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Olympic Opening Ceremony Fireworks Were (Partly) Faked
A complete newb writes "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." To me, the reasoning behind the faked display is no consolation or excuse — it seems hard to swallow that NBC was unaware of this televised deception. I'm glad that it was good-naturedly "revealed" this weekend (according to that Telegraph article), but it's disheartening that such a large crowd can watch (in person, and around the world) such a display and have no reason to realize they've been duped. What about when weightier events are at issue? There's also a slightly more detailed story at sky.com.
I watched the opening ceremony on NBC here in the U.S. There was a part of the ceremony called something like 'A walk through Beijing'. It showed a fly-through video of Beijing with "footsteps" made of fireworks popping up along the street/path. Those footstep fireworks looked pretty obviously computer-simulated. All other fireworks shown did not have that simulated appearance.
It sounds to me like these footsteps part were all that was simulated.
Does anyone know if the footage we saw on NBC (of the whole ceremony) was from an International common video feed or did NBC have their own cameras there? I ask because at large International events like this, there is often a common video feed and the commentators simple talk about what they see on their screen (which is the same thing we see, minus the fancy NBC info graphics and overlays.)
(I wrote this looking at the subscriber early-post version. A link to a sky.com article was later added to the summary which answers my question.)
Unaware? obviously weren't listening during th broadcast. The NBC announcers were talking about how some of the effects were computer enhanced. They specifically said there were "digital pyrotechnics" used during the camera shot that zoomed across the city showing fireworks exploding all around.
Slow day on Slashdot? I don't know where the conspiracy nuts get their information - were they actually watching the programme? The NBC commentator stated quite clearly that the 29 displays across Beijing that signified the 29 olympiads were simulated. They didn't got into detail about it but they certainly didn't hide it.
Try dealing with traffic in my area after the show is over. There's plenty of reason to watch them in hi-def.
But they seem to film those from a helicopter just fine with no problem, so it seems to me this is BS justification for misleading. You're NEVER supposed to misrepresent the truth in journalism and this should have been disclosed clearly as "simulation" or similar, and not presented as actual fact. I've been through photojournalism courses and it was drummed into our heads to never, ever fake a shot after the fact beyond basic cleanup for brightness/exposure/saturation/etc. No simulations or clone tooling allowed.
i am a soviet space shuttle
I watched the opening ceremonies twice and the commentators did state something to the effect of "They want this ceremony to be cinema in real time, but what you're watching right now is actually cinematic, it's all animation of these footsteps leading to the National Stadium." They did not outright say "hey this is prerendered CG" but they DID state that this was "true cinematics" and that it was animation.
They were well aware of it and did a poor job of communicating it to viewers. I can tell how most people would have missed it.
Back in 1992, the Olympic torch in Barcelona was supposed to be lit by an archer shooting a flaming arrow. Yeah... no. He shot it towards the cauldron, but it was set to be lit on its own via pyros. The flaming arrow passed way over the cauldron, safe from setting any of the audience on fire or perforating them, and the torch lit anyway.
OR MAYBE IT WAS AN OLYMPIC MIRACLE AND HE HIT IT
Link: The Source of All Knowledge
Kurt Vonnegut: "If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind."
I watched on live YLE 1 in Finland, and the commentators explained as the fireworks were let off that part of the footage of of the giant footsteps before they reached the stadium were generated, but the fireworks at the stadium were live.
Seems to me someone is trying to sensationalize a non issue.
The announcers for NBC said there were digital fireworks during the broadcast a couple times.
The link to the telegraph article is incorrect. Here's the real link
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
"To me, the reasoning behind the faked display is no consolation or excuse -- it seems hard to swallow that NBC was unaware of this televised deception. I'm glad that it was good-naturedly "revealed" this weekend (according to that Telegraph article), but it's disheartening that such a large crowd can watch (in person, and around the world) such a display and have no reason to realize they've been duped."
So the safety of the spectators is "no excuse"? You'd prefer they endanger the spectators for no reason other than to satisfy your sense of propriety?
What WOULD be a good excuse guy?
As to your "I can't believe NBC was unaware..." line, you're right, they DID know. And they TOLD US repeatedly during the broadcast.
Is it possible to mod an article submission "offtopic"?
"A standard disclaimer of "this televised broadcast contains elements that are computer generated etc etc" would have been appropriate."
THEY SAID IT WAS CG SEVERAL TIMES DURING THE BROADCAST.
"I think it is good for some outrage here."
Ok then, I'm outraged that so many of you are too stupid to educate yourself about a subject before shooting your mouths off.
A Chinese website reported over the weekend that the opening swoop over Beijing was a computer simulation:
http://cd.qq.com/a/20080809/000059.htm
It says the computer simulation took over a year to make, and that only the final set of footprints was real. The simulation was created by a Beijing firm, Crystal Digital.
http://www.crystalcg.com/
When she was filming the 1936 Olympics (Olympia) she took aerial photographs by attaching cameras to balloons. The lesson for filmmakers today? If you can't risk flying people, use a drone. (Caveat: a number of the balloons crashed. But I like to think nowadays we could achieve better results.)
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
The Olympians didn't wear clothes back then, they got in the way. They competed nude.
Fail.
But... it was disclosed, quite obviously, by the NBC reporters and therein lies the rub. Much ado about nothing, in my opinion. This is the short and long of it.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
Well I watched the broadcast and I did NOT see that announcement.
Sorry I am an idiot.
But I'd rather be a moron than a raging asshole.
This isn't "news" to me either.
I went back and looked at what NBC showed on television here in the United States of America.
The following quote is exactly what the commentators, Today Show host Matt Lauer and NBC Sports broadcaster Bob Costas, said as the footage was being shown:
So it was quite clear to me at the time that we weren't watching real fireworks.
Makes you wonder what other inaccuracies abound in reporting of the news and what how editors choose headlines.
I went back and looked at what NBC showed on television in the United States of America.
The following is exactly what the commentators, Today Show host Matt Lauer and NBC Sports broadcaster Bob Costas, said:
At the time, I fully understood that I was watching a movie. It's not "news" to me.
False. As others have pointed out here, the NBC announcer did say just before the "footsteps" video that it was computer enhanced.
I shall summon the difference between revisions for the 1992 Summer Olympics article, which shows the text as it looked when I referenced it compared to the text as it was edited roughly an hour later.
The citation for the Wikipedia article is (was) from the BBC: "Ceremonial hall of shame."
Barcelona restored dignity four years later with an archer dramatically lighting the Olympic flame with a burning arrow flying through the night sky.
Billions of people around the globe gasped in admiration as the archer bravely found his target with unerring accuracy.
Or so it seemed.
In reality, he had not actually landed the arrow in the middle of the cauldron - he had fired it way outside the stadium as instructed.
Organisers dared not risk his aim failling short and landing into the grandstand and instead told him to fire it directly over the target area... some pyrotechnics-helpful camera angles would take care of the visual effect.
There you have it.
Kurt Vonnegut: "If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind."