JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted January 7, 2014 Report Share Posted January 7, 2014 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 ...... 1 Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted January 8, 2014 Report Share Posted January 8, 2014 I'm now half-way through the Nadeem Masood book, and I can say that it is, by some distance, the most useful source I've seen for understanding both the development of Pandemonium (and the concepts behind it) and the way the OC creation in general was administered. Link to post Share on other sites
Martijn 89 Posted January 8, 2014 Report Share Posted January 8, 2014 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. http://vimeo.com/58701742 http://vimeo.com/58245536 Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 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". Link to post Share on other sites
trebor204 11 Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 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. Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted July 24, 2014 Report Share Posted July 24, 2014 My ebook on the OC, By Strange Conveyance, is now updated to include notes on the Sochi & Glasgow OCs, and on the outcome of Atopia vs LOCOG (which was not, as it turns out, just about the cauldron). Link to post Share on other sites
Martijn 89 Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 Found this video on YouTube. Don't know if it was posted before: Link to post Share on other sites
hadeand 1 Posted August 29, 2014 Report Share Posted August 29, 2014 Not sure if anyone has noticed but it's great to see one of the seven young generation cauldron lighters in 2012 doing so well. Congrats to Desiree Henry on European gold and national record with the rest of the girls. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted September 21, 2014 Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 Newish video about the Pandemonium Drummers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2rJEAAqnAI (I've added this, and a couple of others that I mentioned on GB then forgot about, to By Strange Conveyance) Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted December 25, 2014 Report Share Posted December 25, 2014 To celebrate the second anniversary of By Strange Conveyance, I've added a few more bits about the London/Beijing yin/yang effect (thanks Baron), the Orbit, and Amy Winehouse. Merry over-indulgencemas ! Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted January 11, 2015 Report Share Posted January 11, 2015 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. Link to post Share on other sites
baron-pierreIV 1702 Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 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?? Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 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. Link to post Share on other sites
daveypodmore 520 Posted November 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 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. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
adrianme17 127 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 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! Link to post Share on other sites
Rob. 2054 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Thanks for the heads up, will have a look Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted November 6, 2015 Report Share Posted November 6, 2015 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. Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted December 5, 2015 Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 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). Link to post Share on other sites
thatsnotmypuppy 559 Posted December 5, 2015 Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 Meh I'd read it but no PDF option. Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 Meh I'd read it but no PDF option. Creating a PDF book is a completely different concept from creating a true ebook. I've done a rudimentary conversion for you, but the result is not at all pretty: By_Strange_Conveyance.pdf Link to post Share on other sites
thatsnotmypuppy 559 Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 I get the whole ebook thing but it is not my scene (real books 4eva!!) - thus if something comes out 'electronically' only I personally won't seek it out. I know there are conversions sites - and as you said the results are not pretty. I thought you may have started your book as a word doc etc and thus a pdf would be an option. All good though - it is readable. Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted December 24, 2015 Report Share Posted December 24, 2015 Rummaging among the Athens Opening Ceremony videos last week accidentally led me to more material on London, most notably the "case studies" presented on the website of Stage One, the Yorkshire-based company which has created mechanical effects for most recent Olympic presentations (and much more besides): www.stageone.co.uk/projects (although presented as an image gallery, this menu page can be text-searched). Also, on close inspection of the really really really small print in the London OC programme, I found that the Pandemonium carnival dancers, notoriously missed from TV coverage, were supplied by an outfit called Mahogany Carnival, which has a nice little backstage gallery: www.mahoganycarnival.com/portfolios/olympics-opening-ceremony-2012 And although the following was created in response to NBC's behaviour in 2004, it remained pretty relevant for 2012: Katie_Couric_and_Bob_Costas_Cover_Gettysburg All the above, plus more random finds relevant to the London OC, have been added to my By Strange Conveyance ebook, so it has had a proper Christmas update after all. And yes, I have updated the pdf specially for you (now in landscape page format!) Joyeux Noel ! 1 Link to post Share on other sites
JMarkSnow2012 387 Posted January 25, 2016 Report Share Posted January 25, 2016 Carrying the discussion about the Pandemonium Drummers / Athletes' Parade marshals from the Rio section to its proper place, Steve Boyd's London 2012 portfolio page includes a nice video on the Parade marshalling with samples of the in-ear instructions [it takes a while to load because all videos for all 4 ceremonies- half of which are just from the DVDs- are built into the page]. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
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