Danny Boyle - Director, Producer, Olympian

London Calling: How do you feel now 2012 is here?
Danny Boyle: In truth, I feel completely overwhelmed, like I’ve bitten way more off than I can chew all the time, but it’s such an amazing honour to be involved. There are a huge number of people involved who are better than me at organising such things; I’m so happy they’re working with me on this or we could have problems.
 
Let’s be honest - it’s very much a team effort, and we will celebrate that. It’s an amazing responsibility that I said ‘yes’ to straight away. In hindsight, a little more thought may have been better spent in the decision process. I still would have said ‘yes’, but I think the giddy moment took over before I considered the practicalities of something so big.
 
But I’m a huge sports fan, I live in the East End, I had to say yes, it just felt so right.
 
It gives me a very vague sense that I’m like an athlete for a moment, because I never was. It gives you an illusion, a mirage like you’re an elite athlete in training.
 
I’m under strict instructions as to what I can or can’t say, but we’ve just finished auditioning the 15,000 people who’ve volunteered to perform in the opening ceremony show. That was a major point, and it’s a relief to be past it.
 
LC: How big is this project?
DB: It’s a huge logistical process – the biggest ever. So we’re auditioning and then slowly moving towards rehearsing with performers in the spring. The scale is just preposterous. I’ll admit, I really had no idea how many people have to be involved in something like this. But on audition day, it was wonderful, the spirit all round was incredible. It was the Olympic spirit reinvented through the very seeds of an artistic idea.
 
I know a lot has been said about the budget, but every element is going as well as we could have hoped. We had an expectation in terms of how we’d approach ideas, but really, naively, there are so many factors to do with the games that you cannot anticipate. It’s a logistical maze.
 
I could talk to you forever about the starting times, why it isn’t earlier, why it isn’t later – there are all these issues to deal with. It’s going to be at the most reasonable time we could come up with when dealing with all the factors really. There is always an issue with athletes who are on very elite training programmes, and whose appearance at the Games has been worked up to for four years, or more. They want to get themselves to bed at a certain hour, that’s their priority. So for a huge event like the Opening Ceremony, I’ve asked them all to be a part of it - but I know not every athlete can be, and I understand that.
 
LC: What approach to the opening ceremony are you taking in terms of artistic direction?
DB: Well, something totally different. We search our temperaments and try to match them with the right budget, but I don't think the UK could quite top the spectacular theatrics of 2008 in Beijing. That would be unfeasibly foolish, because it was just such a huge, astonishing spectacle. But I should be clear – we aim to better it.
 
Sure, Beijing was the summit of a specific type of show. There was so much to see, so much to embrace – culture, art and sport intertwining like the now famous ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium in China, but really it would be slightly crude to try to top an event like that. We’d be chasing highs for the sake of it.
 
What we have in front of us is an opportunity to bring something new and fresh. We’ll leave imitation to one side. Let’s make a mark on the Olympic Games that will follow.
 
Sport is about young people, encouraging them to participate, encouraging them to succeed. That’s what I want the ceremony to represent. That’s the message I want to get out there.
 
LC: Can you reveal any specific plans?
DB: Naturally, a lot of this is under wraps, but it’s obvious that music will play a huge role in the ceremony. We’re a small country but we’ve given the world so much of what modern music and instrumental performance is about. We have absolute innovators in that field. For kids, music in some other countries runs alongside the ambitions of being a sports star or an entertainer or a business brain. But here, in the UK, in London, music is an avenue, not a bypass. So I want music to express itself in the ceremony in the same way that sport will express itself in what follows afterwards. It’ll inspire everyone I hope, including the artists!
 
I’ve involved dance pioneers Underworld to oversee a large part of what will be ‘the sound of the ceremony’, and signing them up represented the final piece of the puzzle. Their placement ensures we have a set of totally British artistic creatives for the ceremonies. That’s everything that London 2012 should be – British.
 
In terms of the visual elements, there are obviously huge choreographed roles, requiring many thousands of hours of planning. In some ways, it’s easier for me to do the desktop role of selecting video imagery. And I think film should have a lot to do with this... clips of British films; patriotic, iconic movies that represent the Olympic spirit. I guess Chariots of Fire would be the most obvious. That said, just because Stephen [Daldry], who I’m alongside, and I work in film, I don't think it should be a movie-themed domination. In fact, I can say definitively, it won’t be.
 
I can’t wait for the result at this point, although it still seems so far away. All I will say is there’ll be plenty going on; you won’t be disappointed.

Author: Danny Bowman