Olympics

[jen]

Anyone on the forum going or helping there?

[Todd]

I'll be in London for the first 5 days of it. Don't have tickets to any events, but hoping to get lucky and find some, somehow. Should be fun to be around the excitement and the atmosphere at least, and catch a couple of "Billy" performances !

[jen]

I am a gamesmaker getting to see a technical rehearsal of the opening ceremony tomorrow

[angelenroute]

I am a gamesmaker getting to see a technical rehearsal of the opening ceremony tomorrow

Awesome! I'm sure you're sworn to secrecy, but if you could, drop us a line here like, "it was beautiful, you guys will love it" or similar. =) Can't wait til Friday, opening ceremonies are always my favorite part of the Olympics.

And Todd, I have faith in you. You always find a way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sean

[KeefyM]

Awesome Jen, I will also be at the tech rehearsal tomorrow with my BBC team and our colleagues from NBC and from Finnish broadcaster YLE who are producing the Opening Ceremony for all Broadcasters on behalf of the IOC and OBS (Olympic host Broadcasting Services), so thankfully it is not us lot from the BBC who are producing the Opening Ceremony so if it goes wrong then we won't all get sacked (haha). I have been at a few rehearsals lately of the Opening Ceremony and all I've got to say is in my opinion some parts of it are great, some are good and some are ok. But more on that later as despite being British I am biased in that I was in the Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing to witness that amazing Opening Ceremony in 2008 and it and the whole time I spent in Beijing working on the Olympics and Paralympics was one of the best experiences of my life and I know our opening ceremony won't be as spectacular because it has not had the same amount of money spent on it as the Chinese did as there would be an uproar if we did spent that amount on the ceremony as there has always been outcries and controversy every time the Olympic budget and expenditure has increased dramatically since the original 2005 quotes/estimates. However, I do hope it is a success and makes us proud to be British, although only us Brits could have Cows and Sheep at an Olympic Opening Ceremony.

I hope the opening and closing ceremonies are a success along with the entire Olympic and Paralympic Games even if there are a couple of things I hate about the London Olympics - that horrible logo and that horrible jagged font and as for those two awful mascots - don't get me started.
However, there are some great parts of the opening ceremony and very clever use of technology and lighting in places. Maybe I will like it all when I see the full tech run tomorrow rather than just the bits and pieces I've seen over the last month and also after seeing a few more rehearsals tonight in the dark and the opening ceremony events properly lit up rather than during the day in bright sunshine then things looked a lot better when I last seen them.

Good luck trying to get tickets Todd, there are still a few going about for some events, even the opening ceremony, even if you manage to get Olympic Park day tickets it will allow you access to walk around all the park and access to some of the sports and venues - apart from Swimming, Athletics and a few others - although most of the athletics events do not start until the 2nd week. Enjoy a few Billy shows as well.

I'm fortunte that I'm going to be working on the Olympics for the BBC and OBS (Olympic host Broadcasting Services) in my usual capacity as Broadcast Operations Manager, and it is my 4th Olympics I've worked on, having been lucky enough to have worked on the games in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 (and looking forward to a 'nice little trip' to Rio and Brazil in 2016 (haha), I will be based in the Olympic Park, Olympic Stadium and IBC (International Broadcast Centre), as well as the various BBC studios and international studios dotted about/overlooking the Olympic Park, and as a Broadcast Operations Manager part of my job is to go around all the venues each day within the Park, i.e. the Stadium, Velodrome etc and make sure all the infrastucre etc works and all the international broadcasters are happy and all communications, links etc work internationally as well as to external venues i.e. the Sailing in Weymouth, football at Wembley, Scotland etc as well as managing the relationships and footage between the BBC/OBS and our key partners and broadcast colleagues such as NBC, RTE and Australia's Nine Network, and also managing the planned 18 hours of live transmission not just of the BBC's usual 2 channels, but 24 tv channels of coverage, plus the online/internet coverage, BBC Radio coverage and working with NBC to provide the YouTube coverage.
So it is going to be busy and I'm going to be working 18-19 hour shifts, which is fine as I'm staying in a part of the athletes village which the BBC rented for staff, so even though I live in London, it will save me having an hour to 90 mins journey trying to get back from East London to South West London, as doing 18/19 hour shifts it is pointless going back home as the time I get there it will be time to come back, so I will be having the 'full olympic experience' and staying in the basic hotel like accommodation in the athletes village that belongs to the BBC (although it is a pity I didn't work for NBC considering they are putting most of their staff up in The Savoy compared to the rather student type accommodation of the athletes village (mind u, at least we won't have to worry about any Snakes in the athletes village in London compared to the athletes village in Beijing - thank christ I stayed in a hotel in the centre of Beijing for the duration of the games, otherwise I would never have slept for a month worrying that a snake was going to be appear in my bed or bath if I stayed in the Athletes Village as happened to a few of my BBC colleagues in Bejing).
There might be a few soldiers about the Olympic Park for security, but I can assure you it is nothing compared to the heavy handed security in Beijing by the military but especially by the Police and especially against their own people and those who dared to even look into or go near the fences surrounding the Olympic Park.

