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Heading to the real ‘Hills’

New 10-part reality drama to feature national snowboard team members in Whistler and international locales
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On-Hill, On-Air Kimiko Zakreski is just one of the riders featured in the upcoming 10-part TV series, "Over The Bolts."

Watching pro snowboarders hit the pipe or ride big mountain can be a pretty awe-inspiring experience, but have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes?

Well, now everyone will be able to see the hard work and drama that unfolds during training and touring as part of Canada’s national snowboard team.

MTV released a one-hour television special, “Summer Sessions,” earlier this month, profiling riders competing our own backyard to become members of the Canadian National Snowboard team. But if you missed the show, you’ll still have a chance to check it out, because MTV is turning the concept into a 10-part television series, entitled “Over The Bolts.’

Don Young is executive producer of features for Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, which includes Canadian broadcasters like CTV and MTV.

The series is a collaborative effort between three organizations: the Media Consortium, MTV and the Canadian Snowboard Federation (CSF). MTV approached the Media Consortium to see if they would be interested in expanding on “Summer Sessions” and creating a “multi-million dollar” series.

“They came to see me about three or four months ago and they said, ‘look, we’re doing this ‘Summer Sessions,’ and we think there’s a bigger, longer, sexier more dramatic story here,” Young said.

Young and his colleagues loved the concept, which sees crews traveling with the athletes and coaches to see the preparation, and drama, that happens between events.

“We have complete access to the team — the coaches, the administration,” Young added. “The camera is going to go behind the scenes when they decide who’s going to compete in which event — who makes it and who doesn’t.”

They also contacted the CSF to ensure they could give crews the behind-the-scenes access necessary to produce the show. The CSF was happy to oblige.

“They love it — they see this as an opportunity to get unprecedented exposure and the audience levels that we’re anticipating for the Games and the pre-Games coverage, its going to be like nothing ever before,” Young said.

Young speculates that hockey, figure skating and snowboarding will be the three highlight sports of the Games, and believes that “Over the Bolts” will definitely help boost the popularity of snowboarding.

“It’s a real commitment to the snowboarding team. It’s the first time anything like this has been done on this scale, and we’re going to have cameras travel around the world with the folks who are competing for positions on the team for the next year.

They’ve adopted a reality-drama format, similar to shows like “The Hills,” which seem to appeal to a young demographic.

“(MTV) know(s) their audience, so they wanted to shape a program that would resonate well with their audience, so we’re not particularly interested in fastest times going down hills, because that would resonate much better with the TSN audience. But the MTV audience is really interested in the behind-the-scenes human drama and the personalities.”

So far, the concept has been well received, with a positive response from most major media outlets. But with a background as a documentary maker, Young felt the one-hour program could appeal to a wider audience.

“I want music, I want visuals, and I want stunning imagery,” he said.

The 10 half-hour episodes will have a much more international scope, with riders and crews traveling around the world, to locales in Korea, Germany, Colorado, to shoot for the show.

“So, it will visually feel much more exotic. It will be a much prettier show, because they were on a fairly small budget to do ‘Summer Sessions.’ We can put more resources into this, so the visuals will be just stunning.”

The tracking will feature new, unknown indie bands that have been recruited by MTV for the project. They also plan to push the online aspect of the show, with additional footage and segments that don’t make it on the TV show put onto their website.

“One thing we learned about the Beijing Games is that this really is the time of YouTube, and this will be the first real YouTube Olympics, so our online CTV Olympics website is going to be completely integrated with the television shows,” Young said.

Young is quick to point out that this isn’t just another reality show, either.With all of the additional aspects being integrated into the 10-part series, Young and his colleagues hope it will have far-reaching appeal.

“We have all the channels that CTV and Rogers own,” Young pointed out, “…so even though this is driven by MTV, it will air on TSN, on CTV, on SportsNet, on Rogers, it will be on OLN…. This will be the most extensive coverage that the snowboarding guys have ever had.”

Now, the crews are just getting ready to begin production, and are preparing to set up shop here in Whistler, so expect to see them in and around Whistler all season long. The series is slated to air in mid-February, though they have yet to nail down a specific date.

“We’ve put quite a lot of money and effort into it so far, and from what I see, and I’ve done a lot of shows, my instincts are that this is really going to work.” n