Opening Ceremony Details

[Olympian2004]

Just one request: But could you post less pictures next time? You could also post just two or three pictures and then give the links to the other pictures. This amount of pictures makes the topic very difficult to read and it also takes a lot of time (even with my DSL connection) to load the pictures.

[Lenric]

Just one request: But could you post less pictures next time? You could also post just two or three pictures and then give the links to the other pictures. This amount of pictures makes the topic very difficult to read and it also takes a lot of time (even with my DSL connection) to load the pictures.

The speed is fine with my computer ~o sorry, coz they're from the Chinese websites.so it is normal to load longer in your country....

Ok~no problem

I just found a Fun VIDEO MAKING FUN OF BEJING OC.

HERE IS THE LINK

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/kHFXFZDrSKI/

[baron-pierreIV]

Lenric, u r babbling -- and as Olympian2004 said, what's the point of posting all those visuals and WASTING bandwidth -- which affects others? Those are your own conjectures. They could be anything. So if each and everyone of us posted 30-40 images of what it could be -- WHICH it will never be unless you are actually on the Ceremonies team or have legit access to their plans -- then this site will lead to technical chaos.

Please be more restrained in this regard. You should create your own blog if you are just going to expound endlessly on 'your ideas of what you think they might be.'

Thank you.

Edited August 12, 2007 by baron-pierreIV

[savas]

Anything restrained (a la Athens -- which are resouces from a small country) will be a let-down and a disappointment.

I have to disagree strongly with the "restrained" for Athens. The Athens Opening Ceremony was highly emotional and very powerful from the very first second... I wil not go on detaisl because this is the wrong thread for but the smallest detail had a deeper meaning and all parts of the ceremony were connected with eachother and completed eachother. Athens achieved to celebrate the uniqueness of Hellenism with the awareness that all starts with a heartbeat and ends with the creation of new life, a unique new life. This is the part where Athens was restrained, not because of Greece is a small country and lacks of self-confidents. The opposite. Hellenism celebrates the beauty of the human soul, logical thinking and the human nature. This is what the Athens Ceremony showed to the world and to many Greeks (who have forgotten that). Athens showed greatness of a different quality.

As for the Beijing Ceremonies:

We know Zhang Yimou's films which are impressive without lacking quality. But that means nothing. Papaioannou's previous works have almost nothing in common with the Opening Ceremony. The only thing that they have in common is high quality. Knowing two films of Zhang Yimou tells us nothing about how the ceremony is going to be. I think that his work has to satisfy the ego of the chinise government which means "show power, power, power..." This matches numbers of not 1.000, not 5.000 but 50.000!!!! I just hope that Zhang Yimou will find a way to combine this hunger for quantity with quality. Perhaps he has to be artful. Feed the Governemnt and dazzle the IOC with impressive numbers to have artistic freedom!

[cfm Jeremie]

Well comparing Sydney to Beijing- will be comparing apples to oranges. 9,000 Participants in Sydney vs 50,000 in Beijing.

And Athens simplistic ceremony may have looked beautiful on TV, but live would have been very hard to see.

As a spectator of the final dress rehearsal, allow me to respecfully disagree. Being in the stadium was a unique experience: from the first drums beats (incredibly powerful) to being able to feel the heat from the Olympic Rings in fire, to the double helix to the heart beat waiting for the Olympic Flame to enter the stadium, it was great and incredibly emotional.

The only part that might have been better on TV, depending on where you were sitting in the stadium was the Clepsydra part, as the figures started getting animated more or less in front of the official stand.

[Olympian2004]

The speed is fine with my computer ~o sorry, coz they're from the Chinese websites.so it is normal to load longer in your country....

Ok~no problem

I just found a Fun VIDEO MAKING FUN OF BEJING OC.

HERE IS THE LINK

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/kHFXFZDrSKI/

I appreciate your enthusiasm for the Beijing Olympics but I also have to say that it's pretty senseless to post an obviously very language-based Chinese skit, without any subtitles. The vast majority of the forum members doesn't speak or even understand any Chinese. We'd like to share your enthusiasm, but please with clips understandable also for international viewers and please without tons of large pictures.

