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Beijing 2022 Ceremonies


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21 hours ago, Anthony said:

The IOC messages have got to stop. They need a different platform to advertise their initiatives. These ceremonies are for the hosts to shine and the athletes to be celebrated, NOT IOC bullsh*t.

One of the reasons i've always liked to watch Olympic ceremonies is because I considered them as a big opportunity for the host country to showcase their culture and potential to the world. Since I am admitedly a big sucker for East Asian culture in general, I had very huge expectations years ago when I knew bot SK and Japan would be hosting the past games we had.

However, the reality is that ever since Thomas Bach took over, with the exception of Sochi, all of the Olympic ceremonies held under his rule have been obviously victims of executive meddling. The days where the host country had more control over what they could show in the ceremonies seem to be a distant memory: IOC now wants them all to give top priority to messages which involve Globalization, the current world trends (racism, global warming, you name them), and of course, having Marco Balich (a name which i've slowly grown to detest) meddle in almost all of them and have an insulting degree of monopoly, which makes the culture of the host country which was always meant to be displayed there get extremely diluted. In Pyeongchang, at least, there were a bit more representations of Korean culture, perhaps because Koreans are very overprotective and proud of it, but even I felt the Olympic opening lacked enough representation. Tokyo was an ever bigger victim of this executive meddling (the internal quarrels their creative team had also didn't helped) and not even Beijing, which I thought would have more independence from the IOC meddling given their money and influence, was safe from that as I saw literally NO representation of chinese culture except for the countdown video and the placard bearers (which was still very vague if you were not knowledgeable enough about chinese culture).

Makes you wonder if its worth at all to watch Olympic ceremonies anymore, now that their main attractive has been robbed by all of these factors... And knowing how France is so prone to apologies from actions done in the past and how they're even more globalized than Korea/Japan/China, I have very high doubts about what they will do in 2 years. Perhaps its time I stop watching olympic ceremonies live in order to spare myself from more dissapointments.

On the other hand, Paralympic ceremonies are more free from Globalism/IOC messages meddling, thankfully. Maybe that's why the last 3 Paralympic ceremonies have been superior over their Olympic counterparts. Hell, i'll admit even some of London 2012 Paralympic opening segments were more of my liking than the Olympic one.

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2 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

Anyway.....a little thing I made which reflects my feelings toward Olympic ceremonies today.

SR3E7ox.png

Not fair on Rio 2016, which really focused on Brazilian culture, and strayed into environmentalism because a lot of the country is the Amazon basin. Their small budget was due to corruption draining the overall Games funding, and their small interior & exterior Cauldrons were very pretty. 

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6 minutes ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

Not fair on Rio 2016, which really focused on Brazilian culture, and strayed into environmentalism because a lot of the country is the Amazon basin. Their small budget was due to corruption draining the overall Games funding, and their small interior & exterior Cauldrons were very pretty. 

Regardless of the reasons, we're evaluating a final product here. While my opinion of Rio 2016 ceremonies is much more favorable today and in the long term i feel it was better than the three which followed, the fact it still suffered of issues and was the start of Olympic Champion in Fencing forcing his messages is still there.

And yeah, Rio was the only one which did the small cauldron concept well, and considering it was happening in the Amazon and the current issues the forest is undergoing, it fit well. Problem is a lot of hosts afterwards started copying the concept and used it as an excuse to justify dumb cauldrons like we saw in Lima and Beijing.

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31 minutes ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

Their small budget was due to corruption draining the overall Games funding, and their small interior & exterior Cauldrons were very pretty. 

 

I disagree that the budget was the main reason that 2016 ended up being 2016.

I've watched clips of the 1964 games in Tokyo, and yea, yea, those were different times. But they were judged as classic, mature, dignified.

Okay, I get it. So in today's world they would have been written off as too plain, too simple, too low budget.

When I saw placard bearers in 2016 riding out in large adult-sized tricycles - with rear baskets full of what looked like junk from a Dollar Store - I realized a lack of money was the least of the 2016 OOC's problems.

 

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1 hour ago, Olympics2028 said:

 

I disagree that the budget was the main reason that 2016 ended up being 2016.

