A flaming arrow igniting the Olympic torch in Lillehammer. Cloth silhouettes of Olympic figures filling the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta.
Striking images such as these are what Salt Lake Olympic organizers are hoping to create as they prepare Utah's coming-out party that will make up the final minutes of the closing ceremonies of the Winter Games in Nagano Feb. 22.According to documents, including a preliminary story board, obtained by the Deseret News, SLOC's five-minute Nagano spectacular will have plenty of sizzle - featuring a giant, inflatable rock arch and 60-foot inflatable mountains, a herd of galloping live horses, singing Utah children, pyrotechnics and a fog machine.
Not that Salt Lake Olympic organizers are sparing any expense to make a good first impression on the world.
As reported earlier in the Deseret News, the budget for the Nagano extravaganza is $750,000 - equal to $150,000 per minute.
Also not included in the $750,000 price tag are additional budget items totaling $120,000 for a technical director and technical services for the Nagano ceremonies.
The Nagano show, apparently patterned after the Orange Bowl half time and other pageant-type events, is being produced by local promoter United Concerts, which will also produce a sister event to be staged in Park City.
The Nagano show originally was to have included the unveiling of Salt Lake's Olympic mascot, but as the Deseret News reported earlier, those plans have been scrapped in favor of a separate mascot unveiling at a later date.The Park City event was originally budgeted to be a $250,000 extravaganza, including live performances by an unnamed guest artist and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that would have been beamed to Japan.
Those plans were scaled back in favor of a smaller winter festival-type event when broadcast arrangements with CBS, which owns U.S. broadcasting rights to the Nagano Games, couldn't be ironed out, according to Jim McNeil, president of United Concerts.
SLOC spokeswoman Shelley Thomas said a torchlight parade at Deer Valley is among the events now planned for the Park City venue. She said CBS wants live shots of Park City's mountain setting that it can show during Nagano's closing ceremonies. Budget for the Park City event is now $10,000, according to Thomas.
McNeil, who recently returned from pageant rehearsals in California, said he's seen the Nagano show almost in its entirety and he's very pleased. "I'm real excited. It's really neat. And I can tell you we're under budget."
Asked why rehearsals were being held in California, McNeil said, "Because that's where the animal part of the show is from."
But McNeil wouldn't give further program details, citing a confidentiality agreement signed between United Concerts and SLOC.
`I want to put on the best show possible. I want it to be a surprise. But I'm just the contractor for the event," McNeil said. "If you want to know more, you'd better talk to Shelley Thomas of SLOC."
Thomas, also citing the confidentiality agreement, declined to give specifics of the Nagano performance. She did confirm that the program is well within its $750,000 budget because of "generous" in-kind contributions.
"There will be a great deal of focus on those final five minutes (of Nagano's closing ceremonies), and there is expected to be a surprise element involved," Thomas said.
"To speculate on the (Nagano) show's content or reveal that content prior the closing ceremonies does a disservice to the Nagano organizing committee as well as a disservice to the people of Utah and the United States who we're (SLOC) representing."
Traditionally, the host of the next seasonal Olympic Games participates in the current host's closing ceremonies. During closing ceremonies at the 1996 Atlanta Games, Sydney, Australia, which will host the Summer Olympics in 2000, strutted its stuff for the world - with mixed reviews - in a program featuring imitation kangaroos, aboriginal music and fireworks.
Doug Green, vice president for Creative Productions, a Utah-based company that produces festivals and half-time events, including the Orange Bowl earlier this month, said his company bid unsuccessfully to produce the Nagano/Park City package.
Green said his company produced the half-time show at this year's Orange Bowl for $250,000. He said this year's Super Bowl half-time show, to be held in San Diego in two weeks, will likely carry a price tag of $2 million to $3 million.
Green said a lot of creative thinking goes into making a half- time show look more expensive than its budget. The producers of the Nagano event are likely facing similar challenges, he said. "The cost of the Orange Bowl performer (singer Jon Secada) alone was close to $50,000. Plus our profit margin has to come out of that $250,000."
Green said the same confidentiality agreement prohibits him from discussing specifics of his firm's bid. He said agreements are standard in the industry and are meant to protect an event's integrity.
Green, whose firm helped produce opening ceremonies for the 1996 Summer Games, said secrecy was paramount in Atlanta prior to the opening ceremonies. He said only three people - Atlanta Olympic boss Billy Payne and his top two lieutenants - knew beforehand that Muhammad Ali would light the Olympic torch. No one on the production staff knew it was Ali until the last moment.
Although he has no idea what United Concerts has up its sleeve for Nagano, Green speculated that their presentation likely won't involve a large cast due to the logistics and cost of shuttling people to Japan.
Will Utahns get their money's worth in Nagano?
Green cautioned against making such judgments until "you've seen the show." The trick is producing something that translates well on television, he said.
Although he acknowledges producers of big-ticket events sometimes fall into a trap of "having to get the best of everything," his experience is largely that you get what you pay for.
If a producer can come up with an expensive effect that communicates the message he's trying to convey, it's worth the cost, he said.