For the first time I'm not working on the Paralympics this year due to Channel 4 accruing the rights from the BBC, but will be popping in occasionally to help Ch4 out with transmission, but also because I will be doing post production on episodes of a kids drama series that I've been directing up in Liverpool over the last 3 months and which will go out on CBBC from October to Christmas alongside comedy-drama 'The Revolting World of Stanley Brown' starring former and longest serving London Billy, Dean-Charles Chapman. Having already seen some of the episodes during Post Production, Dean is as brilliant as ever with his acting on top form as it was in Billy, although when I watched the first few episodes I couldn't get it out of my head he was Billy and found it strange to see him play another role.

Anyway, back to the Olympics. Unfortunately, unlike the great 360 panorama view tv studios tower that the Chinese built in Beijing (the Ling Long Pagoda - picture here: http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/2476/beijng.jpg), that overlooked the Birds Nest Stadium and Beijing, the BBC Studios in the Olympic Park in London are on...ahem... some old shipping containers (supposedly because it is 'cost effective') and also on some old horrible looking 1960's tower blocks (the BBC News, News Channel, BBC Breakfast, BBC World studios). Thankfully, these horrible tower blocks will be demolished after the games finish. Al Jazeera Sport has its Olympics Studio on the roof of a 1960's tower block as well as a studio on the South Bank and NBC have their usual curved studio (mainly for the Today Show) in the Olympic Park, rather oddly situated next to the Athletes Village, and it gives them an ok view, but not the best view of the Olympic Stadium, which is rather surprising for NBC, but they also have another studio as do Sky overlooking the entire park, built on the side and roof of the Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre which is right next door to the Olympic Park.

Here are a few links to some pics of the BBC and other studios below.

The BBC Studios in the Olympic Park atop some old shipping containers. A slight difference from the Ling Long Pagoda Tower in Beijing.
Grey studio on the left is the main BBC Studio and the white studio on the right is the BBC Three Studio.
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/1677 ... mpics1.jpg

View from inside the BBC Studio
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/672/bbcolympics2.jpg

Another image from inside the main BBC Studio taken a few days ago during the 'unwrapping'
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8293/bbcolympics8.jpg

View from the main BBC News Studio
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/8471 ... mpics3.jpg

The Al Jazeera Sport Studio plus a small BBC News studio (under construction 2 weeks ago) atop a horrible looking 1960's tower block. BBC News and RTE also have other studios within the Tower Block.
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/6397 ... mpics6.jpg

NBC's usual curved studio next to the athletes village - used mainly for the Today show.
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/7222 ... cs6nbc.jpg

My lovely BBC Operations Team in the IBC (International Broadcast Centre) - no Tea Trolleys in sight.
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/792/ ... cs9ibc.jpg

and for those old enough to remember - Lockkeepers Cottages, aka The Big Breakfast House, now part of the Olympic site and the only building not to have been demolished on the land acquired for the Olympic Park site.
Who would have thought watching the Big Breakfast all those years ago on Channel 4 that one day the house would have an Olympic Stadium next to it.
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/1480/oldfordlock.jpg


I'm really looking forward to working on the Olympics now and fully support it , although I will admit I was one of the sceptics and critics for quite a few years starting back in July 2005, as I will never forget sitting with a load of TV colleagues watching the announcement of which city will win the right to host the games in 2012 and all of us were hoping it was going to be Paris and "let the French get on with it and we can have a laugh at them if it goes wrong", (apologies to any French Forum members, but that was our attitude at the time), and actually we were quite surprised London won, considering that Paris had many more plus points in its bid and were favourites going into the final announcement, but history has shown it was the amazing passion and commitment in the final speeches delivered by Lord Coe, David Beckham etc that swayed members of the IOC to give their final vote to London.

To be honest, 3 years later in 2008 at Beijing I was still sceptical and was dreading London 2012, simply because of that god awful 15 minute presentation we did at the Closing Ceremony with the 'exploding bus' (what a great idea that was - Not!, 3 years after the London terrorist attacks on the day after the announcement that London had won the right to host the games), so not only did we have some pointless hedges cut into the shape of London landmarks, complete and utter silence for Leona Lewis from the crowd in the stadium as nobody knew who she was, and David Beckham kicking a football into the crowd and knocking some poor Chinese man over, we then completed our London 2012 presentation in Beijing by having London Mayor Boris Johnson walking out to the middle of the stadium with his shirt hanging out and his hair as usual like Worzel Gummidge looking like he had just got out of bed and then stumbling over his words in his speech in the most embarrassing way.

