Secrets of the Olympic Ceremonies. Myles Garcia
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the last of whom, after circling the track, shall light sacred Olympic fire which shall not be extinguished until the close of the Olympic Games.
The solemn Olympic oath shall be then taken in the following ceremony:
The flag bearers of all countries shall advance and form a semicircle around the rostrum; an athlete of the country where the Olympic Games are taking place shall then advance to the rostrum accompanied by the flag bearer of his country; he shall mount the rostrum and, holding a corner of the flag in his left hand, and removing his hat, shall raise his right hand and take the following oath on behalf of all the athletes:
“In the name of all the competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams.”
Immediately after, a judge of the host country shall then advance to the rostrum and similarly take the following oath on behalf of all the judges and officials: “In the name of all the judges and officials, I promise that we shall officiate in these Olympic Games with complete impartiality, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship.”
The anthem of the organizing country shall then be played or sung. The participants shall then leave the arena by the shortest route. The official ceremony according to the protocol described above so comes to an end. Only then may any artistic programmer and the competitions take place.
In the case of an opening ceremony being authorized by the IOC to be held at a secondary Olympic venue, the rules of protocol described above shall not apply, but the OCOG must submit details of the ceremony in advance to the IOC (at least one year).
Of course, most of what has been stipulated above has changed and been altered as needed, but it still provides the basic framework for the spine of today’s Olympic ceremonies. In July 2007, the Olympic Charter clarified the subject matter further on page 103 and this is currently in force:
“(Rule) 56. Opening and Closing Ceremonies:
1.The Opening and Closing Ceremonies shall be held in strict compliance with the IOC Protocol Guide.
2.The contents and details of all scenarios, schedules and programmes of all ceremonies must be submitted to the IOC for its prior approval.
3.The Olympic Games shall be proclaimed open by the Head of State of the host country by pronouncing either of the following sentences as the case may be:
- if at the opening of the Games of the Olympiad: “I declare open the Games of … [name of the host city] celebrating the … [number of the Olympiad] …Olympiad of the modern era.
- if at the opening of the Olympic Winter Games: “I declare open the ...[number of the Winter Olympic Games] Winter Olympic Games of … [name of the host city].”
During the entire period of the Olympic Games, including all ceremonies, no speeches of any kind may be held by any representative of any government or other public authority, nor by any other politician, in any venue placed under the responsibility of the OCOG. During the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, only the IOC President and the President of the OCOG are entitled to deliver short addresses.”
Thus, the above documents spell out the IOC’s complete control over the Ceremonies connected with their Olympic Games.
Global Reach. The Olympic telecasts are among a handful of global events that anyone can watch with some planning and in good spirits. Together with the Oscars, the World Cup and the Misses International, Universe and World pageants, the Olympics (or summer at least) are one of the truly worldwide telecasts that are beamed to every country on earth and making the planet a proverbial “media village’ and one family. A famed Broadway set designer, in anticipation of his first Academy Awards-design assignment, called the Oscars as “…one of the great communal rituals of the world,” …just like the Olympics.
From the first Games (Squaw Valley 1960) which sold television rights to subsidize staging costs, to the XXIXth Summer Games in Beijing, U.S. and worldwide viewership has grown exponentially with the increased costs of television rights and the virus-like proliferation of television and the internet. In 1960, CBS (the Columbia Broadcasting System of the U.S.) paid $50,000 for the (b&w) rights to the Squaw Valley Games–the first television sale of its kind. Some 48 years later, the sights and sounds of Beijing 2008 cost NBC (the National Broadcasting Company) some $894 million (for rights alone). There were no Nielsen ratings for Games previous to 1968, but the opening ceremony of Beijing in August 2008 drew some 842 million Chinese viewers, 34.2 million Americans, and at least another 2.5 billion viewers worldwide.
Similarly, the costs of staging these one-time Ceremonies have mushroomed beyond all reason.
Cast of thousands, cost of millions. The Olympic ceremonies today literally employ a cast of thousands and are produced at a cost of millions. The closest thing these strange extravaganzas can be compared to are the older, big-budget Hollywood ‘road show’ epics that, in the pre-digital age, employed thousands of extras to fill up the wide screen as invading armies, citizens in revolt or in some sort of cataclysm, or as cheering crowds to a conquering hero. And these casts of thousands (usually Italian or Spanish extras) were surrounded by eye-popping, “expensive” production values: stupendous sets and sumptuous costumes.
These were the big jaw-droppers of their pre-digital day when each studio tried to outdo the other in grandiosity: The Ten Commandments (Paramount, 1956), Ben-Hur (MGM, 1959), Spartacus (Universal, 1960), 55 Days at Peking (J. Arthur Rank, 1963), Cleopatra (20th Century-Fox, 1963, $30 million), Fall of the Roman Empire (Bronston Productions, 1964), to name a few.
But the big difference between Olympic ceremonies and these epic films is that because feature films are made for profit, the casts were then paid off for their services. In Olympic and similar ceremonies, those productions rely solely on the goodwill of volunteer casts (and often production crews). These are volunteer efforts by civilians or, in the cases of Moscow 1980 and Beijing 2008, recruited army cadets. Of course, a little flirtation with show biz would have been a big break from the dull, humdrum life of being a private, especially if you get to wear a snazzy costume and have your face flashed on global television. Who doesn’t dream of his fifteen seconds of fame?
Numbers. The casts of recent Olympic ceremonies range from around 6,000 to 13,000+ (Seoul). However, these pale in comparison with the Spartakiades of old socialist regimes or North Korea’s Arirang Games which utilize(d) as many as 75,000 participants on the average to regale its great leader, Kim Il Sung, a few select foreign visitors and his starving, adoring masses.
Ceremonies vs. Films. There is an inverse formula to getting the job done correctly in filmmaking versus Olympic ceremonies. Motion pictures involve a few rehearsals (for various camera angles, for example) or numerous ‘takes’ (from which the best ones are picked and then edited) to get a scene in the can; whereas Olympic ceremonies are just the opposite. They require a few weeks of arduous practice just to get it right for ONE live performance--no repeats, no retakes that can be edited in post-production. And where the movies can ‘fake’ any and all effects, there is no such “cheating” in Olympic or similar ceremonies. They are, for the most part, shown live and their major jaw-dropping effects are meant to impress in a ‘live’ arena.
Ceremonies vs. Large-scale Musical Stage Shows. Similarly, let us contrast the whole Olympic enterprise to, say, your big-budget Broadway or Las Vegas musical. At the end of 2008, an archetypical Broadway musical cost about $20 million to bring to life, with a cast of about 36 actors, rehearsing for two months, and takes about 1½ years to recoup its investment. The most expensive stage-musical of any kind to open is Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. It was originally budgeted at $54 million for a 2008 opening. When it finally opened in June 14, 2011 after a record number of previews (183), it had cost $75 million. With a weekly operating cost of nearly $1 million, it is estimated to take at least seven years (so early 2018) for the show to recoup its original investment.
In comparison, the Beijing 2008 opening ceremony alone cost nearly $65 million, had a cast of 10,000+ people (one