NBC Fire and Ice

The torch for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games may have just gone out, but our excitement over being a part of it lingers on — even on the ice.
This past fall Travis worked with internationally renowned photographer Sampson Chan as his 1st AC to capture some of the most intricately detailed shots on the ice. It was part of NBC’s Olympic profiles on some of America’s greatest hopefuls (in athletics, that is — there’s still plenty of hope for the rest of us.)

The 2-day shoot at the West Valley Accord Ice Center covered women’s figure skater Rachel Flatt, US speed skater JR Celski, curling team skipper John Schuster, women’s ice hockey team member Julie Chu and figure skating pair Caydee Denny and Jeremy Barrett. The profiles aired leading up to the Games and as transitions through the various broadcast events and opening ceremonies.
To capture the meticulous shots the crew’s greatest find was the Phantom. Not a super-hero itself, but pretty special. Same camera used for parts of the movie Ironman. It’s a special high-speed camera that captures up to 5,000 frames per second (that’s super slow-motion for all you math majors). All of this, so that some of the high-speed action from the winter Olympics fastest sports could be brought to television viewers around the globe.

For a special low angle shot right down on the ice itself, they also used a snorkel lens (no, it’s not for water unless we’re talking about frozen water). At one point they were working with such a high shudder speed that they had to employ four 6,000-watt HMI lights concentrated onto a 4 foot area of ice. Almost caught the gear on fire and made the ice melt. Let’s just say it made Travis see the light (and it almost burned his retinas too). Despite that, it was definitely a unique opportunity and a chance to cover the best of both worlds. Slow motion, ice and a snorkel lens, we’ve got everything covered!

A little bit of Heart and SOLE

Have you heard of SOLE fitness? The guys make some great fitness devices. We met with Will McFarlane, one of the head honchos of SOLE and it was clear that he is committed to the quality of his treadmills and elliptical machines. He talked about headshake, stability, q-factor. I mean, I don’t know much about running anyway, but he made me feel like I had never used my feet before.

Anyway, everything about their treadmills and elliptical machines make you feel like the machine isn’t even there. It works around you and most of their features are only really appreciated by the hardcore runners.  And he has a marketing philosophy that is also very understated. They also have a great TV that can be used with their ellipticals and treadmills (or anywhere else for that matter) and they are going to be in DICK’s sporting goods across the country. He wanted to create a DVD that would show off the DVD player but also the machine’s that they stand beside.

So after a sight visit to Dicks we came together on a video that could speak for itself in a crowded store. We built one video as a commercial lead in and three others to show off the product.

First we cast some fitness models. Which meant we watched a bunch of incredibly fit people run and criticized their form (all of this coming from a guy who gets out of breath after clapping vigorously).

After we cast come great fitness models/actresses we shot the videos.  It was a fun shoot.  Travis and I got to drive illegally through mountain paths. He got to play with prime lenses, while I got to cast images on the wall.

Blair Kunz thought we were having so much fun in his studio that he snapped a few pictures of us. (Sure we have a studio too, but we needed to fit Glenn Fisk and his GIANT jib in as well)

Then Mike edited the body of the piece while Travis cut the open. Bryan put together some restrained motion graphics. In the end we had to use his DVD/TV combo as our line monitor since that was the final destination. It was a great opportunity to have a collaborative experience with a forward-moving company like SOLE and to develop something together. Now I just have to wait for the Holiday sales so I can practice my Jamiroquai moves on a treadmill, or maybe I will just recreate the OK Go video.

SOLE Fitness intro video, SOLE Fitness Treadmills, SOLE Fitness Elliptical