Interpretation of the secrets of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games： Why do you count down with the array？

　　At the fantastic opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, amazing scenes aroused people’s full enthusiasm for exploration. Zhang Yimou, the general director, has become the focus of various media.

　　The array, the "big footprint", the five rings, the painting axis … How are these presented? What are the stories behind it? Under the media’s questioning, these once highly confidential secrets were unveiled one by one.

　　Why use the array to count down?

　　A dazzling skylight activated the ancient sundial in the "Bird’s Nest". The strong light reflection of the sundial ignited the "sundial array" again. With the rhythm of light waves, 2008 strong men dressed in silver waved down … "Knock, knock, knock", and the words 60, 50, 40, 30 and 20 flashed on the glowing surface in the rhythm of rolling thunder. Finally, the countdown to the last 10 seconds flashed dreamily. Fireworks rose and the crowd was excited. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games kicked off with loud drums and loud cheers.

　　Zhang Yimou said that as the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the countdown is very important. He said that the countdown to the previous Olympic Games was basically a way of playing short films and then cooperating with fireworks. "But we want to innovate." So, he moved the performance of striking the scales forward, put a luminous body on the scales, made the sundial activated by the light from outside, and then let the reflected light of the sundial trigger the striking, "conveying a concept of time".

　　It is understood that the success of the array lies not in technology, but in the people who attack it. In 2008, it is very difficult to achieve a very precise degree, uniform movements and organic occlusion of images. In the performance, we can see that the arms of 2008 actors are raised at the same time, and they are all on a horizontal line from any angle.

　　All these participants came from the Beijing Military Region and the Armed Police Corps, and they had a long drill. In order to achieve uniformity, sometimes it is even necessary to pull up the rope along the position where the soldiers raise their arms to determine the height and angle of the arms.

　　The "big footprint" came like this.

　　On the evening of the 8th, an invisible giant strode from Yongding River in the south of Beijing to the Bird’s Nest along the central axis of ancient Beijing, leaving a "big footprint" full of China’s freehand brushwork, which shocked all the audience.

　　Zhang Yimou, the general director, believes that the "big footprint" is one of the biggest highlights of the opening ceremony.

　　Cai Guoqiang, the chief designer of visual arts and fireworks for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games, said that the "Big Footprint" adopted the chamber pressure launching technology, which can adjust the pressure and control the level of fireworks. The "Big Footprint" fireworks came from 15 kilometers away at an accurate pace every two seconds. This process adopted a new technology of digitally controlled ignition, which can control the error to several milliseconds. When the twenty-ninth "footprint" went over the "Bird’s Nest", there was no time error.

　　Wang Ning, director of the Beijing Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies Operation Center, said that the "big footprint" is the most complete idea from the beginning to the end, but the number of footprints has changed.

　　29 "footprints", representing the history of the 29th Olympic Games, came to Beijing and the "Bird’s Nest" step by step.

　　How the Olympic rings rise like a dream

　　When the "big footprint" bloomed over the "Bird’s Nest", countless little stars floated lightly into the "Bird’s Nest" in the sky. With the little stars falling, several "flying stars" fell from the sky, and the "little stars" falling on the field miraculously gradually gathered together and became the silver Olympic rings.

　　The most surprising thing is that the "flying sky" floating down from the sky actually lifted the Olympic rings slowly from the ground, making them magically suspended in front of more than 100,000 live audiences. Then, the Olympic rings gradually disappeared in the night sky, like ice melting in water.

　　It is understood that in order to present this magical effect, technicians first made a giant net made of steel wires, and then welded more than 45,000 light-emitting diodes on the steel wire net according to the layout of the five rings. When these lights emit white light, they present the dazzling five rings that the audience saw.

　　And this net was placed in the middle of the field in advance. When the program started, all the lights were dimmed. With the music playing, the giant display screen in the center of the stage slowly showed the pattern of the Olympic rings, which completely coincided with the pattern of the five rings on the wire net. Then, the steel wire slowly pulled up the steel wire net with the music, and the light-emitting diodes on the net also lit up. At the same time, the five-ring pattern on the display screen disappeared, so it seemed that the Olympic rings were magically lifted from the ground into the air.

　　How does the huge scroll unfold?

　　When the huge scroll on the ground slowly unfolded, the audience was shocked. "The legacy of ancient times", four great inventions, Chinese characters, traditional operas, the Silk Road and the Great Wall are magically displayed on this huge scroll in turn.

　　Zhang Yimou introduced that this huge scroll is actually a huge LED screen with a length of 147 meters and a width of 27 meters. The reason why this scroll is adopted is because "we especially want to find a cultural symbol of China, and everyone likes the freehand brushwork and romance of China traditional Chinese painting. We want to magically open the picture scroll on the venue, crystal clear and beautiful. "

　　He said that the unfolding of the scroll is relatively simple, that is, when it is shown on the big screen on the ground, it is shown in sections bit by bit, and the two scrolls are engaged with it and rotate, and after close cooperation, the scene of opening the scroll is formed.

　　He said, compared with technology, it is more difficult to choose the content on the scroll, because China has a long cultural origin of 5,000 years, which is very important. "Our team set a purpose and chose the most representative one. For example, China’s four great inventions and the Silk Road. "

　　Why didn’t you choose Feng Haichao for ignition?

　　The most striking ignition ceremony began. When Sun Jinfang lit the torch in Li Ning’s hand, Li Ning raised the torch and flew into the sky under the traction of steel cables. In this way, Li Ning led hundreds of millions of people to run, until the main torch was finally lit, and the atmosphere at the scene was burned to boiling point.

　　Lighting the main torch is the biggest suspense in the opening ceremonies of previous Olympic Games. Zhang Yimou said that the way to light the main torch is the most important issue for his team.

　　Among them, there is a phoenix ignition. Zhang Yimou said that this ignition method was once the focus of their discussion, but the International Olympic Committee stipulated that the final ignition must be done by athletes. "If we are the Phoenix, the Phoenix will be the eighth best.".

　　He revealed that in addition to Li Ning, the candidates also included Xu Haifeng and Xiong Ni, "Li Ning has done a very good job".

　　How to choose Milk Lin and Lin Hao?

　　At the opening ceremony, a lovely girl in a red skirt "sang the motherland" with a tender voice, which attracted people’s attention. Who is this little girl? How was she chosen?

　　Zhang Yimou said that the little girl’s name is Milk Lin. "Because of this link, we found children from 56 ethnic groups across the country to escort the national flag to rise. According to the characteristics of Milk Lin, our music director specially produced a lyrical version of "Singing the Motherland", which is different from what you usually hear, very lyrical and beautiful. He said that every rehearsal, he listened to Milk Lin sing "Singing the Motherland" and was sincerely moved by it.

　　Like Milk Lin, people are curious about the little boy around Yao Ming, the standard-bearer. Zhang Yimou revealed that the little boy’s name is Lin Hao, and he comes from the Sichuan earthquake-stricken area.

　　Zhang Yimou said that after the Sichuan earthquake, all members of the opening ceremony team felt that earthquake relief should be used in the opening ceremony. "Lin Hao was recommended locally in Sichuan. At that time, several little heroes were recommended. We chose him because he was very small and cute. We think it’s very interesting that he, a little guy, is with Yao Ming, a big guy, and he is a giant with our future. ". (Reporter Ye Tieqiao)

Editor: Li Dan