Press conference: Opening Ceremony operation for 2008 Paralympic Games

Qingdao News

I would like to ask a follow up question. When he was climbing up, there was no upward power. What is the exact height? He has to do that all by himself.

Zhang Yimou

The exact height from the ground to the top is about 30 meters, less than 40 meters, 39 meters around that range. We can not count on himself 100%. Actually there is a room for wheels in order to reduce the strength. But he has to rely on himself mainly. The exact height of the cauldron is 3 meters so meters has been saved.

Zhang Jigang

We can't let the athletes reach the height of where you light it. There are several sets of wheels in order to save the energy of the athlete.

People.com.cn

Mr Zhang Heping said about a 2 minutes event. Can you elaborate on that when the equipment can't reach that including President of IPC said something in Chinese?

Zhang Yimou

During the count period we used the traditional way of making a short video commercial. But later on we thought of doing it in another way. We do that countdown together at the Tiananmen Square because it shows the journey in time and in space. This will be very interesting. What you show is that in Tiananmen Square there will be fireworks shown five times showing people coming from 5 continents. You see 5 children of different colors coming from 5 continent, they opened something to show the countdown, 60 seconds, 50 seconds and so on. We did that today. Last night we showed the 5 kids to the Tiananmen Square but we were surrounded by a lot of people so we did that very roughly.

This afternoon at 6 o'clock, the 5 kids went to the spot and they have never practiced because so many people are around us so we have to stop that. So you can see that some of the video clips in the Tian'anmen Square. In the last 10 seconds, you can see the scenes in the 'Bird's Nest'. You see the fireworks. After that we took you back to the Tian'anmen Square. The kids opened the pictures with 5 pigeons symbolizing peace. Then we used fireworks to give a display of pigeons in the sky. They have never tried that. It is a temporary designed idea. Then we finished the countdown with a lot of video clips.

Zhang Jigang

Yesterday after around 3 or 4 o'clock, we finally decided about the 5 kids in Beijing. The books held by the children were prepared at 5 o'clock.

Zhang Yimou

No. Yesterday, I saw the lightings are not very good. Today at noontime, we changed the background of their books to red.

NHK

I would like to ask a question for Mr. Zhang Heping. In the Opening Ceremony, when the representative went to the stadium, somebody all of the sudden, rushed in and he was arrested or held. Please elaborate on this?

Zhang Heping

I would like to say, I am responsible for performance and ceremony. The situation that occurred on the spot is not so clear to me. Maybe Wang Hui could speak on that.

Wang Hui

As you have said, when the parade took place there was a women spectator went into the stadium. She wanted to take off her shirt. The staff tried to persuade her not to do that. Later investigation find out she is from Guang Dong Province, she is a person with mental problem. This is a personal behavior which is not so in complies with the situation. Thank you.

Shanghai TV

I would like to ask the director the design of the spring summer autumn and winter is very good. But would you please share with us how do you use the big books?

Zhang Jigang

The four seasons shows you the journey in time. One of the design we want to decline is that we don't want to use the clock. The sunrise and sunset is also different for us to express journey and time. So we think of four seasons. But we believe it is not so enough for express four seasons. That is why we thought of a pianist Jin Yuanhui to play Chopin's piano pieces. At the same time, there was an old lady, which is a famous actress, Tian Hua sitting beside him. A young man, who is blind playing piano with old lady sitting listening, together with the idea of four seasons, express a philosophical idea, that is human life. It is a precious. You spent life and time at the same time. The life of the blind people is love of the four seasons, the turning of the pages of that book, we were enlightened at the very beginning because we have another artist, Mr. Cai Guoqiang in our team, he very often brought us books from overseas. Like a toy, a book is a toy. You can close it. When you open the book, crops of different varieties came out from the book. We are inspired by this idea. So one book after another, 72 meters, altogether we have 1444 books, all the books in the computer program display splendid changes showing the entire earth is breathing. So this is our idea.

Beijing Daily

I also like ask questions of the lighting of the Hou Bin. How many minutes did he use to do his work?

Zhang Yimou

When we saw him, we didn't count the time because the music can go on and on. I thought it might take 4 minutes, longer than during the rehearsal and practice. I didn't give accurate counting of the time.

Zhang Jigang

You can see today, our music, when we are lightening the torch, Mr. Ping Yali gave her torch and then we saw a change of the music. We observe when he approached, 1/3 to the cauldron, we change the music to a different one, the drum music. That could last for ever. If he uses three minutes, our music can last for three minutes. If he uses one minute, then music can last for one minute. It is hard to calculate beforehand. Pre-practices there was relatively stable but you can never expect for five practices all the time the same so we just have an approximate time.

Wang Hui

Now we have time for last question.

Reporter from Japan

On behalf of our Japanese reporter, a question for Mr. Zhang Yimou. The selecting performances, what are the criteria you have? Who had the final say for that?

Zhang Yimou

When you say selecting, you meant for the Opening Ceremony, right? The performers. You saw there are tens of hundreds of performers. Of course this is simple. Number 1, they have to be appropriate, they have to meet the requirement of our shows. Detailed process of selecting performers. For example, for the people with disability. For some unique performers' selection, Mr. Zhang Jigang is in charge. He can say something to you.

Zhang Jigang

The final say is with BOCOG, or the Opening & Closing Ceremony Department of BOCOG. As director, we can only select plans. Each time, we selected performers, you know we select the important performers, we communicate with Zhang Yimou. For performers with disability, I know them pretty well. The pianist Jin Yuanhui, the blind singer, Yang Haitao, they are fully blind. They couldn't see anything. They can not see any light in front of them. Actually, today, Jin Yuanhui played an episode from Chopin. He can play even more sophisticated episodes. Same thing with Yang Haitao. He sang a song. That song was composed exclusively for him, which was tailored for him. The song is very good so we use it for the Opening Ceremony. For the other performers, for example, 320 girls with hearing impairment, we selected with all the people with disability federation, from different provinces. Some of them are teachers, some of them are workers. So we gather them together for practice. Otherwise, they will go back to their post of production and teaching. They only gathered in Beijing for about three or four months. That is, basically, we trained them in different provinces, send our directors to different provinces to teach them. That is the process.

Zhang Yimou

I just want to add one more thing. The four ceremonies, the two Closing Ceremonies and the two Opening Ceremonies, as to make a decision to select performers, the team of the directors make the final decision. For important performers, for example, the theme song singers, the important ones, we have to report to BOCOG, IPC and IOC for their approval. But usually, they respect our ideas and selection. So basically, the three directors of us will determine who we are going to use.

Wang Hui

Thank you very much for your care and support and interest. I would like to thank for all the leaders and the directors for being with us. Thank you very much.