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SHIFT: What we can learn from China's fake Olympic fireworks (hint: it's not what you think)
When we reported last week about how high-tech this year's Olympic broadcasting would be, we didn't imagine that a Chinese newspaper would uncover the fact that some of the fireworks in the opening ceremonies were actually CGI animation. A series of 29 footprint-shaped fireworks really did "march" across Beijing last Friday night (which I wrote about for Popular Mechanics' website), but the television audience only saw a few of them. Instead, they watched 55 seconds of a prerecorded rendering of what the fireworks "would have looked like" if a helicopter had been following them across the sky filming them on a clear night.
NBC commentators indicated that there was something "cinematic" about the fireworks, without coming out and saying that the home audience might has well have been watching Gandalf's fireworks in The Lord of the Rings, since both sequences were probably prepared in similar ways. Millions of people around the world watched the coverage in "real" time, without that commentary.
We love CGI, though not necessarily in a presentation narrated by news anchors. Of course, after the truth about the fireworks footage came out, we learned that one of the cute little singers in the opening ceremonies was lip-syncing the voice of a less attractive little girl. Soon we'll probably discover that the impressive Bird's Nest stadium is three feet high and being filmed on a sound stage in Taiwan. Or will we? Click Continue to read why the faked firework footage matters, and more importantly, why it doesn't.
Nationalism's Equivalent of Doping
China knew that without CGI footage, the footprint fireworks it was planning wouldn't look nearly as good. The planners could have done a few things: scrap the footprint plan altogether because it would be a logistical nightmare to film, or stage the footprints for the live audience in China without worrying about what they would look like on TV. Instead of taking either of these routes, the planners decided to cheat.
I believe that a similar train of thought goes through athletes' heads when they decide to use drugs ("I could decide not to compete because I'm not really good enough," or "I could try really, really hard knowing that there's a good chance I could lose without doping"). Cheating is the third choice that many take when faced with two unappealing possibilities, and it happens often, whether we're talking about memoirs that are full of lies or the four athletes booted from this year's Tour de France.
China is trying to show its best possible face to the world this summer. Some of what it's done (amazing architecture, cleaning up the city's air) has been fantastic, while in other areas the country has cut corners (besides the fireworks, did anybody really believe that all of the female Chinese gymnasts were over 16?). The problem is that the attempts to mislead international viewers undercut all of the legitimate efforts that the country has made. Just as a few dopers can bring down the reputation of an entire sport, China's use of CGI undermines a legitimately impressive spectacle.
Discouraging Future Fakers
Some might argue that the revelation that CGI was inserted seamlessly into TV footage viewed around the world opens doors for conspiracy theorists. Will anyone ever be able to believe television again? If this CGI fakery is possible, why believe in any televised fireworks? Why, for that matter, should we believe that NASA sent men to the moon?
Anything can be faked in photos and on film now. The evidence that realistic trickery is possible is in pretty much every blockbuster movie from the past decade. The evidence that governments try to convince others with faked images is also rampant, with Iran's notorious missile-test Photoshopping being Exhibit A.
But even if you can't be sure that what you're seeing is true in the moment you're watching it, the recent Chinese debacles show that however well faked the presentation, the truth will come out. In the case of the fireworks, the programmer behind them spoke to the press because he was proud of his work. After all, no one noticed! It was great animation that took nearly a year to perfect. And this happened under an authoritarian government — he may even face consequences for speaking out. If that sort of secret can't be kept in China, where almost anything can be classified as a state secret, can you imagine anyone keeping a secret about faked footage in the U.S.?
You Can't Fool Some People All the Time
Though the technology for creating fake television footage gets better all the time, the means for detecting it have gotten better as well. If the Beijing Times hadn't broken the footprint firework story, somebody else would have, probably within days of the event. China spent millions of dollars on its Olympic opening ceremony. The people behind it must be disappointed that its presentation is now embroiled in petty controversies, thought they brought it on themselves by trying to deliberately mislead people. If there were any plans to do something similar for the closing ceremonies, you can bet the CGI footage is now on the cutting-room floor.
