Well, the Olympics have been over for a week, but in the time since the flame was extinguished in the Olympic Stadium in London, it’s meant the start of a whole slew of montages being uploaded from all over the globe. We have several videos from BBC’s extensive coverage, one from CTV and one from NBC.
We’ll start with our neighbors from the north, CTV and the Canadian Olympics Broadcast Media Consortium. This group was forged by Bell Media and Rogers mostly to team up for the 2010 Vancouver Games while 2012 in London was an afterthought. It still did not prevent the Consortium from sending a large crew to cover the Olympics including the venerable Brian Williams. In this video, Brian gives his thoughts on the London Olympics, compares them to the Vancouver Games and we get the final playing of the Consortium’s theme, “I Believe” sung by Nikki Yanofsky.
Now to NBC’s montage which always starts off with music from “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story” and crescendos with the theme from “Remember The Titans”. Bob Costas says goodbye to former NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol and director Bucky Gunts as both left the network after the Olympics. This is a good montage, but one that I thought was not as good as past videos. It doesn’t mean that it won’t stand with the test of time. We’ll be getting at least four more of these as NBC will take us through the 2020 Olympics. However, as long as we don’t get multiple shots of Debbie Phelps, I’ll be happy. The audio is low so turn up your speakers.
Now to the first of BBC’s many 2012 Olympic montages. I keep finding new ones. This ended BBC’s “Red Button” and online coverage. This montage was set to Frank Turner’s “Rivers”.
Next, this is a montage that focused on the cycling in the Velodrome, a venue that was very successful for Team GB. Overall, seven gold medals which was way beyond the other countries that sent athletes to challenge the Brits. This video is done to will.i.am.
Here’s one from BBC News using its iconic theme. I’m intrigued by the BBC News theme.
This montage ended BBC’s coverage on the final Saturday of the Games. This was cut to Thea Gilmore’s rendition of “London” written by the late Sandy Denny. I like this video. The BBC’s Gary Lineker introduces the video.
And going off the beaten path, here’s the song in its entirety. I like the song a lot. Unfortunately, it’s not available on iTunes in the States.
And here’s our final clip. This is the final BBC Olympic montage that ended the entire 19 days of coverage on the network. The song is John Lennon’s “Imagine” and sung by Emeli Sandé of Scotland. This was recorded especially for the BBC. And the montage is quite well done. Olympic hosts Gary Lineker and Sue Barker say goodbye for the last time.
And this really concludes the Fang’s Bites coverage of the 2012 Olympics.
