Groundhog day?

Not too early a start today. At 10 am I shoot some scenics around the Village Stroll. "Groundhog Day" is a common feeling many of us have expressed on days that start like this. Fog on the ski hill, drizzling rain in Whistler. What will the day bring? The morning assignment list shows me shooting scenics and a couple bands around Whistler. My regular evening assignment of Medals Plaza will be cancelled due to no Canadian medalists. Maybe I'll only work an 8 and get a chance to watch the Men play Russia in hockey. A Russian 80's metal band "Gorky Park" plays in the village square. After I shoot them a Kossak group takes to the stage. Is this an omen. Sarah Gallashan from CTV Vancouver's Whistler bureau grabs me for a little cover and a couple quick interviews.

I settle into an office chair at the Media Centre newsroom to watch some of the hockey game. I laugh a little as I point out to Todd Battis sitting across from me that my attention is drawn to the other monitor showing Women's Bobsleigh. "It looks like we have a good chance at 2 medals on the ice at the sliding centre tonight." With this possibility I suggest to my assignment desk that I supplement our resources at sliding by me picking up the medalists as they get on the gondola tonight, ala Jon Montgomery. They tell me to go for it. As the third period of the hockey game concludes I am shooting a huge Whistler Square crowd go bananas. Now it's off to the Blackcomb Gondola for the ladies. I give some fan reax video to my runner to bring back down the mountain from the Bobsleigh venue. And now I wait. Can this work out as well as Jon Montgomery did? Will the girls get beers? Will I get on the gondola with 4 new medalists and their escorts? After a 1 hour wait in the rain I'm told the ladies won't be taking the gondola but boarding a van to our CTV set in Whistler. Katherine Barnes a Producer from SportsCentre meets me back in the Village. We trace a circuitous route through restaurants, elevators and into the lobby of a hotel. We wait there with our CTV make-up artist for the Gold and Silver medal winners. After a long wait for them to complete their required drug testing I get a chance to shoot them emerging from behind a police escort in the driveway of the hotel. They enter the lobby to be greeted by only a handful of fans and friends. After washroom breaks and a quick make-up application we are off to the set and the crowds that await them there. I follow down the stairs towards the throng of screaming people. The ladies are interviewed by Jennifer Hedger Live on our set. Perry Solkowski from CTV Vancouver says to me "you know you're with me right?" I nod my head, another Producer from Good Morning says "you're shooting with me, OK?" I say I'll be right there after I ingest my footage of the girls. Five interviews in the middle of the fire storm later and I can't believe I thought this might be Groundhog day. Oh how a day can evolve at The Olympics. Fourteen hours after my day began I head for the hotel. I make an omelette and a Caesar for dinner just before midnight. Deja vous!

Bumps and Bruises.

This morning I got to strap the skis on again. Momentum ski camp teaches kids to ski better moguls and freeride. John Smart started the camp after competing in two Olympic games in the 90's. Four of his former students won medals in this years Olympics including Jennifer Heil and Alex Bilodeau. We meet John at the bottom of Wizard chair at the base of Blackcomb Mountain. The location of his summer ski camp is several thousand vertical feet above us on Blackcomb glacier. Up we go. John is proud to show us his mountain and tells us about his former students without taking credit for their most recent achievements. After shooting the interview at the top of the world "7th Heaven Chair" it's time to ski, and shoot, and ski some more. I manage the ENG camera easily on the steep and icy smooth packed runs. Then we get into the moguls. I head halfway down a steep incline dotted with treacherous bumps. The snow is hard and has no give on the top or between the moguls. As I set-up halfway down the run I signal for John to come down. He's very fast and looks on the edge of control as he screams towards me. The wireless mic I have on him reveals his thoughts as he gets closer. Expletives and laughs are recorded. He explains later that the run is dangerous to ski at speed. Again I head down the bumps below me. Eventually John's words of earlier give me an out and I traverse the run and take off my skis. I carry my camera and skis down the rest of the run without shame. Again we find smooth hard pack. Skiing without poles, and my camera held tightly to my chest, we head down the runs at speed. Sorry no still pics to show. I'm lucky enough to descend the mountain with my gear and pride intact.

