All Work

Olympic Channel × Snapchat × NBC Sports × Bridgestone

Far From Home

2018 — Documentary series

0:00 / 0:00

The challenge

Meet the unlikely Olympic hopefuls.

A man pouring tea in a market in India.

A documentary series for the Olympic Channel, presented by Bridgestone, following six winter athletes from countries without snow on the road to PyeongChang 2018: Julian Yee, Shiva Keshavan, Sojung Shin, Carrie Russell and Jazmine Fenlator, Forough Abbasi and Victor Santos.

The Olympic Channel wanted one of its first branded series: athletes from countries without snow, or the infrastructure to support winter sports, chasing a place at PyeongChang 2018. Bridgestone presented it, and Snapchat premiered it to a mobile audience.

Client
Olympic Channel × Snapchat × NBC Sports × Bridgestone
Scope
Creative · Packaging & Sales · Production · Post
Delivered
6 Extended episodes, about 27 min6 Olympic Channel episodes, about 9 min4 Snapchat episodes, 3–4 min
Skiers gathering on a mountain slope in Iran.
“Not only has the show reached over 9M unique viewers, but we’ve heard nothing but glowing reviews internally from colleagues who have been wowed by the brilliant footage and inspiring profiles. Suffice to say the Olympics, and these Olympians, are now top of mind for millions of Snapchat users around the world. Gold medals all around.”
Greg JusticeSenior Manager, Sports Content, Snapchat

The strategy

Six athletes from countries without snow, one Olympic dream.

Far From Home followed six winter athletes from countries with no winter-sports tradition, and no infrastructure to support one, on the road to PyeongChang 2018. We embedded with each of them for 18 days: at home, in training and at the qualifiers.

  1. 01

    Casting

    Six stories from six countries: Malaysia, India, South Korea, Jamaica, Iran and Brazil.

  2. 02

    Embedded

    Eighteen days with each athlete, from their home towns to the qualifiers in Europe and North America.

  3. 03

    Three formats

    Snapchat episodes for mobile, Olympic Channel episodes online, and extended cuts first screened at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

What made it hard

Nobody knew who would qualify, or when.

We filmed in the six months before PyeongChang, and every story turned on a qualifying result nobody could predict. Six athletes meant back-to-back shoots across four continents, and an edit that had to wait for each result to land.

  • 12Countries filmed
  • 15Cities, from Shiraz to Calgary
  • 18Days with each athlete
  • Julian Yee — Malaysia
  • Shiva Keshavan — India
  • Sojung Shin — South Korea
  • Carrie & Jazmine — Jamaica
  • Forough Abbasi — Iran
  • Victor Santos — Brazil
  • PyeongChang 2018 — the Games

What we made

The crew filming a food vendor at a market in India.
A cook at a street stall in India.
Kuala Lumpur at night.
A street cart in Manali.
Korean hockey players in their kit, waiting to go on.
The crew filming an interview in the stands of a rink.

Six extended episodes of about 27 minutes, six Olympic Channel episodes and four Snapchat episodes, premiered on Snapchat ten days before the Games. They drew more than 70 million views on Snapchat and won four Telly Awards.

How we did it

How do you film an Olympic story before anyone knows the ending?

Each episode rests on one long interview, framed centre with room above the athlete, around competition shot smooth and graceful, kinetic dryland training, handheld home life, and the culture each athlete carries with them.

  • 4Telly Awards
  • 70M+Views on Snapchat before the Games
  • 16Films delivered

The series

  • Malaysia · Figure skating01

    Julian Yee

  • India · Luge02

    Shiva Keshavan

  • South Korea · Ice hockey03

    Sojung Shin

  • Jamaica · Bobsleigh04

    Carrie & Jazmine

  • Iran · Alpine skiing05

    Forough Abbasi

  • Brazil · Cross-country skiing06

    Victor Santos

From the Caribbean to the Himalayas

Fifteen cities in twelve countries, from Kingston and Kuala Lumpur to Manali, Tehran and São Paulo, and the qualifiers in Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Italy, Lake Placid, Park City and Calgary.

A flag tied to the fence of a rink.
An older man in profile in a garden in Iran.
A man smiling with his hands pressed together, in India.
A man in a striped beanie laughing, in Jamaica.
Two women on a sofa by a window in Seoul.
Victor Santos looking out over São Paulo.
A woman in a headscarf looking up.
A luger at the Nagano 1998 Games, from the archive.
A bobsledder smiling, a towel around her neck.
A man in glasses, listening.
A coach’s hand on a stopwatch.
Victor Santos in the mountains.
Three women in the ruins of Persepolis.
An album of old luge photographs.
The Jamaican team in a hangar.
Sojung Shin by a plane window.
A woman in profile at the rink.
Victor Santos with his ski poles, training on the street.
A skier in helmet and goggles on the mountain.
A luger at the Sochi 2014 Games, from the archive.
A woman in a cap, in profile.
A woman waiting at a metro station in Seoul.
Julian Yee, head bowed, in the dark.
A cross-country skier at Sochi 2014, from the archive.
Fans holding a “Make India Proud” banner.
The Jamaican team waiting on a bench by a window.

The result

Start a project