Monday, August 11, 2008

Too Good To Be True

Hantu Laut

WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get in computer jargon. In nanotechnology there is WYSINWYG - What You See Is Not What You Get. In the Beijing Olympic there is WYSINL -What You See Is Not Real.

Is it Western bias ? I bet the next Olympic opening ceremony in London wouldn't be as grand.The English is rich but think like a pauper.

Who cares? I was well entertained and most impressed.

By Chris Chase
Some Opening Ceremony fireworks were faked

If you watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, chances are you said something like, "no way that's possible" at least once. It turns out you were right.

London's Telegraph newspaper reports that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. But -- hold on -- it's not necessarily as bad as you think.

The faked fireworks were actually set-off at the stadium, but because of potential dangers in filming the display live from a helicopter, viewers at home were shown a pre-recorded, computer-generated shot. It sounds dishonest, but I'm not sure it's such a terrible thing.

The Opening Ceremony is, at its core, just one big performance. And isn't it accepted that some things might not be legit at a performance? The final torch bearer wasn't actually running around the top of the stadium, does the fact that everyone could figure that out make it any less? It might have been unnecessarily deceptive, but the firework-faking isn't that big of a deal. But, if I found out that the lighted-drum thing wasn't on the up and up, then we'll have problems, China.

Source:Yahoo News

5 comments:

Monsterball said...

Hahaha...I buy all kinds of cheap, imitation or no-brand stuff Made In China.

Usually its not a problem, because I know what I'm getting into. Especially nowadays, there are everyday things which I just want to buy at minimum cost, quality not an issue.

But it IS an issue if they try to pass it off as genuine high-quality stuff...which is why this semi-fake Olympics TV telecast is going to hurt China's image.

Anonymous said...

Who cares real or fake ? It looks so real...good alsolah, have to fake it lah, Beijing is very polluted ma. good move by china govt.

gram.kong said...

Agreed, it's a fantastic performance, a little fake here and there,Hollywood style. OK lah!

No big deal.I think it's still the best so far.

Anonymous said...

remember the 1984 los angeles olympics where an archer shot a burning arrow to light the olympic flame? that arrow never "lit" the olympic flame but the angle of the cameras gave the illusion that it did. hollywood ma, a bit of showmanship adds to the overall spectacle. so dont be so quick to judge the chinese

Anonymous said...

The man, the arrow and the shot was real only the lighting of the flame was staged. What do you expect from the land of Terminator. But pyrotechnics which only exist in a computer is too much. Computer enhancements of the real thing are like fake tits. Nice to see but feels like shit. The Chinese need not bring the Olympics to the depths of a Hollywood production. At best the fake pyrotechnics were tacky. At worst the Chinese showed the world they are only good at faking things. Very much like the ladys of Shenzhen who look good makes you feel good but they are just faking their entire relationship with you. I have seen them at work and they are really good. Personally though I was never interested in those Shenzhen courtesans.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was supposed to showcase the rise of China to the world. In that the China today is the expression of Chinese or even Asian values. If faking the pyrotechnics at the 2008 Beijing games is a small matter then Chinese/Asian values are no better than the Western values which so many blame for the decadence of the West. This hantu laut is the real issue at hand.