Beijing Olympic Games 2008

Hmm, the name of the contries straps just fade in, they look good, but don't have the animation the other channel has.

Yep that was Sydney's closing ceremony IIRC

Beijing's will have to make do with another famous blonde... Boris Johnson!

Like this haha... I think the Athens ones were better. (than the real Beijing ones)

Yep - Sydney had wit and humour. China has amazing spectacle - and breathtaking scale and co-ordination. It also looks lovely in HD.

A shame there is no Olympic ident at all from the BBC - even if it's just incorporating the Olympic rings into their standard idents, which I'm sure could be quite effectively done.


The titles are rubbish too - I'd accepted they would be a version of the promo, but it's a very badly edited version.


The countdown to the ceremony itself was outstanding though, but I think Huw and co. needed to keep quiet a bit more during the performances themselves - they seem to feel they must provide a continuous commentary.


P.S. Seven's opener is great, but is the copyright thing at the beginning really necessary - kind of spoils it.

Hmm - not sure that is strictly true.

The main BBC Studio is in the Ling Long pagoda, and shares a level with France Television I believe. Don't think the Aussies are on the same floor?

It could be that the Aussie gallery, which will be in the IBC, is a few doors down from the BBC IBC operation, but the BBC aren't presenting from the IBC.

Or was the discussion about location/news rather than sport/studio presentation?

I rather like the titles and music. At least we haven't got hackneyed slow motion sporting coverage and some pompous orchestral arrangement.

I wasn't sure about the concept - but the realisation has been done to such a high quality and with confidence - and not in any way apologetically, which is probably why I like it. If you are going to do something different, better to do it in a bold way.



I was thinking how sparing they were being - Carrie is proving to be brilliant - very well informed and incredibly natural, Huw excellent as usual, Hazel didn't really have much to do during the main ceremony but is doing sterling service as the athletes process in - when you really do have to commentate as the event is incredibly tedious at this point.

Carrie is excellent, but I question the need for Huw considering he only seems to be asking Carrie and Hazel questions rather than providing anything other than the standard facts.

IIRC it was Barry Davies who did most previous ceremonies. I'm guessing he's probably retired, but I'd still prefer someone from BBC Sport to be the main commentator really.

Hmm - Huw seems to be adding quite a lot of context to me. I think the style is to keep it conversational - after all this isn't a royal funeral - and thus they are all asking each other questions to keep things informatl and relaxed.



Hmm - as there is no actual sport - and the ceremony had no real sporting theme - I think many sport commentators would have veered into Alan Partridge territory. (As sort of happens during the opening ceremonies of events like the World and European cup...)

The opening and closing ceremonies (before the national procession) have far more in common with events like the Golden Jubilee and Trooping the Colour than a football match or an athletics meeting IMHO.

There have been some excellent overlap commentators - who can do both sport and state events (Barry Davies was a good example) - but in the current BBC team I think they've made a relatively good choice. Hazel is there as the BBC Sport figure, Carrie as the China expert and Huw to anchor it and lead us through the event.

RedBee have created the titles to be used by CCTV, the Chinese Broadcaster:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/08/olympicsandthemedia.chinathemedia


Not sure if these would also be the official titles for the games which we might get a glimpse of on BBCi occasionally.

No - I think those are for CCTV who are the domestic rights holder - not the host broadcaster.

In recent years the local broadcaster has NOT been the host broadcaster - and instead have just been part of the host broadcast operation - along with lots of other broadcasters. (The BBC are host broadcasters for the rowing, Australia's Seven Network are host broadcasters for the swimming/diving, YLE/SVT from Finland and Sweden respectively are host broadcasters for track and field, with YLE also host broadcasting the opening ceremony.) CCTV are providing host broadcast coverage for some events, as are other Chinese broadcasters.

However there is a specific host broadcast operation set-up specifically for the Olympics - and they will have commissioned their titles and graphics independently of the domestic rights holders.

The CCTV titles look very accomplished, very polished, and totally anodyne. The elemental motifs are nice - but they're not exactly groundbreaking (slow motion runner on the blocks to begin with - could anything be more predictable??)

I'm not sure that's actually allowed - I'm sure I read somewhere they put the globe in the Olympic rings in 1984 and got into trouble (or could have done).

Mind you, the last special olympic ident (in 2000) was ****! Dreadful superimposing of the balloon above Sydney opera house...I think we just have to expect that Christmas is the only occasion when the budget is available for a special ident, presumably as it will be used every day for 2/3 weeks and potentially the following year.