After tonight’s telecast, the producer and I were talking about the quality of crews around the country. Together, we have over forty years of Major League Baseball experience and we started working together in 1988. Except for a period of six years when he produced the telecasts for another MLB club, we have worked side by side. This familiarity certainly helps during a telecast when split second decisions are made. The fact that I know where he is headed in a replay sequence, and he knows where I am going in a camera cut sequence, lessens the amount of time to get where we want to get. The quicker the pace of the telecast, the more enjoyable the telecast is for the viewer.
But, it takes more than the Producer and the Director to dictate the pace of each show.
It takes total teamwork by the whole crew to create a final product that is both memorable and enjoyable to the viewer.
Which takes me back to my conversation with the producer after tonight’s telecast.
We agreed that the quality of sports television production crews today is not as good as the crews of ten, even five years ago.
Here, I think, are some of the reasons:
There are so much televised sports today that the crews are diluted.
The turnover in this business in the past five years is unbelievable.
Crew members do so many events that they come to not enjoy the sport they are televising.
After so many days of working sporting events, the passion is gone, it is just another job, and they are bored. And when someone is bored, they become lazy.
The performance of some members of the crew in tonight’s telecast validated the argument of this blog. Camera operators had to be reminded of their responsibilities the whole telecast. The pace of a telecast is greatly affected when camera operators have to be “directed” on almost every shot. If a camera operator listens to his/her instructions and follows them, then the operator should already be where he/she is supposed to be. If that happens, the flow of the telecast remains steady. If not, the flow is affected.
The low first and the low third camera operators were two ops that I had never worked with before. They were new to the live sports remote business and they were a pleasure to watch. The mistakes they made were because they were so aggressive. Everyone makes mistakes in every telecast. There is not a Producer or a Director in this business that does not appreciate an “aggressive” mistake. I look forward to working with those two operators again.
Every crew in the country has plusses and minuses. It is the responsibility of the Producer and the Director to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each crew.
Early on in a telecast, Producers know which tape machine is going to get many replay calls and which machine will not. By the second inning of a telecast, I can tell which camera operator is going to be seeing a lot of tally lights and which ones will not.
It is difficult to be at the top of your game day in and day out. But, the best operators consistently come through.
These are the TV techs I love to be a part of a telecast with.
But, it takes more than the Producer and the Director to dictate the pace of each show.
It takes total teamwork by the whole crew to create a final product that is both memorable and enjoyable to the viewer.
Which takes me back to my conversation with the producer after tonight’s telecast.
We agreed that the quality of sports television production crews today is not as good as the crews of ten, even five years ago.
Here, I think, are some of the reasons:
There are so much televised sports today that the crews are diluted.
The turnover in this business in the past five years is unbelievable.
Crew members do so many events that they come to not enjoy the sport they are televising.
After so many days of working sporting events, the passion is gone, it is just another job, and they are bored. And when someone is bored, they become lazy.
The performance of some members of the crew in tonight’s telecast validated the argument of this blog. Camera operators had to be reminded of their responsibilities the whole telecast. The pace of a telecast is greatly affected when camera operators have to be “directed” on almost every shot. If a camera operator listens to his/her instructions and follows them, then the operator should already be where he/she is supposed to be. If that happens, the flow of the telecast remains steady. If not, the flow is affected.
The low first and the low third camera operators were two ops that I had never worked with before. They were new to the live sports remote business and they were a pleasure to watch. The mistakes they made were because they were so aggressive. Everyone makes mistakes in every telecast. There is not a Producer or a Director in this business that does not appreciate an “aggressive” mistake. I look forward to working with those two operators again.
Every crew in the country has plusses and minuses. It is the responsibility of the Producer and the Director to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each crew.
Early on in a telecast, Producers know which tape machine is going to get many replay calls and which machine will not. By the second inning of a telecast, I can tell which camera operator is going to be seeing a lot of tally lights and which ones will not.
It is difficult to be at the top of your game day in and day out. But, the best operators consistently come through.
These are the TV techs I love to be a part of a telecast with.
posted by Cutting The Game at 9:48 AM
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