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Post by alece10 on Jul 27, 2022 16:51:59 GMT
And i discovered yesterday on Amazon photos all my photos from the opening ceremony and a couple of videos. I thought they had been lost forever when my phone was stolen 3 years ago. I really don't know how they got there as I didn't have Amazon Prime then so it's a total mystery but a lovely surprise.
As for the event, I spent the whole night either with my mouth open as I couldn't believe what I was seeing or crying with pride.
I've got the DVD so a good time to relive it now.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jul 27, 2022 18:07:14 GMT
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1,485 posts
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Post by mkb on Jul 29, 2022 8:51:21 GMT
I was there too in 2012. Probably my favourite ever theatrical event. I will add that I was also at the Glasgow 2014 Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, which, while less spectacular, was a great deal of fun. Which makes it all the more disappointing that, in Perry Barr last night, I witnessed a lacklustre affair that made me a little embarrassed to be a Midlander. Was that really the best we could muster? Presumably there were explanations on tv, but, in the stadium, the sightlines were terrible, the events baffling, and everything seemed decidedly amateurish and low rent. The only spectacle came from the Red Arrows fly-past and a mere ten minutes of Duran Duran who we could only see on the screens. The bull was probably impressive up close, but from our remote perspective, it might as well have been a mouse. Two stars for last night. |
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Post by alece10 on Jul 29, 2022 10:50:06 GMT
It was spectacular to watch on TV but extremely weird. Ginny Lemon in a hot air balloon miming was the most bizarre bit. And the presenters who introduced each section of the athletes entrance exaggerating their "brummie" accents. One woman (sorry no idea who she was, possibly a comedian) whose jokes about samosas and moustache waxing were so slow in her delivery that you could have driven a truck between each word. And why was she shouting? Was her mic not working?
Loved the athletes entering though and the baton arrival.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jul 29, 2022 11:14:19 GMT
Without the TV commentators telling us what it was supposed to be, you would have been very lost.
It really was very poor in terms of narrative clarity. The sound was also very poor.
It was GCSE level of theatre making with a big budget.
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Post by mkb on Jul 29, 2022 11:32:12 GMT
Well there you go. I had no idea there was a drag queen in the balloon. (I just Googled to discover who Ginny Lemon is.) And I never heard any jokes about samosas or moustache waxing. Given that several countries during the parade went unannounced, I suspect the audio was frequently not being relayed to the stadium speakers.
I didn't notice any accents being exaggerated, although I understood little of what was going on and what it had to do with Birmingham specifically. Some of the music played was awful, and chosen despite knowing it would not have wide appeal, some of the jungle and drum'n'bass for example. (I like hard house, but I wouldn't foist it upon the general public.)
I've since seen a few tv stills of close-ups from various parts of the "show", and they do look impressive. From our distance and lowish angle (being on the 10th row), the whole effect was completely different. The stage was at one end of the stadium, and we were at the other. The only way we could see what was going on here was on four screens, which despite being large, were far enough away that you still couldn't make out any details.
I've learned that the cars were not parked randomly in the arena, but represented a Union flag. Who knew?
For £140 per ticket, the huge gulf between the live experience and the tv experience isn't acceptable. I know from London 2012 and Glasgow 2014, that the live experience should in fact be superior. Danny Boyle, this wasn't.
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