By Anonymous at 2:24 AM ON 08/15/08
i think the whole games is a scam...
like it was suposed to be the 1st "geen" olymppick ...
that's nonsence , and everything points to that...
to begin , to cary a flame round the world just for some symbolic reason , not thinking about the co2 it put extra in the air to do so...
and flying in al those people from round the world , to using exesive materials to make buildings just to make a statemant....
to using al that energie to advertize and brodcast the pix around the world...
let alone not counting for the amout of energie it takes to extrakt the materials , and form them into usles medals...
this al to just inforce envy on your pears
so insted of binging people together you end up creating devides , wich in the end can lead to war.
you could infenantly go on and on...
if the olympiks would be "green" we would have no olympiks !!!
the nearest you could get is to uses existing acomodation and venues where past games took place... and even then limit the contenders to ones from the same continent and ban flieng and use trains etc....
in the end the whole olympicks is just 1 big lie , not only this 1....
it's just 1 big mindfuck that the romans invented...
food and games make the "symple" folk forget the more urgent things in life and make it more easy to manipulate ....
it's for this reason i dont like and discourage it
By arkwright at 4:28 AM ON 08/15/08
whilst I agree with the major point of the above poster inasmuchas the modern olympic games are just a spin contest. I believe that politics ( and not necessarily politicians) should have more to say in where the games are held. Especially with countries like China, given their continued human rights abuses etc.
BTW....the olympic games originated in Greece.....they weren't invented by the Romans.....completely different civilisation!
By RG at 6:43 AM ON 08/15/08
I disagree in that politics should be taken into account for the Olympics. This competition is about sport not politics.
Furthermore the Chinese would not stop their abuse of human rights if they didn't get the Olympics.
By emockler at 8:44 AM ON 08/15/08
Woody Allen thought the first girl was cute enough
By Anonymous at 10:03 AM ON 08/15/08
arkwright
yes i know they did , but they did introduce the food and games idea to keep people amused...
and if people areamused you wo'nt get an uprivaal.
By Jeff from Craziest Gadgets at 2:30 PM ON 08/15/08
would it have been any better had they spliced in footage of a taped test run of the fireworks? or had they somehow disclosed on-air that it was cgi?
By Bio at 6:25 PM ON 08/15/08
Disagree with RG; it's always been about politics. It's a symbol of world peace, whether there is any or not. That, itself, is political
By Anonymous at 10:11 AM ON 08/16/08
Didn't they have the Olympics in Berlin, With Hitler in attendance? Didn't seem to bother them then. Also didn't we boycott the Moscow Olympics which were held anyway and Russia cleaned up in gold medals?
By B at 10:28 AM ON 08/16/08
I think if you wish to post on this site the first thing to do is use spell check and be sure your statement sounds intelligent enough to post.
The opening ceremonies were spectacular. With or without the fireworks. What bothers me the most is they felt that adorable child that ACTUALLY sang wasn't worthy enough to represent the "face" of their country. Needing orthodontics or not, the child was adorable.
Having "politics" involved undermines the whole meaning of the games....whether a nation decides to boycott because of their political views is an entirely different thing.
By Bio at 9:00 PM ON 08/16/08
Do you people know what politics is? Goodness...
By Wolfofthenight at 8:53 AM ON 08/17/08
Politics
Poli- tics
Poli- many (latin)
Ticks- blood sucking creatures
politics- many blood sucking creatures.
By Zhang at 10:26 AM ON 08/17/08
The point is, the government used this as a display of the "new face of the country", yet unfortunately, they used some fake images to do it. This is saddening more in the symbolic sense, the government was taking so much pain to paint a more or less fake face of China. If they have accomplishments to show, why not just be truthful???
It is the fact that faking and covering up are typical practices of that government that made these revelations more newsworthy. Yes, it cheats, by showing a false image. It always does! Trying to fool the unsuspected and trustful eyes. That's what's outrageous!
By lil at 11:05 AM ON 08/18/08
Haters..... as usual.
By tithe at 2:31 PM ON 08/18/08
The whole point of the Olympics is to have the world come together in peace and harmony to celebrate the simple pleasures of Life; food, games, company, winning, losing, competition, entertainment, amusement... etc. etc. It pains me greatly that people would bother with arguing over politics and picking a petty conspiracies and controversies to ruin this experience. China worked very hard to make it an unforgettable experience and all these verbal war fares are ruining it. Just take it at face value and enjoy it as is.
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Did the actual singing little girl *want* to be up there in front of millions? Maybe she backed out herself. Heck, I know I wouldn't want to do it o.O
By John at 9:57 AM ON 08/19/08
Uh. Cows and factories and constant airplanes across our skies and you are worried about the co2 from the Olympic torch?
Jesus Christ. This whole spin of "deal with the tiny consumer issues and ignore the corporates" is the most successful I've ever seen. It's just astounding.
