I share a studio space with several friends, including Marcelo Coelho, and watched him work on the 2016 Paralympics opening for over a year. And wow, what a segment he made. He built 400 light sticks with individually addressable LEDs triggered via radio signals with which an army of dancers could make an entire field come alive.
You can see his opening ceremony segment here.
 

So what happened is this – he came back from Brazil after the opening and the committee called him up and said, "Hey we want to use your sticks in star shaped arrangements during the national anthem in the closing, can you come up with another segment?" Not a small thing! The project was approved on a Monday, and was due mid-Wednesday. He turned to me and said "Nick, want to help me with this?" Done.

We pulled an all-nighter, split up the work, came up with a few new animation patterns, arranged them in space, and timed them to the words of the anthem, sometimes per syllable. What a fun experience.