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Beijing opening ceremony leaked
The secret's out about next week's Beijing Olympics opening ceremony: be ready for a dramatic countdown, giant whales, an illuminated globe and performers flying above the heads of the audience.
- AP
- Published: 00:04 August 1, 2008
Beijing: The secret's out about next week's Beijing Olympics opening ceremony: be ready for a dramatic countdown, giant whales, an illuminated globe and performers flying above the heads of the audience.
A South Korean television crew filmed a rehearsal of the show earlier this week at the Bird's Nest national stadium, leaking the first video of a show so closely guarded that practice sessions have been protected by three rings of checkpoints. Cast and crew were required to sign confidentiality agreements.
A Beijing Olympics official said yesterday the report by South Korean broadcaster SBS, which was circulated online, was "disappointing". Sun Weide, spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organising committee, would not say whether SBS would be punished, only that officials were "checking into the situation". "But the fragments cannot demonstrate the full picture of the spectacular opening ceremony," Sun said in a statement.
There were no great surprises from the footage shot in the darkened stadium, though it gave a glimpse of the lavishness of the 3-hour ceremony next Friday which is expected to have a cast of 10,000.
China's famed film director, Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, House of Flying Daggers), spent the past three years designing the spectacle, trying to boil 5,000 years of Chinese history into a 50-minute show.
The leaked rehearsal footage showed undulating white columns apparently simulating a waterfall, and giant blue whales projected onto the roof. The video showed a giant blue-and-green illuminated globe on the floor of the stadium at one point.
Dancers twirled ribbons, there were dozens of drummers, martial arts experts, and several colourfully dressed performers suspended by wires and floating above the audience.
One segment featured a half-dozen actors on a raised platform surrounded by hundreds of performers, while cymbals clanged noisily in the tradition of Beijing opera.
Count down
The most impressive part of the show is a count down accompanied by drums, the SBS report said. Footage showed rows of hundreds of people, flashing cards to form the number two, then one, while they chanted in Chinese and strobe lights flashed.
An SBS crew filmed the rehearsal without having to sneak in, a network official said. SBS, one of South Korea's major TV networks, shares Olympic broadcasting rights in Korea with two other networks.
"Nobody stopped us when we entered the main stadium on Monday. Chinese officials let us in after we showed our ID cards and we shot the rehearsal," the official from SBS said. He asked not to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media.
SBS spokesman Park Jae-man said it was regrettable if Beijing Olympics organisers felt offended by the broadcast.
"The purpose of the broadcast was aimed at heightening enthusiasm toward the Beijing Olympics by showing South Korean viewers the magnificence of the opening ceremony, there was no other intention," Park said.
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