I tried to verify whether the "giant's footprint" by the fireworks of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games was really CG

According to the report of Kyodo newsletter, the footprint of the giants drawn with fireworks, which was very impressive at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, is approaching the national stadium (so-called bird's nest) is not live broadcasting,Except the fireworks which were launched last in the sky above the "bird's nest", the rest are special imagesIt was said that it was.

So, I tried to verify whether it was really CG. Verification results are as follows.
First of all, Kyodo newsletter made the source in the English newspaper "Daily Telegraph". The following is the article.

Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints 'faked' - Telegraph

According to this article, the original source is China's local paper "Beijing Times". When reading an article by the Kyodo newsletter, all but the fireworks launched at the end are CG, but according to the Daily Telegraph, "Fireworks were actually launched". However, as it was impossible to photograph all 29 footprints from the helicopter, it seems to be said that only the last fireworks were photographed from the "bird's nest" and broadcast live.

For that reason, YouTube has uploaded a movie taken from the ground that the giant's footprint fireworks that were actually being launched on the ground have been uploaded and released.

YouTube - Olympic footprints


Another problem will be live broadcast of the opening ceremony of NHK. During live broadcasting, you can see "LIVEIs it displayed as "LIVE" although it is not a live broadcast? It will be.

So, since I was recording all the opening ceremony at GIGAZINE Editorial Department, I tried to verify the movie I was recording. Below is the scene cut out for verification, which was all live at that time in NHK at that time.

In these scenes "LIVE" is on the upper right.



But in these scenes there is no indication of "LIVE"!



When returning to "bird's nest" again "LIVE" indication is restored.


The following is a movie for verification. Once "LIVE" indication has disappeared in 39 seconds, "LIVE" display is coming back again when it comes to images from "bird's nest" per 58 seconds.


However, according to the Daily Telegraph, Gao Xiaolong, the top of the VFX team who creates the opening ceremony video, said that he created a 55-second sequence over a year, so most of the NHK's movies It seems that the possibility that it is not "LIVE" is higher.

In addition, taking this atmosphere into consideration of Beijing's atmospheric condition, I made a slightly dull air feeling, and furthermore I shot the camera shake to make it look like shooting from a helicopter. There are two reasons for making with CG, one is that it is too difficult to photograph all footprints from the helicopter, and the other is that the pilot of the helicopter is dangerous (there is a possibility that the fireworks may collide) It is said that.