Olympics 2008 Opening Ceremonies – too programmed?

photo credit: varmazis

I was able to watch the Opening Ceremonies LIVE at RPN 9 last night. I greatly anticipated this event as I love watching grand presentations of any kind in relation to World Relations and culture exposure. It’s like the Miss Universe pageant. Every country roots for their representative to the core regardless if their beauty queen stands a chance or not. Though the pageant initially distinguishes vanity over everything else, it’s the country relation that counts.

I’m getting off topic. Back to the topic at hand, I was lucky to watch the Opening ceremonies on time. I have to admit, despite the lack of interest of people around me regarding the Olympics, it didn’t cease for me to hook up to youtube and be mesmerized by the Olympic music videos created by the stars of China. I was hooked when I first saw the FUWA mascots and I know I will be charmed by their opening ceremonies.

It did not fail me. It is a fact that China is the most populated country in the world. I just didn’t expect for that fact to be quite obvious in their opening ceremonies. Have you seen the number of participants in EACH segment. There are HUNDREDS of them, THOUSANDS I suppose all garbed and adorned according to a rich era of Chinese history. The props, the people, the lights, fireworks, especially the fireworks! Absolutely calculated, mesmerizing and I bet EXPENSIVE.

Everything the production is marked EXPENSIVE. If truth be told, I paid more attention to the special effects and costumes rather than the performance at some point. Don’t get me wrong, the production is perfect. Colorful floating fairies, the gigantic scrolls, the dragon columns reaching to the heavens, great lighting effects and more. They all contribute to a personified cultural eminence and majesty of China. I think, because of this overly input of effects, artist performances became simple and at some point boring. There was this moment wherein a man and a child were in the middle of the scroll, playing on this grand piano and was being surrounded by hundreds of men garbed in christmas like lights. They marched around the duo to proceed into formation depicting a flying dove. I liked the bright formation. I initially didn’t get why they did that. They lost me. @_@

As for the fireworks, I love the 29 giant footsteps gimmick. I can an invisible big giant walking his way to the stadium to bless and watch over the event. It’s a great idea and I bet it awed a lot of people in the world. Continous fireworks happened all over Beijing throughout the opening ceremonies and at times the fireworks happen at perfect timing with a program segment to emphasize the grandeur of the performance. Great concept.

Absolutely love the Tai Chi performance. There is something mesmerizing seeing a lot of people doing Tai Chi in sync. That synchrony of fluid motion does something good to the eye and spirit. I don’t know how to describe it. I just feel it. XD

The technology used was absolutely wonderful. Simulated waterfalls, swimming whales and holographic like scenes flowing across the giant scroll, they take you into another world. Getting technology, lights and effect together cost up to 100 million dollars.

Yet somehow, I think because of too much of a lot of things in the ceremonies, I got bored. When it was time for the athletes to parade their way in to the stadium, I grew sleepy. I didn’t even get to see our country’s pride Manny Pacquiao bear the Philippine flag. Oh well, I relied on Youtube for that. Problem solved. :)

But as I said earlier, what is important is the harmony of world relations. It’s the spirit of competition and fair game we are implementing here. So let us root for our representatives in the name of World Peace.

Would you like to hear a review regarding the Beijing Olympics 2008 Opening Ceremonies? Here is a CNN segment talking about the level of production and very motivated participation of the Chinese people for this event.

How about you, what do you think of the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies?