Some of the most spectacular moments of the Olympic Games opening ceremony, which was watched by three billion people, were faked, it has been revealed.
The global television audience watched as a series of giant footprints, lit up by fireworks, proceeded through the night sky from Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest stadium - not realising they were watching a computer-generated animation.
Even the giant television screens within the stadium itself broadcast the fake images.
The fireworks were real outside the stadium, but those shown in the stadium and on television had been filmed months in advance. The last footprint, which was visible from the stands inside the Bird's Nest, was screened in real time.
The dupe was revealed by China's Beijing Times. Speaking to the paper, the man responsible for the animation said he was pleased with the result.
The team even consulted the Beijing meteorological office as it recreated the hazy effect of the city's smog at night, and inserted a slight camera-shake effect to simulate filming from a helicopter. "Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," he said. "But most of the audience thought it was being shown live, so that was mission accomplished."
He said the main problem with trying to shoot the footage live would have been manoeuvring a helicopter to see all 29 footsteps in a row.
One adviser to the Beijing Olympic Committee defended the decision to use the make-believe effects. "It would have been prohibitive to have tried to film it live," he said. "We could not put the helicopter pilot at risk by making him try to follow the firework route." Despite the fakery, the ceremony, featuring 16,000 performers, received rapturous reviews.
