Gamesbids’ Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony Live Chat

[The Tower Bridge Fox]

it seems  poignant having a  small flame set in a giant snow flake
what with climate change and everything.

[SkiFreak]

Lululemon really screwed the pooch with our Team Canada uniforms. Team Canada looks ridiculous. Like they're wearing sleeping bags. The Lululemon contract is only for 3 years I heard. Hope HBC or Roots get the contract again after.

[BigVic]

I do like the Aussie team uniforms 

[Australian Kiwi]

2 hours ago, Scotguy II said:

I dunno, its been 20 years since the last American ceremony and well look at Gold Coast 2018 :s

It was a step up on 2014

[Anthony]

2 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

I think the lesson learned today is that use of heavily advanced technology in ceremonies doesn't always works, if its in charge of people who don't use it properly. And i'm afraid that with technology, ceremonies are actually becoming more and more lazy.

Remove the LED screen of this ceremony for example, and you would had a show which would have made the Nagano ceremony as a masterpiece. I hope this serves as lesson to Marco Balich for 2026.

Balich won’t learn. He’ll do mass projections, “Imagine” and a torch cauldron. 

[Sir Rols]

Well, going admittedly solely by the comments here, a few observations:

* Ceremony tragics can’t rely on dictatorships to give them “spectacular” any more;

* If you’re going to go restrained, don’t hype it up so much. Yimou spent the week raising expectations, then failed to deliver. It didn’t sound like it, but did it really look like he had 5000 performers on? Or was he counting the teams marching within that?

* Whether it was because of covid or that they figured the optics would go over better than being bombastic, China defied expectations by going restrained;

* But even a “restrained” CCP can’t help themselves - like putting a Uyghur as a final torch bearer - tokenism at best, something far more sinister at worst;

* And, yes, the “cauldron”. Or lack thereof. I haven’t seen/watched it, but it sounds like there was nothing to see anyway. I can sorta see the gesture that was trying to make, but really???? 

* Surely Bach has realised “Mr Fencing 1976” has become such a ridiculous cliche rivalling JAS’s “His Exellency”? The optics aren’t good.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Sir Rols

[olympian]

will there be an outside cauldron? 

[Australian Kiwi]

The arrival of the torch and its placement reminded me of the Commonwealth Games baton arriving at the lectern. 

[AustralianFan]

About the stadium ground screen in the Beijing 2022 Opening:

It was indeed a world first for an Olympics because it combined Artifical Intelligence with Motion Sensor technology.

It was unprecedented because it was the first time ever in history that this unique technology had ever been used in an Olympic Ceremony.

Just to be clear, it was much more than an LED screen, much more than projections that we’re all condioned to seeing.

I’ll find the report which explains this.

[AustralianFan]

2 minutes ago, AustralianFan said:

About the stadium ground screen in the Beijing 2022 Opening:

It was indeed a world first for an Olympics because it combined Artifical Intelligence with Motion Sensor technology.

It was unprecedented because it was the first time ever in history that this unique technology had ever been used in an Olympic Ceremony.

Just to be clear, it was much more than an LED screen, much more than projections that we’re all condioned to seeing.

I’ll find the report which explains this.

Here it is:

ABC News Australia - 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics kicks off with a 'simple' show and a message of 'One World, One Family' - 05Feb22

“Most impressive though was the generation of snowflakes beneath the feet of 600 child performers, a world first linking of Artificial Intelligence and motion sensor technology.”

 

 

[AustralianFan]

57 minutes ago, Australian Kiwi said:

The arrival of the torch and its placement reminded me of the Commonwealth Games baton arriving at the lectern. 

You’re right, it was like that.

[BigVic]

The snowflake theme continued from PyeongChang 2018 when at the CC the flame was extinguished with a snowflake. 

[munichfan]

4 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

Well, going admittedly solely by the comments here, a few observations:

* Ceremony tragics can’t rely on dictatorships to give them “spectacular” any more;

* If you’re going to go restrained, don’t hype it up so much. Yimou spent the week raising expectations, then failed to deliver. It didn’t sound like it, but did it really look like he had 5000 performers on? Or was he counting the teams marching within that?

* Whether it was because of covid or that they figured the optics would go over better than being bombastic, China defied expectations by going restrained;

* But even a “restrained” CCP can’t help themselves - like putting a Uyghur as a final torch bearer - tokenism at best, something far more sinister at worst;

* And, yes, the “cauldron”. Or lack thereof. I haven’t seen/watched it, but it sounds like there was nothing to see anyway. I can sorta see the gesture that was trying to make, but really???? 

* Surely Bach has realised “Mr Fencing 1976” has become such a ridiculous cliche rivalling JAS’s “His Exellency”? The optics aren’t good.

That's on point.

[Brekkie Boy]

7 hours ago, Australian Kiwi said:

The arrival of the torch and its placement reminded me of the Commonwealth Games baton arriving at the lectern. 

Yes - it was that underwhelming!

It is even still burning - not seen any shots of it or a second version within the city or Olympic Park.   It is such a poor design - well, no design at all.   Didn't give the ceremony it's moment and doesn't result in a cauldron that is easy on the eye.   And to think for a moment before it was "lit" I was worried for the safety of the kids around the snowflake as I assumed the whole thing was about to burst into flames.

 

Hopefully Paris's city centre plan (if they don't U-turn on it) means that for the first time since Sochi the actual cauldron that will be the main cauldron of the games will be lit during the Opening Ceremony.

[Palette86]

22 hours ago, rio2016man said:

Yuzuru appeared twice in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony video

He's beloved by Chinese people.

Quote

 

[JMarkSnow2012]

13 hours ago, SkiFreak said:

A thought about the cauldron. What would've been better; made the center of the snowflake like a lighthouse lantern, with jagged, reflective glass to reflect the light more, and have it spin maybe, like a lighthouse.

Would that have been a bit too much like Rio's reflecting kinetic sculpture?

Nice though!

[Ikarus360]

A gentle reminder of many other reasons why I feel Imagine is one of the worst songs ever and it needs to stop being used from anything:

• It is basically the naive view of the world according to a child, and as you grow up and mature you realize how immature all of the song really is. Yet for some reason, a lot of boomers like it thinking its a very deep song when it isn't.
• John Lennon wrote "Imagine no posessions" while he himself lived in a Mansion full of luxuries and with strict security.
• He also wrote "Imagine no religion" when he was known for encouraging pagan religions.
• Oh, and lets not forget how abusive he was toward his first wife (Cynthia) and son (Julian), and how he abandoned her and ran away with Yoko. Plus telling his son how he ruined his life when it was actually the other way around.
• People forgot about all his actions because he was assasinated by some random moron, so now he's praised and sanctified by corporations such as the IOC.

John Lennon was an awful human being and its time to stop pretending he wasn't.

 

[Olympian2004]

2 hours ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

Would that have been a bit too much like Rio's reflecting kinetic sculpture?

Nice though!

Well, Beijing actually does have kinetic sculptures as their "cauldrons" already. I saw the external "cauldron" outside the Birds Nest today (the German Olympic broadcasters ARD and ZDF always close their livestreams from Olympic events with live pictures of the respective Olympic cauldron) and there is a curved structure that revolves around the snowflake with the torch. Here's a picture of it, I sadly haven't found a video yet: https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/news-photo/the-olympic-cauldron-outside-the-national-stadium-known-as-news-photo/1238188266

So they definitely took a page out of Rio's book there. Just like they copied so many other ideas from earlier opening ceremonies...

[Olympian2004]

P.S. I wrote "cauldrons" because there is one each of those sculptures in Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Yanqing.

[Anthony]

unofficial verdict: best part was the shot of putin sleeping when ukraine came in during the pon. 

[Sir Rols]

8 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

A gentle reminder of many other reasons why I feel Imagine is one of the worst songs ever and it needs to stop being used from anything:

• It is basically the naive view of the world according to a child, and as you grow up and mature you realize how immature all of the song really is. Yet for some reason, a lot of boomers like it thinking its a very deep song when it isn't.
• John Lennon wrote "Imagine no posessions" while he himself lived in a Mansion full of luxuries and with strict security.
• He also wrote "Imagine no religion" when he was known for encouraging pagan religions.
• Oh, and lets not forget how abusive he was toward his first wife (Cynthia) and son (Julian), and how he abandoned her and ran away with Yoko. Plus telling his son how he ruined his life when it was actually the other way around.
• People forgot about all his actions because he was assasinated by some random moron, so now he's praised and sanctified by corporations such as the IOC.

John Lennon was an awful human being and its time to stop pretending he wasn't.

 

I sorta concur with you on much of that, but I also sorta don’t.

