Part One

In some small way, Canada’s Olympic synchronized swimming team owed part of the silver medals garnishing their necks and the patriotic gleam in their eyes to the work of Toronto music company Worth Productions.

Headed by Ken Worth, Worth Productions has produced music for commercial clients like Coca-Cola, Honda and Kodak, as well as numerous film and tv projects, but the music company’s composition for the Olympic synchronized swim team provided perhaps the company’s most transcendent moment.

Worth had composed a piece in 1995 for Canadian synchro swimmer Lisa Alexander and was approached again last winter to create something for the synchro team for the Atlanta Games.

The piece, Canada Gold, was based on a theme of unity and featured strains of Oh Canada throughout. When the slick-haired team, which includes three members from Quebec, performed to the stirring song and subsequently sang Oh Canada amongst themselves, surely the moistened eyes weren’t only those of the swimmers.

Worth, present at the event, says it was a tense few moments and scoldings were administered by officials to an uncharacteristically boisterous Canadian fan contingent.

Part Two

Spy Films’ Jeff Eamer found himself in the middle of a media frenzy and some network news coverage on a recent shoot for Reebok in Atlanta with Falcons running back Eric Metcalf.

The u.s. client was aiming to develop a spot in conjunction with an Atlanta shoe retailer to run during the Olympics. When agency Leo Burnett initially balked at the short lead time for the project, Reebok went to The Portfolio Centre, an Atlanta ad school, for some new ‘This Is My Planet’ creative.

Eamer, who periodically lectures at the school, was called in to fine-tune the resultant product and to direct the spot, which after some time on the client’s back burner was reactivated by the initiative of Burnett Chicago vp Randy Spear.

The ad was shot in Atlanta by Castleway, a local production outfit, and was repatriated for post work at Toronto’s Command Post and Third Floor and music at Keen Music. Portfolio copywriter was David Weist, Ed Chambliss and Grady Phalen were creative directors and Craig Ghiglione was art director on the spot.

The two-day shoot featured herds of local media buzzing around the Falcons star, whom Eamer reports to be a stand-up guy who also demonstrated some positively alarming athletic prowess.

The spot features a beyond-Deion depiction of an affected superstar, Diamond Johnny, a quarterback who takes the audience on a tour of his empire – ‘This is my fan club/action figure/bodyguard’ – while Metcalf provides the counterpoint, set against footage of his grueling workout: ‘This is my day off.’ The spot aired in Atlanta during the Games and was featured in a national abc story on the advertising efforts of the footwear giants.

Part Three

The Partners’ Film Company’s Ross McLean was also among those to witness Olympic history up-close courtesy of a Kodak Film-sponsored trip to the Games. Kodak packed up some friends and employees from around the world, rented out Atlanta’s Hotel Nikko, and provided a grand time and lots of disposable cameras for all.

It was a first-class affair from every angle, says McLean, who was front and center for numerous key events including the Bailey victory. ‘You know you have good seats when Jerry Seinfeld is sitting a couple rows away,’ says McLean.

Channel 500

Toronto-based infomercial producer Channel 500 is producing its own half-hour tv program, Soho tv, devoted to the burgeoning home-office market. Soho (Small Office/Home Office) will air on an ad hoc ‘network’ of Canadian broadcasters which will run the program on a barter basis or in a half-hour slot prepurchased by the producers.

Channel 500 vp Rod Bell describes the show as ‘Martha Stewart meets Robert Scully,’ and says two core sponsors are already on board. Thirteen episodes, shot in Toronto and Montreal and produced for about $750,000, will begin airing in October.