As I have stated in earlier blogs, telecasts from the home ballpark, with the home TV crew, usually have a better flow than those from the road. There is a comfort zone when working in the home environment that helps create a better telecast. Familiarity equals comfort equals a good flow.
That is not to say that there are no quality baseball telecasts on the road, however. For the past two telecasts, we have been on the road and have enjoyed two quality telecasts that flowed. While it is always nice to work with the home crew, this crew has been a pleasure to work with these past two days. Every member of this crew works hard and takes pride in the job they do. And they deliver.
For the second straight telecast, I sat in the Producer’s chair and our Producer directed.
We only had one segment in our Open stand-up because the first pitch was at 7:05. During this segment, we highlighted our starting pitcher with video and a lower third graphic showing the numbers from his previous two starts. The theme established here was that this pitcher has been pitching great of late and if this trend continued his team had a good chance to win. The open segments end with what is called the “coming up” animation where we establish another theme for the telecast. In the “coming up” for this telecast we played video of our first baseman hitting a home run. He had hit four home runs in the previous two games and we would see if this “hot” streak would continue.
The starting pitcher pitched a great game and the first baseman hit a home run in his first at-bat. The team we cover won the game 2 – 0.
When the game plays out like we talked about in our Open stand-up segment, it only enhances the quality of the telecast.
While a Director is cutting cameras, he is into the absolute “moment” of the game. A Director will have a pretty good idea of where he/she wants to go when cutting a shot sequence, but the action on the field will, more often than not, dictate the direction of the cut.
When a Director has the good fortune to work with a quality camera crew, he/she knows that the chance of a memorable telecast has increased dramatically. When there is a quality camera crew, the Director is able to take more chances.
Let me explain.
There is too much emphasis in television baseball in covering the “ball”.
Everyone in the ballpark and every television viewer saw the play happen live. The viewer now has the luxury of watching the replay or replays of the play that just happened. A Director with a good camera crew is able to iso different shots that are away from the play. This is how a director takes chances.
On our home telecasts and on our road telecasts, where we are not in a “dual” situation, we have six replay machines. (A dual telecast is where two feeds basically share one truck. More on dual feeds in another blog)
The best replays of a telecast are not the first, second, or third angles of the play. These angles are different “looks” at the play that just occurred with a replay sequence that will usually start wide and get tighter with each angle.
The most talked about replays of a telecast are the fourth, fifth, or even sixth angle of the play. These are the angles that show where the Director has taken a chance. As stated earlier, a Director who takes chances will have camera isos of actions on the field that are happening away from the play. Most of the time, these “chances” do not yield a replay and that is the reason why some production teams do not take chances. But, when a chance is taken and it works, that moment is the one that people talk about after a telecast. A memorable moment may occur only once every ten times a chance is taken and I believe it is worth it. A production will rarely be lucky enough to have all the chances (isos) work, but if one of the isos away from the play works, that is a memorable replay.
Tonight's game was a well played, fast paced affair that did not allow for many instances where isos away from the play worked.
During the bottom of the eighth inning, when the home team was threatening to tie the score, the pitcher for the visitor came through with a big strikeout. Our lead tape producer suggested that this strikeout would be an excellent item for the open stand-up of tomorrow's telecast. Planning ahead is very important in this profession. Our stand-up segment for tomorrow's telecast will include this very important moment from tonights game.