My CONFIDENTIAL CEREMONIES DOCUMENT Finally Revealed!

That's right, folks! The time has come! Now that the Olympic ceremonies have come and gone, the vast majority of my secrets are ready to be released into the world!

If you can recall, I'd been documenting my experience more or less as it happened, which makes this task super easy for me. The next few entries are exactly what I wrote as I was going through it.

Warning: it wasn't all pomp and circumstance in the beginning, so I won't be revealing much at all for a good while. It's actually kind of an anticlimax. Unless you're stoked to hear about me working, in which case WOOOOO PARTAYYY!

Also, for your reading convenience, here and here are the posts I wrote in February about orientation and my first shift without being able to say anything. Just for some bizarre past/present juxtaposition!

Here we go!

Entry 1

Note: I’m writing this on February 15^th (technically 16^th, as it’s 1:30 in the morning [and I have to get up for a 10 am class. Shoot]). I don’t know what day in the future I’m going to be posting it, but I already know that I’m going to hate the fact that I couldn’t talk about it until now.

So hello, readers of the future! Thanks for sticking with me! Or just joining me. Ya know, whatever.

All volunteers for the casting department (auditions and costume) had training/orientation on Sunday the 12^th. It started with a tour at around 10 am, where they took us around 3 Mills Studios. It’s an actual functioning studio, where they film Million Pound Drop and other assorted shows. But what sucks about not knowing British celebrities is that I could be walking past the most famous person in the country and have no idea who he or she is. Alas. :P

We had some people speak to us after the tour, just various people from the different departments. They kept stressing how important we are, which was AWESOME, because I hate being a volunteer and then just standing around and doing absolutely nothing. But no, here it’s all, “we can’t do this without you!” and “YOU are why we love our job!” …It was awesome. They also showed us a montage of past ceremonies, as if I needed anything else to get me more excited!

There was a quick tea/coffee/”biscuit” break after that, during which I tried a hot cross bun (that wasn’t hot) for the first time, and then we broke up by bib number. My half of us went to learn what our job would actually be! And here’s the big secret:

Before auditions, each performer has to be validated. There are 12 booths, each booth with one casting volunteer and one costume volunteer. The casting job would be to check them in, input them into the database, check their ID, etc. Then the costume person would take their measurements, and they then get sent into their audition.

The exact process? Scan the barcode on the letter that was emailed to them. Make sure the name that comes up is theirs. Scan the barcode on their bib. Check that their name is in the computer correctly. Check their ID with the information that’s in the database. Read off what needs to be measured, and input the numbers the costume person tells you. Take their photo. Send them to the exceptions desk if there’s any kind of discrepancy with their ID.

And that’s it! After far too many volunteering jobs that involved stocking Gatorade and loitering, I couldn’t have been happier that I’d be busy! 

We each got to practice the procedure by validating each other, and then we switched with the other group. We were led into one of the sound stages, where we got to sort of experience an audition. They led us through some basic mass choreography – we made the Olympic rings! – and I basically fell in love with this guy from the creative team. He went around and asked us where we’re all from, and we basically had people from each continent, which was awesome. And then he went through the Summer Olympics year by year and asked us about our memories. So much fun!

After that, we just had a little wrap up session, and that was it. I was so unbelievably excited for my first shift! 

My first shift was THE first shift for this batch of volunteers – Tuesday, February 14^th from 12-4. We got some snazzy highlighter yellow vests to wear in our booths, and then we were all set to go. I was in booth #1, because I’m awesome. There’s no wall between each booth and the one next to it, and booths 1 and 2 were seriously amazing. I was working with such nice people! Booth 2 was Tanya taking measurements and Deepti on the computer, and my costume guy was Zac. We spent the whole time chatting with each other and the performers, and the casting department gave us Valentine’s hearts! The day legitimately flew by. We got through the queue of auditionees super fast – we were working for maybe two hours, tops, and not once did I ever get bored. Cold, yes, but not bored. Everyone was so happy and friendly and wonderful and excited to be there! It was basically a solid two hours of fangirling on my part.

