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".