Meggie
DreamboatAmy84
Lilith8/8/08: Let the games begin!
August 9th 2008 02:47
2,008 drummers banging out a precise countdown on light-up drums and glowing red drumsticks is definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. But that was just of the beginning of what 15,000 different performers and one of the best stages I have ever seen can do. By now you should know that I’m talking about the 2008 Summer Olympic Games which kicked off tonight 8/8/08 in Beijing, China!
It was cinema in real time, and from a theater designer’s prospective I was in awe. So his is what nearly unlimited funds and awesome technical and artistic creativity can do!
The combination of loud and soft, dark and light, old and new, grand spectacles and intimate delicacies, was beautiful. Only China could pull off a show like this with so many people!I loved the giant human painting dance with the introduction of the huge rolling LED lit scroll stage. (Unfortunately for me, the sound on my TV went out (my local station was experiencing technical difficulties thanks to a major storm nearby) then so I couldn’t hear the accompanying music, but it still looked great! Was that sand or paint? It looked like sand to me, but then they lifted it up, so I wasn’t sure.
) 
As one of the announcers said, “Massive scope with minute precision”. All of the performers in every number seemed to know just what they were doing without a visible director and a million wires running all over the place. The ancient and the modern blended in a show using people as the paint brushes, backlit by an awesome light show. It was all about harmony and coming together at this year’s opening ceremony, and you could feel it in the flow of everything from the lights, to the movement, to the music. I’ve never seen a better use of scrims!
2,008 Tai Chi masters forming in a perfect circle around all those cute smiling kids? That stadium? The dancers? The singers? The globe lifting out of the stage? The LED shows?!
Film director Zhang Yimou did an awesome job combining technology and human touch together in one of the best opening ceremonies I’ve ever seen. Congrats to him and all his performers and tech crew, and good luck to all the athletes!!
Let the games begin!
*For more pictures, videos, and continuing up-to-date coverage of the 2008 Olympic games head on over to NBC's official site. To start you off with some pictures of the opening ceremony, click HERE.
**EDIT 4 1/2 hours later: The torch lighting was awesome!!
That running in the air thing was very cool and I don't believe I've ever seen so many fireworks at one time!| 27 |
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