I've watched clips of the 1964 games in Tokyo, and yea, yea, those were different times. But they were judged as classic, mature, dignified.

Okay, I get it. So in today's world they would have been written off as too plain, too simple, too low budget.

When I saw placard bearers in 2016 riding out in large adult-sized tricycles - with rear baskets full of what looked like junk from a Dollar Store - I realized a lack of money was the least of the 2016 OOC's problems.

 

But the 2016 ceremonies expressed the culture of Brazil, and of Rio in particular, which has never really gone in for mature and dignified. One thing Rio did go in for, some years before 2016, was cycle transport for light cargoes:

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2011/10/cargo-bike-capital-rio-de-janeiro.html

 

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5 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

One of the reasons i've always liked to watch Olympic ceremonies is because I considered them as a big opportunity for the host country to showcase their culture and potential to the world. Since I am admitedly a big sucker for East Asian culture in general, I had very huge expectations years ago when I knew bot SK and Japan would be hosting the past games we had.

However, the reality is that ever since Thomas Bach took over, with the exception of Sochi, all of the Olympic ceremonies held under his rule have been obviously victims of executive meddling. The days where the host country had more control over what they could show in the ceremonies seem to be a distant memory: IOC now wants them all to give top priority to messages which involve Globalization, the current world trends (racism, global warming, you name them), and of course, having Marco Balich (a name which i've slowly grown to detest) meddle in almost all of them and have an insulting degree of monopoly, which makes the culture of the host country which was always meant to be displayed there get extremely diluted. In Pyeongchang, at least, there were a bit more representations of Korean culture, perhaps because Koreans are very overprotective and proud of it, but even I felt the Olympic opening lacked enough representation. Tokyo was an ever bigger victim of this executive meddling (the internal quarrels their creative team had also didn't helped) and not even Beijing, which I thought would have more independence from the IOC meddling given their money and influence, was safe from that as I saw literally NO representation of chinese culture except for the countdown video and the placard bearers (which was still very vague if you were not knowledgeable enough about chinese culture).

Makes you wonder if its worth at all to watch Olympic ceremonies anymore, now that their main attractive has been robbed by all of these factors... And knowing how France is so prone to apologies from actions done in the past and how they're even more globalized than Korea/Japan/China, I have very high doubts about what they will do in 2 years. Perhaps its time I stop watching olympic ceremonies live in order to spare myself from more dissapointments.

On the other hand, Paralympic ceremonies are more free from Globalism/IOC messages meddling, thankfully. Maybe that's why the last 3 Paralympic ceremonies have been superior over their Olympic counterparts. Hell, i'll admit even some of London 2012 Paralympic opening segments were more of my liking than the Olympic one.

Very well said! I hope after Bach's reign, these trends will die down. I remain optimistic, but know they won't. It's a proper shame.

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12 minutes ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

But the 2016 ceremonies expressed the culture of Brazil, and of Rio in particular, which has never really gone in for mature and dignified. One thing Rio did go in for, some years before 2016, was cycle transport for light cargoes:

 

 

But this cost more (not less) time and money to produce.

If the 2016 OOC really lacked enough funds to present their games the way they wanted, they very easily could have penciled this out of the budget. Actually, even if the 2016 OOC had a budget of $1 trillion, this still should been penciled out.

BTW, the sign of each participating country was revolving as the tricycle rode down the track. So that feature made this a bit more complicated and expensive to design and fabricate.

 

00039715_medium.jpeg

Avax News

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5 minutes ago, FYI said:

The tricycles actually looked very colorful, festive & traditional. Don't see what the issue with it is.

 

But they did cost more time and money to design and fabricate for the 2016 ceremonies. So for people who claim the 2016 OOC didn't have enough money to work with, I say, not based on things like that.

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7 minutes ago, Olympics2028 said:

 

This is the way it was done decades ago. The 1964 OOC actually spent too little on their placard bearers' signs, but the participants were in formal, dignified uniforms.

Yea, yea, I get it. That was then, this is today. But I'm trying to figure out why the "Olympic" brand is becoming cheaper and cheaper.

