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Oly Fan Survey: Summer Cauldrons


GamesBids Olympic Fan Survey: Summer Cauldrons  

50 members have voted

  1. 1. What's your favourite Summer Olympic Games cauldron?

    • 1936 Berlin
      1
    • 1948 London
      0
    • 1952 Helsinki
      0
    • 1956 Melbourne
      0
    • 1960 Rome
      0
    • 1964 Tokyo
      2
    • 1968 Mexico CIty
      0
    • 1972 Munich
      0
    • 1976 Montreal
      0
    • 1980 Moscow
      0
    • 1984 Los Angeles
      4
    • 1988 Seoul
      0
    • 1992 Barcelona
      7
    • 1996 Atlanta
      1
    • 2000 Sydney
      7
    • 2004 Athens
      9
    • 2008 Beijing
      6
    • 2012 London
      13
  2. 2. What's you favourite Summer Olympic Gams cauldron lighting?

    • 1936 Berlin (Nazis inaugurate the relay)
      0
    • 1948 London (back to game)
      0
    • 1952 Helsinki (climbing a staircase to heaven)
      0
    • 1956 Melbourne (Greats sparks of fire!)
      0
    • 1960 Rome (a funny thing happened on the way to the forum)
      0
    • 1964 Tokyo (shadow of Hiroshima)
      0
    • 1968 Mexico City (girl power)
      0
    • 1972 Munich (calm before the storm)
      0
    • 1976 Montreal (anglo-franco detente)
      1
    • 1980 Moscow (climbing the house of cards)
      0
    • 1984 Los Angeles (Rafer madness)
      1
    • 1988 Seoul (dove barbecue)
      0
    • 1992 Barcelona (flaming arrow, hit or miss?)
      20
    • 1996 Atlanta (Ali shakes)
      0
    • 2000 Sydney (Cathy takes an extended shower)
      14
    • 2004 Athens (bowing doobie)
      3
    • 2008 Beijing (crouching tiger, flying torch)
      1
    • 2012 London (come together with petal power)
      10


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They're a symbolic and important symbol of every games and are probably the most talked about and emotive symbol for many. What's your favourite Summer Olympic games cauldron - and your favourite lighting moment?

ylvy.jpg

I'll get onto the winter cauldrons later... or someone else might wanna do that one?

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1984 LA Cauldron, still looks neat today.

2000 lighting, a technical screwup gave us a bonus of Cathy Freeman getting wet in her skin tight white bodysuit...oh yeah!

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Sydney's just looks like an Olympic cauldron doesn' it, tall and gleaming in the Australian sun. It gets my first vote.

London gets the vote for the lighting which was a real wow moment. A cauldron lighting which saw the cauldron form itself in front of the world's eyes...I mean, it was utterly predictable, but it still worked brilliantly. :D

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CAULDRONS: I like the classic look of LA. Honorable mention to Athens.

LIGHTING: I don't think anything compares to the elegance of Barcelona. Honorable mention to Athens. The bowing effect was dramatic as was the music.

Special note for Sydney. Too bad it didn't go quite as planned. A bit overwrought for my taste, but a truly valiant effort.

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I've gotta go with the Barcelona double on this one.

In terms of the cauldron, Barcelona's look was just so simple and elegant. Not only that, but it did have a little bit of a concept to it as well, which is always nice. I'd also say that it works well in its surroundings, it really does fit and seems like it belongs up there at Montjuic and as part of Olympic stadium.

Obviously the cauldron lighting was amazing. In a place like this where we talk about these things every day, it would be easy for us to get abit casual with the cauldron lighting of Barcelona. I think we need to distance ourselves abit as Olympic fans to remind ourselves of how unbelievably epic that moment was.

Highly commended goes to the London and Athens lighting.

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I've gotta go with the Barcelona double on this one.

In terms of the cauldron, Barcelona's look was just so simple and elegant. Not only that, but it did have a little bit of a concept to it as well, which is always nice. I'd also say that it works well in its surroundings, it really does fit and seems like it belongs up there at Montjuic and as part of Olympic stadium.

Obviously the cauldron lighting was amazing. In a place like this where we talk about these things every day, it would be easy for us to get abit casual with the cauldron lighting of Barcelona. I think we need to distance ourselves abit as Olympic fans to remind ourselves of how unbelievably epic that moment was.

Highly commended goes to the London and Athens lighting.

