"The moment the fireworks are set off, the performance is no longer his own work, but the work of the country."
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Beijing News reporter Ma Jinqian Gao Zhao Editor Zhang Lei Proofreader Liu Yue
▲On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. It's a fireworks show. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Jianli
At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, classic pictures such as the big footprints that came steadily along the central axis and the five Olympic rings that gathered thousands of stars quietly appeared were also engraved in the minds of the audience; in 2022, Cai Guoqiang once again refreshed the public's impression of the fireworks performance of the grand event with "four or two strokes of thousand pounds", with a lighter and more environmentally friendly "Spring is Coming", "Welcome Pine" and "Drifting Snow".
▲Cai Guoqiang, chief designer of visual arts at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Courtesy of respondents
Talking about the design process of fireworks, Cai Guoqiang revealed that he once imagined using a thousand drones to carry fireworks and draw a "thousand miles of rivers and mountains" in the air, but because of many uncertainties, he gave up the idea. As an artist, the most difficult moment for the Olympic fireworks display is the most difficult moment, "the moment the fireworks are fired, the performance is no longer his own work, but the work of the country." ”
▲ Cai Guoqiang's design manuscript. Courtesy of respondents
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The fireworks show has three main features
Beijing News: What is the name of the fireworks show? How long does the whole show last?
Cai Guoqiang: The fireworks design policy revolves around the requirements of the "simple, safe and wonderful" Winter Olympic Games, and the amount of fireworks displayed is about one-tenth of the amount of fireworks fired at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, and the total length of fireworks is only two minutes.
The fireworks display revolved around the theme of the opening ceremony and participated in the opening ceremony performance three times. The first is the countdown to the opening ceremony and the theme of Lichun; the second is the announcement of the opening of the Winter Olympics, that is, the section of welcoming the song; the last paragraph is the farewell of the fireworks after the torch of the Winter Olympics is lit. Each fireworks show has only 40 seconds, and the three fireworks total 120 seconds.
Beijing News: What are the creative concepts of this fireworks design?
Cai Guoqiang: The fireworks performance requirements are both simple and set off the atmosphere, mainly with the shape and text fireworks developed since 2008 as the protagonists, and the performance in the venue plays a role in icing on the cake.
Countdown to ten numbers, with the twenty-four solar terms inverted row in the field to usher in "Li Chun", we played the Chinese character "Li Chun" and English "spring" special effects in the sky with the same grid; with fireworks to show the growth of spring grass, the recovery of all things; live performance children blowing away dandelions, we also specially developed dandelion fireworks.
When the Opening of the Winter Olympics was announced, we carved a grand welcome pine from the top of the Bird's Nest, symbolizing hospitality and welcome. From a distance, the welcome pine is paired with the bird's nest, like a pot of bonsai in traditional Chinese culture, and the bird's nest becomes a beautiful flower pot.
When the torch is lit, we first use special effect fireworks to hit two "big snowflakes", followed by "five colorful rings", and then tens of seconds of "northern scenery, snow drifting in the sky".
This fireworks show has three characteristics, the first is to do the Chinese and English frames we have never done before for special effects modeling; the second is the development and design of "Welcome Pine", the fireworks are exploded from the middle outward to form a circle, pine needles upwards, so to study the fireworks bomb flying process to open (effect), pine needles grow upwards, and finally present is quite perfect; third, over the years the world's fireworks are basically based on colorful, complete Japanese fireworks style, each fireworks show is what there is, This time the fireworks are clean, I pursue the "northern scenery, the sky drifting snow", in addition to the Spring and the five rings, the basic use of monochrome, and the theme of the Winter Olympics is very appropriate, but also more simple atmosphere.
Elements such as welcome pine come from the Chinese culture's pursuit of hope
Beijing News: You have mentioned "simplicity and simplicity" many times, what kind of consideration did you choose this design direction?
Cai Guoqiang: According to the form at home and abroad, coupled with the epidemic situation, the total length of the whole party was greatly shortened compared with 2008, from the leadership level to the art director, and finally the overall creativity chose such a simpler and simpler theme - "Let's go together".
Beijing News: Where do the ideas for elements such as dandelions and welcome pines in fireworks performances come from? Why are these elements presented at the Winter Olympics?
Cai Guoqiang: Behind this is the foundation of our national culture. At the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan, which just ended less than half a year ago, we can see that they presented a lot of difficulties and sadness during the epidemic, reflecting a Japanese culture of material mourning, very poetic, creative and beautiful, but in Chinese culture, it seems to be more desolate. Our Chinese culture in difficult times always yearn for the light, the pursuit of hope, just the opening day is the Spring Festival, so it will be rehearsed backwards from the twenty-four solar terms, after the "small cold" and "big cold" and finally "Li Chun", the pursuit of a concept of endless life, life never stops, around this theme, there will be Li Chun, Yingke Pine, Northern Scenery and other elements full of energy.
Beijing News: In the performance, we saw a lot of elements that echoed the Winter Olympics, can you introduce the design concept in detail?
Cai Guoqiang: Whether it is snowflakes, ice cubes or welcome pines, the biggest feature of these elements is that they have the color of ice and snow. I don't want to say, you may not notice that the huge welcome pine after the announcement of the opening is cedar, and the next "star tour" tries to have a sliding effect, like skating, blowing up will swim a little, are inspired by the winter Olympic ice and snow sports.
