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London 2012 Opening Ceremony - What did you think?


  

143 members have voted

  1. 1. What are your feelings on the Opening Ceremony?

    • It was fantastic, up there with the best if not the best!
      37
    • It was really good, maybe not one of the best but London did it's self proud!
      40
    • Was good, could have been better.
      34
    • Meh, did not like it.
      9
    • It was poor, was disappointed.
      14
    • Was really bad, one of the worst iv seen.
      9


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Even the "rain" thingy was for like 3 seconds. What was this announcing big things...Green/Pleasant, the Bell, the rain cloud only for these things to be used or rung a few times. It just didn't make sense. And now the bell will go into storage? I mean why did they even bother???

I wish more was made of the countryside to with regards the audience at home. But the stadium audience would have been staring at the countryside set-up for ages when they arrived so for them, they got the full sense of it.

I wondered if they were perhaps because the village tableau shows football changing to rugby (i.e. someone picking up and running with the ball before throwing it) but not sure. Given the moans when Green and Pleasant was introduced to the media that it was too English, the choirs didn't surprise me.

Nor should their inclusion have ever surprised you. Each nation got a national song to represent it as should be expected. It was fair.

Why did they have two countdowns?

Wasn't the 60 second countdown more for TV whereas the 10 second countdown was more for the immediate action taking place live in the stadium?

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Nor should their inclusion have ever surprised you. Each nation got a national song to represent it as should be expected. It was fair.

It felt like a token gesture to me to pacify Scotland, Wales and Ireland and I think made the opening sequence feel a little disjointed. I think the time would have been better spent showing the Green and Pleasant land and incorporating the nationalistic elements into that more clearly. And I'm saying that as a Scot who watched that Tony Stanger try go in against England in the 1990 Grand Slam at Murrayfield!

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It felt like a token gesture to me to pacify Scotland, Wales and Ireland and I think made the opening sequence feel a little disjointed. I think the time would have been better spent showing the Green and Pleasant land and incorporating the nationalistic elements into that more clearly. And I'm saying that as a Scot who watched that Tony Stanger try go in against England in the 1990 Grand Slam at Murrayfield!

I kinda agree with you. I was actually thinking, if I was to portray the home nations in an Olympic ceremony, how would I do it? It's got its challenges for sure but equally the UK home nations have so much to draw upon so I get your point about the tokenism. I think it could have been even better.

In one of the models Danny Boyle showed as a preview all the home nations national flowers were in the green landscape. What happened to them?

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I think they were on the maypoles on the night; they weren't for the dress rehearsals. I'd even wondered whether the maypoles might take turns dancing to emphasise the countries more but nope...

Yeah, I thought more action would have occurred infield too but it didn't.

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I think they were on the maypoles on the night; they weren't for the dress rehearsals. I'd even wondered whether the maypoles might take turns dancing to emphasise the countries more but nope...

I agree with you the clips of the choirs really break the live scenes of the stadium. I really wanted to see more of what the actors were doing, there seems to be hive of activities going on there. We didn't get to see the sheeps and the cricket.

It would be much better if the other 3 nations choir were live in the stadium too. How hard it is to have them there? I still totally don't get the rugby scene. It feels like someone put the wrong clip in the editing room!

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It would be much better if the other 3 nations choir were live in the stadium too. How hard it is to have them there? I still totally don't get the rugby scene. It feels like someone put the wrong clip in the editing room!

Perhaps rugby was chosen as the sport which 'binds' us all.

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Skipped from page 1 to 29 here, so I'm sure this has been discussed but:

I would say this, I think this ceremony was made more for the enjoyment of the British people rather than the world which is fine, you guys paid for it but usually they are more centred around showing the world the culture, people, and lifestyle of the host nation. I think this is why to many international viewers it seemed odd and at times unreadable.

The NHS segment for one was a completely purposeless segment for anyone watching outside Britain, and I think that time could have been used far more wisely.

I'd argue actually we probably showed a much more honest view of the culture, people, lifestyle and history of the host nation than you get at most ceremonies. I think most people around the world seemed to get it too - even the Americans!

