How Nick was thrown in the deep end filming the Olympic diving.

Episode Transcription

Den Lennie (0s):
G’day, guys! Den here with episode 216 of the How to Scale a Video Business podcast. Today we’re doing something a little bit different. This isn’t so much about how to scale a business today, but more of an insight to someone who is a very good friend of mine who’s just come back from filming The Olympics. Nick Bell is a client of mine that I’ve known since 2007 since we first had a bit of a walk on Scrappy, a challenge together back in the UK and we moved to Sydney a few years after Nick and his wife Lou did. Then we’d been great friends ever since. Nick’s just come back from filming the diving and I thought it would be really fascinating to get a kind of front-row seat into what was a very unusual Olympics, but also what his role was, he was on the slow-motion camera.

Den Lennie (46s):
and what kind of pressure that felt like to be filming at an event and get a real first-hand experience of what it was like to be one of the camera crew that filmed this year’s Tokyo Olympics. So, again, a bit different, but I thought it’d be interesting to get an insight from Nick on life as a freelance cameraman. Nick, thank you so much for joining me on this podcast episode. I guess you’ve got no choice because you are on day 12 of quarantine.

Nick Bell (1m 16s):
Yeah. Yeah. I wasn’t doing too much today. You caught me on a good day.

Den Lennie (1m 21s):
Well, look for those of you who are watching or listening to the show or who don’t know Nick. Nick is someone I’ve known since 2007. We first started working together on a show called Scrappy Challenge back in London. Nick lives in Sydney, Australia, and we used to live just around the corner from Nick and his wife Lou. So I’ve known Nick a long time, but Nick has just come back for the Olympics. Nick, tell me what was that experience like going to Tokyo and work in The Olympics?

Nick Bell (1m 53s):
Yeah, sure. It was fabulous in one word. It was even more interesting because of what’s going on in the world at the moment, I think. I was originally booked a couple of years ago when it was due to go ahead in 2020. With the situation around the world changing constantly, that was looking less likely and unfortunately, obviously, it got postponed with the intention of running it in 2021. So, we are all fingers crossed that we could still go. A lot of colleagues who were meant to go still did pull out by their own decision or they didn’t feel safe going, but I was quite confident that they are going to run it safely and we were reassured the whole way through.

Nick Bell (2m 45s):
So, yeah, We eventually got to go. It was a fascinating experience. It was my first Olympics. So even more special for myself, know your expectation from anything previous, but even the guys that have done it for many different Olympics actually said this did feel different, but in a good way, in a special way, because of the effort that was put in. The Japanese people are absolutely amazing. The volunteers and the other teams, I think probably ended up being more vocal because they weren’t spectators in the venues.

Nick Bell (3m 25s):
So yeah, every day I was sort of pinching myself that, wow, this is gonna be one of the best jobs I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on. So yeah.

Den Lennie (3m 36s):
You have a very alive thing is a very cool camera position. Tell us about where you were situated and what your shot was.

Nick Bell (3m 44s):
Yeah, sure. So, I was lucky to be working on diving specifically. So I was in the aquatic center, which is always great for Australian’s and British cause they always do well in swimming, and obviously, we had some good chances in the diving as well with Tom Daley competing in his third or fourth Olympics, or even as a young age. But yeah, so I was actually allocated one of the slow-motion cameras that I was buying in front of all of the boards. So pretty much the only angle that was head onto all the diver’s most the classic shot that they always show is this side shot and there’s overhead shots, a spider cam Gibbs or whatever else, underwater shots.

Nick Bell (4m 34s):
But yeah, so I was pretty much the only one that was always that straight on. So I always use live for close-ups of faces, the nerves, the anticipation before the diving, and then also use this slow-motion replays for the full length of the diving as well. It was a very interesting camera. Actually, I was very lucky and pleased that I got that one till today.

