Thread: Well done Danny Boyle!

Now that's what I call brilliant.

The Olympic opening ceremony shows what happens when you get a film director to put on a show. It cost one third of the Beijing opening ceremony and was incredible. Put a tear in my eye and made me proud to be British.

I could have done without Paul "almost dead" McCartney and I would have chosen other people to carry the Olympic flag but, apart from that.. Respect danny!

Couldn't agree more Rob. Absolutely stunning.
All credit to the thousands of people who gave their time and worked so hard to put on such a spectacle.

When I first saw the sheep and cows...I was really worried. I thought they had lost their minds. ( again )
But then the entire scene changed, it kept transforming and suddenly I was watching a mega show unfolding

For the most part, the production got it right and I was left amazed by the time the Torches arrived.

Yep, Danny did a very good job, I'm now much less cynical about the rest of the Olympics just from the ceremony.

Watched quite a bit of this last night. After the BBC's coverage of the queens jubilee, it could have been mediocre to say the least. I needn't have worried I think they did a superb job. I'm not usually a fan of such things (pomp and sport in general) but I caught caught up in the hype

I was sceptical when they announced old Danny boy was running the show but I think he did us proud. The Technical logistics must have been something else ... The industrial revolution part with Brunell over seeing procedures mixed with a perfect soundtrack was simply stunning.

One thing that did occur to me, you can have the best steady cam rig available and still not get it right !

Very enjoyable.... I might even watch some of the sporting events !

As for the LED blocks in the crowd. Inspired!

Can you imagine the pitch "Yeah, we're going to put these LED pads next to each seat. Wire it up with 40 miles of cable and then let the public pick them up and wave them."

In the beginning I too though "Cows? Grass? yokels? That's going to be exciting... Not." And then my jaw dropped and stayed dropped.

I think I actually shouted when I saw the NHS piece. All that was missing was a shot of Cameron squirming in his seat during that bit. The Kids' literature "nightmare"... incredible.

But why, oh why did Old Paul have to finish it? We have so much young talent who could have provided a rousing finish. Something like Elbow and "One day like this" would have been far more apt than "Hey Jude" and more in the athletes' generation.

I have always enjoyed the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets emotional. For me it shows what can be done when a bit of creative thinking is give the freedom to do it's best. When the normally sick minded establishment are pushed aside from it's warmongering to let us the people have a moment of beauty. Danny Boy really came up with the goods. There was so many references I could hardly keep up. I'm not sure what the Chinese would have know what the hell was going on.

Being the nerdy video guy type that I am, I was looking at the extras to see if they broke character, I didn't spot one of them do so. I knew this was going to be good when they included The Pistols GSTQ on the opening sound track. The BBC did a really good job with it as well. The timing from VT to live was perfect. From Brunel to Tim Berners-Lee in the house, The Queen jumping out of a helicopter, Even Gold Balls look dashing, The set change from rural to industrial was astounding.

I would have preferred someone else to close it but understand Macca is a British icon.

A truly great show. Well done to all involved.

I agree that the ending could have went better/smoother, but to see people from all over the world singing along to a song that they just new the words to was great. It kind of made it work and I'd imagine to be there would have been a whole different experience. I also see the reason and there are very few artists who could have been an option for that spot.

The only reason I watched it was out of curiosity of what Danny Boyle's vision was. As with everyone else, I'm glad I did and I enjoyed it very much.

David.

Originally Posted by Rembrandt Rob

But why, oh why did Old Paul have to finish it? We have so much young talent who could have provided a rousing finish.

To be fair they did begin the final section with the Arctic Monkeys number which is not only closer to the athlete's generation and has some British significance (first British no 1 from download sales only or something I think), But it seemed rather incongruous.

I take your point about the Elbow number, but "Hey Jude" is a sing along for young and old alike. You only need to know the word "na"

Neatly tying a couple of threads together, it would be quite a simple task to create a mix, switching back and forth between the two numbers, indeed it works perfectly well singing the Hey Jude chorus over the "One Day Like This" backing. In fact the chorus melody lines are so different it could even work to sing them at the same time without it becoming a mess.

Good point Tim. It's the same chords for both songs isn't it.

You guys can apply to be Director for the next London Olympics

I watched it with 3500+ people with big screens and one heck of a PA erected in this solid structure of a marquee, The atmosphere was incredible! We cheered, we sang, we even booed when the TV connection stuttered on our end for 5 seconds.

All in all, I think it did it's job incredibly well...I just wish Danny was directing the other Olympic events, finishing KM of the road race = anti climax to a long 6 hours.