Closing Ceremony thoughts?

[Scotguy]

How hot was michael buble..... phew!!!!

[Mainad]

Reposted my thoughts from another thread:

Loved the humour with the missing cauldron leg finally showing us how the whole thing should have looked in the first place.Great stuff!

William Shatner is a funny guy but has a cheesy side to him too.On this occasion I felt he allowed his cheesy side a bit too much rein. Michael J Fox looked and sounded better than I had feared but can't recall much of anything he said.It was left to Catherine O'Hara to inject a bit more humour into it which she managed passably well.

John Furlong's speech was very moving although he really should work on his excruciatingly bad French.I felt that Jacques Rogge managed it much better!

The Sochi handover segment was a bit ponderous and boring IMO.Overlong and overly serious rendition of the Russian national anthem followed by some wonderful if predictable images from Russian ballet and opera themes.Where was the Sochi element (or did I miss it)?

Musicwise: I liked the opening musical chant with the snowboarders,the singing of the Greek and Olympic anthems,Michael Bublé and Alanis Morrisette's numbers.Can't recall much of the rest as it just seemed to fizzle out with some nondescript rock/rap numbers.

It was okay but I enjoyed the OC a lot more!

[slgames]

I thought having Le May Doan back to light the 4th column was good, I felt bad for her during the OC.

And yeah, when I heard Furlong try to speak French, it was so bad that I thought he might have been doing it intentionally, LOL.

I also thought O'Hara's whole "I'm sorry" thing was weird, and too much. I guess I just didn't get it (I'm an American).

And when Michael J Fox said something about the "new medal count", they showed the big screen as if something was going to happen, but then nothing happened on the big screen. Another malfunction?

And I also thought it was strange that the athletes entered pretty much as separate countries, and then sat down pretty much as separate countries too.

I'll have to go back and watch the recording... I don't remember seeing Avril Lavigne on the NBC broadcast.

BTW, who was the stunning woman next to Ben Agosto? She did not look like Tanith Belbin.

And who was the stunning blonde woman waving the magic wand during the Sochi presentation?

[baron-pierreIV]

Did they present the 2 new athlete-IOC members at Closing?

Hmmmmm. ANother glitch or departure from protocol. Hmmmm, these are turning out to be NOT the best Winter Games yet!!

[gdodds]

Did they present the 2 new athlete-IOC members at Closing?

Hmmmmm. ANother glitch or departure from protocol. Hmmmm, these are turning out to be NOT the best Winter Games yet!!

yeah they did, right after the Cross Country skiing medal ceremony.

[Faster]

I find it funny that we all b!tched about Boris's lack of decorum in the Beijing handover segment, but when Gregor Robertson walks out in a Team Canada jersey, not a peep. Maybe its because one looks like a clown and the other doesn't.

[baron-pierreIV]

yeah they did, right after the Cross Country skiing medal ceremony.

Thanks to NBC's infinite wisdom, they decided U.S. West Coast viewers were not worthy of seeing that portion..so I never saw it.

[4gamesandcounting]

Did they present the 2 new athlete-IOC members at Closing?

Guessing NBC must have cut it - yes both of them were presented and then gave flowers to the Volunteer representatives.

Not sure how I could cope with Olympic Ceremonies with adverts! Thank goodness for the BBC!

[Dinhu4ever]

Broadcasting in Brazil was also advertisement-less. Still, commentators were annoying XD We got the see part of the ceremony twice since the free to air broadcast started two hours after the cable broadcast. Fun night!

[SkiFreak]

Thanks to NBC's infinite wisdom, they decided U.S. West Coast viewers were not worthy of seeing that portion..so I never saw it.

CTV cut to commercial while the 50km Cross Country medal presentation took place. Hopefully it will be intact on the DVD.

[Mainad]

I find it funny that we all b!tched about Boris's lack of decorum in the Beijing handover segment, but when Gregor Robertson walks out in a Team Canada jersey, not a peep. Maybe its because one looks like a clown and the other doesn't.

Never really got that one.I'm no fan of Boris and,yes,he does look odd and can act like a buffoon at times but I never noticed in what way he was supposed to have behavied 'without decorum' during the Beijing handover.As far as I recall,he was on his best behaviour.The only thing I remember the Chinese whingeing on about was that he had 'failed to button his jacket'! Quelle horreur!!

So I think you are probably spot on!

[walei]

NBC's camera work was really bad during the CC (OC was great!). The local broadcast used OBS, and during the Shatner/O'Hara/Fox segment the camera was aligned properly to the drapes so you could see the projections lining up properly to the three screens.

Anyways, after the new medal count and when Fox pulled the lever, the projection showed 9999, maybe it wasn't that visible on the NBC broadcast?