Den Lennie (5m 0s):
I would imagine a lotta people listening to the show or whoever videographers. We’d kill for an opportunity to do something like the Olympics, but it’s quite a long process to get there, wasn’t it man? Can you tell us a bit about your journey, man? You left the UK in 2007-2008 to move to Australia. Then we’d come over here, but it wasn’t easy to get started, was it? Tell us a bit about that, journey. I think it would be really helpful for people to understand that while it’s amazing you’ve just done the Olympics in 2021. It was a significant journey to get to that. Tell us a bit about that.

Nick Bell (5m 34s):
Yes, certainly. Yes. Myself and my partner. Who’s now my wife, we got married since we’ve been here, but we both came out with no expectation of how long we’d stay in Australia. We wanted to do some traveling. Then we settled in Australia with the intention of staying six months to a year. If it worked out we’d stay longer and longer. And obviously, I’m here 13 odd years later. So definitely it worked out, and we are jewel citizens now, the Australian and British passports. So yeah, so when I first arrived here, I was keen to stay in the same industry cap, the camera work that I’d been doing in London for the previous few years.

Nick Bell (6m 15s):
I’m sure everybody knows it’s a reasonably competitive industry and there’s to stand out you have to have something special and meet the right people and so I did. It was quite a slow start once we got here. I had to go back to quite a bit of assisting work and even though I was an operator at that time, didn’t have any equipment. And so I was the first work that I was sort of exposed to, is outside broadcast work, which tends to be multiple camera and live events, sport, music and such like, which I haven’t been involved with when in the UK. I was more involved in the inch-style camera work, pre-recorded shows, and such that.

Nick Bell (6m 59s):
So, that was a new skill for me as well but once you got the foot and the door, if you did a good job and meet the right people, it tends to be the same as most things in our industry. Its sort of people remember you, you meet a director or you meet some of the camera guys who get on well with you and your work tends to snowball from the previous work. So, I was quite lucky that I started getting involved in some big productions and met some great people who sort of took me on their own journey as well. People, you knew and you meet directors and certain operators. A few years ago, I got involved in a lot of motor racing, which I was always quite keen on as a fan growing up, used to go to motor racing and occasionally.

Nick Bell (7m 48s):
So it was interesting work to be working on motor racing out here. The biggest category out here is the Supercars in Australia. So I was lucky enough to get involved in that and got a bit of a reputation for being there during the whip pans on the main straits or the such a light side, not on very well, the crew they are and became a part of their core crew. And it just, that happens. The director on the Supercars for the last few years has been an OBS director for the Olympics for the last few years. There’s a few Olympics as well. So, when Tokyo came around and that yet he had a crew that he trusted on the Supercars, because he actually took a few of us, pthe ut our name in the hat that he wanted us there with him.

Nick Bell (8m 38s):
So it was a great compliment. Actually, our still are in a few cases of bad for them, but it is.

Den Lennie (8m 45s):
I mean, doing a whip pan on the Supercars I’ve seen anyone will put your Instagram, I’m a child with this link that whenever Nick’s on the Supercars or any sporting event he tends to have is phone mounted to do a kind of behind the scenes camera of hand whip panning. And I’m guessing that would’ve served you well, for them that in as quick. Going back to the Olympics, you know, a slow-motion camera on a dive lasts probably a couple of seconds, but tell me the pressure because it is, what’s the crazy number of people who are watching the Olympics broadcast is it in billions isn’t it?

Nick Bell (9m 23s):
So, yeah, so I was just to confirm, I was working indirectly for OBS, which is Olympic Broadcast Services. They provide pictures to every network around the world. So the networks, each country takes the feed from what we were providing the pictures for. So yes, it would’ve been a great deal of viewing. I’d never worked on diving before, but again, the director that took a few of us who hadn’t been to an Olympics, they’ve never worked on diving before trusted us, but it is in cameras that he thought we would work well with. So, yeah, it was a, it was a bit of pressure. We did have a couple of days before any broadcast, which we were able to practice, rehearse that the athletes were practicing also.

Nick Bell (10m 8s):
So we got to see the actual athletes performing dives, both on a springboard and on the 10-meter platform. And so that was a very valuable cause there were a number of times the rhythm on the springboard, especially in sort of builds up. So it is the muscle memory after a while. So to start with I was missing people growing at a shop or trying to go too tight, like most of Cameron too, on trying to challenge themselves. But yeah, you get into the flow of it And, and by that time that broadcast started, it was quite smooth and thankfully it went very well. They were very happy with the coverage from all the cameras.

