Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony Live Chat

[FYI]

3 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

Where;s Katy Perry?

Was she suppose to perform? What an odd pick, if so. If anything, why not someone like Nelly Furtado. I know she's not Brazilian, but she's of Portuguese decent. Would've make more sense than Perry anyway.

[Lord David]

6 hours ago, kevzz said:

Shorts with blazer and sneakers are never a good look. 

Trench coats, not even bothering to button them for some.

 

41 minutes ago, FYI said:

Based on the numbers alone, Rio cut A LOT for the opening ceremonies. They spent only a 1/10th of what London did, & 1/20th of what Beijing did. And considering that Sochi was the most expensive Olympics ever, summer or winter, their ceremonies weren't that great, relatively speaking.

What can we do for one million? Oh I really want that climate change segment, guess I'll have to pay for that...

[krow]

4 minutes ago, Lord David said:

What can we do for one million? Oh I really want that climate change segment, guess I'll have to pay for that...

clean up the toxic water? sorry, we spent every penny we had on that five minute climate change lecture.

[neneu10]

[FYI]

No, not one million. Reportedly, Rio spent $57 million on their OC. London spent $672 million. & Beijing spent a whopping $1.1 Billion just on the ceremonies alone!!

I mean seriously, at a time when a lot of people are scrutinizing the Olympics & it's graft, & the getting outta hand spending, & in effect a lot of cities are starting to runaway bcuz of it, Brazil, I must say did a wonderful job of trying to keep thing in check, & did a great job with the fraction of the budget compared to their recent, over budget predecessors.

I'll have to say at first, I was starting to get a bit disappointed as it got going, but when putting  things into perspective, it was starting to make sense. Many say that Olympics should go back to the basics & be just about the athletes & sport again. And not the grand horse & pony show that they have become as of late. Maybe now some can say, look, we don't have to go overboard or "prove" anything to put on a good Games.

[Mainad]

Always love to read the various comments on here about the OC. But I have to smile because they always amount to pretty much the same thing: some folk liked it, some didn't. Some liked this or that but didn't like those other bits. It was pretty much the same for London's OC, 4 years ago.

I guess I just don't get overly excited about OCs. I'm far from being a purist about them or anywhere near as knowledgeable about them as some of you guys. For me, its the sport that counts. OCs are just a pleasant little intro to the main action as far as I'm concerned. I could never bring myself to get worked up about any of them. Sorry if that sounds like heresy to you guys!

I thought Rio's OC was pleasant with some beautiful sequences at the start eg. Amazon rainforest and had some nice singing and dancing much in the style we would expect from a Brazilian ceremony. It set the right tone for what will undoubtedly come to be known as the Carnival Games. I thought the kinetic sun sculpture at the cauldron lighting was breathtaking and beautiful even if the cauldron was a little on the basic side.

Had to laugh at the acting President guy hurriedly get to his feet, mumble a few lines and then quickly sit down again before the cascade of boos were accompanied by a hail of missiles. I'm guessing that was the bit where the Games of the XXX1 Olympiad were formally opened...lol!  Also had a schoolboy snigger at the name of the former Brazilian athlete who took the oath on behalf of the athletes, 'Robert Scheidt'...lol. As a big tennis fan I thought Guga Kuerten should have lit the flame in the absence of Pele and why was Maria Bueno not featured in any of the ceremonies (flag carrying or torch carrying)? I saw her being interviewed recently and she looked fit and well.

All in all, very nice! Now........ON WITH THE GAMES!!!!

 

 

 

 

[alphamale86]

I wanted to enjoy it. I tried to enjoy it but no I couldn't. NBC no! OC organizers I get it you had a slashed budget but it was just lacking. The only emotional moment for me was actually the Olympic rings being formed from the seeds into the trees. I liked that touch.

 

The Cauldron NO! How could they create that beautiful sun for PANAM in 2007 and then do a literal witch's cauldron for the Olympics? The art piece could not distract from what to me was a throw away of what was supposed to be the biggest moment of the night.

[baron-pierreIV]

46 minutes ago, FYI said:

No, not one million. Reportedly, Rio spent $57 million on their OC. London spent $672 million. & Beijing spent a whopping $1.1 Billion just on the ceremonies alone!!

 

Nope.  Highly inflated,  All of Beijing's ceremonies cost $145 million.  London's total was $128 million.  (I think Rio's, when all is said and down, was cut down from the original $125 million budget to probably $85 mil.  Hey, those tricycles (unless they were donated) which NBC cameras cut out mostly, cost quite a bit.  

[arwebb]

37 minutes ago, Mainad said:

Always love to read the various comments on here about the OC. But I have to smile because they always amount to pretty much the same thing: some folk liked it, some didn't. Some liked this or that but didn't like those other bits. It was pretty much the same for London's OC, 4 years ago.

I guess I just don't get overly excited about OCs. I'm far from being a purist about them or anywhere near as knowledgeable about them as some of you guys. For me, its the sport that counts. OCs are just a pleasant little intro to the main action as far as I'm concerned. I could never bring myself to get worked up about any of them. Sorry if that sounds like heresy to you guys!

