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After the show David Atkins Enterprises put on in Vancouver, would you say that his reputation has taken a significant fall?

He was a completely miracle worker for the Sydney and Doha ceremonies...

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He recycled a few ideas, but I don't think it hurt him. I enjoyed the ceremonies. Well, the opening ceremony, mostly. The talent line up and writing for the closing was not to my taste. He likely delivered what his client wanted. They don't just give him $40 million and tell him to do what he wants with it. They have input and approvals to go through.

The Summer Olympics are also bigger and Australia is closer to his heart. And Doha probably spent a massive fortune on the ceremonies.

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Um, hard to say. If he was responsible for the mechanics and design of the cauldron then yes, he deserves a boot up the date. However I suspect VANOC had just as much to say about those aspects as a collective management structure, and there was a great 'save' in the closing with the 'fourth leg resurgent' skit.

Also, if he was the brains behind the musical performers he just about crossed every great Canuck act off the list (no Loverboy though...fershame!! :lol: ), so that's a pass. But why all those semi-Idol/X-Factor wannabes and cast offs which diluted the greatness of Joanie, Neil etc?

So I'd say his rep has come out with a few grazes, but no long term damage...

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Would you know of any major productions he's slated to do in the near future? Think international significance.

I know he's in charge of the production of "Cats" here in Manila but that's way below Olympic caliber.

At first, I would dismiss him as someone who peaked in Doha 4 years ago but that was failing to account for the serious limits he had to contend with in Vancouver. One thing's for sure, he's a master at spectacle, but Vancouver's ceremonies would pale in comparison to Sydney and Doha.

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David Atkins is starting to repeat himself a little on the ceremonies (i saw some elements of Doha and Sydney on Vancouver) but even with the recycling of ideas, he still makes the job done (well, except for hydraulics :lol: he should stay away from them). He also shown that you dont need thousands and thousands of performers like in 2008 to make a ceremony still look awesome. However, Doha 2006 was much better than his Vancouver work (but on other part i'm glad he didn't used a girl/boy again to connect the segments each other).

I would prefer Russia to trust their own artists to make the 2014 show. Dont want to see Atkins doing an olympic ceremony for some time since i fear he can get very, very repetitive.

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After the show David Atkins Enterprises put on in Vancouver, would you say that his reputation has taken a significant fall?

Um, no. Remember, we got what we could afford. And I think the final product was fine.

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DAE will be a contender for London for sure if Morton, Birch and Mischer submit less than stellar proposals. His saving the 4th leg fiasco of Opening in the Closing alone salvaged that gaffe.

I think Atkins (as with the others) did the best he could for his client, VANOC, and the limitations of BC Place. But I still was not sold with the design of the cauldron.

BTW. is DAE doing the Paralympics?

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DAE will be a contender for London for sure if Morton, Birch and Mischer submit less than stellar proposals. His saving the 4th leg fiasco of Opening in the Closing alone salvaged that gaffe.

I think Atkins (as with the others) did the best he could for his client, VANOC, and the limitations of BC Place. But I still was not sold with the design of the cauldron.

BTW. is DAE doing the Paralympics?

I just wonder if the creative director of the ceremonies is responsible for the design of the cauldron? I wonder if the design of the inside cauldron was the blueprint of the outside cauldron or the other way round?

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DAE will be a contender for London for sure if Morton, Birch and Mischer submit less than stellar proposals. His saving the 4th leg fiasco of Opening in the Closing alone salvaged that gaffe.

I think Atkins (as with the others) did the best he could for his client, VANOC, and the limitations of BC Place. But I still was not sold with the design of the cauldron.

BTW. is DAE doing the Paralympics?

Nope. Patrick Roberge Productions are the producers, their track record goes back to expo 86 and calgary 88.

Id be happy with Atkins involved with London, far more than Birch whi is now best kept as a technical advisor. Surely tho it must be Zolkwer and JMW to lose??? Maybe look out for Nigel Jamieson or Andrew Walsh to be involved.

As for Don Mischer, he always produces beautiful well flowing ceremonies imo. He has a knack of treating them as the grand spectacles they are, maybe too traditional for London tho???

