Monday, August 11, 2008

Some Opening Ceremony fireworks were faked


Oh my I guess i must have overpraised the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. I felt responsible of posting this news clip here in my blog because my last post was talking about the smooth and awesome opening ceremony. But I just wanted you to know what I've just recently found out that some tricks were applied during the live screening of the the successful launching of the 2008 Olympics. It isn't something to be taken negatively. They just did it to ensure the general safety. So here it is...

Some Opening Ceremony fireworks were faked

If you watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, chances are you said something like, "no way that's possible" at least once. It turns out you were right.

London's Telegraph newspaper reports that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. But -- hold on -- it's not necessarily as bad as you think.

The faked fireworks were actually set-off at the stadium, but because of potential dangers in filming the display live from a helicopter, viewers at home were shown a pre-recorded, computer-generated shot. It sounds dishonest, but I'm not sure it's such a terrible thing.

The Opening Ceremony is, at its core, just one big performance. And isn't it accepted that some things might not be legit at a performance? The final torch bearer wasn't actually running around the top of the stadium, does the fact that everyone could figure that out make it any less impressive? It might have been unnecessarily deceptive, but the firework-faking isn't really that big of a deal. But, if I found out that the lighted-drum thing wasn't on the up and up, then we'll have problems, China.

1 comment:

Neri said...

Wow. When I read the first sentences, I remembered the girl who just lipsynched the song.. Ooh.. I understand the faked fireworks for safety but faking the child, not really. :(