Ric Birch
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Ric Birch
Ric Birch is a Producer and Director. He was first known as a producer and interviewer on GTK (TV series), a popular music TV series on ABC Television (Australian TV network), ABC Television. He then founded and became director of Spectak International, an events production company specializing in global ceremonies production, television, film and theatre and themed entertainment. The company has produced opening and closing ceremonies for the Commonwealth, East Asian, and Olympic Games. He is internationally known as the "Master of Ceremonies" due to his involvement in many globally seen ceremonies. Education and early event production Birch studied a combined Arts and Law degree at Melbourne University in 1962, with the aim of becoming a lawyer. But, through volunteering backstage at the Universities annual Arts Revue, he made the change to Theatre, theatrical production. He got his first job at ABC Television in Melbourne. He became a freelance director in the late 1970s, befo ...
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The Australian Women's Weekly
''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by the Australian edition of '' Better Homes and Gardens'' in 2014. , ''The Weekly'' has overtaken '' Better Homes and Gardens'' again, coming out on top as Australia's most read magazine. The magazine invested in the 2020 film '' I Am Woman'' about Helen Reddy, singer, feminist icon and activist. Editor-in-chief Nicole Byers told Film Ink "Helen’s story of adversity and triumph is nothing short of inspirational. ''The Weekly'' has been telling stories of iconic Australian women for more than 80 years and we're delighted to be supporting the film production". History and profile The magazine was started in 1933 by Frank Packer and Ted Theodore as a weekly publication. The first editor was George Warnecke and the initial dummy was laid out b ...
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2006 Winter Olympic Games
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter Olympics, the first being in 1956 in Cortina d'Ampezzo; Italy had also hosted the Summer Olympics in 1960 in Rome. Turin was selected as the host city for the 2006 Games in June 1999. The official motto of Torino 2006 was "Passion lives here". The Games' logo depicted a stylized profile of the Mole Antonelliana building, drawn in white and blue ice crystals, signifying the snow and the sky. The crystal web was also meant to portray the web of new technologies and the Olympic spirit of community. The 2006 Olympic mascots were Neve ("snow" in Italian), a female snowball, and Gliz, a male ice cube. Italy will host the Winter Olympics again in 2026, scheduled to be held in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. Host ...
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2009 East Asian Games
) , Host city = Hong Kong , Teams participating = 9 , Athletes participating = 2,377 , Events = 262 events in 22 sports , Opening ceremony = December 5, 2009 , Closing ceremony = December 13, 2009 , Officially opened by = State Councilor Liu Yandong , Athlete's Oath = Li Ching , Judge's Oath = Gary Au Yeung Kwok-kei , Torch Lighter = Lee Lai ShanWong Kam-poCheung King WaiHannah Wilson Chan Hei Man , Stadium = Hong Kong Cultural Centre (Opening) , previous = Macau 2005 , next = Tianjin 2013 The 2009 East Asian Games ( zh, s=2009年东亚运动会, t=2009年東亞運動會, p=Èr líng líng jiǔ nián Dōngyà yùndònghuì, j=ji6 ling4 ling4 gau2 nin4 dung1 ngaa3 wan6 dung6 wui2), officially known as the V East Asian Games, was an international multi-sport event that hosted by Hong Kong, China, between 5 December and 13 December 2009. A total of 2,377 athletes from 9 East Asian national competed in 262 events in 22 sports.Kuomintang official site.KMT.org.tw." '' ...
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2000 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday 15 September 2000 in Stadium Australia, Sydney, during which the Games were formally opened by Governor-General Sir William Deane. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the formal and ceremonial opening of this international sporting event, including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes, with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture and history. Veteran ceremonies director Ric Birch was the Director of Ceremonies while David Atkins was the Artistic Director and Producer. Its artistic section highlighted several aspects of Australian culture and history, showing Australia's flora and fauna, technology, multiculturalism, and the hopeful moment of reconciliation towards Aboriginal Australians. The ceremony had a cast of 12,687 performers, seen by a stadium audience of around 110,000. The ceremony began at 19:00 AEDT and laste ...
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Arthur Stace
Arthur Malcolm Stace (9 February 1885 – 30 July 1967), known as Mr Eternity, was an Australian soldier. He was an alcoholic from his teenage years until the early 1930s, when he converted to Christianity and began to spread his message by inscribing the word "Eternity" in copperplate writing with yellow chalk on footpaths and doorsteps in and around Sydney, from Martin Place to Parramatta, from 1932 to his death in 1967. He has become somewhat of a legend in the local folklore of the city, and the story of his life has inspired books, museum exhibits, statues, an opera, and a film. Early years Stace was born in Redfern, New South Wales, in inner west Sydney on 9 February 1885. The fifth child of William Wood Stace, from Mauritius and Laura Stace (née Lewis), a child of alcoholics, he was brought up in poverty. In order to survive, he resorted to stealing bread and milk and searching for scraps of food in bins. By the age of 12, Stace, with virtually no formal schooling, ...