As I enter the Whistler Media Centre where we have our newsroom I look for my new friend Mark Harvey. Mark is an editor from RDS in Montreal, and the only editor we have in Whistler. Yesterday he took his few hours off for his first snowboard lesson.
It ended with him in a rescue toboggan and an ambulance ride to the hospital. "It's a slight concussion, take the day off" he was told. Today he showed up with a backlog of stories to be cut. He's faced with a busy 12 hour shift playing catch-up.




Mark's face is bandaged, scraped and bruising badly.

He knows he's an important part of our Olympic coverage here in Whistler, so he soldiers on.





Fear and pain. We can't let it get in the way.

It's our Olympics too.

Snow cats

I've never been in a snow cat. I shot a heli-skiing story about 15 years ago with Pat Kiernan. So I've got an idea what to expect. As I get on board my snow cat for the day shoot I introduce myself and meet the others in my cat. Two members of the USA snowboard team at the Olympics and a Canadian Silver medalist at the games. Mike Robertson CDN Silver medal Boarder cross. Greg Bretz USA Halfpipe, Elena Hight USA Halfpipe. The rest of the cat is former racers and pro snowboarders. Yes I did ski with them. If you wanna call what I did skiing! The diffuculty in this shoot had more to do with logistics. Try to get ahead of these amazing skiers and snowboarders. They were more than willing for me to ski ahead with my camera and gear and let me set-up the shot. Trying to communicate 250 metres up a hill where and when I wanted everyone proved to be more difficult. The subjects of my shots would be The Toaster, Mark Torlay and CDN Silver Medalist Mike Robertsen. I carried my 30lb camera slung over my back and skied powder ahead of the group to set-up the shots. I'm a decent hard pack skier. Powder with extra weight on my hip was another story.
After seeing me struggle with the weight and off-centre load the guide offers to carry the pack for me and ski along side to help me get set-up. It takes us 5 hours and 4 trips up in the snow cat to get what we needed for the story. In the end I think we got some great shots and a new respect for those who ski powder well.

Too tired to post much

After 4 hours sleep I woke up at 5 this morning to head for Women's GS at Creekside. Shots of CDN ladies arriving at the hill, feed video, shots of fans arriving, feed video and then standing at the bottom of the run waiting for our racers to finish. We interviewed The Gold medalist fromAustria and 2 of our Canadian girls who failed to meet expectations.

Very tired after a short sleep and a full morning I went back to my hotel for a 2 hour nap. I awoke at 5pm realizing I had been scheduled the evening off. Bizarre, this would be my shortest day and my first night off. Thinking about the medals Plaza tonight and realizing that it was Canda's first medal at Whistler, I decided to offer myself up to help at the Plaza. Turns out that 5 minutes later the tech co-ord from the Plaza was calling to see if I would make it for my 530 fax check and 6 o'clock live hit with Michael Landsberg. Uhhhh, somehow that assignment never got assigned, I'll be right there.
After 2 live hits with Landsberg I headed into the Medals mix zone and did 2 live shots with Jon Montgomery after he received his gold.

Ring....ring. Always answer the phone.

Early morning for me in Whistler. I started my day at 7am. First up, getting shots of Manny Osborne-Paradis, Erik Guay and Robbie Dixon getting on a chairlift to head up the mountain for Super-G. I then headed over to Creekside and the finish of the Men's Super-G competition. I met Roger Millions in the Mix Zone to interview the canadian athletes as they finished. We stood just a couple metres from where the racers stopped at the fat cushioned wall at the bottom of the course. A bad day for the men's Alpine team and more disappointed CDN athletes to interview. Then into the Whistler Creekside Media room for a newser with the winners.

Since I started so early today my Assignment Editor said I could have the night off. So after ingesting my days footage and recording a voice-over in the voicing booth with Jennifer Hedger, it was back to the hotel for some dinner and a Caesar.