Den Lennie (10m 52s):
I think that as a cameraman, myself or a former cameraman, I am fascinated by. What are the average day look like in terms of competition day because you were, or how long are you in Japan for and how long was the competition?

Nick Bell (11m 7s):
Yeah, sure. I think I was in Japan and about three weeks in total. As I say, various people flew in at different times because of the lack of flights as well. Actually, that was another situation we were in. We Had to get travel exemptions from the government and they had to organize flights for us. So there were minimal flights coming into Australia and more going out. So it was easier getting them, but yeah, so I arrived one day was on site the following day. So all the cameras that had been previously set up, so we didn’t have any rigging to do so.

Nick Bell (11m 48s):
We were sort of straight into being allocated our camera positions and, and rehearsing, basically. There’s an official dress rehearsal day with OBS watching to make sure that all the graphics we’re in place, camera positions, the timing of everything worked well, even down to a fake medal ceremony, we all rehearsed the timings of that as well. So yes, it was very organized. So that was the first couple of days and then the diving actually I’ve, I found was quite a prestigious one to get on in terms of the crew, because the competition for diving is actually during the preliminary rounds, it’s actually only an hour on-air each day.

Nick Bell (12m 34s):
So the guys filming the swimming, which is literally next door to us, and they are also colleagues that I know from Australia, they were going in for a very early morning session or the qualifying in the swimming, and then the aquatic center would be available for the diving to go on while there was a break in the swimming in the middle of the day. And then we would finish our days and the swimming guys came back in to do another session going into the evening because there’s so many heats and semi-finals and the finals and different disciplines in the swimming. We had a few days where we have two sessions towards the end of the second week when it was getting to the pointy end in the medal areas and I think we worked at that the most dives in any session was about a 180 something we had to film in about two and a half hours theirs up to 30 divers and in the men’s competition, they have six rounds each as well.

Nick Bell (13m 32s):
So, yeah, and we’d also done a previous session preliminary rounds and the semifinals as well. So it was our time at work during the middle of the day, probably like, in fairness and he probably an eight-hour day leaving the hotel and getting back, which is quite unusual, I think. Most of the other sports at the Olympics, they do tend to do really long hours. So I do feel very privileged and certainly been my first Olympics to be able to be on that sport enjoy the experience rather than having to just work solidly and not really take it all in for personal reasons as well.

Nick Bell (14m 15s):
So, as I felt very lucky. Yeah.

Den Lennie (14m 18s):
And as Brits living in Australia, I mean, you know, the love for Tom Daley and the excitement around his competition, how has that, and you’ve got the chance to meet them as well, didn’t you?

Nick Bell (14m 30s):
And yeah, I was, I was very lucky actually and I was living in the UK when he became a personality as a very young kid going to this first Olympics. So I knew his story and I was sort of trying to tell him, or her Aussie mates, this is gonna be a great story if Tom can do well in the Olympics cause he’s just had a couple of bronze medals in the past, and he’s got this personality, infectious personality, and he’s a big, big name in the UK anyway. Especially for coming out as a professional athlete as well. There were multiple areas of that story that could’ve turned into the dream that it did for him.

Nick Bell (15m 15s):
So yeah, that was, I was buying up. And then the whole fact that he ended up knitting on the side of the pool in his downtime addict to his story and I think even not being British or that, all my Aussie mates ended up loving him as well. So it really sort of how it made for a, a great sort of off-shoot to a historic. So yeah, they were. And I think probably because they weren’t any members of the public in the crowd, it probably made the athlete’s gave them a bit more access to anybody else who is in the stadium, such as the broadcast crew. There were quite a few volunteers.

