L.A.-based commercial production studio Radley recently delivered four inspiring mini-documentaries celebrating the Winter Olympics for Hilton’s Honors program. The studio followed four top Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls – figure skater Ashley Wagner, speed skater Patrick Meek, hockey player Meghan Agosto-Marciano and ski racer Alana Nichols – on their mission to compete in the games. Radley was responsible for shooting, editing, design and animation for broadcast, digital, in-room, social, print and PR elements of the “Be A Weekender” campaign.
The videos provide an energizing look at the forever-on-the-move lifestyles of Olympic hopefuls. “Weekend By Ashley” starring U.S. skater Ashley Wagner is characteristic of the campaign, tracking her far-flung travels with a montage showing her training, traversing dizzying cities and relaxing at a Hilton. The spots were shot both with a heightened documentary style and at high frame rates, slowed to spotlight the most important moments for each athlete. The storytelling juxtaposes the raw, cold reality of Winter Olympics training with the warm, golden-lit hue that the event brings to the world every four years.
To produce the videos, Radley immersed themselves in the lives of the four athletes, enduring 3 a.m. wakeup calls to capture sunrise workout sessions and accommodating the frantic Olympic training schedule so as not to disrupt the athletes’ focus. The short production schedule demanded detailed planning of every frame, including the production of photo boards for each location and story to keep members of the widely spread marketing team attuned to every moment of the process.
“We’re inspiration junkies at Radley, and it doesn’t get any better than the Olympics. It was truly an honor working with these athletes to tell their story,” said Radley CCO/director, Kurt Spenser. “Fitting into the lives of Olympic hopefuls in the middle of an Olympic year is not an easy task. Detailed planning with the Hilton team allowed us to stay on schedule for the athletes and to be spontaneous when opportunities presented themselves. We did not want to interrupt their training or their travel, so we had to tailor our production as much as we could while still staying on budget and on time.”