I agree it’s become overused in ceremonies. I’m also not a fan of the song in general and think its simplistic, naive, trite and naff (indeed, I’m not a fan of much of Lennon’s post-Beatles work). 

But I do think it’s a quintessential Olympics OC-type song. The surprise is that it took them so long to first use it - albeit it’s now long since outstayed its welcome. Its sheer naivety is totally in tune with the naive, some would say hypocritical, mission statement of the Olympics of bringing peace through togetherness and mutual respect and all that stuff. It’s idealistic, nothing wrong with that, and it fits the tone the IOC would like to project.

it’s soft, bland, easy listening, which also fits the need for ceremonies to appeal to a broad, middle of the road audience. It’s sure not my taste - I’m not a fan at all of the “Reach” or “One Moment in Time” type soft inspirational stuff that that approach mandates. I’m more a fan of Muses’s “Survival” from London 2012, though that split audiences - even here on the board we had posters saying its Queen-esque heavy rock didn’t fit the Olympics. (Indeed, London’s general musical selections were far more up my alley - loved that the Sex Pistols got a snippet in the OC and that the song they picked from the Lennon catalogue was “I Am The Walrus”)

As to Lennon himself - well, he was certainly no Saint John, he could be cruel and narcissistic, and if he was around today he’d have long been in #MeToo sights. But you can’t fault him for being a working class boy who made a buck - you’d have to count out the Dylans and Cohen’s then too. And George was the spiritual Beatle, John was a more an inquisItive dabbler who really had no time for any organised religion and was vocal about it. I don’t think he was hypocritical of his ideals - he was a child of his times who bought into the whole peace and flower power hippy stuff. His songs like “Imagine”, “Give Peace a Chance” and “Happy Christmas War Is Over” were simplistic but anthemic  and precisely because of that captured the spirit of the late hippy/anti-Vietnam era and then continued to live on. He was a complicated bloke, a genius and full of contradictions. But not a monster.

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Sir Rols

[Ikarus360]

Well, at least the trumpeter boy was very real, unlike the singing girl from 2008. Although they forced him to change hairstyle for the opening

 

[PikyoK]

On 2/4/2022 at 11:45 PM, Ikarus360 said:

Making Greece and Turkey march close to each other was kinda hilarious when you remember the strong hate boner they have for each other

lol yes

[Olympics2028]

On 2/5/2022 at 2:13 PM, Sir Rols said:

it’s soft, bland, easy listening, which also fits the need for ceremonies to appeal to a broad, middle of the road audience. It’s sure not my taste - I’m not a fan at all of the “Reach” or “One Moment in Time” type soft inspirational stuff that that approach mandates. I’m more a fan of Muses’s “Survival” from London 2012, though that split audiences - even here on the board we had posters saying its Queen-esque heavy rock didn’t fit the Olympics. (Indeed, London’s general musical selections were far more up my alley - loved that the Sex Pistols got a snippet in the OC and that the song they picked from the Lennon catalogue was “I Am The Walrus”)

 

 

So many threads in Gamesbid, I thought the other "2022 Ceremony" thread was the main one.

Okay, my taste goes for "broad, middle of the road."

By contrast, when you wrote you liked the 2024 theme music, which I think is too dark and somber, I could tell you're the opposite of that.

BTW, I bet most people in the 2024 OOC, including Tony Estanguet - and the entertainment world's creative hierarchy in general - will agree with your take on Woodkid's score. Which is why I think it's way likelier that will be the official theme of the next summer games.

You're mentioning "Survival" made me look up a tape of it, which I've never seen before. Although I saw the first segment of 2012, after the scene where the Olympic rings were made to look like steel being forged, I generally began tuning out. Most Olympic ceremonies to me are too long and aren't enjoyable.

The "Survival" composition actually looks like it was one of the  better ones in 2012. It came off better than, by comparison, the Spice Girls or the opening's salute to NHS, etc.

There's actually a small choir working with the performer too. Choirs can make just about anything work.

If 2012 had tossed out all the gimmicks, including the trucks, the kleig lights, volunteers wearing hats with light bulbs on top, etc, etc, etc, this segment would have been quite fitting. At least based on the way I define "Olympic ceremony."

 

 

[Olympics2028]

^ The choir made the "Survival" segment actually kind of impressive, more fitting of a big sound that a ceremony should shoot for. I'm guessing 2022 lacked that? But all the flames in 2012 were another case of organizing committees and their contracted producers like going overboard and spending too much money.