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Olympic Opening Ceremony Fireworks Were (Partly) Faked
Posted by
timothy
on Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:20 AM
from the now-apply-to-serious-controversial-events dept.
from the now-apply-to-serious-controversial-events dept.
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.
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Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Informative)
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.)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll bet that the fireworks weren't the only computer-generated portion of the opening ceremony -- The part at the beginning with the rising and falling blocks looked a little suspect. The narration also reeked of classic propaganda, but I'm glad to see that a lot of the symbolism in the show advocated a more progressive China.
Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:4, Informative)
It looked like legs to me, not hydraulics. Add to that the slightly inconsistent motion and it seems like you are just making things up.
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Informative)
The hydraulic pistons were the actor's legs.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/5306/peoplebn2.gif [imageshack.us]
At the end of the act the tops were removed so the actors could wave to the crowd (or else robotics were really, really advanced).
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Insightful)
I could see the hydraulic pistons moving up and down. Especially near the end when the blocks were raised very high and you could see underneath them.
I would ask, "Do they think we're that stupid", but alas, many folks are willing to ignore facts observed by their own eyes if a credible TV person states something different.
Anyone who was paying attention during that part of the show could see that it was people inside the boxes. The only "obviously false" thing is the disinformation you're posting here. I just can't figure out what your purpose is in doing so.
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:4, Informative)
While I hate to be a "me too", I distinctly remember hearing the announcer talk about how CGI was used during the opening ceremony, and it was discussed during the footsteps. I found it quite clear that the footsteps were "faked", but I think all the uproar over is a bunch of people who didn't pay attention to the announcers, or perhaps I was watching another station with the opening ceremony other than NBC.
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Interesting)
The NBC announcer said something about " virtual flythrough" or somesuch as it was shown, which made my wife and I discuss why they were showing us simulated film. Those steps looked obviously faked up until the few near the stadium.
I'd get the exact wording, but we've already deleted it from the DVR.
I don't know why this is news. It was said on air and obvious at the time.
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Interesting)
The NBC commentator specifically said, as the footage was being shown, that the event's producers were using a cinematic interlude to convey the concept of the fireworks. The actual firewoks WERE going off at the same time, and in much the same way... but there was simply no way to be sure they could show it well on TV - since . . .
the notional ground speed of the POV of that FX shot was faster than anything short of military jets.
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Insightful)
The main goal of the ceremony is to entertain millions (perhaps billions?) of people and in my very humble opinion they succeded at that pretty damn well.
Hell, the first 1.5 hrs of the opening was one of the most magnificent shows ever to put on the face of the earth.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but they could have computer generated a lot more parts of the show and they didn't. The people in the boxes for instance?
I don't really care what was real or not.. All I know is that I frequently had to pick up my jaw from the ground. And that was the ultimate goal. Period.
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Informative)
In reply to whether or not you the footage you saw was from a International Common Feed, the answer is: Yes
NBC and the other rights holding broadcasters use the feed that is originated by the "Host Broadcaster" in this case Beijing Olympic Broadcasting. NBC and the other rights holding broadcasters can pay to have extra cameras in the stadium/venue. Those cameras are typically used for close ups of dignitaries and athletes from that Broadcaster's country in addition to "Beauty Shots" (scenic shots of landmarks or landscapes that are not covered by the International Feed). However that footage is generally less than 5% of the total footage, the rest of it comes from the International feed. The Host broadcaster will add their own commentary over top the International feed and in some cases their own graphics (or additional graphics specific to that network/broadcaster). The Host Broadcaster originates all the of the TV footage for the Games including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
I worked on the crews of three Olympics (2002, 2004, 2006) with my spouse working for the Host Broadcaster for each of those games.
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Insightful)
Perfectly appropriate considering the kid's city was jut flattened don't you think?
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:5, Funny)
Libya's flag [wikipedia.org] has been upside down every time I've ever seen it - They must be a very distraught country.
Japan [wikipedia.org] seems to be pretty panicky too...
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The definition of ironic (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Only a small part looked simulated (Score:4, Funny)
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Why not ... (Score:4, Insightful)
So what... (Score:5, Funny)
sigh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey captain obvious, I vividly remember the NBC announcer stating they were computer generated as it was happening.
Off your high horse please.