While I'm sipping my Caesar and watching Jon Montgomery win Gold in Skeleton my phone rings. I immediately answer it expecting to be dispatched to The Stroll for fan reax. Instead Michael says "how fast can you get to the Blackcomb Gondola base at the Sliding Centre? You'll be getting in the gondola with Jon Montgomery and shooting him all the way back to our set in the Village where he will be going live. And ask him some questions while you're in there with him." I quickly turn off the clothes dryer in my room and think about pounding what's left of my Caesar. Nah, I better get hustling. So I grab my camera and run down the Village Stroll to the Blackcomb Gondola. Making best use of my short ride to the sliding centre I plan my lighting in the tiny 8 person gondola. Dichroic and bounce it off the ceiling. White balance. I can't screw this up. After bypassing the line of screaming fans at the sliding centre I position myself at the load station and wait. ....... For an hour. Doping control has slowed Canada's newest gold medalist's egress from the Skeleton site. Again my phone rings. "Barry are you there? Exactly where are you? Have you seen anything yet? Just wait there it's all set-up, get on the gondola with Jon, OK?" I say "OK... who is this so I know who cleared it for me to get on? Oh.. it's Paul Graham?" (the Top Man in Whistler for The Broadcast Consortium, everyone I work with's boss)
Jon arrives and I roll video all the way into the gondola as I step in right behind him and sit with my knees right across from his. 'ask him a question Barry' ... Jon and his coaches joke and talk briefly. I spit out some cliche' questions and get good reaction from him. Before you know it the gondola door opens and the quiet moment is overcome by screams and cheers in the Village. As we walk towards the set a person in the crowd hands Jon a full pitcher of beer. Some people have told me that this is the shot of the games for them. Canadiana personified. The Live CoFDM CTV camera back-peddles Jon as I follow him and continue to roll. Jon hits our set and I run my disc into the control room for playback, or..whatever. Will they use it? I head back out to the set with a new disc in my camera and capture as much of the moment as possible on camera. I figure I will also shoot extra of our crew and set as I have been asked to shoot for a documentary being produced about CTV's coverage in Whistler. Again I bring my disc into the control room. Everyone is watching my Gondola ride with Jon on the huge control room screens. Complete with me wiping the fog from my lens. "Was that just played out live?" "No we just fed it to the IBC in Vancouver." "Great idea with the follow camera" I hear from a director. My footage looks nice and I'm congratulated by Paul and others. "Thanks Barry, good work tonight." I can only say, "thanks for the call".

Hurtin' Albertan

My body is hurtin. No shifts under 12 hours and very busy. I basically walk everywhere with camera, bag and sticks. Today I had to add skis, boots and poles to my one trip load. OUCH!!!

I skied the ladies Downhill course holding my camera and no poles. Yikes! Steep and icy! No that wasn't my footage of a high speed run down the course. It might have been Brian Stemmle did that. He's got a little more experience, and leg muscle, than me. Later I was at the top of ladies slalom as Lindsey Vonn started. Then I went down the course carrying my camera again.
I've had a lot of chances to set-up interviews and light them nicely. CTV is expecting well lit and framed interviews. HD is unforgiving of bad photography. Time to step it up. So far the editors and producers here say they are very impressed with my work. WHEW!
Going to bed early tonight. Tomorrow I have to shoot Men's GS athletes getting on the Gondola at 7:30 am. Then I'm assigned to GS mix zone for training runs. After that I have a feature to finish at "Weasel House".

snow dogs

Tuesday morning the snow fell heavy in Whistler and heavier on the hills.

Downhill was cancelled again, that was my morning shoot. Ah, maybe I'll hit the hot tub to loosen up some very sore shoulders. I've been carrying my 20lb XD camera, a loaded slingbag and my tripod everywhere I go to this point, 12 - 14 hours a day. I've got a pinched nerve in my neck and my back and shoulders scream at me every night. It's all good. 11 days to go. Today I worked briefly with Roger Millions for a Sportsnet story and Jermain Franklin on a TSN story. The snow melted away from Whistler Village before the end of the day and the Downhill run was groomed and ready for the women.

Wednesday started with several planned shoots. First up a shoot with Aliya-Jasmine Sovani who is a Program Host (VJ) for MTV Canada. AJ is doing morning hits into Olympic Morning on CTV and regular evening spots with Jennifer Hedger. The dog sled story we shot today will be on Jennifer's segment with AJ on Thursday. This was a very fun shoot. AJ was an absolute pleasure to work with. She loves dogs and I'm sure she kissed all 60 dogs at the starting area for our shoot.

Later in the afternoon I went up in a B3 A-Star helicopter with an Associate Producer. He set this shoot up with a local helicopter pilot. This pilot for Blackcomb Helicopters flew American Downhiller Lindsey Vonn onto a glacier this past summer. Lindsey was doing a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated in a swimsuit. The shoot with the helicopter pilot was a good excuse to show Canada video of the SI photo shoot. Watch for this in days to come.

