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Monday, August 11, 2008

Those Footprint Fireworks? Faked.

posted by on August 11 at 11:55 AM

I’m probably not supposed to be stodgy about truthiness in the year 2008 at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in a totalitarian country. But this story, posted by MSNBC.com about an hour ago, still creeps me out.

Basically, the footprint fireworks—the ones that made it look like giant feet were walking across the city toward the Olympic Stadium, taped by someone in a helicopter—never happened. They existed only digitally, created in 3-D computer graphics.

Even the people inside the stadium thought they were real—because they watched the same fake footage that we did. Outside the stadium, people on the ground watching the broadcast and simultaneously looking into the sky might have wondered why they didn’t see any feet overhead, but they also might just as easily have thought they simply couldn’t see them.

It was a universal hoax.

There were some real fireworks going on outside the stadium. But the footprint display was “inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment,” the Daily Telegraph said.

“Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible,” the newspaper [Britain’s Sky News] reported Xiaolong [Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony] as saying. “They sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing’s smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter.”

“Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks,” Xiaolong said in comments that appeared in the Daily Telegraph. “But most of the audience thought it was filmed live — so that was mission accomplished.”

The footprints and the boxes were my favorite parts, and now we know that both had trick reversals: The boxes looked digitally controlled, but were made by humans simply standing up and sitting down underneath them. (They revealed themselves at the end in a way that made my friends and I think of the soylent green reveal.) The footprints looked human—even going so far as to imitate a human body part moving across the land—but they were nothing but pixels.

oly12.jpg

RSS icon Comments

1

The footprints were still pretty cool, even if faked. Think of them as a David Sedaris story.

Posted by seattle mike | August 11, 2008 12:11 PM
2

did they at some point claim this was a "real" effect?

i thought the NBC announcer even said "this is a visual effect..."

i think the other parts creeped me out a little more. when they all jumped out of the boxes, i was ready for them to be waving walmart t-shirts and nike sneakers before running for the exits to escape their sweat-boxes.

Posted by chops | August 11, 2008 12:21 PM
3

Bummer.

Posted by Balt-O-Matt | August 11, 2008 12:21 PM
4

This is a perfect metaphor for, um... something probably. Are people watching the Olympics?

Posted by Dougsf | August 11, 2008 12:29 PM
5

chops: Did you read the story? Of course they claimed it was real. No, nobody made any reference to it as a "visual effect."

Posted by Jen Graves | August 11, 2008 12:40 PM
6

Actually, Ms Graves, Chops @ 2 is right. Matt Lauer admitted during NBC's broadcast that "this is a bit of a cheat" (exact words may be different) - acknowledging that the city flyover highlighting the effects was metaphorical.

Posted by ReverendZ | August 11, 2008 12:49 PM
7
Posted by meggers | August 11, 2008 12:49 PM
8

That's, "were real."

Posted by meggers | August 11, 2008 12:50 PM
9

yeah, jen. i followed your link, read the story, and then played the video where the announcers states that it's an "effect."

i will admit, however, that it's unclear if the adjacent video w/announcer was the live broadcast, but it appears it is. so it looks like some folks were in the know, while perhaps others were not.

Posted by chops | August 11, 2008 1:11 PM
10

Ah... No. Jen. Chops & ReverendZ are correct. Go back and check the tape.

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me | August 11, 2008 1:13 PM
11

all right. last post about this and i'm willing to eat crow on it.

matt lauer says "you're looking at a cinematic device...virtual animation..."

i took that to be referring to the CGI.

but i see that he could be simply referring to the "animation" of the footsteps towards the stadium even as fireworks, the cinematic device being the sybolism of the two-dozen-plus games, etc.

knowing the trickery and looking back, the comment took on new meaning.

anyway. nice feet.

Posted by chops | August 11, 2008 1:20 PM
12

In Torino, Luciano Pavarotti turned out to be lip-synching, but any hack producing a superbowl halftime show or Macy's parade can accomplish that.

Beijing has even raised the bar for fakery.

Posted by Joe M | August 11, 2008 1:29 PM
13

I feel cheated.

Good thing I watched Juno at SLU Cinema on the Lawn instead.

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 11, 2008 1:33 PM
14

Yeah, I don't think "faked" is the word we're looking for here. Do these same people complain that their TV shows are "faked" because Stephen Colbert isn't actually in their living room?

Posted by Fnarf | August 11, 2008 1:38 PM
15

I have to admit, you guys had me thinking I was crazy. I'm relieved I wasn't.

I *do* actually think "faked" is the word, Fnarf. There were no fireworks. Ever. At all. It's as though Stephen Colbert didn't exist, not as if he didn't show up in your living room. (Unless I've gotten something wrong, which I hope I haven't, about the fact that there were no fireworks ever, at all--and if I have, we will have to adjust our metaphors accordingly.)

Posted by Jen Graves | August 11, 2008 1:48 PM
16

@14 isn't there a difference? fireworks are impressive mostly because they are really happening. how'd they get footprints like that?!?!

then again, i don't really like fireworks.

Posted by infrequent | August 11, 2008 1:52 PM
17

Just one more thing, for the record. Part of the reason MSNBC was on this story so fast was that NBC itself had been tricked. (Matt Lauer, in other words.) I remember now the comment you're talking about, but yeah, it was in reference to Zhang Yimou's usual profession, as a film director.

Phew. Glad we got that settled.

Posted by Jen Graves | August 11, 2008 1:52 PM
18

So, does this mean the explosions in Georgia are fake as well?

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 11, 2008 2:06 PM
19

those weren't footprints. they were south americas and africas.

Posted by krab apple | August 11, 2008 3:18 PM
20

They didn't look real from where I was sitting anyway.

Posted by Andy | August 11, 2008 5:31 PM
21

I think the boxes, when revealed to be people, enhanced the amazement I felt rather than detracted from it.
I don't feel the same way about the footprints, though.

Posted by eustaceia | August 11, 2008 8:39 PM
22

The fireworks did go off. This was taken from Tiananmen:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=wbZrI8onelg

The TV footage was faked, however, as they felt that there was too much that could go wrong with live shooting.

Posted by samu | August 12, 2008 7:09 AM
23

Please read the news story carefully. The footprint fireworks did go off, but the one displayed on TV was CGI. You're not gonna fool a city of 15 million people that footprint fireworks were set off across the city. Regardless, I think it was because the Chinese cared too much about the image and it backfired.

Posted by Jake | August 13, 2008 2:10 PM

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