You’re 2000m up, you can board (pretty well) but they ski at 80mph downhill & you have to do all this without smashing up your face or the kit… easy.
This was part of the challenge for Eddie Rourke of Pard Productions in January when working on a promo for Lausanne 2020. We talked to him to find out how he went about it.
“Think Chocolate, Fondue and Yodelling rather than backside 720 corks in the halfpipe. It was a fun project, working with a great team. These tournaments are often long hours and no days off so having a good team is essential.”
From the 9th-22nd of January this year, the Youth Winter Olympics were held in Lausanne, Switzerland the perfect venue for the games with it’s 35,000 strong university and a town strong international sports expertise and heritage.
On the shores of Lake Geneva, Lausanne is well situated, close to the nearby Vaud Alps, it could cater for all that the games required. Eddie with a strong background in producing sport content, previously working at UEFA, was the perfect man to tackle slopes in search of a great story.
“I’m an average snowboarder, in my head I like to think I’m Travis Rice but in reality I’m more Travis the band. A couple of locations meant I had to strap in to get to the end of training runs. We followed the Haitian lad Mackenson Florindo as he prepared to represent Haiti the for the first time in any winter Olympics competing in the Giant Slalom.”
Florindo was born into a Haitian family in the village of Verrettes, about 60km north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, in 2002. Because his family could not afford to feed and raise him properly, his biological mother dropped the boy off at an orphanage in 2005 when he was three years old.
Six months later, he was sent to an orphanage in France. From there he was adopted by the Florindo family and raised in the mountain region near Grenoble. Florindo finished 51st out of a 77-man field in Monday’s giant slalom at Les Diablerets.
“He and his team were super friendly and the reception he got at the end was heart warming, I was just stoked I didn’t catch an edge and smash my face or the rig. Shout out to the assistant Andrea who carried the tripod.”
We all know that travelling while filming is demanding, let alone boarding down a mountain, choosing the right equipment for the job is always the main challenge of any operator. With a plethora of options available Eddie chose to shoot on the Sony A7 series, a camera he’s used to in his years creating content as a shooting PD. For it’s size it produces a great image and have become one of the workhorses of the industry – but why not a larger FS7 or C500?
“One of the key things for me is the ability to be reactive. I’m not a primary camera op so my role is often to ‘fill in’ and provide 2nd camera or produce content that is to be used alongside main action. Being able to sling everything in a Peli and my lenses on my back and run out the door at a moment’s notice is a dream.”
“The thought that has gone into the kit and knowing that everything is there, and has been thought about really makes this kit special.”
“Not having to worry about where this lead is or which pocket did I put the Allen key for screw tightening etc etc. The kit has been very well curated and thought through. Plus it makes a great makeshift table for a quick lunch…”
Six months later, he was sent to an orphanage in France. From there he was adopted by the Florindo family and raised in the mountain region near Grenoble. Florindo finished 51st out of a 77-man field in Monday’s giant slalom at Les Diablerets.
§“He and his team were super friendly and the reception he got at the end was heart warming, I was just stoked I didn’t catch an edge and smash my face or the rig. Shout out to the assistant Andrea who carried the tripod.”
We all know that travelling while filming is demanding, let alone boarding down a mountain, choosing the right equipment for the job is always the main challenge of any operator. With a plethora of options available Eddie chose to shoot on the Sony A7 series, a camera he’s used to in his years creating content as a shooting PD. For it’s size it produces a great image and have become one of the workhorses of the industry – but why not a larger FS7 or C500?
