Kois Covers It All In Prizewinning Style
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Del.icio.usFor a guy who’s not really into sports, Gene Kois has sure made a name for himself shooting the world’s most famous athletic event.
Kois, a Kailua resident and owner of Specific Video, has been behind the lens for five Olympic Games and hasn’t left the medal stand to the athletes. Last month, he won an Emmy - his third - for his work at the Summer Olympics in Beijing in the category of Technical Team Remote. And while it’s not the first time he has been honored, a thrill of victory came with the announcement.
“It’s definitely nice to get industry recognition for what you do,” Kois said.“The opportunity to work on a major sport team on a major sports event - it’s really a trip, it’s really exciting. There are moments that are just fabulous.”
Kois came to Hawaii in 1975 when he was hired by Oceanic Cable to work on its original programming. Two years later he was being hired by the likes of NBC to cover sporting events. It was just this sort of assignment - shooting women’s golf, in fact - that led to his Olympic run.
“In 1988, when NBC picked up the summer games, we finished a ladies golf tournament on Kauai and the director asked me if I wanted to go to Seoul to work in the Olympics. Ironically, I applied months earlier just to a general address and they said there were no openings, but the directors can basically pick their own crews. So he asked me if I wanted to go. I said sure.”
That invitation led to a working relationship with the network. Kois now has shot five Olympics (he missed the Greek games) and has developed a special fondness for track and field.
“There is something about it that I just love. To think that from standing still you can run or jump 8 feet in the air, that’s amazing. To watch pole vaulters 10 seconds before they do that thing they’re doing with the face and eyes and that pole - it’s really an amazing effort these athletes put out.”
Every Olympic has its own personality, but of his stops, Kois said the games in Seoul remain his favorite - and not just because it was his first.
“Even more than the way they handled it, there was something about the people in Seoul. They were just so ecstatic that the games were being held there in their lifetime that it was just really a wonderful time.”
Though his work has taken him around the world, the Olympics have not had the biggest impact on him. That would be reserved for a much smaller project close to home. For the last few years, Kois, 62, has been filming oral histories for the Kaneohe-based Hula Preservation Society, and it’s been a great learning experience.
“It certainly taught me about how important video can be. There is so much video I’ve work on in my life. It’s entertaining, it has a shelf life of a year or two or maybe some value in reruns. But there’s something about these oral histories with the kupuna and what the HPS people do. It hit me that those were the videos that were going to outlive me. Not because I did them, but because of the content on them. I’m so thrilled to be a part of that.”
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