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The London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) wanted a film that would convey their core brand values to current and future staff. The film was designed to be shown initially at the brand values launch event but also needs to remain relevant until the games in 2012. Therefore the film needed to be inspirational and universal in appeal.
The idea behind the film was to show that anyone working at LOCOG would need the same level of commitment to the Olympics as an athlete preparing for the games. By filming with two young athletes and two members of LOCOG staff we were able to draw parallels between the way they are all getting ready for 2012.
Visual Flair was key for this piece. After much technical discussion, the director, Matt Fretwell, decided to shoot on a slow-motion 16mm film camera together with a hi-def solid state video camera and movie tube. This allowed both cameras to use the same lenses and created a match in terms of picture quality. The film would also use existing archive footage of previous games to form the introduction.
The contributors for the film were carefully selected following extensive research. Athletes needed to be young enough that they would reach their competitive peak around 2012, but already successful in national and international competitions, as well as representative of both the Olympic and Paralympic movements. Sam Hynds, a Paralympian Swimmer, and Rebecca Thompson, a Mountain Bike racer, were the two athletes chosen.
A similar process was undertaken to select the LOCOG staff members. The Pretzel team spent considerable time at the Olympics offices meeting potential contributors and gauging their suitability for the film. Over 30 individuals were interviewed before a shortlist was presented for client selection.
With all the contributors finalised we began researching locations. Since we were intending to shoot at hi-speed to achieve the best possible slow-motion effect, the light in locations was key. After an intense recce period we had our locations; Hackney Lido, a heated open air swimming pool in East London, and Epping Forest, site of the future Mountain Bike Course for the games in 2012.
Because of budget restrictions, we needed to shoot with both our athletes in just one day. We had therefore chosen locations that were close enough to permit this. The client attended the shoot allowing them ensure that the interviews followed the required brand values. The morning shoot went without a hitch, however, come the afternoon the heavens opened, the light disappeared and light became bad. D.O.P Dan Trapp pulled off a miracle shooting at dusk on his trusty Minima 16mm to give us spectacularly emotive and involving footage against all the odds.
Shooting at the LOCOG offices with the staff contributors was less prone to the elements. Matt and Dan made full use of the incredible views from the 22nd floor to create beautifully composed shots to make the everday office based location look and feel engaging.
Matt oversaw and completed the edit, paying attention to every detail, from colour grading to sound design. Having conducted four one hour long interviews, he was able to cherry pick the parts that were the best fit for the final film. Matt chose to construct stories for each contributor that would convey LOCOG's brand values in a highly effective way. Towards the final stages of the edit Pretzel worked closely with the client to ensure that the finished article was an exact match to their requirements.
Client: London Organising Committee Olympic and Paralympic Games
Title: Be the athlete
Producer: Paul Butterworth
Format: Digibeta and DVD
Length: 4.5 minutes
Location: London and Epping Forest