So because of that I was still sceptical and critical about London 2012, especially as I will never forget watching the Closing Ceremony from the BBC Commentary position in the middle of the stadium and we had Australia's 7 Network to the right of us and CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) to the left of us, and as usual at all these events there is always a good bit of banter between us 'Poms' and our Australian colleagues, so we were expecting the Australians to 'take the p***' but to our surprise it was my Operations Manager equivalent from CBC coming across to the BBC position and saying "well, after that presentation, good luck for 2012 as you are going to really need it". As we headed back to the hotel that night, let's just say other broadcasters and various Olympians/IOC members weren't too complimentary either about London's presentation, including comments from Chinese members of the IOC which translated as "hopefully London will have it all sorted out in 4 years for the games after that terrible presentation".
Thank god we had the two weeks of the Paralympics to forget about it, although us Brits in Beijing couldn't help feeling during the Paralympics that we were being mocked and laughed at for those two weeks after the presentation, especially since in those two weeks both the British media and international media were 'having a right go' at our dreadful presentation in the Closing Ceremony - the Australians had a field day!.


I'm sure the London Opening Ceremony will be fine but done in the way 'only us Brits can' and I'm sure Danny Boyle, Stephen Daldry know what they are doing. Having been fortunate enough to have been in the Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing in 2008 and witness that amazing opening ceremony, I just have a funny feeling that I'm going to be rather disappointed with the London Opening Ceremony considering Beijing was one of the best experiences of my life and it blew every other opening ceremony out the water. And of course only Britain could be sandwiched between Beijing and Brazil as I can imagine the spectacular ceremony the Brazilians will put on in 2016.
Also, I just can't help feel that 'something will happen' at the Opening Ceremony i.e. a streaker, or rather than polite applause then in typical British style we will 'boo' countries we've had 'history' with when their Olympians enter the stadium during the parade of countries, so I won't be surprised if Germany and Argentina get booed during the Opening Ceremony (considering we boo each other at events i.e. England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland all booing each other) and god help Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan if they are sending any teams.

So despite my scepticism over the Opening Ceremony (I hope I'm proved wrong), I am really looking forward to working on the games and can't complain as I get into all the venues without needing a ticket and have already seen all the venues, bits of the opening ceremony and I can get in everywhere for free and don't need to pay for anything and didn't need to go through all that nonsense in trying to get tickets etc and whereas most people will be spending money to come and see the games, I will be getting paid to work on it, and it will be a once in a lifetime experience to be involved in the games in my own country and it will be great to experience the excitment and atmosphere in the Olympic Park and it will be great to be there in a great position on Friday to witness the Opening Ceremony (and I have to say thank god most of the ceremony is at night (starts at 9pm) and in the dark as the Olympic Stadium and Park does look much better when lit up at night compared to its rather bland black and white during the day).

I am very grateful that I have been giving the opportunity to be there and will be in the key places to witness main events during the Olympics, i.e. the athletics/Usain Bolt, Chris Hoy in the cycling, Tom Daley in the diving etc, but I just hope the Opening & Closing ceremonies don't let us down and be another embarrassment to the UK and London, although as I said earlier, the good news from my point of view is that the Opening and Closing Ceremonies are being produced by Finnish Broadcaster YLE and not the BBC (as there is no such thing as a host broadcaster now as the IOC allocate various broadcasters to produce various sports at the Olympics), so if the Opening Ceremony coverage goes wrong then at least us lot at the BBC and OBS can't get blamed for it and we can blame the Finns instead (haha).

Hope a few Forum members managed to get tickets and will be going to a few events and good luck to anyone who is working or volunteering at the Olympics and I hope you enjoy it, and I hope everyone enjoys the TV coverage in your country.

Cheers
Keefy

[ERinVA]

Thought this might be of interest to any of you planning to take the tube to or from Victoria Station during the Olympics.

http://info.tfl.gov.uk/public/read_mess ... -929940755

[jen]

I think there are tickets still available for the paralytics and some of the lesser sports such as water polo

[Brad]

Jen - water polo - "a lesser sport". Bound to be a few objections to that . While not a fan myself, I am always amazed at how those people can swim/float and play for so long. I bet they swet in the pool

[Sinatra]

I'm not going or helping out, but my eyes will be glued to the television whenever possible. I love the Olympics and I have been hyping them for a while now. Track and field is my favorite, but I like watching all of it, including the Opening and Closing ceremonies. The Phelps vs. Lochte rivalry will be awesome to watch as well. Go Team USA!

[Sinatra]

Tonight! 6:30 CST, the Opening Ceremonies on NBC! Don't miss it!!!