[Lenric]

I appreciate your enthusiasm for the Beijing Olympics but I also have to say that it's pretty senseless to post an obviously very language-based Chinese skit, without any subtitles. The vast majority of the forum members doesn't speak or even understand any Chinese. We'd like to share your enthusiasm, but please with clips understandable also for international viewers and please without tons of large pictures.

OK,YES,NO PROBLEM, CERTAINLY, I STRONGLY DO AGREE WITH YOU.......you continue your posts.

[mattygs]

I know it is a little bit to early but does anybody know some details. I only read about an chines arts director and Steven Spielberg who is involved in planning the Opening ceremony.

Probably not a surprise.

But I read that Tan Dun has been appointed the musical director of the ceremonies.

[ike74ph]

Hi.

Here in East Asia we're quite used to big, spectacular shows by China. We know that the Chinese getting ready to make a show that will be remembered forever.

Their presentation at the Athens Closing Ceremonies was a let down because of the small area they had to work with. You can't expect the Chinese to put up an Athens-like show because they're not good at it. A communist style rally is their forte is what they do best. Besides, how can you make a show about a 5,000 year old civilization with a billion-plus population with a "small" show. You're taking out a lot of ideas.

If they don't put up a mass rally, then it will truly be a disappointment.

P.S. No marching band. That was the most boring part in Sydney.

P.P.S. Let the athletes march. The Olympics is all about them.

[zainhasan15]

Hello every body.............why they are makin hole in the middle of Arena??? are they going to make pool again

Another pic, here you can see a big hole in the middle as well as a deep square room.

[Olympian2004]

That hole will at least offer space to stow some props for the opening ceremony. In Athens, the hole didn't contain the pool's drainage system only, but also the Cycladic head and the olive tree.

I think that it's rather unlikely that we'll see another pool. But we'll certainly see something come out of the ground -- either a huge dragon or a platform or the final torch bearer (remember Atlanta 1996) or whatever.

[baron-pierreIV]

Hello every body.............why they are makin hole in the middle of Arena??? are they going to make pool again

Another pic, here you can see a big hole in the middle as well as a deep square room.

I doubt that they will do a 'pool' again. Not too original. However, it may also be a permanent drainage should a 'soccer' field be put out.

In America, we say that if you want to get to the other side of the world, dig a hole and yo'll come out in China. Maybe that's the surprise # -- they're have the Yanks from 1984 and 1996 come out of there (just as Gladys Knight and Evander Holyfield came out of centerfield in Atlanta)!!

I think that's for the 'Earthen Warriors' sequence. Remember, the show's theme will be 5 rings; 5 elements (earth, fire, water, wind and metal); 5 epochs.

[baron-pierreIV]

Also, 2 other OC bits to share:

- Kites...instead of the little boy & his boat in Athens; Beijing will have a boy and his kite opening the evening's proceedings

- Lit Lantern sequence -- probably the end of the Artistic portion will see hundreds of lit Chinese lanterns being released into the sky much like the silver balloons in LA's Opening. And then in the Parade of Nations, before the Placard bearer, there will be a "Lantern bearer" -- since kites and lanterns are 2 very instrinsically 'Chinese' icons.

[nykfan845]

Wow. Sounds very interesting.

[mr.x]

i'm still baffled at the concept of 50,000 performers....as well as the claims by BOCOG that "the performers don't want to be highly paid".

[mattygs]

50.000 isnt such an out of this world number. When they say that many will participate, perhaps it just means we will see maybe 12,000 or so *conventional* performers, aswell as a large portion of the spectators performing some kind of card stunt.

That would make sense.

As for them not wanting to be paid, I think most people who have particpated in recent ceremonies would say that it wasnt about the money, but instead about the buzz of being part of that huge event. I think I would have the same opinion.

Perhaps major big name performers would be a different story tho.

[baron-pierreIV]

i'm still baffled at the concept of 50,000 performers....

Unless they are really working with a MASSIVE, out-and-out-let's-knock-em-dead-with-how-many-bodies-we-can-throw-in-the-field mindset (and I think BOCOG is releasing these big numbers so even if it does not turn out to br true, maybe the figures will be picked up in places like Wikepedia, stay uncorrected, and for the record, will stay on top of the lists for a long time), I think 50,000 is a really BIG number. And that might be the first cut of the prospective performers. I think 25,000-30,000 might be more realistic.

