Co-course leader of the National Film and Television School Sports Production Diploma, Tom Lewis, has just arrived back in the UK after overseeing the live coverage of the table tennis in Rio. Table tennis has been part of the Olympic Games since Seoul 1988 and is the most popular racket sport in the world.
Tom took on the role of Production Manager, supervising live coverage of all four table tennis tables at Pavilion 3, Riocentro. The production was part of the Olympic Broadcasting Services and the crew came from Beijing TV and Guangdong TV – Tom speaks Chinese, a skill that he learnt at university and has proved very useful over the years!
Tom said: “Working as part of the live coverage production team at the Olympics is really exciting but you have to be prepared to work long days and late nights. Despite that, I managed to see a bit of Rio, and saw some of the other sports in Riocentro including boxing, badminton and weightlifting.”
Tom Lewis has been in the sports television industry for almost thirty years. In that time, he has filmed in around forty countries, covering events as varied as football in China, cricket in Fiji and mountain biking in South Africa, as well as working at previous Olympics and World Cups. He has made several documentaries and feature programmes and was, for seven years, the producer of the weekly show FIFA Futbol Mundial.
Co-course leader, Chris Downham, has also got plenty of experience of live sports coverage - over 25 years’ in fact! He recently returned from working at the Euros and before that was series producer of the BBC Football League Show; senior features producer at 2014 FIFA World Cup; and senior producer of UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifiers and Highlights. Formerly Head of Programming at CSI Sports, Chris was responsible for all international distribution of FA Cup, England and Football League content. He was also executive producer of a range of programming including ATP World Tour Uncovered, Ralph Lauren Legends Clinic and Soccer AM’s annual DVD’s featuring Tim Lovejoy; and producer/director on Channel 4 documentaries – Wake Up England and No One Likes Us-We Don’t Care.
The NFTS’ 12-month Sports Production diploma is delivered in partnership with IMG, the world’s largest independent sports producers. It equips students with the editorial skills required to produce sports and live events coverage, highlights content and other material. It includes an internship at IMG's state-of-the-art studios where students will get the chance to work on live sports events.
If you’re passionate about sport and would like to work in television, applications are open now and the course starts in January 2017.
