Lighting the way

To prepare for a perfect Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, lighting director Sha Xiaolan and his team of 200 videographers and digital animation specialists spent more than 100 sleepless nights in the National Stadium, setting up more than 3,000 digital lights and 140 digital projectors.

The Opening Ceremony included the use of a scroll on which to illustrate China's 5,000 years of history. On this grand scroll, Sha used his lighting as a brush pen to paint and highlight various aspects of the story, sometimes an aquamarine, sometimes a crystal and sometimes a golden sculpture.

Lighting effects were evident from the very first sequence. In the opening number, 2,008 performers hit a traditional drum called fou. The top of the drum and the drummers' two sticks all emit light, so when the drummers played, gargantuan words and shapes appeared.