Jump to content

Recommended Posts

6 minutes ago, Australian Kiwi said:

If anyone needs an antidote to tonight - I highly recommend watching the spirited trucks, cheerleaders and marching bands from Atlanta 1996.  Such a warm, fun ceremony full of energy. 

YUCK, I thought those "spirited" trucks were nauseating & so stereotypical of the U.S. South, & it's one of the few things that I even remember about '96, being my first Summer Olympics. But I actually watched just the intro of those ceremonies over last weekend (before this big letdown we just seen), & I don't even remember seeing that intro.

It didn't even seem like I was Atlanta 1996. Had I just saw that snippet, without knowing where it was, I'd thought I was watching Rio 2016. It was so fun, catchy, energetic, festive & intriguing all at the same time. I'll have to watch the whole thing again sometime later, & hope to watch (again) more of that, & less scenes of obnoxious trucks flinging dirt everywhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought that even with a much smaller cast, there could have been more props (like the big kind that come in from the ends of the stadiums. The dandelion was a promising moment but didn't think that would be the peak creative moment of the ceremony. Just an overall lack of creativity and story-telling. Generic ceremony that didn't necessarily say much about Chinese culture or history.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Kenadian said:

And they can stop singing "Imagine" at Olympic opening ceremonies, thanks. It's been playyyyyyed.

I guess the IOC really do pushes them on Olympic ceremonies for whatever dumb reason they have, their audacity to think of this a thing they can brag on  social medias is just so out of touch

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

Paris pretty much has to do it that way because (thanks to Central European Time) the now-standard night-time stadium show wouldn't be able to start until about 10pm local time.

Really? Even London 2012 still had an opening ceremony starting with a rest of daylight, so apparently it's not obligatory for the IOC to conduct an entire opening ceremony in darkness. And I'm not sure why that forces Paris to take their ceremony out to the streets as opposed to staging it in Stade de France... The lighting conditions will be the same anywhere in the city.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, FYI said:

YUCK, I thought those "spirited" trucks were nauseating & so stereotypical of the U.S. South, & it's one of the few things that I even remember about '96, being my first Summer Olympics. But I actually watched just the intro of those ceremonies over last weekend (before this big letdown we just seen), & I don't even remember seeing that intro.

It didn't even seem like I was Atlanta 1996. Had I just saw that snippet, without knowing where it was, I'd thought I was watching Rio 2016. It was so fun, catchy, energetic, festive & intriguing all at the same time. I'll have to watch the whole thing again sometime later, & hope to watch (again) more of that, & less scenes of obnoxious trucks flinging dirt everywhere.

Atlanta's ceremonies are awesome - my favourite American ceremony so far. They're not perfect but they came from the heart. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, munichfan said:

Guess, we're going from one extreme to the other. I'm gonna go for a walk now. I have to digest this catastrophe.

WHAT?! But it was suppose to be the best thing ever since, well, the last Olympics! Especially when it was an authoritarian ceremonies! Surely WAY better than Tokyo 2020ne was! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Olympian2004 said:

Really? Even London 2012 still had an opening ceremony starting with a rest of daylight, so apparently it's not obligatory for the IOC to conduct an entire opening ceremony in darkness. And I'm not sure why that forces Paris to take their ceremony out to the streets as opposed to staging it in Stade de France... The lighting conditions will be the same anywhere in the city.

London 2012 opened just after local sunset, so the darkness gathered during the "Pandemonium" segment. Paris is roughly on the same longitude as London, but it uses a time-zone an hour further east. The whole cultural segment of their ceremony will be in fading daylight. Outside the confines of a stadium, they stand a chance of benefiting from "magic hour" low sun tones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Australian Kiwi said:

Atlanta's ceremonies are awesome - my favourite American ceremony so far. They're not perfect but they came from the heart. 

I must say that LA 84 delivered the best American ceremony so far (at least of those I've seen footage of). Of course some of its elements are tacky in hindsight from our 2022 perspective, but I think it expressed the spirit of the times so well and was a very atmospheric and happy ceremony. Salt Lake 2002 also delivered a good and warm ceremony, albeit with some re-hashed elements (the arrangement for the national and Olympic anthems, for example) from Atlanta 1996.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The lighting of the cauldron is supposed to be so inspirational - light the fire within for the athletes to compete, light the fire for future athletes watching at home and light the fire for viewers to embrace the games over the next couple of weeks.

This failed to do that, as did the ceremony as a whole.   Kind of feel for those watching for the first time - for me it's now 30 years of ceremonies.   Don't have strong memories of Albertville but Barcelona is my first real memory of the games and probably couldn't have got a more inspirational flame lighting to start things.     Really expected Beijing to show that you could do something spectacular even with a down-scaled more eco-friendly cauldron, but that was without doubt the worst cauldron "lighting" ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Words couldn't explain how frustrated and disappointed I am to tonight's ceremony. I wasn't expecting something grand or massive show, just a something that will be lit by the torch. Those previous games wherein we saw haphazard presentations were better than this because at least for them, they've tried. Even Tokyo who've had a very somber Opening, they had something even as a modest cauldron. All those torch lighting and torch relays preparations and even materials felt pointless because there's nothing to receive the flame. It also felt like a disrespect to the fans, to volunteers, and to the athletes and coaches. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Brekkie Boy said:

The lighting of the cauldron is supposed to be so inspirational - light the fire within for the athletes to compete, light the fire for future athletes watching at home and light the fire for viewers to embrace the games over the next couple of weeks.

This failed to do that, as did the ceremony as a whole.   Kind of feel for those watching for the first time - for me it's now 30 years of ceremonies.   Don't have strong memories of Albertville but Barcelona is my first real memory of the games and probably couldn't have got a more inspirational flame lighting to start things.     Really expected Beijing to show that you could do something spectacular even with a down-scaled more eco-friendly cauldron, but that was without doubt the worst cauldron "lighting" ever.

I think Rio pretty much nailed the "tiny but hugely impactful" cauldron thing, but now everybody is trying to avoid copying them because copying is frowned on.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

London 2012 opened just after local sunset, so the darkness gathered during the "Pandemonium" segment. Paris is roughly on the same longitude as London, but it uses a time-zone an hour further east. The whole cultural segment of their ceremony will be in fading daylight. Outside the confines of a stadium, they stand a chance of benefiting from "magic hour" low sun tones.

...while having strong lights for the Seine (including for the boats carrying the athletes during a possibly particularly long parade of nations) after darkness has set in. I'm very sceptical about their ability to create good TV images and also a good narrative and flow with their Seine concept. Already Paris' handover segments in Tokyo were very underwhelming.

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...