Opening/Closing Ceremonies Discussion

[SpongeG]

there is always the closing

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by en2

The route to lighting the exterior cauldron was painful to watch. Seemed so unplanned. You would have thought that they would give out hints so that the route would be lined with cheering crowds instead of people running alongside the truck.

One rejected plan:
Design a hockey puck with a propane flame shooting out the top & stick-handle it "street hockey style" to the convention centre. At each intersection it's passed to a another hockey legend until it gets to Wayne at the convention centre, where "He Shoots -- He scores" into the cauldron.

Canadians from coast to coast would be cringing; Everyone else would think that's a typical Canadian Friday night.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by GeeCee

I'd really like an audio copy of kd lang's rendition of Hallelujah.

just rip it from the video recording you made of the ceremony.

[scooterm2010]

You can hear her do a version of Hallelujah on the album Hymns of the 49th Parallel.

[SpongeG]

if u need a fix

• Video Link

[SpongeG]

canada enters as seen on sears

• Video Link

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by JiminyCricket II

that floor was AMAZING. the lip synchronizing from the singers (or at least as it appeared on TV) was not so cool. I thought the tap dancing was the best part, as well as the orcas.

Every note of music played or sung, and the tap dancing and special effects, essentially anything you would hear - other than the announcer's dialogues and the official speeches - were pre-recorded so if there was a technical flub with a microphone or stadium speakers, the TV audience wouldn't notice.

The orchestra and singers et.al. were still performing live, but in time with the pre-recorded tracks.

Fortunately there were no glaring "Ashley Simpson SNL" moments - other than Brian missing his opening line.

"The show must go on"

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Stephen Harper never looks happy to be alive. What did you expect ?

Something strange, I bought the "Sounds of 2010" CD but KD Lang is not on it!!!??

Any "official [CD / Video / Book / etc] of Vancouver 2010" that is released before the games have even started is just silly to buy. I'd rather wait for the end of the games to get the video highlights DVD or Best-of CD souvenir that I know will actually be a memento of what actually happened at the games.

This grates me the same way as seeing the "Guiness 2010 Book of Records" in the bookstore before Christmas 2009. Sorry guys, its still 2009 and there were probably lots of records set in 2009 after you finished the book in October so it would make the bookstores in time for Christmas. I'd rather have the "Guiness 2010 Book of Records" show up in February 2010 that actually has all the records set before Jan 1st 2010

[Holden West]

I'm sorry but I don't get the pre-recording thing. These singers are true professionals that perform in front of crowds for a living. They can handle anything. Seems to me more can go wrong with the recording than with live singing.

I really hope I'm able to cross the strait and take in some of the atmosphere downtown before this is all over.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

canada enters as seen on sears

• Video Link

Can't they pull the projector back to make the image fit top-to-bottom?

[Yume-sama]

A teaser of things to come. Maybe I start my own thread in General Discussion so as not to hog this one with my dozens of photos lol


http://www.flickr.com/photos/syume/4353372412/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/syume/4353374030/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/syume/4352627545/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/syume/4352628193/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/syume/4352628791/

You can check out all my photos on Flickr, if you want
www.flickr.com/syume

[ozonemania]

Very good opening ceremonies, but I am biased as I am pro-Olympics. I talked with a couple people that aren't so hot with the Olympics and their opinion of the ceremonies was similar, like 'meh' and 'not as good as beijing'. Whatever.

My favourite segments:
1. k.d.lang. She was amazing. Anyone that was bored with it doesn't appreciate music as much as they appreciate 'adrenaline-inducing noise'. She put her soul into that, and you can feel it.

2. The Prairie girl dance. I must say, the impact of that number is much greater live than on TV. I was a little let-down that the TV coverage wasn't able to capture the fluidy, continuity, and the artistry of that performance.

3. The orcas and the other floor-projections. A 'gimmick' very well-utilized.

4. The giant polar bear. This is another moment when being there had more impact. It just kinda pops out of nowhere and because it's so big it seems to pop out at you too.

My least favourite segments:
1. The Fiddler routine. Actually if you break the performance down, it was very good. It's just there was too much going on visually and acoustically, and it just came across as too busy and confusing for my tastes. If they had simplified it a bit and allowed the viewers to focus on some things better and for a little longer I think it would have been much better.

2. The poet. If this number had been for an all-Canadian audience, it is perfect. However this isn't necessarily for world consumption. I don't think that outsiders would find what we say about ourselves to be surprising or alarming. However, they might be surprised that we have the arrogance to tell them that we know it.

