Opening ceremonies kick off for real next Friday, August 8th. A South Korean television crew filmed a rehearsal of the show earlier this week at the massive Bird’s Nest national stadium, leaking the first video from a show so closely guarded that practice sessions have been protected by three rings of checkpoints. Cast and crew were required to sign confidentiality agreements.

The video shows giant whales, an illuminated globe and a cast of thousands. The video of the top secret Olympic ceremony is upsetting Chinese organizers. They went through a lot of trouble making sure details were not leaked, even making to 10,000 plus performers sign confidentiality agreements.

The ceremony is said to have a futuristic theme, and is directed by Oscar nominee Zhang Yimou. It will include Chinese history and have fireworks and opera. The short video shows an enormous red globe in the centre of the stadium with hundreds of people waving red flags, beating drums, and multicolored figures floating through the air. But the lighting of the Olympic torch was not filmed. The speculation is that it will be performed by a flying dragon or a phoenix.

In an embarrassing breach of security, journalists from Seoul Broadcasting System walked into the Bird’s Nest national stadium and filmed rehearsals for the ceremony, which will be attended by world leaders, including President Bush, next Friday. The SBS network says they recorded the event lawfully. “We went, and nobody stopped us. So we just shot.”

Despite the mildness of the public reaction, staff of the organising committee appeared to have been working behind the scenes to remove the footage. Within a few hours it had been taken off sina.com, a popular Chinese web portal, as well as YouTube, which displayed the message: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by a third party.”

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