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.

7 days until I fly to YVR.

I'll be doing ENG for the CTV Broadcast Consortium at Whistler. My tour runs Feb 5, 2010 - Mar 1, 2010. There will be 4 ENG cameras assigned to Whistler for the Consortium. Two will be assigned to "Features" and I am one of two assigned to Breaking Event Coverage/News. I will be issued a Sony PDW-700 XDCam and all new gear for the assignment. I am also provided with a set of wheels.
My one bedroom condo provided by the consortium is on the Whistler Village Stroll.

So far I have spent a lot of time researching the events I will be covering at The Games. Alpine events include Downhill, GS and Slalom at Creekside Whistler Mountain. Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton at the Sliding Centre. Nordic events are all events with a hinged binding on a set of skis. So Ski Jumping, Cross Country and Nordic Combined events all at Whistler Olympic Park just South of Whistler townsite. And of course the Medal Presentations in Whistler. My scheduled shifts are 1100-2200 EVERY day.

It's quite an honour and a privilege to work this event. I've worked a lot of major events and big news coverage in 20 years. But I have to say this is the most excited I have ever been to get it started!