2008 Olympics opening ceremony

[kaze950]

Anyone else catch this? It aired (in America) from about 7:30 to maybe 9:30ish (technically midnight, but the rest was the just the walk of nations thing).

I think it was most awesome. It must have been difficult to choreograph roughly 2000 people in a perfect circle, even while moving. And the giant 500 feet LCD screen on the floor made for some beautiful effects.

And then (spoilers maybe...idk) at the end, the guy with the torch went up into the air and ran in the air (of course, on strings) around the entire stadium.

I was impressed with the entire show. China put on quite a show.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Damn.  I love those opening ceremonies, I can't believe I totally missed it D:

 

[FlippyD]

It was cool, but my contemptuous rage at China lessened the impact (and no, it's not about free Tibet. I have my own problems with the Dalai Lama.)

 

[Glitchfinder]

My cousin was a member of one of 4 (I think) high school bands from America chosen to play there. She was really pleased with that. Try looking up performances by James Logan High School on Youtube.

 

[Reives]

I haven't seen it in full yet, but besides the in-doors acting part of the show, apparently it had arguably the best fireworks sequences ever displayed.

http://www.quintessence-tbv.com/images/ ... cs_461.jpg[/img]

http://www.quintessence-tbv.com/images/41490043.jpg[/img]

http://www.quintessence-tbv.com/images/ ... 87274c.jpg[/img]

and stuff.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

D:

. . . I... I... MISSED POSSIBLY EPIC AND GODLY FIREWORKS?!!?!!!!?!!!

. . . does the olympics (with open ceremony) get released on home video?!

 

[Reives]

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/0 ... emony.html
^Some detailed pics. There should be a few channels showing the ceremony during these recent days.

 

[united washcloth express]

I laughed at France the entire time...

 

[kaze950]

In case you missed it, this is the lighting of the torch

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player ... eload=true

They have other videos on there as well

 

[FlippyD]

D:

. . . I... I... MISSED POSSIBLY EPIC AND GODLY FIREWORKS?!!?!!!!?!!!

. . . does the olympics (with open ceremony) get released on home video?!

Youtube?

 

[bradleydfc]

I caught some of it. I heard some if the performing acts were superb.
Fireworks were amazing too...

What saddens me is Ken Livingstone (thats the former mayor of London btw, who helped us get the Olympics in 2012) said that London's opening ceremony won't be as good, purely because we don't have the money.

;.;

But still, London is such a great city. The atmosphere... We will still beat it
ftw.
!!

 

[Reives]

More simple ceremonies have their own classic charm, no worries. :smile: I'm sure it'll be awesome as well.

The reason why China spent so much attention to this Olympics is because it has been a relatively closed culture and country in the past, and everyone saw this as the first step to opening up to the world. I went for a visit 2 years ago while the Bird's Nest was still under construction, and there was already a really buzzing excitement from civilians of all standards. Was pretty cool to see.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Youtube?

Yay I get to watch low quality vids with horrible res on a sucky ass site :D

 

[Venetia]

i never even bother with the olympics outside of the luge

 

[$t3v0]

I mean out of all the big events England could have got the chance to host we get the fucking 2012 olympics ......... who gives a fuck! Looks like there's no world cup for us in 2018

 

[ljackstar]

I actually got kinda mad with the cerimonies!
Apparently that little girl was lip singing because the real singer, 2 years younger, didn't look cute enough since she didn't have strait teeth
And all the cool fireworks you saw, were digitally enhanced for tv, meaning the real stuff wasn't as good as wat you saw

 

[Grathea]

I actually got kinda mad with the cerimonies!
Apparently that little girl was lip singing because the real singer, 2 years younger, didn't look cute enough since she didn't have strait teeth
And all the cool fireworks you saw, were digitally enhanced for tv, meaning the real stuff wasn't as good as wat you saw

Err, no.
The fireworks were one hundred percent as amazing as they were in the vidcast.
And no, sadly, I didn't see them firsthand, although a friend did, who waxed lyrical about the ceremony to me via email.
BTW, please don't bring up that 'faked fireworks' thing - they weren't faked, one specific vidstream was, since it would have been too dangerous to actually record it.

Also, who gives a fuck if that kid was lip syncing? I mean, sure, that's something fairly uniquely american to do at events of importance (Super Bowl, concerts, major league baseball, etc...), so are you mad that China's been copying the West? Seriously, get a little perspective here, bucko.

 

[Charlie Fleed]

Well, you usually can see lip sync but not singer replacement too. In general you see on the stage the same singer who actually recorded the song. I found this thing a little annoying.
I've read that the fireworks of the giant footprints were recorded in case there was a bad weather, but it's not given to know if they actually used that sequence.

$t3v0, the Olympics, man! I probably love football as much as you do but the Olympics are in the history of this planet.

 

[Zekallinos]

Chances are, the on-stage singer didn't even know it wasn't her voice.

I guess western people being hypocrites (no offense to anyone) and complaining about China on subjects themselves don't respect is true...(Just like Japan before, just like India next)

 

[Dissonance]

Lol chinese singers and faked fireworks

Fuck the PRC they don't deserve the olympics.  Or continued existence.