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Olympic Opening Ceremony, London 2012

Ozone said:
I was there last night (a rehearsal for the opening ceremony) and it was really amazing. I was cynical about the Olympics, yes it is a waste of money, the ticketing system has been a shambles etc etc.....but I take my hat off to Danny Boyle, it was brilliant and will be well worth watching. It made me proud to be a Londoner. It's easy to grumble about things, the crowds were mental and there were a couple of issues....but it was great and the stadium looks brilliant. Despite what the papers said today about the transport, it took us exactly 90 minutes to get from our seats back to Stockwell!

It is a shame people are posting pictures of the event last night on twitter as half the excitement about Friday's opening ceremony is the element of surprise..... At the end of the day I'd far rather the show was mind mindbogglingly impressive than to have a poor show and to be the laughing stock of the rest of the world...?
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Excellent post
 
paolo said:
Some of the next segments transform the set - amazingly. The cast of thousands looks like a random shambles, but then things unfold and it's a proper talking point. Our group is constantly nudging each other, pointing out little details.
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If that's the bit I think you mean, it was fucking intense! Really interested to see how it translates to TV, but being in the stadium I was rather "wooooahh :eek:" :D :cool:
 
Tomorrow (Friday) evening. Kicks off at 20:12. Obviously.

(You can also get tickets for events at £20.12, as well as £2,012 - did they think we'd forget the date?!)
 
Lord Camomile said:
Tomorrow (Friday) evening. Kicks off at 20:12. Obviously.

(You can also get tickets for events at £20.12, as well as £2,012 - did they think we'd forget the date?!)
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According to BBC Breakfast this morning, you find out that the £20.12 tickets aren't available once you get near the end of the booking process. The ones available are £1600 or £2012. According to Beeb, anyway.
 
Lord Camomile said:
If that's the bit I think you mean, it was fucking intense! Really interested to see how it translates to TV, but being in the stadium I was rather "wooooahh :eek:" :D :cool:
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Yeah I'm also wondering how it will look on telly - the whole thing really. Part of the fun watching it live is spotting all the little touches - on TV one is going to be "led" around by the director. Flipside though will be lots of close ups of stuff, and some epic aerial shots. And there's *that* moment where the aerial shots are going to be sweeeeet. :)
 
cesare said:
According to BBC Breakfast this morning, you find out that the £20.12 tickets aren't available once you get near the end of the booking process. The ones available are £1600 or £2012. According to Beeb, anyway.
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Is that for all events, or the opening ceremony? It was just something I'd heard anyway, haven't really looked into it.
paolo said:
Yeah I'm also wondering how it will look on telly - the whole thing really. Part of the fun watching it live is spotting all the little touches - on TV one is going to be "led" around by the director. Flipside though will be lots of close ups of stuff, and some epic aerial shots. And there's *that* moment where the aerial shots are going to be sweeeeet. :)
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I just wonder if the impact will translate via TV. I think Beijing's visuals were impressive in and of themselves, so worked well for TV, but this stuff... dunno how much of an "you had to be there" factor there will be.

Will be watching though, of course ;)
 
Lord Camomile said:
Is that for all events, or the opening ceremony? It was just something I'd heard anyway, haven't really looked into it.
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Not sure. The financial guy with the badger hair was describing it, but I didn't catch whether it was for all events or not.
 
We were chucked out at 22:15, at which point they claimed it had finished, but there was no big fireworks extravaganza at the end. However, I don't think we started on time either.

It's difficult to say, because there was no obvious "right, we've started now" moment. There was stuff that was there when we got to our seat, little bits and pieces were going on, then things started changing in bits and pieces.

Mebbe an hour? That's a very big guess though.
 
I think it officially starts at 9.00pm, but I've also read at 8.12pm but may 8.12pm is the pre-ceremony :(

Have read that it lasts 3 hours, but not sure if that includes fireworks display etc. :hmm:
 
Lord Camomile said:
We were chucked out at 22:15, at which point they claimed it had finished, but there was no big fireworks extravaganza at the end. However, I don't think we started on time either.

It's difficult to say, because there was no obvious "right, we've started now" moment. There was stuff that was there when we got to our seat, little bits and pieces were going on, then things started changing in bits and pieces.

Mebbe an hour? That's a very big guess though.
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Judging by twitter, the fireworks practice wasn't until after midnight
 
Yeah, I heard that. Ran out of bed to see if I could see it from my balcony, but nothing :( Hoping I might catch them tomorrow evening though :)
 
editor said:
Paolo: roughly how long does the ceremony go on for?
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20:12 > 21:00 is the 'pre show'
21:00 onwards is the proper show.

What we saw lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, but some bits were missed out, so the 'show' will run to maybe 1 hour 30.

But it segues seamlessly into the athletes parade (which they also rehearsed, using stand-ins, as we were leaving the stadium). ISTR reading that the overall thing is/was scheduled to finish by 00.30, suggesting the athletes parade will be about two hours. With 204 countries to announce and wheel out, I guess it's inevitable that bit will drag on.
 
paolo said:
20:12 > 21:00 is the 'pre show'
21:00 onwards is the proper show.

What we saw lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, but some bits were missed out, so the 'show' will run to maybe 1 hour 30.

But it segues seamlessly into athletes parade (which they also rehearsed, using stand stand-ins, as we were leaving the stadium). ISTR reading that the overall thing is/was scheduled to finish by 00.30, suggesting the athletes parade will be about two hours. With 204 countries to announce and wheel out, I guess it's inevitable that bit will drag on.
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Ohhhh, is that when they did that. We were out so fast I didn't see what happened afterwards. Did not get the 'pre show'/proper show distinction either, there was a lot of "what the fuck's going on, has it started, is this it?" :facepalm: :oops:
 
Lord Camomile said:
Ohhhh, is that when they did that. We were out so fast I didn't see what happened afterwards. Did not get the 'pre show'/proper show distinction either, there was a lot of "what the fuck's going on, has it started, is this it?" :facepalm: :oops:
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I thought there was some kind of countdown for the main show? Using, ahem, *that* effect ;)

The thing that properly marked the beginning was the video segment. Which was :cool:
 
Yeah, I just didn't get the pre-amble bit. I thought there'd be more 'show' with that stuff, rather than "oh hey, we've got some stuff going on here, la-di-da, and now the show!".

It has to be said I'm not always one with an eye for detail... :hmm: :oops:
 
Lord Camomile said:
Yeah, I just didn't get the pre-amble bit. I thought there'd be more 'show' with that stuff, rather than "oh hey, we've got some stuff going on here, la-di-da, and now the show!".
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yeah, same here.

And our section bollocksed up the first 'thing' of the show - well, for about 30 seconds before we collectively sorted it out. :D
 
Lord Camomile said:
Yeah, I just didn't get the pre-amble bit. I thought there'd be more 'show' with that stuff, rather than "oh hey, we've got some stuff going on here, la-di-da, and now the show!".

It has to be said I'm not always one with an eye for detail... :hmm: :oops:
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Whereabouts do you live that you can see it from your balcony? I'm in Upton Park and might be able to hear, if not see, the fireworks but I'm planning to go to Stratford Park for a big screen experience :cool:
 
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