Maybe it's a shrewd tactic to put our Canadian athletes into an advantagous state of mind over their rivals.


PS- Aboriginal elements were so well done. They really got it right.

[Yume-sama]

I did think the poem was a tad inappropriate for this occasion, and just an extended Molson Canadian commercial.

[raggedy13]

Overall I quite liked it. Real shame about the one cauldron leg not working, but could've been worse. At first I thought the whole cauldron setup wasn't going to work at all which would've been horrible. I loved the visual effects like the Orcas (so cool) and the forest with the tree trunks etc. I had zero issues with the anthem rendition and just couldn't understand what all the controversy was about. It sounded great. Different than what people are used to, sure, but pleasing to the ear nonetheless. And k.d. lang sounded amazing!

I look forward to the closing ceremonies and hope they compliment the opening well, perhaps by emphasizing other regions of the country than the opening appeared to highlight (or perhaps by focussing more on the host city itself ). And hopefully they can redeem themselves to some degree with a properly working cauldron.

Also, I liked the look of the setup in BC Place and thought they did a great job at making it look presentable (at least on tv). It looked huge too!

[mr.x]

I absolutely loved it, and I echo what you're all saying...I only just got back about 3 hours ago or so, so I'll just keep it at that and need to sleep....well, except that the cauldron failure was a jaw dropper. It wasn't the end of the world, like how many perceive it to be (or perhaps bad luck? afterall, we're the first Olympic host city to have a dead athlete since Munich and the first host city to have an accidental death in 40 years)...

BC Place was amazing, David Atkins was a miracle worker with regards to turning the place around BUT THIS IS HIS SECOND OLYMPIC CAULDRON FAILURE IN 10 YEARS! At Sydney 2000, as the cauldron was ascending after rising from a pool of water it stalled for 5-minutes. Atkins 0-2.

[Ayreonaut]

Originally Posted by raggedy13

stuff

I agree with everything you said here.

[nova9]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

Can't they pull the projector back to make the image fit top-to-bottom?

haha, it's not like your standard retail projector that you can move around. I think this thing might be mounted to something - perhaps the building across which would be the Chapters building.

[Delirium]

great pics Yume-sama! love the clarity.

here's my take on things.

i think the stadium looked great. the speckles of snow falling, the ice, the whiteness etc. looked good on TV. they also did a great job at not showing the roof. thank god because looking at Yume-sama's pics, it looks absolutely terrible.

loved the orcas, the tree thing was cool. reminded me of Avatar a bit.
did not like the prairie stuff. way too boring. fiddlers were ok but too much of it and too long. the poet - too much of a Molson commercial for me. but
i have to ask, where the hell was Vancouver is all this spectacle?

lastly, the cauldron. sorry, but i find it inexcusable that the 5th leg did not work. there should have been back-up beyond back-up in place to avoid such problems. i was sitting there saying "you have GOT to be kidding me!!"

i hate to say this but these games are turning out terrible. i mean, the weather is such an issue and posing major problems at Whistler and cypress, someone has died during training AND the cauldron did not lite properly in front of billions..

what else could possibly go wrong? seriously. we're on day two --

[nova9]

I think we're more divided on this than needs to be. We have a vested interest in how we're portrayed so of course there will be opinions. But in this case, since we all agreed in many instances that this ceremony was for the world audience, the world seems to like it judging from the 3 to 4 hours worth of news article and review reading I've just done, hahaha.

Most like it and say it was elegant and touching, if long. They say we struck the perfect tone between grief and jubilance. Many even stated that the glitch, though major, gave the ceremony a very human touch. And most of the time, it was one sentence. Let's not focus on one sentence to ruin the spectacle of the entire evening.

[dreambrother808]

Watching on TV, I really can't believe that KD was lip-synching. Everyone else definitely was though.

I was really proud of the ceremony. Parts were definitely stunning. The quotes read by Donald Sutherland were poetic and spiritual. KD brought her huge, amazing voice as per usual. I loved the use of a Joni song, as I am a big fan.

I found the sound to be a much more rich and full on NBC as opposed to CTV, but otherwise CTV is impressing me so far in ways I didn't expect.

My major complaint was the First Nations opening segment. Much more could have been done with that. It came across as boring. I would have loved to see something re-enacting the Bill Reid creation myth sculpture at the Museum of Anthropology.