A couple nights ago I watched the Olympics on my big HDTV at home. After my initial gawking at all the makeup caked on the figure skaters, I started thinking about goals and how they shift. See, there was a time when the one thing I wanted to do most was… edit for the Olympics. Now I’ve never been athletic – to this very day I become insecure the instant I set foot on a basketball court, pick up a baseball bat, or swing a golf club. I figured that even though I have no desire to put in the work necessary to be an Olympic athlete, I would achieve the next best thing by being one of the people who bring their stories to the world.
In 2003, NBC was crewing up for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. I was cutting for a daily entertainment news show on FOX, and I started asking everyone I knew about who I should contact to get on board with NBC. Well whaddya know, I started getting leads. A fellow editor from my previous job, also at FOX, had a friend who ran a post house in New York City who had also cut on location for multiple rounds of Olympics. I called the contact in New York, and he gave me the info for the Director of Olympic Operations at NBC. I kept asking around in Los Angeles for leads to the Olympics, and they pointed me to the same guy, who I emailed inquiring about how a young, fast, motivated editor could end up editing for the Olympics in Athens. Continue reading
