Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 19 February 2018
NBC searches for Olympic clips to go viral

duce the typical clips of
game-winning goals and
gold-medal runs down the
mountain. A recent 12-hour
shift that ended at 8 a.m.
produced some 130 videos
for dissemination online.
“We train the interns to
note not only the obvious
stuff, but to see through
things that are hidden in
plain sight,” Hamilton said.
Cameras catch the com-
petition, but also the mo-
ments before they start
and when they’re over.
They follow coaches biting
their nails in the stands and
family members who have
followed loved ones across
the globe. At the figure
skating rink, cameras go
into the workout room and
the booth where competi-
tors wait for scores. They
catch final conversations
between coaches and
athletes.
Red Gerard, of the United States, jumps during the men's slopestyle final at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Py- Through these backstage
eongchang, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018. moments, Hamilton has
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull) found that the young ath-
letes competing in the ex-
By DAVID BAUDER people working in an office office opened in 2012 is Eric Hamilton, director of treme sports that made
AP Media Writer off the Connecticut Turn- the nexus for everything its digital video production. traditionalists wince — the
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — pike, and for each Olym- cameras collect. "Pretty much every mo- halfpipe, the slopestyle
In a room lined with com- pics it is increasing its do- Then there are the sleep- ment is the most important races — display some of
puter terminals buzzing all mestic workforce, said Tim deprived staffers of the moment in somebody's the best camaraderie and
night during the Olympics, Canary, vice president of Highlight Factory, who are life, some athlete's life," he sportsmanship at the Olym-
an intern raises a hand. pics.
He's spotted an amusing Hamilton never would
piece of film footage of a have predicted that 6 mil-
dropped walkie-talkie skit- lion people would watch
tering down a mountain a video from the 2016 Rio
closed to competition be- de Janeiro Games of an
cause of bad weather, athlete trying to drink out of
eluding the grasp of a cou- the wrong side of a water
ple of skiers trying to stop it. bottle. Those are the mo-
A producer edits the film ments that make the Olym-
into a brief clip and sends pics become more than a
it electronically to a room sporting event and a part
down the hall, where a of culture, upon which
social media team posts NBC’s business depends.
it on NBC's Olympic web- “That’s when the Olympics
site, Facebook, Twitter and get fun compared to other
other social media destina- sports,” Hamilton said. “On
tions. Within a few days, it every day there are very
has been seen more than interesting things that can
1.6 million times. happen across all the dif-
Welcome to NBC's High- ferent sports.”
lights Factory, responsible The most popular clips from
for culling the best and Kiley McKinnon, of the United States, warms up prior to the women's freestyle aerial final at Phoe- Pyeongyang so far are a
nix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 16, 2018.
oddest moments of the Py- (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) mixture: figure skater Yura
eongchang Olympics and Min’s wardrobe malfunc-
blanketing the world with tion , when she almost lost
them. engineering. responsible for combing said. "It's the moment that the top of her costume; the
The network, which paid The curling and cross-coun- through and catalogu- they've prepared for for shirtless Tongan flag bear-
$963 million for the rights to try competitions are called ing every piece of foot- years, and they have just er’s return at the open-
show the Olympics in the by announcers working in age shot by NBC and the a few seconds in which to ing ceremony; a halfpipe
United States, has built a booths in Connecticut, not Olympic-run feed for other do it. Our job is to draw the crash by Yuto Totsuka ; and
facility for some 2,500 staff South Korea. The popular broadcasters. There are curtain back on that and gold medal-winning snow-
members in Pyeongchang. online "Olympic Zone" show some 778 hours of live com- let everyone see it." board runs by Shaun White
But it also has around 1,000 is fully staffed here, and the petition in the games, said The staff members pro- and Red Gerard. q