How Henry Hobson crafted an Olympic double-decathlon

It's hard to imagine being an Olympic athlete; spending all of your time perfecting a skill that seems nearly superhuman to many, flinging your body into shapes and scenarios that would normally lead to A&E, wearing lycra and it looking... y'know... good.

Skin-tight leggings aside, Henry Hobson does a rip-roaring job of putting us in the shoes (or eyes) of more than 20 sportspeople in his staggering Unmissable Moments for Discovery+.

Involving high-flying stunts, numerous locations and some first-person photography that really flings you into the action, the spot tickled our exercise bones, so we sat down with the MJZ director to find out how he did it.

How did you get involved with the project?

The project dropped on my desk with a great concept already written. 

The team at R/GA had put together an idea that was super-ambitious; 20-plus sports, all shot from the POV of the Olympic athletes. Technically challenging, but also logistically insane, which is where the creativity starts; let’s find the limits of what might be possible, and then start threading in the slight beats of emotion and humanity, weave them together with transitions that help the fast-paced film flow. 

Technically challenging, but also logistically insane, which is where the creativity starts.

I took the image of Steve McQueen shooting his vanity Le Mans project as the inspiration, and the concept from the creatives, Nick Pringle, Nick Bygraves and James Greening, was captivating and that allowed me to have a great starting block to race from. Pun intended. 

What did you feel you had to nail in order to get everything else right?

With a project like this, there are a lot of unknowns. Principally it’s a technological trial. 

So, I proposed shooting a ‘crapomatic’ to help us narrow the problems down. To find out where the transitions would be best placed, how to thread from sport to sport, what sports read quickly, where it gets disorientating and where you really need time to feel the athlete’s joy or pain. 

What was involved in the ‘crapomatic’?

I headed out to Poland (where it was filmed) a few days early. In fact, I shot this ‘crapomatic’ the day I landed. 

We had a mad dash race through Warsaw with some athletes, a Go Pro technician and some, thankfully, empty sports facilities. Stewart Reeves (at Work Edit) took some time ahead of the job to work with me through this.

What lessons were learned from the test shoot that were applied for the actual shoot?

Mostly it confirmed things we suspected; how athletes’ bodies and movements would respond with lightweight cameras, where the limits would be, and where and what lenses would be best suited. 

We had a mad dash race through Warsaw with some athletes, a Go Pro technician and some, thankfully, empty sports facilities

We used the Sony Venice Rialto for most shots, but even that had logistical issues, so the shoot was complemented by the Sony FX3, which allowed us to stay super-mobile and nimble for the running shots.

The edit is vital for maintaining the flow of the piece; how was it working on that?

That’s where the ‘crapomatic’ was so helpful. 

We could shape transitions because we had already tested them, [and] the sound team at 750mph created a sound design scape that does so much to tell the story.