Zeng Chuang wanted to use a thousand drones to "draw" a thousand miles of rivers and mountains
▲ Cai Guoqiang decrypted the unrealized idea of the opening fireworks: he once wanted to use a thousand drones to create a thousand miles of rivers and mountains. Beijing News Our Video Production (ID: wevideo)
Beijing News: There are many highlights and special performance links in this fireworks show, what kind of process has been experienced from conception to completion?
Cai Guoqiang: There will be a lot of thinking in the middle of the design process, and we are also slowly doing subtraction.
At the beginning of the design, we would think, how should we present a work when announcing the opening? It needs to have the symbol of Chinese culture, but it is also cosmopolitan, and it must be different from the innovation of the past and the present. We began to have a creative idea, with a thousand drones carrying a small firework, computer control in the sky to blast out a picture of thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, praising the green mountains and rivers of the earth, after announcing the opening is not "ping-pong ping-pong" loud, but quietly draw "jiangshan wanli", very environmental protection concept.
But the idea is not easy to achieve, involving so many drones in the air signal control problems, and, if the weather is not good that day? There are many factors to consider, and there are many struggles in between.
In the theme of "Spring Is Coming", we innovatively think of putting the daytime fireworks into the night. Fireworks at night mainly rely on light, and fireworks mainly rely on smoke during the day, and the shape is more delicate and durable, which is also very suitable for showing the scene of spring grass. Although we have been tested by environmental experts and relevant departments, a large number of smokes will bring more environmentally unfriendly psychological feelings to the audience from the senses, and in the end we also chose to give up.
In the original design, the opening ceremony also ended with a design that echoed the 2008 Olympic Games. In 2008, we used a string of large footprints to walk from the central axis to the bird's nest, which is the beginning of the performance; at the end of this performance, the bird's nest is compared to the earth, so that the fireworks rotate and spray over the bird's nest, forming a tangent line, along the central axis, to the sky, to the universe, to the future. Since the theme of this Winter Olympics was more quiet and friendly, the final idea was not realized. As an artist, we need to make some judgments and adjustments in today's domestic and international situation.
Beijing News: What is the most difficult part of the whole design? When are the most stressful moments?
Cai Guoqiang: The most difficult thing is to master the strength. Artists always have a lot of ideas, always want to be refreshing, want to share their curiosity with the world. For example, how to present fireworks during the day at night requires "drifting snow", thousands of stars twinkling in the air, illuminating the bird's nest area like day, and on this basis, the daytime fireworks are set off, and this magical moment is from the perspective of an artist.
But from another perspective, it is necessary to consider whether reality will bring people a feeling of environmental protection, because this is not the work of an artist, but the work of a country. The process of taking measure of these things is the most difficult.
"The Olympic Games show us in the moment"
▲ Cai Guoqiang talked about the difference between the fireworks at the opening ceremony of the two Beijing Olympic Games: the Winter Olympics are lighter and more environmentally friendly. Beijing News Our Video Production (ID: wevideo)
Beijing News: At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, you were also a core creative member, in your opinion, what is the most obvious difference between the opening ceremonies of the two Olympic Games?
Cai Guoqiang: Taking the appearance of the five rings as an example, I think we can see the difference.
In 2008, in order to make a five-ring appearance, we made 29 large footprints along the central axis from outside the Yongding Gate of more than ten kilometers, and the last footprint appeared above the bird's nest and became a star falling, the bird's nest "bowlside" under the star waterfall, the stars on the ground LED converged to form five rings, and the "flying" landing "took" the five rings from the ground, and the scene was very shocking. This time, an ice cube appeared from the ground, and the five rings were laser-carved from the cube, which was more concise.
On the one hand, China is more confident, in 2008 we and the world accelerated embrace, we want to tell the story of five thousand years of ancient civilization, but also want to tell the rapid development of contemporary China after the reform and opening up, condensing the passion and strength of the people of the whole country, want to show all the muscles, always afraid of not enough. On the other hand, the reality at home and abroad and the situation during the epidemic also make us more lightweight and concise.
▲If the opening ceremony fireworks are safe? Technical Director: The bird's nest is covered with a fireproof cloth on top of the launcher and fixed with a fixture. Beijing News Our Video Production (ID: wevideo)
Beijing News: Two Olympic Games, seeing the fireworks of your own design blooming above the bird's nest, what are your different feelings?
Cai Guoqiang: Artists can actually do a very small part. No matter in which country, the realization of each performance reflects the reality, cultural history, political power and pursuit of that country, and the Olympic Games are actually very representative of that country's present. The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics both show the current reality of the country and the artists of this era.
Beijing News: In the next Winter Olympic games schedule, do you personally pay special attention to the projects and athletes?
Cai Guoqiang: Since the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, except for the Tokyo Olympic Games (which did not go to the scene) due to the epidemic, almost every Winter Olympic Games and Summer Olympic Games will go to the scene to see the opening ceremony. Every time I watch the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, I always leave a day to watch the competition, which is figure skating and high platform snow jumping, a beautiful, a shock, which makes me look forward to it. This time, I had to hurry up and prepare for the closing ceremony, so I didn't have time to watch it.