Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Chinese Spin Cycle

Been enjoying the Olympics? Join the crowd -- 30 million viewers alone last night, an absolutely huge number for a summer Tuesday night. Michael Phelps may be making news on the sports pages but it's what the Chinese now admit they did to kick off the world's biggest dance party that really has people talking.

Turns out last Friday night had some Fake. Actually, quite a bit of Fake, and not just where you may have thought.

The trades are alive with the story of how the fireworks really weren't the fireworks people on the ground were watching, thanks largely to digital re-creation. Variety has an excellent rundown on the video magic behind making the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics look too good to be true. Here's what it looked like to people who were really there:




It turns out the world's most populous nation also took liberties in faking a little girl's singing of their national anthem.

She sure was cute and what a voice, but one problem: her cute, not her voice. Lip-synching is really nothing new and who can blame organizers for wanting the best performance possible for a worldwide audience. Who wants Roseanne singing the National Anthem here live? Beijing took it a step past forgetting words or going off-key...they used the better voice over what the Communist state decided was a better face. Even the seven-year old's father was surprised, he says, to see his daughter singing but hearing a different voice.

Ah, no matter. It's television, right?

1 comment:

  1. Holy Milli Vanilli! Lip synching on televsion! Whoda thunk it1

    Isn't it ironic that the country that invented fireworks had fake fireworks?

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