Nick Bell (15m 56s):
And as I said earlier, all the support staff and all of the other teams were very vocal in their praise for any of the athletes. So the atmosphere was still fantastic, but I think it probably gave us as the broadcast crew or a bit more access to what they were going through. And I actually sort of lent over my camera platform and, and wished Tom and Mat good luck for their well- ended up being their gold medal winning day. So, yeah, that was really nice, and then when he came back for his 10-meter platform the week after, he was sort of familiar with a few of us around the pool deck. So we were sort of acknowledging him and saying hi or whatever, and then before the final, I had to go and say, hi, and can I get a selfie with you, unfortunate, but a bit unprofessional in those situations.

Nick Bell (16m 51s):
I see as much as a life moment, rather than work, a moment as well. So I absolutely love my work. Anybody who knows me knows I live by the, if you enjoy what you do, you can never gonna work a day in your life. So I would much prefer to be working than sit at home, not working and then unusual in light of that. But I think a lot of people in our industry, are like that they are doing it because they actually really enjoy it. So, yeah.

Den Lennie (17m 21s):
So you are in a unique position, aren’t you? You get to an incredible position and I know you pretty well, and I would be exactly the same as that. If you don’t take that opportunity there and then with someone that you’ve built of a bit of a rapport with you got an English accent. In that sense, and it’s such a beautiful picture because it’s just a lie because we’re watching the daily diaries, Tom’s YouTube channel. There’s just such an affable easy-going guy. And I saw that in my eyes is perfect, you know.

Nick Bell (17m 48s):
He was such a nice guy and literally, this was just before he’d made the finals. He was probably one of the favorites to get a medal in that 10-meter platform after you already got gold. I think he set himself and took the pressure off him, a little bit of winning that gold. So he is actually a lot more relaxed and he’s making his crochet, you said is a mindfulness thing. And that relaxed him. So he was more than happy to have a chat with us. And we had a little crew mascot that lived in the OB truck, and that came out, we were sort of betting on who would win each session. We were doing every day just as at a little crew tournament, basically, which nation would win and what school they would get.

Nick Bell (18m 34s):
So this little crew mascot got a given to whoever is one, the previous session. So I guessed the right results on a couple of occasions. So I got to keep the little masker on my camera, a platform, and one of the meeting projects Tom did was to make your little scarf for our crude mascot. That’s how, how much the report we ended up having with him. So it is, yeah, it was a, it was really cool and it added to the whole experience of being there, I think, but I don’t think that would have been quite the same if it was a normal Olympics and the pressure of a massive public crowd as well.

Nick Bell (19m 13s):
So, I am grateful for having that more personal experience on hand.

Den Lennie (19m 19s):
One of the amazing times to be a cameraman, because while the world is in different stages of disarray and sporting events are being impacted in all sorts of ways that the camera crew are, what, where the, you, apart from the athletes and the host city, if you guys hadn’t been there, it means, well, I’ve been in the Olympics, didn’t happen. How much responsibility did you feel to like, did that add any pressure for the fact that I know you did this for a living in, and it is a job, or you’re used to the pressure, but did it play in your mind at all that, that mythis very unusual situation surrounding it?

Nick Bell (19m 59s):
Yeah, I think it is sort of subconsciously more than anything. I think obviously I love to do a great job at any job. I mean, but you do certain jobs, you do feel more important. You get a sense of how many people are watching. I put one photo up on my social media, the first day we started diving and all of my friends from around the world, or, oh my God, you’re in Tokyo. And I think it was added to the fact that people haven’t been traveling either. So for me, it was the first time overseas in almost two years, which was a big deal in itself attending one of the biggest events in history and at this time in the world at the moment.

Nick Bell (20m 47s):
So yeah, there was a sort of a subconscious pressure, I think, but, but we will, yeah, we will broadcast where we’re classing ourselves as being very lucky to experience it. But obviously, a lot of the funding is obviously the television rights, so it needed to be covered if it was ever gonna go ahead. So, so there was a certain element of that pressure, but I think day-to-day, I was just going to work and enjoying what I was doing. And because we had a hard time perfecting it and getting to know each of our camera positions, where you were just really enjoying our time there. And we were confident in our own ability, to show what needed to be showing the amount of cameras thrown up the job.