Also at the very beginning before the clown appeared, NBC shot was focusing on the platform instead of the trap door of the fourth leg. There were sparks flying about in the trapdoor to simulate someone's fixing the door, it was hilarious! Another thing is during Rogge's speech when he declared the game closed, some in the audience booed him. He just chucked up both of this arms with a "what can I do" smile. First time he smiled during the OC/CC! But NBC's camera was focusing on random athlete... Really poor job by NBC, not to mention cutting Furlong's speech.

I want to see CTV's version... but their OC camera work was god awful!.

[4seasonscentre]

^

Well you can watch the OC on the CTVolympics website and they used different cuts.

We can forgive Gregor's appearance in a hockey Jersey because he's hot! (plus the maple leaf had aboriginal artwork)

The internal/external flame bit is troubling me. Was the original plan to have the closing ceremony start with the flame lit? I thought it could only be lit for a short time and the audience probably would have been given at least an hour to get to their seats.

I am also questioning the authenticity of the flame. When Catriona lit it during the closing, it looked as though the thing fired up before she actually touched it. Also, how could her flame spread to the 3 other side flames and the central one?

with the opening, how did the flame spread to the centre, and for the exterior, how did gretsky manage to light all 5?

[mattygs]

Much like the opening I've got mixed feelings on the closing ceremony, I gotta say I can't see it as being one that I would go back and watch multiple times - like others have said, a ceremony that had highs and lows.

Highs:

- The opening sequence of the cauldron leg was a good one and got the ceremony off to a good start, kind of following in the footsteps of the lawnmower man chase in Sydney where it passed Ric Birch on one of the infamous roo bikes of Atlanta.

- The made in Canada segment was a good one, however, I don't really think it was good enough to form the backbone of the field entertainment. It had a great soundtrack and did the whole Canadiana thing well. But I guess the problem here is that it was so similar to the concept used in Sydney. There is surely a danger that an *ana* segment will be the common place during all closing ceremonies.

- musical performances of the night fell in both the high and low bucket. But I think the performance of Alanis was a good one. I do think though that perhaps they could have given it a tad more substance artistically

- The Sochi handover is probably the part of the closing that I will go back and watch. I do agree with the fact that it did seem abit disjointed and I didnt see too much of a theme or a concept in it. In saying that, it was visually pleasing and used some cool stunts, I particularly liked the troika . I dunno if they would have spent *that* much money on it. They have to thank Vancouver for giving them a good stage to work with.

Lows:

- I liked the return of the comedy sequence to a closing ceremony, something that past events have had, but which have been missing of late. But I just think it was abit too wordy, it would have gone way over the head of most people who don't have English as their main language. And at times, it did kind of fall ever so slightly into the same mould as the tryhard poem from the opening ceremony. The idea of it though, the pulling down of the stars and making them seem like very regular people, was a good one. I think my approval rating would have increased with the inclusion of Ryan Reynolds.

- Half of the music of the concert was pap, Im sure there could have been a bunch of better people that could have been included.

- Oh Canada sounded like it was performed by the cast of High School Musical or Barney. A shame. And unfortunately the tribute to the athletes song at the start really just was a tad too cheesey. Ironically, going against everything Bjork wanted when she wrote her song for Athens (not that I think that was a great one, but *uve got to try your hardest, ure doing ure best* sorta lyrics just don't cut it)

I think in general I am maybe from the old school when it comes to closing ceremonies. I definetely think that the prime purpose should be to give the athletes a good time. But I do think there is a room for a small artistic portion right at the start, something that Vancouver didnt have. It doesnt have to be a wankfest, but past closings have managed to juggle the party aspect, with this. Manchester 2002 Com Games closing a prime example. It managed to keep the party atmosphere (despite the rain) while producing one of the most epid pieces of stadium theatre during the *Common wealth* segment.

You can even interweve this with the concept of *I am Canada*. The way for instance, that at the 2006 Com Games ceremony in Melbourne, they used some iconic Melbourne landmarks in lights, creating an ethereal scene.

As I mentioned above, the Alanis performance imo could have been turned into something similar to Christine Anu's *My Island Home* from Sydney.

I think it would have been nice to have a reflections kind of segment, and I do feel it was missing that emotive *goodbye* moment. Yeah, it can be corny, but done well, it can be a moment which will stick in the minds of people. Granted its not the 1980s, but Goodbye Misha everybody.

I also think that these magical awesome Games deserved alot more than a pack of tryhard dancers and a ceedy hip hop artist being Vancouver's last gasp. It really just fizzled and fell flat.

All in all, as I say, a mixed effort. Followed too much in the footsteps of Sydney. They needed to find their own special and unique plan for Vancouver.

Still a pretty decent show though, one focused very much for the athletes.

[Athan]

I liked the Made in Canada segment the most. It was perfect, as well as the "cauldron fixing" part at the beggining.

