Opening Ceremony - Rehearsal

My first night in Beijing and I had to rely on muscle relaxant to sleep. Probably due to the new bed. To prevent this from happening again tonight, I woke up early to go to the gym. I hope I didn't disturb Chris' sleep with all the banging of the doors. Good thing I went to the gym early. First on the treadmill, and a couple of minutes later, there were people coming in, eyeing on the treadmill. My initial thought was just to complete a 2.4km. In the end, I ran 4km in the hope that I will hit the 10km mark soon.

After collecting equipment last night, we decided to test the camera this morning so that we can check the editing decks as well. Chris went down to take some shots from the Media Village, where there's a temple, which is actually selling Olympic merchandise. The buses that went around the village is ran on batteries. Later, Dollah, Chris and I went to the IBC on the shuttle service provided. Coming through the security, I forgot my handphones and room keys. God bless the volunteer who returned them to me. I still have not got into the rhythm of things yet. Need a better plan for tomorrow.

The CNA people came into IBC today with their equipment, in their Team Singapore tshirts. There were five of them. I already hated the sight of Dominic, though the other guys seem quite nice. They tried to take over our corner in the common pool, and they didn't even pay for the space. After some negotiation between Chris, Prem and Dominic, they agreed to use the chest of drawers as their table top, and in return, we get to use their internet connection.

We went out to do the IBC story, and I get to explore the MPC as well. There are courier service, post office, bank, tour agency, bookstore and a information counter that gives out plenty of books and information booklets for free! I took quite a few of the free books, knowing that Dad will be interested in reading them. I hope I can get some free time to browse the bookshops in town to get a birthday present for Dad. At the basement, there is a McDonalds! Could be the source of our meals in the days to come. There is also a gym and a hair salon in the MPC. Kiok was right! This is better than Doha, except that we have to pay for the bottled water. Then again, this is China, NOT a rich Arabic country. Language is no problem for me here.

Reached the IBC and went out with Dollah to take some shots for the IBC story. Turned out I couldn't use the footage and have to reshoot as Studio 1 is transmitting in 16:9, but we shot on 4:3. Oh well, here we go again. This time, Chris did the filming while Dollah became his CA. The most "no budget" CA, according to Chris. Reason being, Dollah's camera has technical faults and needed to be replaced. .

Soon all the nitty gritty problems of the camera and equipment hit us. Audio cables, cam lights and we had to get them to change the mikes for us as they gave us boom while we needed hand mikes. I started making calls to Kiok. Jason might have to bring in two handheld mikes and a lip mike. We realised we don't have a lip mike for voice-over. At the end of the day, nothing much was done. Prem decided to take some establishing shots and crowd shots for Jason's cross. It so happened that ABU had two stickers left for us to go to the Opening Ceremony's rehearsal. Chris chose to pass and I went with Dollah to the rehearsal.

Our tiny corner in the common area was in the dungeons. There were these weird structures outside, along the pathway that leads to the toilets. Everytime I walked pass these structures, it seems that I am going walking through some huge construction site. So far, we were the only ones in the common area. But the tags for other TV channels/stations are already there to indicate that other corners have been booked. I'm looking forward to meeting our neighbours, the Indonesians, the Mongolians and the Thais.

Before we went out for lunch, the volunteers were all seated at the canteen where they have their meals. There was an event going on for them. After checking with the BOB people (Beijing Olympic Broadcaster), we realised they were rewarding the volunteers for their hard work, and more hard work in the days to come. They are having a lucky draw, and winners get tickets to the Opening Ceremony! Whow! Can I be included? From there, we found out, even the chefs are students. Dollah said, maybe from Shatec

We had a late lunch and we were talking about how the editor and the driver would think that Singaporeans are a weird bunch of people. They eat their meals at the queerest timing, when restaurants are either taking a break before they open for dinner, and they have dinner when the locals have served the last of those eating suppers. The first place that Ma Shifu took us were closed for a break, so we went to another restuarant further down the road. Chris ordered this deep fried sweet potato thingy that I ended up liking it so much.

After lunch, Dollah and I made our way to the Bird Nest. Walking pass the Beijing mobile toilets. I couldn't help but want to take a photo of it. I never thought I would see this here, and the public are actually lining up to use it! The Chinese never believe in queueing up ten years ago when I was here! It's amazing at how much they have changed in seven years! There are hordes of volunteers lining along the roads that led to the Bird Nest, yelling instructions into loudhailers. I have never seen so many people in my life!

The performers were slowly making their way in too. I stared in awe as they walked past me, in an orderly manner. Whow! How to get so many people to be in order? I have never seen so many people as performers in my life. Perhaps, this won't be the last time I will be saying "I have never seen so many people in my life!" Dollah said I would stand out against the performers wearing luminous green. We spent ten minutes trying to get this shot right.

We climbed five storeys before we were told that the Media are not allowed to be in the spectator area. So where were the Media supposed to be at?? Dollah said he's an old man already, why make him climb up and down the stairs? All he wanted was to get a seat, together with the commoners. Err.. that's a bit tough as all the tickets have seats allocated to them. Finally, after being directed from third to fourth and back to third floor again, we met someone who directed us to the Media area at Section 113. We had a tough time choosing the seats we wanted. First, we have to avoid the hundreds of lights as we don't want to end up like sitting in the suana. At last, we found the fengshui seats and started taking photo. But a volunteer was there to stop us from taking more. This rehearsal is embargo until the real thing.

My favourite was the opening event where hundreds of drums were lined up in the stadium, and the lighting on the drums that appeared each time the drummers hit the drum. It's amazing how they are so well coordinated. Not a single person out. Another was the transitions between performances. It was seamless on TV. Whow! But the TV shots were another category by itself. Instead of more long shots and wide shots, the TV director focused too much on closeups and much of the formations were missed on TV.

Along the way back, I was once again, left in awe at the colours that changes on the Water Cube. No one would believe it's actually their National Aquatic Centre. It was such a pretty sight and each time the colour changes, I would stop to take a photo. It took Dollah and I, an hour to walk from the Bird Nest to the shuttle service area where we took the bus back to the Media Village. I thought I would not have problem falling asleep tonight after this long walk. I was so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open this night.

Chris said he could hear me this morning, and had to resist from opening the door to scold me. Sorry! Can't do it tomorrow, as we all have to leave early tomorrow. Dollah and I will be covering the leg of the Torch Relay at Tian'anmen Square. Whow! Have always been amazed by it and now I'm seeing it for real!