Nick Bell (21m 32s):
And I think one of OBS’s initial wishes is whatever sport their covering in the Olympics, it has to be the best coverage of that spot that you’ve ever seen. So I was talking to that too. Our director, again, on a chat online, the other night we had a crew trivia the other night just towards the end of our quarantine. And he was saying he was actually in London, I think you said he had some inputs, they’d had a promotional video for REO. And one of the diving, this promo with somebody’s diving off of a huge waterfall.

Nick Bell (22m 15s):
And that was like a POV shot flying over the top of following them down to the waterfall and in it. And he got into thinking and he is, and he suggested to OBS. He said, oh, I would love to, obviously we can’t do it exactly like that jumping off a waterfall, but he said, I’d love a camera above the divers to be able to have a POV shot as they dive sort of zooming in following them down overhead and seeing their point of view of jumping off this 10-meter platform in going into the water. And, and within a couple of days, they had arranged mounting points in the roof of the new stadium, the aquatic center of London, to be able to fit a hot head camera above the platform.

Nick Bell (23m 2s):
’cause they wanted it to be the best coverage they’d ever had. So, and that camera exists and every Olympics ever since just from our director’s suggestion. So, yeah, it was a real privilege to be part of something which is sort of at the pinnacle of anything. And you’re going to work on in that particular area.

Den Lennie (23m 26s):
Well, in television, we’re so used to budget constraints on crew, on resources. So it must be nice to work in an environment where literally they always want to make it the best it can be through the whole time.

Nick Bell (23m 41s):
Yeah. There was definitely that feeling if you weren’t comfortable with any of the equipment, it would be sorted within half an hour. And even the extent that they knew the Australian crew would need to quarantine coming back to Australia. So the deal that was made was, yes, we still want the same Australian crew that we’ve had since the Sydney Olympics, all of the aquatics, a covered by an Australian crew that’s booked indirectly for OBS so the deal was made, yes, we still want the Australian crew. We know they’re going to have the quarantine, we’ll pay for the hotel quarantine, and we will give them an incentive for the two weeks that they have to do the quarantine as well.

Nick Bell (24m 23s):
So it made it a no-brainer for us really. Cause they would have been those concerns that coming from overseas, we were going to have to forecast to do a two-week quarantine and the time as a freelancer as well, not being able to work for those two weeks. So they were very keen to keep the quality that’s been in the last few Olympics on the aquatic center. So it is nice to have that kudos, I think as a big company, providing a world-class event like that.

Den Lennie (24m 53s):
And you’re not on day 12 of quarantine. Tell me, how is that experience been? What was in that experience?

Nick Bell (25m 3s):
I think I’ve coped okay, I think just because I knew this is what I was gonna have to do after the opportunity to be able to go to Tokyo and work on my first Olympics. So I was sort of mentally prepared. I have been lucky that I got a nice hotel. I’m in the Marriott in Syndey in Circular Key stepped into my room. The 26th floor have a look at, got a view, the Sydney Harbor bridge. I can watch the world go by. And it’s also been helped, unfortunately, people who don’t know Sydney is in another lockdown at the moment. And because of COVID cases is rising. So people outside haven’t really been able to do much either.

Nick Bell (25m 45s):
So I haven’t had any FOMO not missing out on much. There’s not as much work at the moment going on in Sydney. People had to travel directly to work. So yeah, that definitely helps my mental state and with technology nowadays you can, you’re only like I’m chatting to you in different states in Australia and you can see people and you can have a good chat, you can catch up. And we were allowed to have care packages is delivered to us as well. So we get bright food three times a day provided by the hotel. And my wife was very kind dropped off a few extras, bore me, or you can order in food if you want extra stuff.

Nick Bell (26m 26s):
So yes, it’s not been too bad and hopefully, the situation gets better in Australia and they work out a different way of doing the quarantine and the other, I think they’re trying a home quarantine in South Australia very soon. So yeah. As long as people end up doing the right thing, hopefully, we will, that things will get back to a new normal at some point.