Re:sigh... (Score:5, Insightful)
More importantly, the summary makes it seem like some part of the fireworks were 'faked'.
In fact, what we're talking about is the fireworks view from above. Rather than being a helicopter shot it was CGI matched to the fireworks.
There were still actual fireworks in place, they just did the CGI to give viewers an idea of what the fireworks looked like from different angles.
This is such a non story. The MSM is obviously playing it up because of insufficient olimpic drama but really, does Slashdot have to do the same?
]{
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Yeah, no kidding. (Score:5, Informative)
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.
So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
What's the problem? You want a series of impressive images on your screen. What's the issue with having them in CGI instead of real-life fireworks? The end result is the same. I could get your argument if we were talking about some olympic discipline being duped, with doping, corruption or otherwise, but fireworks are just eye candy. How it gets to your retina is quite irrelevant.
And by the way, doing it in CGI is also more environmentally friendly: compounds used in fireworks are not always of the most benign sort.
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, if the faked images had been associated with real news -- war, human rights, natural disaster, etc. -- then there would be grounds for a scandal. But this? It was a spectacle even without the "digital pyrotechnics."
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Re:So what? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not a just slippery slope argument. NBC News has violated an important rule for any news organization. It knowingly presented falsified images as true.
True, the harm it does to viewers is trivial. The party that is harmed is NBC news. If NBC did not issue a disclaimer while showing the images in question, what it tells us is that NBC News is willing to mislead us if in their opinion the viewers are better off believing the falsehoods.
So, if NBC doesn't subscribe to the theory that fictionalized representations of the facts ought to bear a disclaimer, then we must wonder exactly what they think the boundaries of their license to tinker with reality are.
Naturally, I think this is just a stupid gaffe. But if I were in charge of this particular NBC operation, I'd be issuing an apology and promise not to do it again.
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Re:So what? (Score:4, Informative)
False. As others have pointed out here, the NBC announcer did say just before the "footsteps" video that it was computer enhanced.
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Re:So what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, it's a slippery slope. First they're faking the fireworks, then they're faking the torch run, eventually the gold medal will go with whoever can render the fastest while the athletes relax back at the club.
It seems to me the OP is mad because he feels lied to. He feels they didn't do enough to say that they were creating the spectacle artificially and thus perpetrated a fraud which sets an unpleasant precedent.
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Slippery slope, fallacy or harbinger of doom? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Slippery slope, fallacy or harbinger of doom? (Score:4, Funny)
In other news, last year's Super Bowl was actually two guys playing Madden '08.
Yeah, sorry about the Patriots guys...
My wife wouldn't stop nagging me to "stop playing that stupid game."
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The Olympics are a SHOW (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok? The idea is for the entire world to be entertained at which should be a truce among the nations of the world bringing its best athletes to the tables. Putting on a good show for the olympics is part of the drill.
I'm always looking for a good shot at China but I think this time around we should cut these people a break. They've done a good job with the Olympics so far.
Re:The Olympics are a SHOW (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, didn't work in Georgia, did it?
Look, clearly the modern Olympics is just silly and pretentious. The idea that is some kind of movement that unites humanity in sport is so bizarre it defies belief anybody could seriously pretend it is true. If that's true, why do athletes march, like troops, behind their national flags? Why is the big triumph standing on the podium and having your national anthem played?
The ancient Olympiad didn't have any of these kind of national (or city state) trappings. I'm sure that people had their home town favorites, but athletes traveled under the Olympic truce to compete at the games as individuals.
I think it's great that people look at track and field, archery, judo and badminton etc. every four years. But the shear pretentiousness of the whole enterprise is galling. The drawn out fiasco of the Olympic torch relay was the wages of misty eyed attachment to an absurdity.
It'd all be just as good, or better, without all the ridiculous hype. I think it's bad that it's a show, that it's become bread and circuses doused with saccharine political symbolism, like a political convention where red and white balloons dropping from the ceiling are supposed to mean something.
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NBC Commentator *stated* part simulated (Score:5, Informative)
NBC said it was a "cinematic animation" (Score:5, Informative)
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.
What Lauer and Costas actually said (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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The 1992 torch lighting by flaming arrow was faked (Score:5, Informative)
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 [wikipedia.org]
It goes to credibility... (Score:4, Insightful)
...and eventually, this kind of deficit spending will bankrupt the media.
