London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Director Pays Tribute to Volunteers

London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Director Danny Boyle Pays Tribute to Volunteers

With 45 days to go to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games preparations have picked up a pace, and today artistic director Danny Boyle has paid tribute to the 10,000 volunteers, cast and crew rehearsing night and day to make the Opening Ceremony a success.

(PRWEB) June 12, 2012

With 45 days to go to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games preparations have picked up a pace, and today artistic director Danny Boyle has paid tribute to the 10,000 volunteers, cast and crew rehearsing night and day to make the Opening Ceremony a success.

[Images from the briefing will be available to download here from 10:30am]

There have already been 157 cast rehearsals for the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, with volunteer performers giving up their evenings and weekends to take part in 37 rehearsals at the new site in Barking & Dagenham where detailed preparations for both the Olympic Opening and Closing ceremonies are taking place.

3 Mills Studios remains the production base for the London 2012 Ceremonies Team where the prop store is currently looking to complete the production of 12,956 props and staff in the costume department are working hard to produce 23,000 costumes for all four ceremonies, including sewing 24,570 buttons onto the costumes for one of the opening sequences of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

In the Olympic Stadium the installation will begin shortly for ceremonies lighting which includes 1,100 automated lamps, 1,000 conventional lamps, 500 LED fixtures, and 32 follow spots. This will be accompanied by a million watt sounds system using more than 500 speakers and 50 tonnes of associated sound gear.

Work has now started to install the set for the opening scene of the Ceremony, which is called ‘Green and Pleasant’. On entry to the Olympic Stadium in East London the audience will see a scene that represents a traditional and idyllic view of the British countryside.

The whole of the field of play in the Stadium will be transformed into the rolling British countryside as the London 2012 Ceremonies Team creates one of the largest sets ever built. The set will be complete with meadows, fields and rivers, and featuring families taking picnics, sport being played on the village green and farmers tilling the soil whilst real farmyard animals graze – including 12 horses, 3 cows, 2 goats, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, 9 geese, 70 sheep, and 3 sheep dogs. Each of the four nations will be represented by their national flower– the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland, the daffodil of Wales and flax from Northern Ireland.

Danny Boyle, London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Artistic Director, said: ‘The Ceremony is an attempt to capture a picture of ourselves as a nation, where we have come from and where we want to be. The best part of telling that story has been working with our 10,000 volunteers. I’ve been astounded by the selfless dedication of the volunteers, they are the purest embodiment of the Olympic spirit and represent the best of who we are as a nation.’

Seb Coe, LOCOG Chair, said: ‘With only 45 days to go to the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony one of the biggest sets ever built for a show is beginning to develop in the Olympic Stadium. With a worldwide TV audience of a billion people and a cast of over 10,000 talented volunteers, I’m sure that Danny’s ceremony will be a fantastic celebration that will welcome the 10,500 athletes from around the world and make our nation proud.’

The BBC was today officially announced as the ‘London 2012 Olympic Ceremonies Featured Film Producer’, with the news that it will make two short films for the Olympic Opening Ceremony. With the title ‘Isles of Wonder’, the first film will be at the very opening of the show. The other will appear later. Other than the films, working in partnership with LOCOG, the BBC will also be offering live camera feeds into the ceremony on the night.

Notes to editors:

London 2012 Ceremonies Stats & Facts

The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony: 

• The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony is titled ‘Isles of Wonder’, inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest
• The worldwide broadcast of the Ceremony will commence at 21:00 on 27 July 2012, with the pre-show starting at 20:12.
• The Ceremony is predicted to be viewed live by a worldwide TV audience of over a billion people.
• The Ceremony will open with the ringing of the largest harmonically-tuned bell in the world, produced by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, measuring two metres tall by three metres wide and weighing 23 tonnes.
• There is 15,000 square metres of staging – equivalent to 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools
• A flying system that can lift 25 tonnes – the same as five elephants
• 12,956 props, over 100 times more than a West End musical
• A million watt PA system using double the amount of speakers than on the main stage at Glastonbury
• Services and products provided by 93 different supplier companies
• 10,000 adult volunteer performers
• Volunteer Performers from the NHS for a special sequence that ceelbrates Britain’s National Health Service
• 900 children aged 7-9 years and 11-13 years chosen from schools in the six host boroughs engaged in the official London 2012 Get Set education programme

For all four Ceremonies there will be: 

• 20,000 volunteer cast members, with UK-wide auditionees from 18-90 years old, including people who watched the London 1948 Games live
• 23,000 costumes and a total of 12 hours of music
• A combined TV audience predicted to be over four billion people
• 2,000 staff, crew and suppliers

The Olympic Broadcast Service (OBS) produces the live global feed of TV coverage of all the Olympic Sport and Ceremonies at London 2012 whilst the BBC is the UK’s domestic rights holding broadcaster.

Contacts:
For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office.

Find out the latest from London 2012 HQ on our blog http://www.london2012.com/blog, follow us on Twitterhttp://www.twitter.com/london2012 or download the Official London 2012 Join In app.

The Official London 2012 Join In app is a free mobile guide to help you plan, enjoy and share your Games experience. From the Olympic Torch Relay to the Olympics and Paralympics, the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, plus all the cultural, city and community celebrations happening across the UK, the Official London 2012 Join In App is your essential companion. It is available now at app stores and athttp://www.london2012.com/mobileapps/

London 2012 Games partners:
The Worldwide Olympic Partners who support the London 2012 Olympic Games and the National Olympic Committees around the world are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa.

LOCOG has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are now twenty-eight domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, G4S, GSK, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken UK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, NATURE VALLEY, Next, Nielsen, Populous, Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto, Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield.

There is one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games-only Partner, Sainsbury’s and two domestic Tier Three Paralympic Games-only Suppliers, Otto Bock and Panasonic. The London 2012 Paralympic Games also acknowledges the support of the National Lottery.