Gold, Gold, Gold all Suisse

A little too tired to write much. It was a good day. Mostly I shot scenics and beauty shots around Whistler Village.

Late afternoon I caught wind of a possible demonstration by the goons that busted up Vancouver the day before. A 4 o'clock protest in Whistler Village. The news guy in me got instantly psyched and I headed for their most likely target, the CTV set in Village Square. I waited an hour wondering where they would be changing into their black hoodies and masks. I surveyed the square from striking distance of our set. No show. I heard there were 4 protesters that got drowned out by a marching band farther down the Stroll. Ha. Who needs riot cops, sick the drum and bugle crew on 'em!



Tonights assignment was a short story about the 3 Gold medals that would be presented that night to Suisse athletes. The Suisse fans are almost as crazy as the Canadians here. They carry huge cow bells and make a lot of noise everywhere they go. Jennifer Hedger met me after the ceremonies at Suisse Broadcasting in the square where another huge crowd of fans and media greeted Olympic Champions. Grrrrrr.

Sunshine and snowstorms

I was supposed to start my day at Women's Combined Downhill training. Bad weather kept them off the hill again. This time it was snow on the hill and bad visibility. So after a Starbuck's in The Village I decided to get on a Gondola and visit the Inukshuk atop Whistler Mountain. The XDCam will take time lapse video. I thought the mixed blue skies and low clouds wrapping the ski runs would make the perfect subject. After taking the Whistler Gondola to the top of Whistler I was met by mixed skies and Inukshuk. I trudged through the deep and heavy snow that came to my waist. Looking back at the Roundhouse Chalet behind me I could see the snow was above the roof of the lodge. There must be 20 feet of snow beneath my feet. Who said Whistler had no snow. Plenty of it up here. The recreational skiers on the hill all say it's the best skiing ever and the snow is heavy and plentiful. As I approach the Inukshuk the blue skies of a few moments ago are quickly wrapped by low and thick white clouds. As I set-up my camera the wind whips corn snow into my face and fills my viewfinder. I make a futile attempt at a time lapse video but my plan of clouds and blue skies as background for Inukshuk are blown away in the snow. As is my lens cloth. After taking some shots of the sideways falling snow, and a couple stills, my assignment editor is calling me back down the mountain.

The Whistler Village Stroll has become increasingly congested with people in the last two days. Olympic ticket holders coming up from Vancouver on transit are arriving to postponed events. Why go back to Vancouver and waste the trip. People are heading into Whistler Village in huge numbers making the most of their bus ride up the valley. My latest daily assignment involves walking through the Stroll with my camera rolling. Editors and Producers will go through my footage and play it back on CTV, TSN, RDS, MTV, Much Music and Sportsnet. Wow, dozens of TV cameras from every country are on the Stroll.

Last night as I walked back from the Medals Plaza in a heavy warm rain there was a lot of commotion at the Suisse Broadcasting studio. It seems Simon Ammann the Ski Jumpers who had moments before just received his Gold medal, the first medal of the games, would be walking up shortly. So along with a half dozen foreign TV crews and a dozen European print photographers I and a hundred Swiss fans awaited his arrival. After finding out he would be coming down a trail a little ways away I positioned myself away from the crowd. A short time later the sound of large Swiss cowbells announced Simon's approach. The media ran to get close to him. His LARGE security guard pushed us away to clear him a path. I got several good shots as I muscled myself a place amongst the other media as the scrum moved through a huge crowd. This could only happen in Whistler. I walked back to ingest my video. Not sure if my clothes were soaked more on the outside or in.

Later today as I walked the Stroll with my camera a small group of people were gathered taking picture with a couple French team members. I got right up close to get some shots. As they turned towards me for another photo they both pull Gold medals from their jackets. People freely approached them for a photo with Olympic Gold. Again my path crosses the Swiss Gold medalists path. A man hands him a rubber chicken and Simon poses with his medal around the chickens neck. These athletes are easily approached in the Village and those of us who get close feel more a part of the Olympic experience. Only in Whistler.