When we were done, we had the option of either leaving or sticking around and watching what was left of the audition. Take a guess on which I picked.

If you think I left, we clearly don’t know each other very well! Zac (who I totally bonded with) and I stayed for about an hour, until it was completely finished. We walked in to a giant conga line dancing around the room, and some of the people we processed waved at us! Not sure why that was so exciting, but it was! Then they did some dance routines and an acting-type thing. It looked like so much fun! By the end I had the choreography memorized and the song stuck in my head. It was so excellent, I can’t even put it into words. Knowing that some of these people are going to be performing in front of four billion people in a few months… man. No words.

Zac and I also took some time to point out the cute boys together. It WAS Valentine’s Day, after all! :P

My shift today (Wednesday) was pretty much exactly the same, just 4:30-8:30. I was in the same booth and everything! Melissa was my costumer, and she was super sweet. We had a good time. It felt a little longer today, and I definitely felt the monotony a little bit, but what’s great is that meeting all these different people keeps it fresh. It’s not just sticking papers in a filing cabinet. I met people from Chicago, Malta, Finland, Kazakhstan, and even a legendary rugby player from New Zealand. Yeah, for real. I had no idea when he was in the booth; I just knew he was absolutely massive. But Melissa was absolutely freaking out when she realized who he was!

We got to watch the auditions when we finished again. The routines were exactly the same, so I’m sure they’ll be burned into my brain by the time my last shift rolls around! The guy I love, from orientation, was wearing a shirt from the Mexico City Olympics, which I complimented him on. During orientation he also said that one of the Games from his childhood (can’t remember which) made him decide that he wanted to get involved with them one day. I love that he’s a fan and loves what he’s doing!

Basically, I just love everything.

I have two shifts left. I’m going to be so sad when it’s over!

To be continued!

[Note: The awesome guy from the creative team with the Mexico City shirt is Steve Boyd.]

Post-Europe Olympic Things: Thank You, Steve Boyd

It's been about two weeks since I've gotten home from Copenhagen, and to be honest, I haven't done much. I took a few days to recover and allow my body to repair itself; there was a deadline mix-up for the final project of one of my classes, and I ended up working furiously for four hours to get it in on time; I saw Jessie Cave's play and got to meet her afterwards; and I saw Nat Tena's band play for free in St. Pancras Station, and got to meet her afterwards.

Other than that, though, my life has basically been consumed by two things: volunteering for the Olympics, and trying to figure out how I can keep doing so through the summer. I have so much availability now that I'm not in class that I'm picking up shifts left and right. I'm basically obsessed with it. The ceremonies are in rehearsals now, so I'm getting to see bits of what they look like, and have even been smiled at by Danny Boyle. It's beyond excellent. When I'm not there, I want to be.

...Which makes it even worse that I most likely won't get to do it this summer. I won't go into detail about my visa issues, but basically, the government of this country makes zero sense. I've been trying to get help, but the advice center at QM is so not helpful, and the American Embassy wouldn't even let me through security. Cool, guys. I'm doing what I want to do, and it looks like I'll have to give it up because the government sucks and nobody wants to give a straight answer to my questions. So, between all the highs and lows, my emotions have been all over the map.

Now, bear with me for a moment while I remind you of things I blogged about back in February. After the initial volunteer orientation, I said:

In one of our sessions, the guy leading us went year by year through the Summer Olympics and asked us our memories. When he got to 2004 (Athens), I raised my hand and said, "A lot of swimming, a lot of beautiful scenery, and in the closing ceremony, the giant torch was put out by a little girl like she was blowing a candle." He thought it was interesting, since they put on these massive performances, to see what people actually remember of them. :)

And my favorite quotes of the day:

"You are now a part of the center of the universe. As we like to say here, 'no pressure! There are only four billion people watching!'"

"The Olympics is the most complex peacetime venture. The only thing more complex than the Olympics is a war."