I totally agree with you. The lighting was simple, clean, unadorned and spectacular, i.e., classic. It didn't require machinery or special effects or heaps of distractions; only a steady aim and a still night. (Really, the only extra effort was having to cordon off an area where the arrow would fall.) And the cauldron could've looked like a shipwreck but it would not have taken away anything from the lighting. Of course, #2 is Sydney which is just the total opposite -- requiring conception even as the stadium was being designed and then needing tons of water, rails, all that machinery which almost did it in.

What is amazing about these 2 scenarios is that Ric Birch was behind them both...although of course the Barcelona scheme was a gift to him. And then of course, there was Torino's, also under his watch -- which was a DIRECT rip-off of the Athens 2004 Paralympic lighting!!

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Sydney gets both of my votes.

The cauldron was elegantly shaped without resorting to the traditional bowl. It looked incredible from behind in that closing shot of the 2000 Opening Ceremony, with Stadium Australia's cameras flashing below it. The lighting itself beautiful and magnificent, despite the technical difficulties. It was the first time a cauldron lighting was inspired by its respective Olympics' Look of the Games. The "ring of fire on water" concept was derived from the Fluid Energy Graphic, the basis of Sydney 2000's Look.

With that said, could I possibly put together a poll for people's favorite Look of the Games? I've actually been doing my undergraduate research on the topic and have some good resources that could really show off each Games' design.

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Sydney gets both of my votes.

The cauldron was elegantly shaped without resorting to the traditional bowl. It looked incredible from behind in that closing shot of the 2000 Opening Ceremony, with Stadium Australia's cameras flashing below it. The lighting itself beautiful and magnificent, despite the technical difficulties. It was the first time a cauldron lighting was inspired by its respective Olympics' Look of the Games. The "ring of fire on water" concept was derived from the Fluid Energy Graphic, the basis of Sydney 2000's Look.

How could that be? Birch conceived of the Lighting scheme as soon as Sydney won the Games in 1993. And obviously, Birch was thinking about it even months before the awarding in Monte Carlo in fall 1993. Sydney's Look--as with all Games' Looks-- was developed much later. So how could the Look have inspired the Lighting concept?? :blink:

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How could that be? Birch conceived of the Lighting scheme as soon as Sydney won the Games in 1993. And obviously, Birch was thinking about it even months before the awarding in Monte Carlo in fall 1993. Sydney's Look--as with all Games' Looks-- was developed much later. So how could the Look have inspired the Lighting concept?? :blink:

I know Birch conceived the basic concept of using a waterfall in the early 1990s, but is it possible the specific idea of having the flame encircle the final torchbearer something that was developed later on?

In my research, I came across this case study of the Sydney 2000 Brand Identiy Program. One of the figures involved with the creation of the 2000 "Look of the Games" said:

Bringing the creative idea to life as a ‘fluid energy’ graphic enabled the look and feel of the Games to be integrated consistently across all media and applications. Rick Birch, the designer of the Opening Ceremony used our brand idea of water and fire (fluid energy) as the basis for the theatrical lighting of the flame in the stadium.

Source: Case Study - The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Brand Identity Program

Link: http://www.r-co.com.au/case-study-the-sydney-2000-olympic-games-brand-identity-program/

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I know Birch conceived the basic concept of using a waterfall in the early 1990s, but is it possible the specific idea of having the flame encircle the final torchbearer something that was developed later on?

In my research, I came across this case study of the Sydney 2000 Brand Identiy Program. One of the figures involved with the creation of the 2000 "Look of the Games" said:

Source: Case Study - The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Brand Identity Program

Link: http://www.r-co.com.au/case-study-the-sydney-2000-olympic-games-brand-identity-program/

Uh, OK. I sit corrected. So the flame from water part then.

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With that said, could I possibly put together a poll for people's favorite Look of the Games? I've actually been doing my undergraduate research on the topic and have some good resources that could really show off each Games' design.

I think there's a bit of interest in that one - and I'd have no probs at all if you wanted to do it, but you'd need a premium member to start the actual poll though. I was going to look at doing a look poll soon myself. I expect it will be easy enough to get some image examples of the look from recent games (back to 1992) and I know of a site with lots of images and pics of the Mexico 68 look, but I might be scrabbling to find examples of some of the others before and in-between. Maybe you'd be able to PM me and point me to other examples?

Goes for everyone else too - maybe we can crowdsource this?

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