Courtesy of NBC.com
Our Olympic Spirit Crushed: The Firework Footprints Were Fake
Say it ain’t so, Zhang! It turns out that the very beginning of the Beijing opening ceremony we loved so much — the 29 firework footprints that stepped across the city, finally landing at the Bird’s Nest stadium — were in fact a painstakingly created CGI image. Actual footprint-shaped fireworks were shot off — captured in this video, for example — but for the broadcast, the ceremony’s organizers decided it would be too hard to capture the entire scene, so they faked it, complete with fake Beijing smog and fake helicopter-induced camera shaking. We’re crushed! Look for news later today that Michael Phelps is a robot and beach volleyball players are actually not that hot.
Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints ‘faked’ [Telegraph via Fanhouse]
Earlier: Did the Beijing Opening Ceremony Finally Make Opening Ceremonies Cool Again?