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Intaglio (printmaking)
Intaglio ( ; ) is the family of printing and printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the direct opposite of a relief print where the parts of the matrix that make the image stand ''above'' the main surface. Normally, copper or in recent times zinc sheets, called plates, are used as a surface or matrix, and the incisions are created by etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint or mezzotint, often in combination. Collagraphs may also be printed as intaglio plates. After the decline of the main relief technique of woodcut around 1550, the intaglio techniques dominated both artistic printmaking as well as most types of illustration and popular prints until the mid 19th century. Process In intaglio printing, the lines to be printed are cut into a metal (e.g. copper) plate by means either of a cutting tool called a burin, held in the hand – in which case the process is called ''engraving''; or t ...
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Eternity (graffito)
The word Eternity was a graffito tag recorded over an approximate 35-year period from 1932 to 1967, written numerous times in chalk in the streets of Sydney, Australia. The word had been written by Arthur Stace, an illiterate former soldier, petty criminal and alcoholic who became a devout Christian in the late 1940s. Arthur Stace For years after his conversion up until his death in 1967, Arthur Stace walked the streets of Sydney writing the single word "Eternity" on walls and footpaths in his unmistakable copperplate handwriting. His identity remained unknown until it was finally revealed in a newspaper article in 1956. It is estimated Stace wrote the word over half a million times. Only two original Eternity inscriptions are known to exist. One is on a piece of cardboard Stace gave to a fellow parishioner, and is held by the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. The other, and the only remaining inscription in situ, is inside the bell of the Sydney General Post Office clo ...
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Sydney New Year's Eve
Sydney New Year's Eve is an annual New Year's Eve fireworks event in Sydney, Australia. The event currently consists of two fireworks shows, with an evening display known as the "Family Fireworks" held at 9:00 p.m. AEST, and the main "Midnight Fireworks" held at 12:00 a.m. Fireworks are launched from barges in Port Jackson, as well as nearby landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge—which serves as the main focal point of the show via lighting and pyrotechnic effects. As one of the first major cities to celebrate the New Year, the event is widely-viewed in Australia and worldwide. Organizers have estimated the annual in-person attendance of the event to be around 1.5 to 1.6 million, with tourists accounting for a large portion of its attendees. Some locations, such as the Royal Botanic Garden, host ticketed seating areas. The event is usually organized by the city; as of 2020, the state of New South Wales was given "temporary custodianship" of ...
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Singapore National Day Parade
The National Day Parade (NDP) is an annual parade held in Singapore to commemorate its independence. Held annually on 9 August, it is the main public celebration of National Day, consists of a parade incorporating contingents of the Singapore Armed Forces, Ministry of Home Affairs, local institutions and community groups, followed by a cultural presentation culminating with a fireworks display. First held on 9 August 1966 to mark the one-year anniversary of the Proclamation of Singapore, it has been held annually since then. The parade had historically been held at the Padang, but were occasionally held at the former National Stadium, and in a "decentralised" format across the country to encourage wider public participation. Beginning in 1984, the Padang began to host the parade on a regular cycle (initially once every three years, and then every five years beginning 1995) and during all years marking anniversaries of national significance, with the event otherwise hosted by ...
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2016 Summer Olympic Games
) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima , stadium = Maracanã Stadium (ceremonies), Estádio Olímpico João Havelange (athletics competition) , summer_prev = London 2012 , summer_next = Tokyo 2020 , winter_prev = Sochi 2014 , winter_next = Pyeongchang 2018 The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events in some sports beginning on 3 August. Rio de Janeiro was announced as the host city at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 2 October 2009. 11,238 athletes from 207 nations took part in the 2016 G ...
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2008 Summer Olympic Games
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed in 28 sports and 302 events, one event more than those scheduled for the 2004 Summer Olympics. This was the first time China had hosted the Olympic Games, and the third time the Summer Olympic Games had been held in East Asia, following the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. These were also the second Summer Olympic Games to be held in a communist state, the first being the 1980 Summer Olympics in the Soviet Union (with venues in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Estonia). Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games over four competitors on 13 July 2001, having won a majority of votes from members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after two rounds of voti ...
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Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou (; born 2 April 1950) is a Chinese film director, producer, writer, actor and former cinematographer.Tasker, Yvonne (2002). "Zhang Yimou" i''Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers'' Routledge Publishing, p. 412. . Google Book Search. Retrieved 21 August 2008. He is a part of the Cinema of China#Rise of the Fifth Generation, Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, Honorary Doctorate of Boston University and Yale University, Distinguished Professor of Beijing Film Academy. He made his List of directorial debuts, directorial debut in 1988 with ''Red Sorghum (film), Red Sorghum''. Zhang has won numerous awards and recognitions, with three Academy Awards nominations for Best Foreign Language Film for ''Ju Dou'' in 1990, ''Raise the Red Lantern'' in 1991, and ''Hero (2002 film), Hero'' in 2003; a Silver Lion, two Golden Lion prizes and the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award, Glory to the Filmmaker Award at the Venice Film Festival; Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival), Gran ...
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