baron-pierreIV Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Congratulations!! Overall, an enjoyable show. I am sure you will see all the comments. So, Adrian, which part were in the bucolic sequence? FDL, did you perform as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympian2004 Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Oh, I completely forgot about that: Great job, Adrian and FD! You must be extremely proud now -- but apparently also tired, since we haven't read of you yet. Oh, sorry -- I just saw that FDLondon already is back. http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/topic/21640-fd-london-mines-a-pint-of-london-pride/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDLondon Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 I am/was a Mechanical; an audience leader in Ceremonies speak. So spent some time with the audience asking them to do various bits and pieces and then went onto the field during the athlete's parade as a marshall. I was one of those on the stairs stopping the athletes that had been placed on the lower part of the field from running up the verges etc and doing some dancing to pass the time. I'm probably also in quite a few athlete photos since quite a few of those walking past us decided that they just HAD to have their picture taken with us. If you look at the footage, you'll see around 300 people in white dungarees and caps with strips of colour (red, blue, green and yellow) scattered around and I was one of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citius Altius Fortius Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 Hi FD, of course our block had a mechanic, too First of all I tried to follow everything - but I think it was a little bit complicated - especially when you are not a native english speaker... There were too many different things to remember, that you had forgot the half after all the explanations - when I was in Düsseldorf for the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest we were asked to join in into the introduction song: "I Can Go, I can Go" - I think the majority didn't understand/remember that after five minutes... Another thing was with the "LED-handles" - I think it would have been great if there had been a lamp on the handle, where you could see that you should take the handle out of the holder... There was so much to see and to explored, that you didn't observed the mechanics the whole time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDLondon Posted July 28, 2012 Report Share Posted July 28, 2012 I agree... the preshow which I thought was very hard to hear and understand, even as a Brit! I think the host rushed through it a little and the demos on the screen weren't close-up enough. And then much of the participation was crammed into one segment which had so much going on visually that it was tough to get attention (understandably!). Just be grateful that you weren't on the lower tier, they had a giant Zorb halfway through Firestarter and the first many knew about it was when it bounced off the back of their head. We lost a few Pixel handles that way! I think the LED paddles have lots of uses that aren't really explored yet. They were still figuring out the best way for us to cue using them at some points. The ones used in the Arab Games last year were fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevzz Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 FD well done on that night. I thought you were the Mechanical too since you mentioned before you will be in the audience. Although I have to agree with Citius that the pre- show instructions were too much for us to take in (we gave up after halfway, too much, too complicated n tedious). Not to mention the paddles is quite a pain to even move around much, they were quite tightly attached and you can only wave them bit on knee level. I love the volunteers dance move at the athletes parade. And also the drummers behind the group chasing them along, that's a great idea to speed things up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citius Altius Fortius Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Just be grateful that you weren't on the lower tier, they had a giant Zorb halfway through Firestarter and the first many knew about it was when it bounced off the back of their head. We lost a few Pixel handles that way! I agree the installation of the LED-handles were sometimes quite loosely fixed - I saw that some pieces fell down resp. broke from the installation when somebody tried to go to the "loo" or get back to buy some drinks/treats... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4seasonscentre Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 I love the volunteers dance move at the athletes parade. And also the drummers behind the group chasing them along, that's a great idea to speed things up. Were the drummers just chasing large delegations? or perhaps countries that had a reputation for slowing things down? I noticed Canada was chased by drummers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filipe_Golias Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Were the drummers just chasing large delegations? or perhaps countries that had a reputation for slowing things down? I noticed Canada was chased by drummers. Spain too. They were almost in a single line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDLondon Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 I love the volunteers dance move at the athletes parade. And also the drummers behind the group chasing them along, that's a great idea to speed things up. I did some of that dancing too since I moved to the stairs on the field for the athlete's parade; the dancing was fun and really helped pass the time. It was like a 2 hour aerobic class in rehearsals! The drummers were known as 'sheepdogs' during rehearsals! Were the drummers just chasing large delegations? or perhaps countries that had a reputation for slowing things down? I noticed Canada was chased by drummers. They went out fairly regularly - every 5 or 6 countries during rehearsals. I'm not sure whether that was true during the actual night or whether they just went after the bigger or slower ones... they were on a different radio channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted July 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 The whole parade has to be trimmed down even further, to like, an hour for Rio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brekkie Boy Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 I think London did a pretty good job cutting it down to 90 minutes - and kind of reminded us why it's an important feature of the ceremony. It'll be interesting to see the numbers too in comparison to previous parade as I suspect having the latest ever start to the ceremony helped cut down the numbers marching. It's the first summer ceremony for ages to clock in under the 4 hour mark - at 3 hours 50 minutes it was probably half an hour shorter than most recent efforts. A bit more trimming, mainly of the opening artistic programme, could probably get it down to three and a half hours which would probably be about right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevzz Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 It's the first summer ceremony for ages to clock in under the 4 hour mark - at 3 hours 50 minutes it was probably half an hour shorter than most recent efforts. A bit more trimming, mainly of the opening artistic programme, could probably get it down to three and a half hours which would probably be about right. It could have been 3hr 30 min if they cut Paul completely (better without him), a good 20 minutes and prob 5 min from the Thanks Tim segment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brekkie Boy Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Although I'd never have had Paul McCartney there they'd probably have needed someone just to sign the night off, however impressive the cauldron lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympian2004 Posted July 31, 2012 Report Share Posted July 31, 2012 Where's Adrian, by the way? The last post he wrote is from the day before the opening ceremony. FD, do you know it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted August 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Yeah. haven't heard from or seen Adrian since before the OC? Can't recover from the post-OC blues? Swallowed by that Tor? Taken up by ETs and being grilled for Ceremonial information? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingspread Posted August 3, 2012 Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Wasn't it announced that the parade was going to be strictly for athletes only? There were still many clearly non-competing athlete-looking people marching and that prolly added an extra 15-30 minutes. Heck, half the people marching for my country were (excuse me ) old. Yeah. haven't heard from or seen Adrian since before the OC? Can't recover from the post-OC blues? Swallowed by that Tor? Taken up by ETs and being grilled for Ceremonial information? He was prolly abducted by the #savethesurprise police for allegedly leaking top-secret OC information on GamesBids.com. I reckon he is in a cell in the Tower of London and his head is now being pressed between Chris Hoy's thighs as punishment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob2012 Posted August 3, 2012 Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Yes, where is Adrian, good point? Unless he was the one on that bike at the end, in which case he's probably in orbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NY20?? Posted August 3, 2012 Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Less people defitnitly walked in the parade than usual. Teams looked noticably trimmed and the crowd in the middle of the stadium was also significantly smaller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted August 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2012 Less people defitnitly walked in the parade than usual. Teams looked noticably trimmed and the crowd in the middle of the stadium was also significantly smaller. Well, even the British T&F field team was in, of all places, at their training camp in Vichy, France!! And they really asked the bigger teams to bunch up tighter. All of which made it a more palatable, tighter show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrianme17 Posted August 4, 2012 Report Share Posted August 4, 2012 I'm here - been busy at the games! I was in Pandamonium - you can see me on tv - as well as my partner who came out of the tor - I was down by the water wheel! It was the most amazing and moving experience if my life! I know not all of you fierce critics and conosieurs enjoyed it! I made some great friends& the day of the ceremony itself was awesome - the amount of tears shed by my me and cast members - I can't tell you! The procession down from eaton manor to the stadium will stay with me forever - games makers - press - athletes all cheering us on & booing when it momentarily rained! The red arrows overhead before we entered the bowels of the stadium! the total silence of the audience as our sequence ended with the rings coming together & then the thunderous applause ! The walk back to eaton manor through all the assembled athletes & their cheers & smiles - their anticipation! The bus journey home to see my family - fellow passengers clapping us as we got on the bus still wearing our costumes! The tears of joy of my family feeling so proud to be British! This was what it was all about! We did it for the athletes & welcoming them to our wonderful nation & city! I hold my head high & thank everyone who made it such a great experience! Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingspread Posted August 12, 2012 Report Share Posted August 12, 2012 Found short rehearsal videos from the london2012 YouTube account. Here's one: (Pandemonium Drummers). More at the sidebar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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