Bruce Dunlop creates Olympic title sequence

Bruce Dunlop & Associates has created a generic title sequence for the Beijing Olympics, to be aired for the first time during the opening ceremony tomorrow.

The client, Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, has delivered the sequence to TV broadcasters around the world as part of its Olympic Games broadcasting package. TV companies receive the package when they buy the rights to use BOB’s images of the games.

The Singapore office of London-based consultancy BDA won a creative unpaid pitch to make the 30-second sequence last October. It beat broadcast design groups from the UK, US, China and South-East Asia to secure the contract.

BOB, which is a joint venture between the Beijing Olympics and the Paralympics Organising Committee and the Olympic Broadcasting Services, briefed BDA to play on the history of the event, while conjuring a Chinese flavour for the sequence.

BDA’s resulting design combines live action footage and 3D animation, based around the Chinese elements of nature – metal, wood, water, fire and earth,

The ‘clouds of fortune’, the official motif of the Beijing Olympics, swirl around the athletes as a sign of good luck.

However, the BBC confirmed that it will be using its own sequence, designed by illustrator Jamie Hewlett and singer Damon Albarn, and produced by Red Bee Media.

A BDA spokeswoman claims that, ‘The majority of broadcasters in the 150 countries participating in the games will use our work as their opening sting, although the bigger broadcasters will probably have designed their own sequences’.