London Olympics opening

F

firehawk

Veteran
About 6:00 pm central time I saw a very impressive production for what I presume was the opening to the 2012 Olympics. I wonder if anyone has any stats on what it took to pull a feat of that magnitude off; # of crew, time, $$, etc...
What cameras did they use?
Very impressive feat. It is rare I get to watch any television so I was lucky to be on lunch to see it.
 
The budget is said to be around 27 million pounds or 48m$... (and around 10.000 cast and crew). I really enjoyed it and found it fresh,different and much more entertaining than the Beijing one. For me, personally, this is the most complete ceremony, sporting both impressive production and an underlying story. And hey, the music was nice, the soundtrack was very well designed...but what can I say, I love mike oldfield's music and percussion....And it comes from the mind of a film director not a show designer, that I could feel...
 
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Thank you. I thought it was the best I'd seen of anything similar. It did have more of a film feel to it than a show. Lots of crane/jib shots, aerials, wide wide angle lenses, great lighting, character choreography, music, and more. I wonder how many cameras they used and how long it took to put all that together. I was fortunate to get to see it.
 
I think it had moments of brilliance, especially the opening act and mr. beans part. Danny Boyle is certainly a genius. Overall one of the best opening ceremonies i've ever seen, but the crown still goes to Beijing.
 
I found it interesting. The BBC commentators were awful! Their stupid political mouths ruined the audio for me.

The occult symbolism was not lost on me. Interesting fact is there was nuclear waste directly under the arena. Its been removed and put in a safe place. Yeah sure.
 
I thought it was fantastic until they got to the weird and silly "Benny and June" part, or whatever it was called. Nearly fell asleep then.
 
Wow, what an Opening Ceremony by Danny Boyle!
A bit slow in the middle act, but the climax?
Spectacular, beautiful, brilliant!

Let The Games Begin!!!
 
They were definitely NOT going to try and blow money like Beijing, yes £27m is about right.

Fortunately I was otherwise engaged at the time, but what little I did see made me cringe.

TBH the whole opening ceremony thing has been overblown. All they need do is march the teams in, welcome them and light the flame. Maybe have a firework show to end. Job Done.

Oh, and hearing French (Urgh) being given precedence over English sticks in my crew.
 
Well done, the Queen didn't look to happy tho, maybe after downstairs says how good she was. See if she gets an agent now :)

The tech end gets better every 4 yrs .. on FOX here we have 9 screens to work with, kinda DIY direct it ... anyone watching in 3D?

Be interesting to hear from director Danny Boyle, when he comes to.

Cheers.
 
French is always given precedence as it is the language of the IOC... Same at every games..

You didn't watch it, but feel the need to slate the little bit you did see... Typical English mentality (I'm English).

I thought Danny did a great job... Some really brave decisions and he pulled them off. The sheer scale of the production was immense.
 
What I did see looked llike a bunch of kids jumping up and down on oversized beds while being watched by Mary Poppins look-alikes.

I Know French (Urgh) is the Olympic's tongue, but it still sticks in my craw.
 
We just watched it in 3D on a 60 inch Panasonic plasma.

Pretty impressive when well lit. Looking forward to viewing some actual events, which are delayed 24 hours.

Thought parts of the presentation were a little boring at times, but the production was fabulous.

Wife and I never quite understood the doctors and nurses portion.
 
David Saraceno said:
Wife and I never quite understood the doctors and nurses portion.
Click to expand...

I *think* it was something to do with the establishment of the NHS.

TBH I lost enthusiasm when I first saw the Teletubbies / Barwick Green faux Hobbiton set and wrote it off a irredeemably twee. The rest of the confused mess I caught only reinforced my opinions.
 
I'd say Boyle and Co. figured Bean and Bond would offset and balance the NHS bits .. they got that right too.

Those smoking chimneys coming up did it for me, great stuff, took a punt that the smoke would blow away, what an adrenalin rush for the ground crew.

For the Brits 1948 games, they released pigeons and they just flew around the stadium crapping on the crowd. Pigeon English ho ho.

Cheers.
 
I'd say the ceremony established that these definitely are not the Austerity Games...

Also, the British rock aspect- from Beatles to Bowie, Stones to Zeppelin, Floyd, Who and Kinks- Gold medal in music there! :thumbsup:

Sport-wise, looks like Phelps has some competition in the pool...
 
Did anyone notice the selective blur element that was used? This appeared to be a software
effect--it's most noticeable in the shots where the young athletes are carrying the torch. It
appears that objects in the blue light(or maybe it's based on luminance values) are very
blurred(like a gaussian blur), while objects in the warm light(or brighter light) are sharp.
 
My dear 5yr old grandaughter watching the Olympics and expanding her vocabulary and knowledge ..

'Did we get a blonde medal?' 'What colour is bronze?' 'Are they going to tickle (tackle) each other?'

Cheers.
 
I've been enjoying the olympics, London has truly put on one of the great games of all time but I have to ask - just what is the penis mascot supposed to be? Is it a native animal or something? I would have expected something more recognisable to a world audience like a badger, hedgehog or a peregrine or something.
 
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