BBC Olympics teaser explores frozen fractals of ice to illustrate events

BBC Sport carved out a teaser for its coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics that relies on an appropriately chilly concept — ice.

The network has already delved into the cold concept with its epic movie poster-worthy key art featuring its team of presenters. 

BBC’s fierce ‘winter is coming’ Olympics key art is quite the spectacle

The spot, which was created via stop motion animation mixed with visual effects, starts with a wide view of a carefully crafted ice cube set against a dark background while various figures appear “inside” the cube performing various sports featured in the Winter Olympics.

The view then takes viewers “inside” the cube for a dramatic slide down the skeleton slide with a human figure that appears created using a detailed rendering of ice crystals. 

Curling is then illustrated in a wide view of the cube that begins to tilt on its side as the figure inside pushes the stone along; the broom is also shown buffering across the screen.

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Next is another series of close up action shots of additional events, including downhill skiing, snowboarding and more, with the latter combining multiple figures in different positions to form the suggestion of a snowflake.

Figure skating is shown in another wide view that transforms into a flurry of other athletes while a brief burst of red appears before the ice cube “explodes,” shattering into incredibly detailed shards and pieces.

As the teaser ends, a collection of figures, this time shown as if they are carved from ice, rather than inside of ice, appears along with the network logo and a female announcer’s audio.

The promo makes use of the new BBC Sport logo and bespoke BBC Reith font. It also used the trademark yellow shade the BBC’s sport broadcasts have used for decades. 

BBC gets new logo as part of overall rebranding effort

The promo spot was created by BBC Creative with help from the team at Blinkink, director Balázs Simon, GAS Music and Glassworks.

How we made The Olympic Winter Games titles👇 pic.twitter.com/LounIsoh9y

— BBC Creative (@bbccreative) January 25, 2022

The start of the teaser also uses the three yellow stepped blocks that were introduced as a brand component along with the new logo design.

BBC is carrying select coverage of the Olympics in Britain this year, having entered into a sub-licensing deal with Eurosport, which is the primary rights holding broadcaster for much of Europe.

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