I also think the Russian anthem was too long, when it seemed they were gonna stop singing they started again and again and again... The presentation of Sochi 2014 was good, but it looked like if the Games were being held in Moscow. The comedy acts were really difficult to understand for me because the Eurosport commentators didn't stop talking! They even said they were difficult jokes for the Spanish audience as they were English plays on words (for example, something related to beers and Juan de Fuca that they didn't want to explain). And, c'mon, the Canadian anthem wasn't that bad... but, of course, the one sung by Nikki Yanofski 16 days before was much better (not very singable but really beautiful).

BTW, does anybody know the names of the different segments in the ceremony? I have only found "I am Canadian" and "Made in Canada" and I don't even know if they're the official names.

Good ceremonies, Vancouver. I hope the same at the Paralympics, not like Torino Paralympics closing ceremony which was a complete disaster.

[Citizen-Seth]

Maybe this has been answered already, but at the beginning, after the countdown when the kids put down their snow board what are they spelling. Is it just 'strong and free' or is there more there that I'm not catching?

[mr.x]

I think it spelled "True North Strong & Free".

[4seasonscentre]

It is not a good sign that we have no idea what they were writing

[Scotguy]

Realised just how much i liked the opening ceremony, after wathing the closing again. The flame lighting at the start, they should have planned it that way all along, as they knew they would have to light it again at the start of the closing, and no one would have been any more the wiser had the 3 legs appeared

[Olympian2004]

The internal/external flame bit is troubling me. Was the original plan to have the closing ceremony start with the flame lit? I thought it could only be lit for a short time and the audience probably would have been given at least an hour to get to their seats.

I am also questioning the authenticity of the flame. When Catriona lit it during the closing, it looked as though the thing fired up before she actually touched it. Also, how could her flame spread to the 3 other side flames and the central one?

with the opening, how did the flame spread to the centre, and for the exterior, how did gretsky manage to light all 5?

I very much suppose that it was the original plan anyway to have the closing ceremony start with the lighting of the cauldron. Since the extinguishing of the cauldron is one of the most important parts of every closing ceremony, they simply had to relight it and let it burn for the ceremony until they've reached the extinguishing segment. The only alternative would have been to just rely on the outdoor cauldron and show its extinguishing on BC Place's videoscreens. But that would have been extremely anti-climatic and cold and would also have prevented Neil Young playing his song and creating a campfire atmosphere in BC Place, without a flame above him.

I also noticed that a flame popped up on the base of the fourth leg before Catriona dipped her torch. It looked very Albertville- and Lillehammer-like, where they obviously used automatic lighters as well -- and while they also switched that lighter on a little too early in Albertville (before the flame on the wire actually reached the cauldron), they had it simply on the wrong side in Lillehammer (opposite from where Prince Haakon stood -- while he dipped his torch into the right side of the cauldron, the flame popped up on the left side). But at least, it looked like as if Catriona's flame somehow "mixed" with the "automatic" flame.

And it's also obvious that they used automatic lighters for the other legs of the indoor and the outdoor cauldron. There was no sort of connection between the different legs on which the flame could "jump" to the other legs (especially not to the central one). I ask myself how often in recent Olympic history they really used only the genuine Olympic Flame to light the cauldrons.

Moscow -- who knows? The crawled up the stem of the cauldron and was unvisible for the last part of its "journey" up to the bowl

Sarajevo -- looked authentic

Los Angeles -- most probably yes

Calgary -- looked authentic

Seoul -- looked authentic

Albertville -- very obviously it was an automatic lighter who did the actual honour

Barcelona -- I suspect they used an automatic lighter since the flame didn't shoot down from the arrow's position above the cauldron to the base of the cauldron bowl, but the other way round

Lillehammer -- as I said, it looked very obviously like an automatic lighter

Atlanta -- it looked as if the flame lit only one of the gas nozzles and they used automatic lighters for the rest of the nozzles

Nagano -- looked authentic

Sydney -- looked authentic

Salt Lake -- once again, difficult to judge since the flame crawled up the stem and it wasn't clear whether the flame could "break" through the base of the cauldron bowl

Athens -- looked authentic

Torino -- the most definite unauthentic cauldron lighting in Olympic history

Beijing -- probably authentic, but difficult to judge

Vancouver -- partially authentic, partially not

[4seasonscentre]

I remember the 1999 Pan Am Games cauldron was huge ass!

From the overhead shot you could clearly see that the pilot lights were already lit and they just fired up the gas when the torch was touched against the lid of the cauldron.

[olympian]

what's the title of the second song avril lavigne sang during the concert segment?

[spectator12]

Qas it losing grip? I can't remember.

OMG:) just youtube it, it was 'happy ending'

'my happy ending'

[Kenadian]

The songs chosen by (or for) some of the concert performers just didn't have the right message.

Avril's "My Happy Ending" was not a happy ending. The song is negative: My Happy Ending lyrics

Simple Plan's "Your Love Is A Lie"? Also a negative message: Lyrics

And then there's Nickleback's "Burn It To the Ground": Lyrics. Is this the first time the word "sh1t" appeared in an Olympic ceremony? And I don't just mean the guys on stage.

[olympian]

thanks.