It's a blur

The first 5 days in whistler has been a blur. It took a little while to feel my legs beneath me. I spent all my spare time playing with the new XDCam and getting confident with all it can do. I walked Whistler Village a number of times the first night to be totally familiar with the layout and where the venues are. The WMC (Whistler Media Centre) is home base for the duration. It is the workspace for all international media in Whistler. we have a large office with 12 workstations for our Producers, reporters and ENG Cameras. Good to see some familiar faces here. Glenn Campbell is a sports reporter from Calgary. Jermain Franklin a sports reporter for TSN Calgary. I've bumped into Bruce Jarron from Access Alberta at Alpine venue a few time already.
The workflow is a little confusing at first. Who is my assignment editor? There's 5 or so of them. What are their numbers and e-mail addresses? I haven't been given a list. Where do I get a slug (story ID) so I can start to ingest my video from the camera disc? The Alpine and Cross Country ingest stations aren't working, I've gotta make sure they get up and running somehow. I'm spending the bulk of my evening ingesting the day video. Home to my hotel at 11pm, have a beer and make a grilled cheese sandwich, collapse. Good thing were here a week early to get the bugs out. Roger Millions arrived today. He's an old friend from CFRN that's now a Sportsnet reporter. That makes ....oh 7 or 8 producer/reporters I will be working with....maybe there's more. By Friday morning things are starting to feel a little more organized. Oh, so I get an e-mail at 1130pm Wednesday night. Barry we need you in a helicopter to shoot this feature tomorrow morning at 7am. OK. I guess I have to be up at 530am. Damn I set my alarm for 430am. Oh well, so I'm up I may as well get going!

After bad weather cancelled the bulk of my feature I get a call.

"We need you to the Luge Track."

"There's been an accident."

Green grass on February 5th

After a long day of travel and training on Friday I decided to stay at my Sister Lynn's in Richmond. I haven't seen her husband Steve in a couple years. He's running a fleet of 80 security vehicles for the games. Again I think, how big is this thing? My nephews Alexander and John greet me in front of their house. The clean asphalt and green grass let me know I'm not in Edmonton anymore. The boys have grown since I saw them in the summer. They easily carry my heavy bags into their home. What they really want is to see my camera and talk to me about the Olympics. "What will you be doing?" "Where will you stay?" "Can we have a picture with you and the camera?" Seems the Olympics have made a minor celebrity out of their uncle. They have bragged to their friends about me. The neighbors come out to see what's with the CTV Olympics truck out front, and are impressed with the camera. Lynn orders pizza and I spend the night talking to the boys about their sports, guitar lessons and The Olympics.

Day one, preparing for battle.

Sorry for not posting sooner. My wifi card on my MacBook quit and it took a few days and $250 to get it fixed!

KPL got bumped up to first class. Her loss. Some Grandma from Nanaimo enjoyed my company on the plane.
Once in YVR Karen and I ended up walking from the plane to accreditation. She's very nice and a co-worker on Alpine events in Whistler.
First order of business in Lotusland was to taxi to New Westminster to get my ENG Camera and gear as well as a truck. The warehouse my gear would be in is a huge building housing an army of shipping people who distribute all the equipment, sets and support materials for NBC and CTV. The enormity of this endeavor strikes me immediately. My gear is handed over to me by Jeff Long (ENG Photo Supervisor for CTV Toronto). Jeff was one of the guys to amass the equipment 15 ENG guys would be using at the Olympics. Two large light kits, check. Lectrosonic wireless microphones, check. HD monitor, check. More gear than any ENG guy could dream about, and it's all NEW! The one piece that has had me dreaming about and dreading this day is now facing me. The Sony PDW-700 XDCam. It shoots to a Blue Ray disc. It has menus and thumbnails. It's 16x9 and it's staring down a 4x3 camera monkey. I tried to read the 300 page manual before arriving in Vancouver. You should always go into a battle knowing which end of the gun to point, right? After 4 hours of checking serial numbers and training on the XDCam I'm sent away into an unknown battlefield.

12 hours

So I'm packed. Just a couple more errands to run. I checked in online with my airline. I'm supposed to be seated on the plane next to Karen Percy. She'll be a CTV analyst for Ladies Alpine events in Whistler. I was in her house a few months back to shoot and interview her by myself for The Network. Kevin made a fire for me to sit her in front of. The interview went 30 minutes and she was awesome and very excited about going to these games. I said to her at the time "maybe I'll see you in Whistler". Little did I know I would actually be going as well. How did she arrange for me to sit next to her on the plane? Very smooth Karen. :)
See you in Whistler.
Tomorrow Vancouver and pick up my gear and truck.