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I started to write a comprehensive critique about why this opening ceremony sucked, but it was becoming too large [too many flaws to talk about] and then I realized that wasting my time on this thing would be as useless as that giant bell...

Sorry... Think I sounded too rude. =/

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How come you say this?

I thought this scene was the easiest to follow.

  • Doctors, nurses and kids are having fun.
  • Kids go to sleep.
  • Kids have nightmares (monsters ect...).
  • Mary Poppins comes and saves the day.
  • Kids party with the doctors and nurses.

I would tend to agree with this. It was my best sequence...the most developed; the most entertaining...altho the narrative could've also been told using the idea of the British nanny (which was Mary Poppins). But see, I only know of GOSH (Great Osmond St. Hospital) because it is the institution that is beneficiary to all the royalites of Peter Pan and all of Sir James Barrie's works.

I don't the show was made specifically for British audiences. No, the team knew it had to play to an international audience but at the same time, Boyle wanted to show the "...best in us..." (which is perfectly valid). It's really just the way he distributed resources and timing of the various segments, And the digital love story could've been shortened and/or cut out entirely.

Still, was disappointed there was no Morris Dancing, the HMS Bounty, the Lambeth Walk, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and Susan Boyle!!

Anyway, it's one for the history books now. BTW, it drew 40.7 million TV households in the US--higher than Beijing and Atlanta TV audences, but stiill not close to the 45.6 million households of Salt Lake City.

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I noticed 3 countdowns: the video, the balloons and the LEDs.

Seems to be so much to look out for on a second viewing. I didn't catch the Olympic Rings supposedly being released into the stratasphere in the opening moments, supposedly reaching space for the random and very dodgy CGI image at the end of the ceremony. I didn't realise all the bikes were doves either until I saw it mentioned in the paper today.

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Read in the Sunday Times today that the seven chimneys were actually inflatables hold together by winches, and not telescopic structure that they seem to be.

That makes sense considering what we knew about the high water table around the stadium's foundations. I intially thought they must be fabric, but inflatable makes sense, either way they were very impressive and their texture was very convincing.

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That makes sense considering what we knew about the high water table around the stadium's foundations. I intially thought they must be fabric, but inflatable makes sense, either way they were very impressive and their texture was very convincing.

They were fabric...and went up the way the way those columns in the Imperial Court/Concubine section of Beijing did--except the Beijing ones were raised from the inside of the "pillars.". Those London 'smokestacks' were hoisted by pulleys from the overhead network of wires.

What was missing was, like the one great effect from Vancouver's show -- the blowing geysers of the "whales." I really thought they would do something similar with that map of London on the stage floor.

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They were fabric...and went up the way the way those columns in the Imperial Court/Concubine section of Beijing--except the Beijing ones were raised from the inside of the "pillars.". Those London 'smokestacks' were hoisted by pulleys from the overhead network of wires.

What was missing was, like the one great effect from Vancouver's show -- the blowing geyser of the "whales." I really thought they would do something similar with that map of London on the stage floor.

I agree Baron, as much as I question if projection and LED is being overused in ceremonies I think what set vancouver's apart was the 3D effects of water sprouting from the whales and the hanging fabrics that allowed the projected birds to fly up to the top of the stadium. I think the seat leds worked better last year in doha, but then maybe that is just a bias to David Atkin's work.

After reflecting on the London ceremony I am starting to wonder if many of us who have been following ceremonies for a long time are just used to and expect certain things and a certain fanfare sound and presentation style. If one considers that since the birth of the mega ceremony in moscow there have been people that have led to a certain style of ceremony gaining promenence. Especially a Ric Birch style (that is further adapted and continued by David Atkins and DAE) and several unique ceremonies in between that have used these dominant ceremonies as a guide. For me Athens struck the best balance uniqueness away from the dominant style but retained enough pomp and sense of occasion that I think lacked in London.

Rightly or wrong, IMO, these styles of ceremony starting in LA and continuing through barcelona, sydney, torino and vancouver have largely defined what is expected in the format of a ceremony. Whilst I loved a green and pleasant land, it is interesting to note that having performers already in position on the stage during a countdown seemed to lose for me a part of the sense of anticipation (seeing a dressed stadium with an empty field ready for the festivities to begin), which is a shame because I loved the set and tor....

