Some of the footage of the fireworks display shown on television and in the stadium during the Olympics opening ceremony was recorded in advance, it was reported Sunday, the dpa reported.
Spectacular aerial pictures of footprints dotted across Beijing were not live, but prepared more than a year in advance with the help of animation techniques and slotted into the live coverage, the newspaper Beijing Shibao reported.
Only the last of the 29 footprints was recorded live, the daily quoted an employee of a video company involved in the production as saying.
This was partially due to a ban on overflights during Friday night's ceremony, which made live filming impossible, the report said.
The images shown to a global television audience estimated at 4 billion were recorded between June 2007 and June 2008.
To make them appear live, haze was blended in to take into account the poor visibility during the opening ceremony.