By Sheila at 3:35 AM ON 08/25/08
I recently heard a report that China spent around $40 billion on the Olympics. Most of the population there is very poor with little housing (saw report of 7 adults living & sleeping in an open 15x15(maybe) room & they thought that was good + much better than others) & food (bugs, rodents, cats & dogs are a big part of their food supply... do you really think the people that run the country eat these things!?). It's really sad to see so much money spent on trying to camouflage their country & to try to trick people into thinking it's so much better. I feel embarrassed for them & I really hope England keeps the Olympics more organic!!! Oh, and I think I completely forgot that this was supposed to be a "green" Olympics. Are you kidding me... everything there was just built/brand new!! I can't even imagine how much waste pollution, energy used/wasted etc. this caused. How can they call it green???
I'm sure 90% of their gymnasts are under the age of 13 & again "camouflage to make them look better". Those girl weighed around 90pds & were tiny! !! That is so unfair, of course they would win the gold. Their bodies can do anything... their smaller, weigh less, more flexible etc. etc.! There were plenty of published articles on a lot of them from the past few years that said their real ages. I'm guessing they weren't planning on putting them in the 2004 Olympics at the time. A lot of these articles were even on the web, but when people started questioning ages, the government shut the sites down & hid the evidence. Thats just soooooo unfair & pure rubbish! I really hope that some way/how the truth is found & documented & their medals are taken away!!!
On a positive side... it was really nice to see how gracious & supportive most Olympians were to their competitors. I saw a lot of genuine hugs, hand shakes & pats on the back + other acts of kindness. That was really some of the best parts of the whole Olympics for me :).
By Google at 8:38 PM ON 09/24/08
To commenter above:
So China is suppose to make the Olympics look like crap in order to promote the 'green' Olympics. Yes, that makes a whole lot of sense. You people, I swear, like to complain about every single little thing. China can't satisfy everyone, but I tell you what: it's not considered the most spectacular Olympics in history without a price. If China had made a shittier counterpart to this spectacular one, you people would just make nastier comments and pass judgment on them. There's just no satisfying you.
Seriously, I'm glad that they proved they can come this far in the world. This is a huge step towards progress. At least now they know that world opinion about them is important, and they're doing what they can to ensure the world views them amicably. If rest of society is angry at them for abusing human rights, I'm sure they will try to improve it eventually. Seriously, you're expecting a country that progressed this far within a decade to suddenly change their attitude towards how they normally treat each other. Objectively, they may have advanced. Technology, production, quality of life, etc. But subjectively, they are still living with the mindset as that of the past decade, because they had not interacted with the rest of the world to know any better.
Now, it's a different story. Yes, people, put on the insults more and more, so that one day, maybe they will become so much better, they will be the ones insulting you back (just returning the favor, right?)
Not like they haven't already done so. Look how they mocked U.S.'s economy management just last month. Americans are better off managing their own crisis.
Bottom point: don't be a hypocrite. Before you judge others, judge yourself first. I bet Sheila's country has her own problems as well. Instead of chastising what China has not done right, focus more on what your country is doing wrong. Only by self-reflection can we see improvement.
By Google at 8:45 PM ON 09/24/08
Oh, and don't try to say that Chinese people don't know how to self-reflect. Who were the ones that exposed this scandal? Not you viewers, no. It was actually the Chinese revealing their own secrets. They know the amount of hypocrisy the government has, and they're willing to expose it. Their gov't is like a parent. If their parent is doing something wrong, you can sure bet that their kids won't standby and do nothing. They will expose as much about it as possible, but at the same time, they will forgive them if they change. It's a very patriotic country, if you can't already tell. How many people in their own country treat their own mother country with so much reverence and love? I doubt many do.
By Murphious at 7:52 PM ON 09/26/08
The sports"person"ship is what the Olympics is supposed to be about. Some in the media and in other groups, love to bring up the down-side about everything. The great idea of getting along for a few days in a sport competition and not killing each other should be embraced. I think China did a fine job with security, after all they ARE a police state? So what if China put on heavy make-up while it paraded in front of the rest of the world----we all know they didn't become a different country, they just put forward a new face. And as for Olympic cheating, if found out, strip them of the medals. But don't condemn the entire enterprise.
(to dvice editors, your anti-spam characters test is terrible, make it easier to read, too much back ground scratches can affect what letters look like...)
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Murphious:
The sports"person"ship is what the Olympics is supposed to be about. Some in the media and in other groups, love to...More »