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Been trying to motivate my self to do this, here we go. A more in depth review of what I thought of the ceremony, more or less from start to finish. Remember this is all my opinion, don't kill me over it!

First off, the countdown. CTV began its coverage literally a few seconds before it started so it was all a little hectic for me, I was also confused because when they cut to the stadium the first countdown was just about to end so I wasn't sure if I just missed it. Overall the balloons where an alright idea, I guess they went along well with the setting but Ill always prefer an exciting countdown with pyrotechnics. Then from what I remember they cut to Bradley Wiggins, which seems hugely out of place. He then went on to ring the bell once which left me a bit puzzled but I brushed it off looking forward to what was to come. This is when things sort of took a little dip. Firstly I think the fact that the scene was already in motion before the camera focused on it was a put off, it just seemed... off. I can't really describe it any other way, I just got a really weird feeling from it. The scene its self was alright, some interesting events taking place on that little patch of green but it all seemed way too chaotic with the camera seemingly focusing on something different every few seconds leaving me feeling very confused on what exactly was going on. Then just as quickly as it started the scene transitioned.

This was by far my favourite segment of the ceremony, the industrial transformation. Although it was a tad on the busy side like what preceded it, it did carry a sense of epicness to it which is what I had been looking for since the beginning, some parts did seem out of place such as the Beatles dressed characters which added to the confusion and chaotic feeling. The ending was great, and it was a very original way to depict the rings.

At this point I had a good outlook for the rest, although the starting was pretty shaky, and I had yet to be completely wowed I was sure with the amount of time left London could win me over. Unfortunately what was to come completely shattered that outlook, ruining what came before it and thus the entire ceremony as a hole. The NHS segment, which I was in no way looking forward too pretty much became what I had expected, boring and pointless, a waisted opportunity. Not really translating well to an international audience, and a very poor subject choice. It then morphed into the children's literature segment, something which again I found to be chaotic, albeit somewhat entertaining and dark. The massive Voldomort puppet was impressive, and the glowing blankets really gave it all an interesting atmosphere. But again I was left unsatisfied, although the scene did have its strong points the mess of things going on left me yet again puzzled. Perhaps it was the camera angles, perhaps it was the direction its self.

This is when all hell broke loose. The dreaded musical/social media segment. Good god what where they smoking when they came up with this. Starting with a family which I don't believe you saw again past the first few minutes besides the daughter, it divulged into a tour threw the decades of British music which in its self is a fantastic idea. Unfortunately the execution was probably the worst iv seen in an Olympic ceremony. The second I saw they included texting bubbles and ultra cheezy teenage interaction I knew it was going to be bad, but it just kept going and going for what seemed like a millennia, throwing in extremely odd clips from 80s sitcoms such as the Cosby show (WTF? :huh: ). It all culminated with the two teenagers eventually meeting up, and for some reason automatically making out the first few seconds they met, then a rapper coming out to top it off. Class. This was the single worst segment I have ever seen and hopefully ever will see in an Opening Ceremony, it single handedly ruined what would have been a good ceremony for me.

I continued watching, still amazed at how bad what I just witnessed was, picked up a tad by the cauldron lighting which was great, and the wonderful fireworks which followed. Overall it was by no means a great ceremony, more like a good closing ceremony, in fact it would have been a brilliant closing ceremony (Just loose the rapper.) but after re watching a few others afterwards (Athens, Beijing, Sydney) it really does not stand up to the greats, not even close. There were more faults than positives, and the good was downed out by the bad.

My overall score is a 6/10.

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Glad others felt the same way I did.

To be honest, everyone I know who saw it responded similarly. The only places I'm hearing more positive reviews are in the press and on these boards. Friends, family, co-workers -- nobody hated it, but they all found it disappointingly uneven, confusing and strangely conceived. Rave reviews for Queen. Everybody seemed to like Green and Pleasant set (what they could see of it) and the rings....

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