Or, that could be the number of performers they are using for BOTH Opening and Closing, i.e., not wanting to use duplicate performers -- and trying to please as many volunteers as possible. Of course, that also means double the logistics and SECURITY vetting. (But hey, it's their show.) And the 100,000 costumes might similarly be the TOTAL number of outfits projected for BOTH Ceremonies.

So, if say 25,000-30,000 will work for Opening (and a similar number for Closing), you may include

- the placard and lantern bearers (some 420 alone);

- maybe the cheerleaders sprinkled thoughout the stadium (I'd say 888 maybe ).

- Then there is that BIG International Marching Band where they expect to recruit, what did they say?, 4000 members? So, that's another 4,000 there.

- there will be children of course -- so maybe 8-10,000 of them.

- AND finally, the Dwarves for the big penis-sucking number -- so maybe 2,000 there alone!!

But I think as the plans proceed, the big numbers will get whittled down a lot more.

Edited August 28, 2007 by baron-pierreIV

[Durban Sandshark]

So, do any of you think Jackie Chan could sing at the Opening Ceremony, or maybe save him for the Closing?

[Scotguy]

I think that the pool in the middle may be to illuminate a large chinese lantern or mayb have something to do with the flame itself. I doublt they would have a pool as it would be seen as copying Athens and the chinese want their games to be unique.

[baron-pierreIV]

I think that the pool in the middle may be to illuminate a large chinese lantern or mayb have something to do with the flame itself. I doublt they would have a pool as it would be seen as copying Athens and the chinese want their games to be unique.

That's pretty big though for even the cauldron SHOULD it appear in the middle of the field. If they set up a cauldron there, it would have to be moved to the roof or somewhere else right after the OC. But it is possible.

However, that cavity in the ground I think is de rigeur now for new stadia. Atlanta had a similar set-up for its Turner Field Olympic configuration without the thought to doing an inundated infield, as the Greeks did. (I remember inspecting that underground passage and center field room where Gladys Knight and Evender Holyfield and the light for the Magic Lantern portion came out of. The room and the passage way were really low-ceilinged. I'm suprised the sprinklers didn't go off when Holyfield ran its final hidden moments there w/ the torch in his hand. They must've turned the sprinklers off for that moment.)

[NOC]

Well the ceremony tickets are all sold out. I have tried to get them from the Australian agent and they said they dont have anymore left and can not get anymore. Same message I am getting from friends who are trying to get tickets in other countries.

[Olympian2004]

I doublt they would have a pool as it would be seen as copying Athens and the chinese want their games to be unique.

As can be seen in their copying of Athens' global torch relay and Sydney's Olympic marching band.

[mattygs]

everything has been repeated though. Sydney had a marching band, but so did LA, so it wasnt really original in 2000.

Though yeah, a pool would be a tad obvious. Water though would not, there is no reason that they wouldnt use some. And if they are gonna base some of their concepts on key elements, it would be appropriate.

[baron-pierreIV]

Well the ceremony tickets are all sold out. I have tried to get them from the Australian agent and they said they dont have anymore left and can not get anymore. Same message I am getting from friends who are trying to get tickets in other countries.

I still haven't gotten a definite 'yes' about my 2 tix, even though supposedly I got into the first US lottery. Obviously with the seats still not in place (altho I hope they are working from plans and/or computer models), there is a delay.

However, NOC, wait a few more months when: (i) all foreign allocations would have reported in, and the IOC/BOCOG Ticketing folks see where there is/was great demand for which event; or (ii) private parties will start to post their tix on eBay as the time draws closer and they think they cannot make it. There will always be tix available at the last minute. Actually, an even better deal, if I can score those, would be for the dress rehearsal when there wouldn't be the dang Parade of Atheltes, altho the cauldron-lighting of course, would be skipped.

[cfm Jeremie]

Actually, an even better deal, if I can score those, would be for the dress rehearsal when there wouldn't be the dang Parade of Atheltes, altho the cauldron-lighting of course, would be skipped.

Careful what you wish for. They did rehearse the Athletes Parade during Athens dress rehearsal. If you think the actual parade is boring, try this: a volunteer carrying the American flag then... nothing for 6 minutes, then the next flag, nothing for 2 minutes and so on.