I thought Rio's OC was pleasant with some beautiful sequences at the start eg. Amazon rainforest and had some nice singing and dancing much in the style we would expect from a Brazilian ceremony. It set the right tone for what will undoubtedly come to be known as the Carnival Games. I thought the kinetic sun sculpture at the cauldron lighting was breathtaking and beautiful even if the cauldron was a little on the basic side.

Had to laugh at the acting President guy hurriedly get to his feet, mumble a few lines and then quickly sit down again before the cascade of boos were accompanied by a hail of missiles. I'm guessing that was the bit where the Games of the XXX1 Olympiad were formally opened...lol!  Also had a schoolboy snigger at the name of the former Brazilian athlete who took the oath on behalf of the athletes, 'Robert Scheidt'...lol. As a big tennis fan I thought Guga Kuerten should have lit the flame in the absence of Pele and why was Maria Bueno not featured in any of the ceremonies (flag carrying or torch carrying)? I saw her being interviewed recently and she looked fit and well.

All in all, very nice! Now........ON WITH THE GAMES!!!!

 

 

 

 

I've only caught a couple of clips this morning due to the need for sleep following a very early start to go to Edgbaston yesterday, but I thought the choice of De Lima to light the flame was absolutely spot on. The flame arrangement looked very nice and all that, but I'm like you in not being that bothered about the ceremonies. We're there for sport. Let's get on with it.

[JMarkSnow2012]

1 hour ago, baron-pierreIV said:

All of Beijing's ceremonies cost $145 million.

Does that include paying the thousands of performers during the long and apparently more-or-less full-time rehearsals?

[Olympic Fan Darcy]

5 hours ago, FYI said:

Well, Sochi was/is the most expensive Olympic Games EVER. And as you said, that was just for a Winter Games.

In another post I did say

8 hours ago, Olympic Fan Darcy said:

I guess money talks cause Sochi's was pretty damn good but that was a bit of a let down so you'd want to hope they're spending far less..

 

[baron-pierreIV]

3 hours ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

Does that include paying the thousands of performers during the long and apparently more-or-less full-time rehearsals?

I think the army cadets (who did the Printing blocks) sequence and the 58 or so acrobats who traversed the giant globe, were all given extra compensation -- but according to Communist Party standards. 

[JMarkSnow2012]

56 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

I think the army cadets (who did the Printing blocks) sequence and the 58 or so acrobats who traversed the giant globe, were all given extra compensation -- but according to Communist Party standards. 

- but if they were rehearsing during "work time" rather than in their spare time / annual leave like London's nurses etc., then their basic pay should also be factored into the cost.

 

[baron-pierreIV]

28 minutes ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

- but if they were rehearsing during "work time" rather than in their spare time / annual leave like London's nurses etc., then their basic pay should also be factored into the cost.

 

 

Mark, I am not privy to their Non-disclosure contracts; so I really don't know the exact details.  But I do know that one of the acrobats had a serious fall; and was paralyzed.  So the State would supposedly take care of him/her for life.  In other words, yeah, in a Chinese nursing home for the rest of his/her life -- just like the other Chinese gymnast who befell a similar fate in her accident at the 1998 Goodwill Games in NYC.  I mean, it's a parallel universe there.  

[FYI]

9 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Nope.  Highly inflated,  All of Beijing's ceremonies cost $145 million.  London's total was $128 million.  (I think Rio's, when all is said and down, was cut down from the original $125 million budget to probably $85 mil.  Hey, those tricycles (unless they were donated) which NBC cameras cut out mostly, cost quite a bit.  

Well, leave it to the NBC affiliates to get it all wrong then! Still, I'd find Beijing's $145 million quite modest then for their extravagant show back in 2008. I'd say a figure of about half of the 'highly inflated' amount would be much more accurate. Especially if Rio's does cost $85 million in the end, with a probable difference of $60 million from the Chinese, then the Brazilians should've done better. 

[FYI]

6 hours ago, Olympic Fan Darcy said:

In another post I did say

Yes, you did. But you still mentioned that "Sochi's was pretty damn good", which for being the most expensive Olympics ever, I wouldn't even classify it that high.

So I would like to know Sochi's ceremonies numbers. Baron, any insight on that, since you seem to know all those figures!

[mr.bernham]

Honestly...Sochi's wasn't that great. This was better than Sochi's.

Sydney still had the best ceremonies IMO...it told a story and it told it damn well.

[baron-pierreIV]

2 hours ago, FYI said:

Well, leave it to the NBC affiliates to get it all wrong then! Still, I'd find Beijing's $145 million quite modest then for their extravagant show back in 2008. I'd say a figure of about half of the 'highly inflated' amount would be much more accurate. Especially if Rio's does cost $85 million in the end, with a probable difference of $60 million from the Chinese, then the Brazilians should've done better. 

 

Yimou had a post-Games interview wherein he said that his budget was nowhere close to the known $185 million of Doha 2006.  I remember that because I thought the overall Beijing budget would be much higher than the 2006, most of which went just to their Opening Ceremony.  The Asians had no Paralympics to deal with.  

[GamesLover]

On 8/5/2016 at 2:27 AM, Sir Rols said:

Well, it's on at nice civilised time here in Oz - broadcast starts at 9:30am Saturday morning.

I'll be watching with hubby. We plan to make some Pan de Queso to munch on as we watch.

 

woooow yumme