 Just... keep this in mind. Especially the underlined bit.

So anyway, this guy (Steve) is in charge of the mass movement team (which basically means he choreographs the movement of thousands of people), so I see him all the time, and he's always in and out of the office when us volunteers are up there helping out. During one of my shifts this week, he walks in, and the guy next to me says, "See him? He's a genius." He goes on to tell me he's worked on some big name movies (High School Musical 3, for example), so I laugh and say, "Oh my god, that's fantastic. I definitely need to look him up!"

After learning that his full name is Stephen Boyd, I hit the internet to see what I can see. I ended up learning that, yes, he did work on High School Musical 3... but he's also worked on every single Olympic Games since Barcelona in 1992. I found an article about him from his alma mater's newspaper, and allow me to quote it for a second here:

He was a corporate art director by 1999, but his day job wasn’t his dream job.

Even at UD, when professors talked to undergraduate Boyd about what he wanted after graduation, his answer was pinpoint-specific: Be a graphic designer for an Olympics.

“My whole family is jocks. My dad [Mike, AG ’62] was a scholarship football player. My mom [Jane, CHS ’60] was the only female phys. ed. major her whole four years of college. I grew up in a town where not much happened, so, when the Olympics came on, I was in heaven. When the 1984 Olympics in L.A. was televised, the venue designs were really exuberant and over-the-top garish. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s my way in.’ The Games ended the day before I started at Delaware.” He opted to major in visual communications. 

Boyd says his Delaware professors and his magazine bosses in Manhattan helped him move toward his dream. “It was just people understanding that I was someone with a desire to do something really specific. A lot of people just cut me a break for being young, dumb and excited,’’ Boyd says. 

He worked several jobs at once and made connections all over New York City. He worked weekends for free for an art director who led him on about a job at the 1992 Olympics, but Boyd says the guy blew town for Barcelona without him. Fortunately, a chance meeting with an old acquaintance on a Manhattan street just before the Games began led to a radio job at the Olympics. 

That first gig was a perfect low-pressure entrée to his dream, and it came with ringside seats to every Olympic event. Boyd was hooked. 

He went on to Lillehammer in 1994, Nagano in 1998, Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000 and Salt Lake City in 2002. 

And, last year, in Athens, he literally ran part of the show. As a coordinating producer, Boyd made sure the presentation of the presidential speeches had proper pomp, athletes paraded without a hitch and the torchbearers made it to the cauldron without a glitch.

Excuse me for a moment while I go sob quietly in a corner.

This is the guy who thought it was interesting that I remembered the little girl from the Athens closing ceremony. He was there. He was running the show. This is the guy whose Mexico City '68 shirt I complimented after volunteer orientation. This is the guy who talked about the Olympics being the center of the universe and the most complex peacetime venture. He actually knows that they ARE. I found his website, which goes into more detail about what he's done -- he's behind the amazing audience light stunts in Vancouver, stage managed the presidential box in Torino, designed lanterns, placards, the massive logo quilt, and ran the audience stunts in Salt Lake City, etc. etc. etc. This guy, who walks around rehearsals in his neon pink mass movement team high-vis vest with a smile on his face, and makes sure the casting team volunteers are recognized and thanked by the performers that are rehearsing.


He was in charge of choreographing THAT.

I literally do not know how to deal with this information.

Steve has the life that I want. I am him when he was in college. I still don't think my advisor quite believes me when I tell him what I want to do, but he won't dissuade me from it because I'm "young, dumb, and excited." Except he knows I'm smart, so he really doesn't know what to think about my extreme single-mindedness. But Steve wanted to be involved with the Olympics, and he IS. Has been for 20 years. How's that for single-mindedness?

I wanted to cry as I was reading this. It just filled me with so much hope. Even if I have to leave this summer and miss working at the actual ceremonies, this doesn't have to be the end for me. I will have more opportunities. Steve is the proof.

Still kind of want to cry, actually. But for the first time since I've been dealing with this visa situation, that's a good thing. :)