Jump to content

Glitches during Olympic ceremonies


Recommended Posts

Yeah, you're right. I had Torino on mind at the time to cause the brain fart.

And it was Catriona Le May Doan whose pylon failed to rise. Gretzky just looked horrified.

As for Bjork, you couldn't tell anything was wrong in the stadium. The NBC broadcast didn't mention it either. I didn't know she was supposed to rise until many years later when I read about it on these boards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, my top five glitches of the more recent games.

5. Bjork's wardrobe malfunction in Torino.

4. Cathy Freeman left standing under a cold shower when Sydney's cauldron stalled.

3. Gretsky getting to experience the same feeling when he couldn't get a rise from the cauldron in Vancouver.

2. The Russkis inability to count rings - first six in the fountain and now four in the ceremony.

1. Korean barbeque in Seoul! Taste's just like chicken! Yum!

It was Catriona Le May Doan who's cauldron leg did not rise in Vancouver.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
8 hours ago, BigVic said:

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra's music during the Sydney 2000 OC were all pre-recorded. In fact, the only live performance on the night was the Sydney 2000 Olympic Band. 

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/08/26/1219516425771.html

 

That's not really a glitch, more like a minor scandal. I think most people were upset to hear that the Melbourne Symphone Orchestra were involved. And doesn't every games pre-record all their music now?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/1/2017 at 10:22 PM, BigVic said:

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra's music during the Sydney 2000 OC were all pre-recorded. In fact, the only live performance on the night was the Sydney 2000 Olympic Band. 

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/08/26/1219516425771.html

 

That's NOT a glitch.  If the local musicians' union allowed it, then there was NOTHING illegal or wrong about it.  There are several, very sound reasons why they lip-synch and mic-synch at these huge ceremonies.  From page 133 of my book: 

Quote

 

Indeed, at these large, no-expense-spared productions, using prerecorded musical performances is de rigueur because: (i) it removes any chance of errors during the actual performance—this was, after all, a “live” global production; (ii) it reduces the probability that the microphone in use might go dead, or catch some unwanted sound interference; (iii) it also puts the performer at ease[1]—and if, say, the performer felt out of sorts that night, having his/her performance in the can would preclude having to scramble for an alternate plan.  (iv) Finally, prerecording the vocal performances allows the sound engineers to achieve a better balanced sound mix in the stadium.  Stadia are not delicate concert halls and have notoriously bad acoustics. Further, the whole pre-recorded protocol is even more imperative in winter ceremonies when the freezing night air is harsh on some musical instruments and to the human voice.  Luciano Pavarotti’s performance at the Torino 2006 opening was pre-recorded.   He was already quite ill at the time and that winter Olympic ceremony performance was the celebrated tenor's final public appearance.

 

[1]  Indeed, at the Glasgow 2014 opening ceremony, Scottish singer Susan Boyle forgot some of the lyrics of The Mull of Kintyre at the start because she was so nervous.  Had she been pre-recorded and lip-synching, the very obvious gaffe could have been avoided.  Oh, well...

 

 

Edited by baron-pierreIV
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

32 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Indeed, at the Glasgow 2014 opening ceremony, Scottish singer Susan Boyle forgot some of the lyrics of The Mull of Kintyre at the start because she was so nervous.  Had she been pre-recorded and lip-synching, the very obvious gaffe could have been avoided.  Oh, well...

It wasn't a gaffe, it was just part of the new British sporting tradition of messing up the start of McCartney songs

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/3/2017 at 1:51 PM, baron-pierreIV said:

/\/\  Never noticed that.  Thx for pointing that out.  Will update the section.  Didn't know that the Kintyre song is a McCartney song.   :wacko:

Wait, you never noticed this? I'm a little surprised since it was one of the most talked about moments from the London ceremonies. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just went through this and I'll point out some that I believe weren't mentioned.

In the Atlanta OC at the beginning when the performers started coming out, some of the costume's... potato chips were coming off. They probably expected this since you can see some people running into that crowd to grab them and then running back off the stage.

In the Sydney OC during the Arrivals segment, the stage representing Africa hits a snag and rips off some of the floor. You later see when the Americas stage comes in they sloppily put black tape over it.

Also, during the very end of the Eternity segment the eternity sign fails to completely light up.

In the beginning of the Sydney closing ceremony someone drives onto the field in a golf cart, not sure if that was intentional. But that guy ran into a speaker that completely screwed up the sound system for every performance later in the ceremony.

In 2014 Sochi opening ceremony, not only did the last ring not open, all the rings failed to release their fireworks. You'll notice all of them bouncing a bit as if they were trying to set them off, but didn't. Funny to hear they played rehearsal footage as to not upset their douche president.

Some non-olympic glitches:

The 2011 Pan Am games in Guadalajara also had crapping horses problems. Weren't there sacks invented awhile ago that go under the horse's asses to prevent this from happening?

In the beginning of the Rio WC OC there's a girl who tumbles and falls as she's running out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, LatinXTC said:

Wait, you never noticed this? I'm a little surprised since it was one of the most talked about moments from the London ceremonies. 

It wasn't an important moment for me to have to examine it closely.  I figured it was his song; and if he flubbed it, that was his problem.  I really don't pay too much attention to  pop renditions of pop artists.  

Edited by baron-pierreIV
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, LatinXTC said:

In 2014 Sochi opening ceremony, not only did the last ring not open, all the rings failed to release their fireworks. You'll notice all of them bouncing a bit as if they were trying to set them off, but didn't. Funny to hear they played rehearsal footage as to not upset their douche president.

 

The rings were supposed to light up in pyrotechnics after they fused together. Russian state TV played rehearsal footage over the live TV. 

Fourth ring failure was the biggest glitch in Ceremonies history. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Many countries change names (and spellings) thru the passage of time -- so that might have been the right spelling in 1996.

Kazakhstan is Қазақстан (same letter for both the "K" and the "kh" but neither exactly representing the English "k") in Kazakh, but Казахстан (closer to the English "K" and "kh") in Russian.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

Kazakhstan is Қазақстан (same letter for both the "K" and the "kh" but neither exactly representing the English "k") in Kazakh, but Казахстан (closer to the English "K" and "kh") in Russian.

There are these very many minor variants that one shouldn't lose sleep over.  If the Kazakhs (Cossacks) didn't object then, then it was probably alright.  Maybe it should have been

Cossackstan ??  :lol:

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

There are these very many minor variants that one shouldn't lose sleep over.  If the Kazakhs (Cossacks) didn't object then, then it was probably alright.  Maybe it should have been

Cossackstan ??  :lol:

I've been hoping for an excuse to use the "Sad" response emoji. Thanks ! :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's one legitimate faux pas (I don't know if it's already been mentioned previously).  When the Olympic flag was brought in and raised @ the Sarajevo 1984 opening, it was inverted.  It can best be seen at 47:00 when the flagpole handlers hook the bottom part (with the 2 rings) and raise that part first.  Luckily, three wasn't much of a breeze that day to make the faux pas overly blatant.  The TV cameras were directed away when the correction was made.  

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

The conductor who was meant to start the whole performance with The Man From Snowy River, loses all communication.

“So, he had no cue to go, it goes completely dead,” Mark Beretta admitted to Botica’s Bunch on Monday.

 

“In his words he said, ‘I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t’, so he put his baton up in the air and started the orchestra, and that was the start of the Opening Ceremony.”

 

Mark Beretta during a documentary about the Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony to air tomorrow night. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...