now our culture that we export as we are no longer the workshop of the world.

Was worth a watch if anyone has an hour to spare. I think there are 4 programmes in the series.

Yes, very interesting. Took the same sort of message from the OC as I did in "By Strange Conveyance" but went into much more detail, with great archive footage.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Today hasn't been a great day for leaving the house in West Cumbria, so the annual Christmas update of my ebook on the 2012 Opening Ceremony has been uploaded ahead of schedule.

Some extra illustrations, assorted updates (including a link to a looking back from 2015 story by the firm responsible for most of the big props, such as the liftable "Thanks Tim" house- pictured with massive damage after it blew away in high wind- and a brief look at the recent video rediscoveries which make the famous Emergency- Ward 10 kiss less significant than it seemed in 2012).

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