Basketball World Cup opening ceremony scene. Photo by Beijing News reporter Wu Jiang On the evening of August 30, the opening ceremony of the 2019 Basketball World Cup was held at the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube). The preparations for this opening ceremony lasted more than a year. The opening ceremony lasted 60 minutes and was divided into ceremonies. Part 15 minutes and performance part 45 minutes.
After the ceremony, an opening cultural performance was held. The performance was titled "Rhapsody of a Dream". The overall tone was international style, Chinese feelings and Beijing characteristics, highlighting the integration of Chinese culture and world trends, artistic performances and high-tech means. Integration, stage presentation and basketball events are integrated, emphasizing interaction, participation and artistry, while integrating the humanistic features of China's eight event cities.
The stage design for the opening ceremony of this Basketball World Cup cleverly takes advantage of the homophonic beauty of the main color of the venue, blue, and the word "basket" for basketball. It compares the beautiful "Water Cube Module" to the mesh of a basket and combines it into a The basket-shaped main stage image gives people a distinctive visual impact and image memory. The stage shape of the entire performance venue is designed in the shape of a basketball court.
mascot appeared. Photographed by Beijing News reporter Wu Jiang
Under the connection of the mascot of this tournament "Dream Son", "Sonata of Dreams", "Capriccio of Dreams", "Rondo of Dreams", and "Rhapsody of Dreams" 4 were performed successively. festival performance. The program "Ambition is in My Chest" brought the entire artistic performance to a climax. Jackie Chan told the story of the Yesha basketball team and invited five members of the Yesha basketball team to the center of the stage for interactive performances.
After the opening ceremony, a reporter from the Beijing News exclusively interviewed Qin Yiwen, the executive director of the opening ceremony, and revealed many details in the preparation process for this opening ceremony.
Peking Opera performance at the opening ceremony. Photo by Beijing News reporter Wu Jiang
Beijing News: How does it feel to hold the opening ceremony at the Water Cube?
Qin Yiwen: We have been pursuing a different opening ceremony that can break the conventional opening ceremony. This venue not only limits us, but also lays a very good foundation for us to create a different opening ceremony. The membrane structure of the Water Cube is a hexagon. From a creative logic point of view, it is very similar to the net of the basket. Therefore, we boldly combined it and continued it from the membrane structure of the Water Cube to build a complete basket. In this basket, we express the Chinese people’s thoughts and dreams about basketball.
Beijing News: How was the design plan for formed?
Qin Yiwen: We overturned more than a dozen plans before finally settling on the basket and net as the main visual structure, striving to carry all basketball content.
Beijing News: Is it more complicated to build the stage?
Qin Yiwen: should be the most complicated one from the perspective of the Water Cube. This choreography utilizes the entire Water Cube to the extreme. It should be the only time after the completion of the Water Cube that all the hanging points are used up. The presentation of the entire stage is more like a construction project than a stage project. We built the stage according to the construction engineering drawings, and we did encounter many difficulties.
Dancers perform stunts. Photo by Beijing News reporter Wu Jiang
Beijing News: How long did it take to prepare for the entire opening ceremony of ?
Qin Yiwen: If we talk about the entire cycle of , it started in August last year and lasted more than a year. About a month and a half ago, we started setting up the stage and then on to the recent rehearsals. Throughout the process, we have been constantly denying ourselves, gradually shrinking the space for imagination, and narrowing the path we can take, so that we can achieve today's results.
Beijing News: How many people participated in the entire opening ceremony of ?
Qin Yiwen: The youngest actor is only 7 years old, the oldest actor is over 70 years old, and a total of more than 400 people participated in the opening ceremony performance. The staff size is indeed small. We did not use the crowd tactics. Instead, we designed the stage design according to the venue, designed each content based on the stage design, and then decided how many actors to use and what kind of actors to use based on the content.
Beijing News: Is the basketball theme the most critical part of the entire show?
Qin Yiwen: Yes, after all, it is the opening ceremony of a single-theme event. Basketball is indispensable. On the other hand, basketball cannot be used throughout. This time, we boldly broke the traditional opening ceremony chapter system and used the 4-section method most familiar to all basketball fans to form the main framework of this performance. In each section, there is a program with Chinese elements and basketball elements, which not only expresses Chinese culture, but also shows the unique charm of basketball as a sport. The two are integrated to form a unique opening ceremony.
Beijing News reporter Xu Bangyin
editor Wang Chunqiu proofreader Fan Jinchun
