Experiments in the Cine-Olympic Cycle: Camera Technology and Operation in The Grand Olympics (1961) and White Rock (1977)

abstract:This article examines two lesser-known official films from the cycle of the Olympic Games: The Grand Olympics (Romolo Marcellini, 1961) and White Rock (Tony Maylam, 1977). The filmmakers' experiments with wide-screen composition, extreme telephoto lensing, and novel means of tracking athletics in action challenge us to recalibrate our critical lexicon with respect to the process of screening sport. Combining insights into changes in film stock and optics with a close reading of the films, the article makes a case for placing technological shifts and below-the-line craft of production personnel in dialogue with accounts of Olympic cinema that privilege auteurist and ideological readings. In this vein, the article builds off John Caldwell's work on industrial reflexivity and Katie Bird's scholarship on embodied camerawork, body-mount rigs, and winter sport production. Augmenting these approaches with careful attention to "minor" technological shifts and their experimental use vis-à-vis Olympic sport allows for holistic analyses of film that can bridge technical specifics, formal analysis, and production studies. In so doing, the article suggests that while sports media is a particularly rich site for such a study, this approach is likewise useful for media objects far afield from those produced in Olympic stadia.