CCTV News (Reporters Zhu Chunyan and Wang Ruoyi): On February 20, the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was held at the Bird's Nest. The closing ceremony continued the "story of a snowflake" told by the opening ceremony, using digital visual effects to present poetic, romantic Chinese elements and Olympic spirit, and also embodied the meaning of peace and friendship in Chinese.
"Our pursuit of Chinese aesthetics to the extreme is already the highest level in the world." After the closing ceremony, Wang Zhiou, visual effects director of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, said in an interview with CCTV reporters that after three years of creation and thousands of revisions, Chinese elements were perfectly presented in front of audiences around the world.
(Chinese knot design of snowflake torch stand)
Snowflakes are an important element that runs through the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony. With the creative concept of "The Story of a Snowflake", the production team gathered snowflakes together and woven them with Chinese knots and olive branches to form a snowflake torch stand. At the closing ceremony, the snowflake torch stand changed light and shadow at the scene and always presented an ethereal and romantic Chinese expression. It is a symbol of the Beijing Winter Olympics and the embodiment of the new Olympic motto "More Unity".
The 91 snowflakes on the snowflake torch stand are connected by the names of the participating countries and regions. Wang Zhiou revealed that in order to cover the name of each participating country, while achieving a symmetrical effect, the "Snowflake Torch Platform" is composed of 91 snowflakes and 5 Chinese structures, which is a fusion expression of Chinese elements and the Olympic spirit, and conveys to the world the warmth and emotion from the City of the Two Olympics.
At the end of the closing ceremony, the five rings of starlight and the beautiful snowflakes overlapped in time and space, 2022 and 2008 passed by, the familiar melody of "Me and You" was gentle and melodious, and the moment of "Tribute to the Double Olympics" was frozen, the snowflakes bloomed and flew again. Wang Zhiou introduced that behind the perfect presentation of visual effects, it is the full use of visual effects programming and digital visualization technology, so that each "small snowflake" can shine independently, so that every second of the snowflake torch stand is full of changes, and the closing scene is reflected. In the end, it presents the effect of romantic and ethereal snowflakes blooming and peaceful and romantic olive branches growing flexibly.
The development of digital technology in China has given art design a magical brush that can be depicted on the scrolls of the Winter Olympics. Wang Zhiou said that behind the picture scroll, what is valuable is that director Zhang Yimou's ultimate pursuit of artistic presentation effects and the spirit of leading the visual effects team to continuously explore and make continuous progress; fortunately, we have a deep Chinese cultural heritage, as the creators of this era, we can constantly look for treasures in it, looking for the common memory of Chinese.
The "story of a snowflake" has come to an end, and the Story of China will continue to be seen by the world.