SA production tips the scales for London bid

It was largely due to the efforts of world-famous athlete Sebastian Coe and a determined Olympic bid team that London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. But South African film production company Miros Films is equally proud to have played a role.

31 Jul 2005

In collaboration with British production team Caroline Rowland and Daryl Goodrich of New Moon, Miros was responsible for the creation of the promotional movie for the final stage of the bid which was viewed by the International Olympic Committee in Singapore prior to the casting of the final votes.

South African director Paul Miros and producer Gary Webb worked around the clock at locations in and around Johannesburg filming for the production of the final bid movie the clinched the 2012 Games for London.

Instead of focusing on the city of London itself, the movie depicted the impact that hosting the Olympic Games in London would have on four different children from Africa, Mexico, Russia and China. With this in mind, Miros was charged with creating authentic scenes from these countries utlising various SA locations.

The five-and-a-half minute movie, set to music created locally by Rob Schroeder, features the four children who are each spurred on to take up a different sporting pursuit and we witness their growth and development as athletes until they finally compete in the Olympics themselves.

Miros says: "Obviously it was a great privilege for us to be invited to assist New Moon on a project of this magnitude. It was a huge job crammed into just eight days and with the support of a fantastic team of suppliers we worked non-stop throughout that week to able to pull it off. And of course we're thrilled to have been able to have made a small contribution towards the winning bid."