Den Lennie (26m 46s):
Yeah. So you said once looking at drives, is that what’s next for your Nick in the next sort of a month or two?

Nick Bell (26m 52s):
Yeah. Yeah. It was actually very lucky being away at this particular time, to be honest, because I think it would have been pretty quiet around Sydney and for live sport is all been canceled, unfortunately. And I do have a few of the colleagues that were sent out to Queensland in fact, quarantined up there. They had a deal where they were allowed to go to work, working on the rugby league in the Australian rules football for the first 14 days, they were pretty much confined to their hotel apart from popping out to these jobs. And some of them are still up there. They left about the same time I went to Tokyo so that they would have been in Queensland for about six weeks away from their families, but just to have the opportunity to still work sort of three or four days a week.

Nick Bell (27m 33s):
And so, yeah, it’s gonna be a little bit lean, I think when I come out as there are no live events going on at the moment in New South Wales, I do have a bit of studio work, but still, television still needs to be made. So I’ve got a few days in studio and I try not to pigeonhole myself. I love doing sport, lived in live events, and music, but I’m just as happy as standing behind the pet camera filming somebody talking in a conference for a corporate deal or whatever they say, I just enjoy working. And the opportunity to be able to get the drive in my career it actually, so yeah, it is going to be a bad one.

Den Lennie (28m 14s):
So what’s your Instagram handles. So people that are listening can check out in a certain way, is that it’s a great place. It’s you know, that you post a lot of content of what you do there.

Nick Bell (28m 23s):
Yeah, it’s Beamer Bell, which is a nickname one. So B E A M E R B E double L Beamer Bell is my Instagram.

Den Lennie (28m 33s):
Nick will post that in a link to this. It’s great to speak to you, mate. Well, they saw you in Tokyo and I knew you were going, but it still took me by surprise. And I’ve got to ask you before we go, I think towards the end of the Olympics you actually did an Instagram story where you went up the10-meter board. Talk me through what that feels like looking down from that 10-meter board.

Nick Bell (28m 57s):
Yeah, I think that was the last day of the competition. The same day Tom got his bronze in a 10-meter platform and a few of us were like, you still haven’t had a look at that. We are going to have to go up there. So we just sort of took it upon ourselves. And you have a new respect for what these guys are doing. You guys and girls are doing, off a 10-meter platform is let alone in standing on the edge their handstands on the edge triple some sorts with full twists and still landing are not doing the belly flop or aback, but it’s absolutely unbelievable actually. It looks when once you’re up there it looks a lot higher than you think you feel like you’re on the roof of the whole or aquatic center.

Nick Bell (29m 44s):
And I was lucky enough, many years ago before I got involved in TV actually did a sports science degree, which was a whole other story. But as part of that course, we actually did. We were, I got the opportunity to go off for a 10-meter platform. And I tentatively went off a couple of times and it scares the hell out of you. And that was just jumping off to the end of this 10-meter platform, some people might do it at an actual park into a massive lake or something. But this skill that these guys and girls have, and being able to know whether they are in a space and still land with the elegance, that I do is unbelievable.

Nick Bell (30m 24s):
So yeah, that was, I didn’t get too close to the edge because I wasn’t fully dressed. I didn’t have my speedos that day. And I think we’d have probably got told off by the broadcast team as well. So yeah, just one day.

Den Lennie (30m 40s):
It’s been great hearing your tales and that I’m sure you gonna keep looking forward to getting back to Balmain and in a couple of days’ time.

Nick Bell (30m 47s):
Thanks. It’s so closest, literally just a couple of kilometers over that way, which is almost more annoying being so close, but the weather is been all right, there’s a bit of overcast today so I’m not missing out too much, but only in less than 40 hours to go and I’ll be with my wife in lockdown in Sydney.

Den Lennie (31m 8s):
Thanks, mate. Thank you, Den. Hey guys, thanks for watching. I hope you got a huge amount of value from that episode. If you’re looking for additional support or resources to support your business journey, then head over to denlennie.com, where you can get a whole heap of other resources, free downloads, and access all the other episodes in the series. Be sure to subscribe and I’ll see you next time.