Sunday, March 16, 2008
We televised our first game of the 2008 season today and, for spring training, today’s telecast was quite good.
I knew I would be a bit rusty since I last directed a baseball game six months ago. I tried to not be aggressive early on, but the camera operators were rather good, and I was able to take some chances earlier than I had thought going into the telecast.
Because of this, the mistakes that I made were “aggressive” mistakes. I would much rather make mistakes by being aggressive than by laying back and being timid. I think it is imperative for a television sports TV Director to take chances. Anybody can direct sporting events. But, I believe, the good TV sports Directors direct sports and make them “events.”
It is important to know the talent level of the crew. This is the reason the quality of the “home” shows is substantially better than the quality of road events.
I am fortunate in that the quality of our “home” crew is quite good overall. Because of this, I am able to let two of our camera operators “freelance” as they shoot the ball game. I have told these particular operators to be “producers” when they shoot the game. These two camera operators consistently come through with quality shots, memorable shots. Just as a TV sports Director must be aggressive in order to capture a moment or a sequence of moments, camera operators who are allowed to freelance must be aggressive as well. With a seven camera home show, I want these operators to stray from their normal coverage and responsibilities of a baseball game. I believe that having strict coverage responsibilities for camera operators inhibits the creativity of these operators. Sure, there are situations that require this operator to do this and this operator to do that, but, I believe, when every camera operator has an exact responsibility for every play, the quality of the telecast suffers. Under this scenario, less chances can be taken and memorable moments happen much more infrequently than when camera operators are offered more leeway to “produce” shots. With a seven camera show, allowing two operators to “freelance” while the other five operators have more precise responsibilities, offers our telecast a real chance to capture memorable moments. The aggressive nature of the “freelance” operators does not occur ONLY during the course of play. Many of our most revealing moments occur between innings. That is why we have four of our cameras that have an excellent look into our team’s dugout.
Once the game begins, the camera operators are “on”. If our telecast is airing a commercial, this is not a time for the camera operators to take a break. The best operators never take a break until we are off the air. Let me restate this, the best operators “work” from the time we go to air until we sign off.
The camera operators for today’s telecast continued to work for shots when we were in break. It was very refreshing to see these members of the telecast crew working as hard as they did. All baseball TV Producers and Directors know that spring training telecasts can be very difficult. The quality of these shows is not expected to be of the quality of the regular season shows. In fact, quality is not a word often used to describe spring training telecasts. The main broadcast team is trying to get the cobwebs out, trying to get the feet wet, and really just trying to get back into the swing of things.
Televising sporting events offers many challenges.
Televising sports is very challenging to the Producer/Director team.
However, baseball is the most challenging.
Football is once a week. Basketball and hockey are 2 and 3 times a week.
Baseball, for the most part, is every day.
The players use spring training to prepare and get ready for the season.
Baseball TV production crews use spring training games to prepare and get ready for the challenges of the season.
When the first telecast of the season goes as smoothly as our telecast went today, our production team can and will enter the season with confidence knowing that we will be able to meet the tough challenges a baseball season offers.
We have the same crew a week from today in Port St. Lucie against the Mets.
I am looking forward to that telecast.
I am looking forward to the season opener at Busch Stadium.
I cannot wait to work with the home crew.
We televised our first game of the 2008 season today and, for spring training, today’s telecast was quite good.
I knew I would be a bit rusty since I last directed a baseball game six months ago. I tried to not be aggressive early on, but the camera operators were rather good, and I was able to take some chances earlier than I had thought going into the telecast.
Because of this, the mistakes that I made were “aggressive” mistakes. I would much rather make mistakes by being aggressive than by laying back and being timid. I think it is imperative for a television sports TV Director to take chances. Anybody can direct sporting events. But, I believe, the good TV sports Directors direct sports and make them “events.”
It is important to know the talent level of the crew. This is the reason the quality of the “home” shows is substantially better than the quality of road events.
I am fortunate in that the quality of our “home” crew is quite good overall. Because of this, I am able to let two of our camera operators “freelance” as they shoot the ball game. I have told these particular operators to be “producers” when they shoot the game. These two camera operators consistently come through with quality shots, memorable shots. Just as a TV sports Director must be aggressive in order to capture a moment or a sequence of moments, camera operators who are allowed to freelance must be aggressive as well. With a seven camera home show, I want these operators to stray from their normal coverage and responsibilities of a baseball game. I believe that having strict coverage responsibilities for camera operators inhibits the creativity of these operators. Sure, there are situations that require this operator to do this and this operator to do that, but, I believe, when every camera operator has an exact responsibility for every play, the quality of the telecast suffers. Under this scenario, less chances can be taken and memorable moments happen much more infrequently than when camera operators are offered more leeway to “produce” shots. With a seven camera show, allowing two operators to “freelance” while the other five operators have more precise responsibilities, offers our telecast a real chance to capture memorable moments. The aggressive nature of the “freelance” operators does not occur ONLY during the course of play. Many of our most revealing moments occur between innings. That is why we have four of our cameras that have an excellent look into our team’s dugout.
Once the game begins, the camera operators are “on”. If our telecast is airing a commercial, this is not a time for the camera operators to take a break. The best operators never take a break until we are off the air. Let me restate this, the best operators “work” from the time we go to air until we sign off.
The camera operators for today’s telecast continued to work for shots when we were in break. It was very refreshing to see these members of the telecast crew working as hard as they did. All baseball TV Producers and Directors know that spring training telecasts can be very difficult. The quality of these shows is not expected to be of the quality of the regular season shows. In fact, quality is not a word often used to describe spring training telecasts. The main broadcast team is trying to get the cobwebs out, trying to get the feet wet, and really just trying to get back into the swing of things.
Televising sporting events offers many challenges.
Televising sports is very challenging to the Producer/Director team.
However, baseball is the most challenging.
Football is once a week. Basketball and hockey are 2 and 3 times a week.
Baseball, for the most part, is every day.
The players use spring training to prepare and get ready for the season.
Baseball TV production crews use spring training games to prepare and get ready for the challenges of the season.
When the first telecast of the season goes as smoothly as our telecast went today, our production team can and will enter the season with confidence knowing that we will be able to meet the tough challenges a baseball season offers.
We have the same crew a week from today in Port St. Lucie against the Mets.
I am looking forward to that telecast.
I am looking forward to the season opener at Busch Stadium.
I cannot wait to work with the home crew.
posted by Cutting The Game at 1:17 AM
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