China Has The Look Of A Paper Champion

Did you watching the opening ceremonies? Did you know that every time you ooh'ed and aah'ed, a minority was beat up somewhere in China? Expect big things out of the Chinese in synchronized monk beating.

You weren't the only one impressed by the scale of the opening ceremonies. The media called it the greatest opening ceremony ever. One problem. It was fake. Those giant footprints in the sky? CGI "meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment".

Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence. Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible: 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," he said. "But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished."

Gotcha, roundeye.


Via The Telegraph