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Id be happy with Atkins involved with London,

It'll definitely be an interesting show to watch. And let me guess, Sarah Brightman is going to be involved some how... B)

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Whether or not Atkins came out of the ceremonies in Vancouver with reputation intact or not my biggest objection to his involvement at other Games is he and his team have played once too often with techniques and stagecraft that we've seen before, either of his own or of Ric Birch's coinage. In Sydney there was a kid flying on a trapeze through archetypal Australian symbolic environments, Vancouver ditto but with Canuck prairies. In Sydney there was tap dancers in a semi-colonial/industrial, in Vancouver ditto. In Sydney there was a cauldron with articulated segments, in Vancouver ditto. In Sydney you had Olivia Newton John and John Farnham sing a power duet for the athletes and the games, in Vancouver it was Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams.

Atkins' creative riffs are becoming repetitive, which arguably is related to the fact that ceremonies in themselves have become repetitive. If it's not a snowboarder jumping through rings it's a ski jumper landing in the arena with a torch. Whilst Sochi could possibly demonstrate a curious mix of Eurovision and a Spartakiad opening, I'm hoping that the Brits go back to the future. Not rely on samey-same pop power balladeers and symbolic references to the physical geography. Get the Royal Household Cavalry into Wembley, Highland Bands, Welsh choirs, etc etc...more pomp and circumstance and bring London 2012 something only the Poms can do. And bugger the Chardonnay sipping arts critics and Idol-esque wannabes.

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Wouldn't want him anywhere near the London ceremonies.

IMO the Vancouver Opening Ceremony was the worst of all in the last 20 years - far too formal and far too concerned with giving us a history lesson, rather than entertaining. The closing ceremony on the other hand was one of the best - fun and entertaining throughout and a visual spectacle without the Beijing budget.

I'm hoping London will be similar in approach to Manchester 2002 (Commonwealth Games) where the opening ceremony had a closing ceremony kind of feel to it and I'm fairly confident that the producers will concentrate on the London/Britain of today, not it's history.

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I just wonder if the creative director of the ceremonies is responsible for the design of the cauldron? I wonder if the design of the inside cauldron was the blueprint of the outside cauldron or the other way round?

I think Vancouver's might have been a collaboration of both DAE and Bombardier.

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I think Vancouver's might have been a collaboration of both DAE and Bombardier.

... maybe I am "blue-eyed", but I always thought that cauldron is an idea from the president or from the whole organisation team - let's say Sebastian Coe wants a cauldron for London, which looks like the Big Ben - after this decision the architects and the special effect team think about how the Big Ben cauldron is hidden and appear in the Opening Ceremony - I see more clear now...

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I doubt the OCOG president has much of a say in these things. At least not in the creative development.

In this case, I'd say it was likely the Atkins people since the cauldron shared the same system as the welcome totems. And no doubt the brand and creative people were involved as well. They managed the design of the torch. But this cauldron was part of the ceremonies story, so I'd say they did a lot of the conceptualizing job in conjunction with VANOC's creative team.

I some past ceremonies, I believe it was a marketing exec with Atlanta that decided on the scroll and Santiago Calatrava did the Athens cauldron (to integrate it into his stadium plan).

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He does recycle ideas. I wonder if he will ever venture beyond projections? It's a cute visual effect, but I thought he used too much of it in the Vancouver OC. And as I mentioned in another thread before, Atkins has a certain style of 'interpreting a country's culture.'

But for the record, I do hope he will also be the creative director for London 2012.

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I think Vancouver's might have been a collaboration of both DAE and Bombardier.

And according to that internal paper by David Atkins Enterprises which was leaked before the Games, also the Genivar construction company was involved in the construction of the cauldron. I don't know whether they also had to do something with the cauldron design.

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/local/2010/01/03/DAEP.pdf (see A11 and A12 on page 4)

http://www.genivar.com/en/

By the way -- you all probably remember that that internal DAE paper mentioned five circular drapes which should hide BC Place's roof. Could it be that they actually meant that 360 degree screen which actually consisted of drapes only?

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I guess it's the difference between a creative mind and the technical know-how.

I am guessing that there are alot of people who have the mind to be able to come up with a memorable ceremony, the whole taking those ideas and turning it into a production is a different kettle of fish.

I guess I can't really picture a DAE ceremony though, where David isnt the creative drive behind it.

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