 

tokyo64_101064_800x500.jpg

Olympics2028, the topic of this thread is “Beijing Ceremonies”, not 1964 Tokyo placards.

Please stay on topic.

 

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17 minutes ago, Olympics2028 said:

 

But this cost more (not less) time and money to produce.

If the 2016 OOC really lacked enough funds to present their games the way they wanted, they very easily could have penciled this out of the budget. Actually, even if the 2016 OOC had a budget of $1 trillion, this still should been penciled out.

BTW, the sign of each participating country was revolving as the tricycle rode down the track. So that feature made this a bit more complicated and expensive to design and fabricate.

 

00039715_medium.jpeg

Avax News

Olymoics2028, the topic of this thread is Beijing 2022 Ceremonies.

Please stay on topic.

This is not about placards at the 2016 Summer Games.

If past Olympic Ceremonies are your passion, then please start a thread on that topic.

Do you have any views on the placards held at the Beijing Opening Ceremony?

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2 minutes ago, AustralianFan said:

Please stay on topic.

I'd say that trying to understand why all the moving parts of the "Olympics" brand are affecting a Beijing 2022 or other winter and summer games is very much on topic.

I admit I didn't watch the 2022 ceremony, so I'm having to riff on other people's opinions. But to the viewers who say they were disappointed, is it a matter of money, concept, planning, the IOC being a back-seat driver, etc?

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1 minute ago, Olympics2028 said:

I'd say that trying to understand why all the moving parts of the "Olympics" brand are affecting a Beijing 2022 or other winter and summer games is very much on topic.

I admit I didn't watch the 2022 ceremony, so I'm having to riff on other people's opinions. But to the viewers who say they were disappointed, is it a matter of money, concept, planning, the IOC being a back-seat driver, etc?

No, it is not ok for you to continually go off topic and continually post opinions, videos and photos of past Ceremonies.

That is as far off topic as you can get.

The topic of this thread is Beijing Ceremonies.

 

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4 minutes ago, AustralianFan said:

Do you have any views on the placards held at the Beijing Opening Ceremony?

 

I'm not sure. It's kind of gimmicky, but it's also okay.

I recall one winter games years ago where the placard bearers came out dressed in big round plastic balls. They were like walking human snow bubbles, those glass globes that are shaken up to make the little flakes inside them move around the water. Now that was goofy. But this is fairly good.

I'm still a traditionalist, however, so I prefer the "Keep it Simple" concept of a simple banner. But YMMV.

 

gettyimages-1368584446_custom-37424c7f35

npr

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7 minutes ago, AustralianFan said:

No, it is not ok for you to continually go off topic and continually post opinions, videos and photos of past Ceremonies.

 

 

You react like this could be a forum about, say, automobiles and you resent people talking about classic Mercedes, carburetors, tires, how to fix transmissions, why electric cars aren't ideal, etc. I don't get it. I admit I can get very OCD about the topic, but you act like you're the opposite extreme.

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Olympics2028 said:

 

I'm not sure. It's kind of gimmicky, but it's also okay.

I recall one winter games years ago where the placard bearers came out dressed in big round plastic balls. They were like walking human snow bubbles, those glass globes that are shaken up to make the little flakes inside them move around the water. Now that was goofy. But this is fairly good.

I'm still a traditionalist, however, so I prefer the "Keep it Simple" concept of a simple banner. But YMMV.

 

gettyimages-1368584446_custom-37424c7f35

 

I didn’t mind the Snowflake placards, and that the bearers of them were dancers as it turned out.

You should watch the Beijing Opening Ceremony.   The placard bearers then placed them down on the massive stadium-floor LED screen which reacted to the Placards in a most stunning way.

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Just now, AustralianFan said:

The placard bearers then placed them down on the massive stadium-floor LED screen which reacted to the Placards in a most stunning way.

 

Sounds interesting, and I get why one games may or may not be influenced by previous games. But in general, organizing committees tend to want to outdo or one-up their predecessors. Or where it's not "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but where it's "we have to reinvent the wheel by being very different and more gimmicky."

I get that too. Improvements and innovations come from that.

