SCI Television’s Mark Traverso and his four-person Chicago crew will fly to Bejiing Aug. 2, where they will provide satellite media and other services to the USOC Corporate Partners during the Aug. 6-24 Summer Olympics.
Bejiing marks the ninth Olympics games for which SCI has provided production services since the company was first hired for the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona.
This is the first year that the U.S. Olympics Committee (USOC) has contracted with a single, exclusive vendor to provide Corporate Partners and suppliers with services that will include satellite media tours, B-roll packages and web videos, and on-site editing facilities.
“We’ll also be documenting work for sponsors, going out and shooting the different programs they hold during the day at their individual pavilions for archival purposes,” said Traverso, a sports marketing expert in business for more than 20 years.
SCI will work out of USA House, primarily a hospitality area for corporate sponsors and their activities, and the USOC High Performance Training Center where, on Aug. 6, they will shoot a “24 Hour Fitness” demonstration.
USA House is actually a beautiful, four-story restaurant called Jasmine, which is located adjacent to Workers Stadium, an existing stadium which is one of 33 new, temporary and existing venues where the games will take place.
Traverso, who will direct and shoot, will be making his third trip to Bejing; he traveled there last fall for several weeks of preproduction, with a follow-up trip to organize equipment and Chinese translators and drivers in late May.
The accompanying Chicago crew consists of SCI’s production coordinator Valerie Kennedy, a 10-year SCI veteran; audio engineer/cameraman Zack Rockwood,; editor/graphics artist Michael Lister, who will edit on SCI’s Final Cut Pro Studio System they are bringing, and tech assistant Ryan Hull, also a shooter.
In Bejing they will be joined by cameraman Paul Sutton, an American from Boston who lives in Bejing, an Australian providing the satellite truck and Chinese nationals who will drive and translate.
