The successful rescue of 33 miners from a collapsed Chilean mine was watched by millions around the world -- armchair spectators who were glued to their televisions or computer screens as the drama unfolded.

The broadcast, closely controlled by the Chilean government, generated the kind of excitement, support and goodwill that no political campaign ever could -- and one man gets much of the credit.

Though he was behind the scenes during the rescue, Reinaldo Sepulveda had a frontline role in taking the story to the world, directing a team of eight cameras and scores of technicians, photographers and producers that captured the images and beamed them around the planet.

He said in a recent interview that he was "proud" of the production.

Soon after the mine collapse on Aug. 5, Chile's government realized it would be impossible to allow all media organizations -- hundreds were arriving from around the world -- access to the site.

Instead, the government decided to produce the event itself, coming up with a plan to place cameras in the hole where the men were trapped, on the capsule that would carry them to the surface, and at the top, recording their emergence, anxious family members and emotional reunions.  

Every moment was sent out live, high resolution still-images were posted to Flickr as each miner came out, and wireless internet was expanded to a broad bubble around the mine shaft, for the benefit of journalists covering the story.

And in the days leading up to the rescue itself, the government was proactive about sharing information.

"The most important part of any crisis management situation is swift action," says Glenn Selig, founder of The Publicity Agency, in a news release.

"While this rescue effort took more than two months to complete, Chile's government kept the victim's families and the media informed during every step of the effort."

Perhaps the high production value and slick organization shouldn't come as a surprise. Sepulveda, the presidential media director, has produced coverage of high-profile events such as the Olympics and World Cup soccer tournaments, and President Sebastian Pinera -- who was on hand to hug every miner as they came out of the capsule -- is the former owner of a television station.

The two are no strangers to producing major events on TV, but the manner in which they did it -- live and straightforward and without the use of a delay or editing, was risky and therefore surprising. If anything had gone wrong, the world would have witnessed it live.

Nothing did go wrong, however, and Chile's bid to convince the world it is an advanced nation with technical prowess and capable government, and is deserving of international investment, made a great leap forward.

Sepulveda himself can be credited with that success. In the weeks following the collapse -- he was with Pinera when he first got word -- he made numerous trips to the isolated mine in the Atacama Desert and began drafting a blueprint for the coverage.

From bulldozing a mountainside to create room for satellite trucks and reporters, to mapping out camera locations and working out transmission headaches -- even using social media such as Twitter to get the images and information out to as wide an audience as possible -- Sepulveda was responsible for the whole show.

"I was tasked with this work and it has been the most exciting I have ever experienced," Sepulveda told Chile's La Segunda newspaper.

"They say there are billions of people who have seen this. Nothing I've done in Chile has had ratings like this."

But he has insisted that it wasn't treated as entertainment or as a political device. Instead, he told La Segunda that the utmost care was taken to respect the miners and their families.