But when people go overboard in that direction, than it ends up overdone. Or they risk triggering the law of unintended consequences.

BTW, each organizing committee and each Olympic games do not exist in a vacuum. So if you're dealing with one, it's ridiculous to think you can't deal with others.

If this forum were about medicine and being posted to by doctors and nurses, it would be goofy to say if there were a thread about the lungs or cardio system, then discussing how the body's blood supply may or may not affect that is irrelevant or off topic.

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C’mon, give him a bit of leeway AF. He’s got some interesting things to say, and unlike posting pages of random UK singers on an LA thread, he’s is talking ceremonies, and it’s natural talk can turn to comparisons to past ceremonies. Nothing wrong with a bit of topic drift, some of he best conversations come from it. As long as it doesn’t turn to topic derailment, which in this case is far from being so.

Olympics2028 has been one of the more enthusiastic posters this board has attracted in a long time. And he’s got some interesting takes. Yes, he’s had a bit of difficulty adjusting in, but with the state of the board, we can’t afford to lose his ilk.

 

Edited by Sir Rols
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And commenting on the ceremonies placards then comparing it to past ones is hardly a hangable offence. It’s as relevant as dozens and others posts made in this thread discussing pasty ceremonies.

Lighten up a little and stop being so OC

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30 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

And commenting on the ceremonies placards then comparing it to past ones is hardly a hangable offence. It’s as relevant as dozens and others posts made in this thread discussing pasty ceremonies.

Lighten up a little and stop being so OC

The topic of this thread is Beijing Ceremonies

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5 hours ago, Olympics2028 said:

 

This is the way it was done decades ago. The 1964 OOC actually spent too little on their placard bearers' signs, but the participants were in formal, dignified uniforms.

Yea, yea, I get it. That was then, this is today. But I'm trying to figure out why the "Olympic" brand is becoming cheaper and cheaper.

 

tokyo64_101064_800x500.jpg

I think it's an effort to attract new hosts and have a robust candidate pool. The monster budgets of the 2000s scared a lot of cities off from hosting, so I think the IOC is pushing host cities to make things cheaper to show future bidders that it can be done cheap.

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2 hours ago, Anthony said:

I think it's an effort to attract new hosts and have a robust candidate pool. The monster budgets of the 2000s scared a lot of cities off from hosting, so I think the IOC is pushing host cities to make things cheaper to show future bidders that it can be done cheap.

This is the very reason .... ceremonies reflect what is the IOC intends to push since now on... 

So, brivery scandals and overbudgets were going to kill the Olympics (at least in the format we now now)... so, it's a way to reliefe the huge crisis of the Olympic Movement... We have to be realistic... Today, with internet, everyone (almost...) has the acces to view culture and tradition of any country. Uo to 2000's the Olympics were THE chance to put the countries in a worlwide showroom and media turned their eyes into them.... 

I have told that before: Ceremonies will never be the same as they were up to 2016.

The great challenge is to change formats and styles, and from it to conquer the audiences again... Today we have many major spectacles we can see easly on the internet, such the opeming ceremony of the World Expo in Dubai in 2021 and regional games which, many times, have top the Olympic spectacles themselves...

It's time to hink outside the box... Beijing ceremony was TRULY GOOD... come on! It was a "pandemic ceremony" and many of the critisicsm that arose due to the - boring and fast made - Tokyo ceremonies were thet they didn't have the ability to replace the lack of people with technology. Beijing did it and anyway critisicm are excessive...

In Paris we won't have a "normal" ceremony again, since it is going to repeat the same format of the ceremony of the 1998 FIFA World Cup (on the street and free) . Getting 2026, in Milano - Cortina we may have an Opening Ceremony as they used to be, inside a stadium... but it will be ONLY de Opening, since the Closing won't be in the Milano Stadium....

Just to wait for regional games to continue watching "traditional" ceremonies (Universiade this year orPan Am Games in 2023) but.. guys!!!! The Olympic movement is chanching and the ceremonies are the face of it...

Think different, move on according to the times.. Otherwise, these threads and our ceremonies adiction are due to die...

 

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