American Cinematographer - October 2021 - 57

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER ASCMAG.COM
Cinematic Storytelling at the Olympics
Anyone who watched NBC's Summer Olympics coverage on TV or
online will appreciate the amount and scope of cinematic storytelling
that was interwoven with the hours of coverage of races,
games and other contests that took place at the Games in Tokyo.
Aaron Mendez is one of the directors of photography whose job
was to shoot some of these short features. For the past three
Games, he has shot cultural and geographic profile stories about
the host countries, as well as bio profiles of star athletes.
For the Tokyo-based Olympics, Mendez shot short features on
the way of the samurai, martial arts and swordsmanship, sumo
wrestling, Japanese gardens, the effects of the 2011 tsunami, and
on one of Japan's biggest sports: baseball.
Once the Games began, however, he focused on the myriad
details that we tend to overlook. " I'm one of a small handful
of shooters whose job it is to capture the cinematic moments
in whichever contest we're covering on any given day, " he says.
" Some are dramatic and obvious, but others are more subtle and
overlooked. I'm usually zoomed in on details like an athlete in the
quiet moments before competition, or tying their shoelaces before
the next sprint, or the swimmer doing final stretches before the big
race. For me, the big picture is comprised of many small moves and
gestures that may seem insignificant, but which convey the tension
before, during and after each contest involving the world's greatest
athletes. "
Mendez's favorite lens for close-ups when shooting the Games
is Canon's CN-E 30-300mm T2.95-3.7, which he typically shoots
wide open for minimum depth of field and maximum impact. " My
main assignment is to capture key details in whatever contest
we're shooting. Normally that would include spectators, but due
to Covid there were very few in Tokyo, so we focused even more
on filming the athletes cinematically with [close-ups] and soft
backgrounds. "
Much of what Mendez shoots is captured at higher frame rates.
" Most of the time I'm shooting at 90 to 120 fps with a Red Gemini, "
he says. " Shooting the action at this speed allows you to view the
subtleties and appreciate the athletes' prowess. "
For extra visual impact, Mendez often has a second, higher-speed
cine camera rolling to capture climactic moments in
super-slow motion. " I often have Freefly Systems' Wave high-speed
camera focused on the same scene, but locked off on a slightly
wider frame, " he says. " It's capable of continuously recording at
422 fps in 4K and 1,461 fps in 2K, and it's great for fast-paced
movements that the naked eye normally misses. "
Mendez also uses the Canon C300 with the Movi rig to shoot
many of his features and profiles. And most of the time he does
his own focus pulling, he says. " I've gotten used to pulling my own
focus with my fingertips when using the Movi. While having a focus
puller is standard for commercials, it's the opposite in sports, so I
never plan on it. "
At the end of each day, Mendez's footage is ingested into the
NBC content cloud for use by a multitude of broadcast and web
producers within the network. NBC's Olympic contingent in Tokyo
was smaller than in past Games due to Covid, with about half of the
team operating out of NBC Sports' headquarters in Stamford, Conn.
" Mine is the ultimate Olympic assignment, " Mendez says. " Where
else can you shoot Kevin Durant on the basketball court in the
morning and Megan Rapinoe on the soccer field in the afternoon,
on the same day? "
- Carl Mrozek
Left: Cinematographer Aaron Mendez and colleague Kyoko
Mizukawa. Two above: Mendez's Red Gemini and Wave highspeed
camera rigs.
OCTOBER 2021 / 57
PHOTOS COURTESY OF AARON MENDEZ.
http://www.ASCMAG.COM
American Cinematographer - October 2021

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