I do wonder why they keep pushing the edge of the envelope like this, though. The urge to alter reality doesn't really resonate with me. Just show it how it really happened. People are tuning in to experience a real event, not some imagined account of what the fireworks might have looked like.
If things continue to trend this way, the media will eventually find it far easier to simply fabricate all the news. They'd never have to leave the studio, and could script out events over and over until they got just the right shot. I mean seriously, if they're not going to have 100% journalistic integrity, why have any at all?
How about this (Score:5, Funny)
To me, the reasoning behind the faked display is no consolation or excuse
Then next time, Timothy, we'll let you fly the helicopter while fireworks are being shot at it.
Wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
Footprints (Score:5, Insightful)
DoD producing propaganda for foreign (wink) audiences. Good evidence just came out that the White House forged a war-justification document. Stovepiped intelligence. Hush money to truth-tellers. Known-false public WMD claims. "This isn't about intelligence, it's about regime change." "Fuck Saddam, we're taking him out." Facts fixed around the policy. Leaks to "billboard" media to punish truth-tellers' families. Embedded reporters, sent home for publishing actual war photographs. Talking points piped from the White House to the top news corporations, often repeated as directives to the "journalists" who frame each day's news. Seven years of lapdog media pundits laughing along with the right-wingers who call for their assassination while they seriously discuss whether the 60% of Americans who still somehow hold political beliefs at odds with the ruling administration are traitors.
But the fireworks show China is deceptive.
Re:Footprints (Score:4, Insightful)
DoD producing propaganda for foreign (wink) audiences. Good evidence just came out that the White House forged a war-justification document. Stovepiped intelligence. Hush money to truth-tellers. Known-false public WMD claims. "This isn't about intelligence, it's about regime change." "Fuck Saddam, we're taking him out." Facts fixed around the policy. Leaks to "billboard" media to punish truth-tellers' families. Embedded reporters, sent home for publishing actual war photographs. Talking points piped from the White House to the top news corporations, often repeated as directives to the "journalists" who frame each day's news. Seven years of lapdog media pundits laughing along with the right-wingers who call for their assassination while they seriously discuss whether the 60% of Americans who still somehow hold political beliefs at odds with the ruling administration are traitors.
1964, Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident.
1917, First World War: Zimmerman telegram.
1898, Spanish-American War: "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!"
1846, Mexican-American War: The Thornton Affair.
1774: First Continental Congress: Persistent rumors in Philadephia that the British had burned Boston to the ground.
Dude, entering a war under false or misleading pretenses is a proud and patriotic American tradition. Get a grip.
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They did tell you... (Score:4, Informative)
Opening Ceremony On Steroids... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just as long as the ATHLETES are NOT on steroids, and the COMPETITION ITSELF is real... that's all I care about.
So that explains... (Score:5, Funny)
...the coziness between China and Iran. China shares advanced missile technology with Iran who reciprocates with advanced computer-generated rocket-launch capability.
Fake? (Score:4, Funny)
Wah, wah, OMG OMG the fireworks are fake. Cry me a river.
Bad Link (Score:4, Informative)
Not the first Olympic fake-out (Score:4, Funny)
The first Olympic fake-out was back at Olympics 776 BC. In 720 BC it was discovered that olympian Ephorus Pausanias was actually wearing "artistically enhanced" tights.
If Leni Riefenstahl was filimg - (Score:4, Informative)
Two sides of the same coin (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope all you "left-wing liberal freedom fighters" who are infuriated and want "something done" about this dastardly deception and corruption of our human rights recognize the similarities you share with those "right-wing religious zealots" who have the _exact_ same reaction to harmless nudity, language, or sexual situations on television.
And, as it usually the case, the "facts" are completely wrong here as well: the CG simulation WAS disclosed and nobody was "duped". This is just more of the up-in-arms reactionary BS coming from people desperately in need of something to get worked up about.
Maybe if the two sides would see how similar they really are, this kind of idiocy will stop.
But thanks, Slashdot - this is like the third story today that was either deliberately misleading or completely fabricated. Seems like the only people getting "duped" are those who believe Slashdot story summaries.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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
Re:If "it doesn't matter," why not disclose it? (Score:4, Informative)
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