Television Sports Production

Jim Owens

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317671084
• Edizione: 5
• Argomento: Media & Performing Arts
• Categoria: Film & Video

Unlike a studio production, many factors can adversely affect your television sports shoot including weather, lighting, and natural sound. A successful shoot is dependent on extensive planning, careful budgetting, technology, location, and a thorough understanding of the intricacies of the sport itself. With so much at stake, why not learn from an expert?

In Television Sports Production, Fifth Edition Jim Owens walks you through the planning, set-up, directing, announcing, shooting, and editing involved with covering a sports event. This manual gives you the tools to effectively cover sports ranging such as football, soccer, and basketball. Tips and advice on using mobile units, cameras, audio equipment, and lighting rigs will enable you to produce live or recorded coverage like an expert and capture professional-quality footage on the first take. After all, there are no instant replays!

This new edition has been updated to include:

• Techniques used by producers to capture the essence of individual

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• Tips on shooting in 3D, 5D, 4k and 8K

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• Coverage using surround sound and the second screen

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• Extras such as camera and microphone diagrams and an easy-reference glossary

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Part 1
Introduction to Remote Production

Chapter 1: What is Remote Production?

Chapter 2: Television Sports Personnel

Chapter 3: What is Television?

Chapter 4: The Second Screen and Social Media

Chapter 5: The Mobile Production Unit

Chapter 1
What is Remote Production?

Why live? Live events are the core of TV. They are the one thing TV can do that no other medium can match. There are things movies can do better. There are things radio can do better. But no other medium can bring you a visual report of an event as it’s happening. TV makes everyone part of history.

Tony Verna, Director, five Super Bowls and 12 Kentucky Derbies

Remote or outside broadcast (OB) production can be defined as a multi-camera production occurring outside of a studio context. Remotes come in all sizes and types. A small remote may consist of a two-camera production operating out of a small production Mini Cooper automobile or a closet. A big remote may include 20 or more cameras including a helicopter shot and point-of-view (POV) specialty cameras (see Figure 1.1).

The Remote

The remote broadcast environment challenges you personally and professionally in every which way; mentally, physically, technically, creatively, and in more ways than can be imagined.

Peteris Saltans, Audio Broadcast Engineer and Mixer

The key to a quality production is to assemble a team that can predict what is going to happen and where it is going to happen. It is important to choose a crew that knows their job and can work well together. The crew must understand how the event will unfold and how best to apply their television-related skills. Key to those predictive skills is the ability to plan for contingencies in case something goes wrong.

The more familiar the crew is with the event, the better they can cover it. Understanding the intricacies of the event allows the director and talent to clearly communicate what is happening on the field of play, allows the audio people to know how to set microphones for the event, and gives the camera operators the ability to predict how they should be moving their cameras. Some people are specialists who work only at specific types of events. For instance, a producer may specialize in figure skating events.

Figure 1.1 Remote production locations add variables that usually do not exist in the studio, such as weather, lighting, and audio.

Today, many events are covered by live remotes. Live events grab the viewers’ attention and help them feel as though they are witnessing history as it happens. The crew is also impacted by a live event. With no way to edit their work, there is a palpable need to get it right the first time. The result is a heightened sense of teamwork and concern for quality. Without adequate preparation, “live” can kill the broadcast production.

Live-to-Tape

Live-to-tape (while it is still called “live-to-tape,” videotape as a recording medium is quickly being phased out) usually refers to recording the event and then editing it for the final version compared. Even live-to-tape remote productions can take different forms. Most remote productions utilize a mobile production unit outfitted with live switching gear, video recorders, graphics, and space for the crew. However, some sport productions can be covered with multiple electronic news gathering (ENG) cameras. In this case, the entire production must be edited in postproduction. While live switching is faster, it requires an expensive remote unit, more equipment, longer setup time, and more crew members. Multiple ENG cameras require a postproduction facility and take more time in the postproduction process, but in the end are generally less expensive.

Remote versus Studio Production

While the studio can provide the director with the most control over the situation, the advantage to a remote production is the ability to capture the event as it is happening. Producers involved in the event from the beginning may be able to help select the event location so that the best visual background for the event is obtained. If the production is not far away, at times it can even be less expensive to shoot in the field than in a studio setting.

In the studio, you have the ultimate control over sound, lighting, electrical power, and weather, but in the field they can become your biggest problems. If there is not enough light or electric power, you need to provide it. If the public address system or other unwanted sounds interfere with your audio, you need to change your microphone positions. If the weather gets bad, the event may get cancelled.

As mentioned earlier, your crew must be chosen carefully. However, on a remote, the production may be somewhat dependent on people that you do not have any control over, who do not necessarily understand the television production process. This could include personnel such as police and venue management and technical personnel. It becomes essential that the production crew cultivate good relationships with these people in order to facilitate the access that is required.

The mobile unit’s size may also cause some issues on a remote production location. These could include traffic blockage and parking spaces for the truck. Another associated issue is that parking spaces may not be available for the crew near the mobile unit. Parking space near the truck may also be required for a portable generator that provides power or even backup power.

If the production is occurring far from the home base, management has to be concerned with providing food, lodging, and transportation for the crew, which can add considerable expense to the production costs.

Often, location permits are required for a crew to shoot in remote locations. Obtaining those permits can be a time-consuming process.

When the advantages of a remote production outweigh the disadvantages, then you hit the road, with crew and equipment in tow.

Chapter 2
Television Sports Personnel

Quality must be applied to all of our work. I believe this to mean that we have to tap into our passion for what we do. To continue to be inspired and challenged by the work of others. To be educated and forward-thinking as much as possible. And, ultimately, not to rest on success but flourish by challenging failure. In essence, we have to become the best fans possible.

Daniel Silver, Director of Development, ESPN Films

Understanding how the remote production goes together requires the understanding of the role of each of the participants, their responsibilities, and how they interact. Respon sibilities vary with the production company, station, network, and event. People are often required to wear multiple hats in a single production.

The Producer

Producers give the sportscast its viewpoint, its flavor. The best producers are master painters, Picassos or Rembrandts. The mechanics of their profession—the hows and whens to use different brush strokes—are second nature to them so they are able to rise to another level, combining the individual strokes to create a masterpiece that interprets the world in a unique way. The best producers have the mechanics down cold so they are free to develop a storyline, using the talents of the broadcast crew as their brushes. Good producers have three common characteristics:

• (1) they are organized;
• (2) they are cool under pressure; and
• (3) they respect and support the broadcast team working with them.

Gary Bender,
Former Sportscaster for Fox Sports

Additionally, the name of production functions may vary from company to company. While it is difficult to give a definitive description of each position, the following is a brief description of the most common roles within a remote sports crew.

Personnel Descriptions

I’ve always maintained that with the right crew (producer, director, play-by-play commentator, and analyst) you can make a toenail clipping competition riveting television. With the wrong crew you can make an FA Cup boring.

David Hill, CEO, Fox Sports Media Group

Executive Producer (Head of Production):

Responsible for the planning and logistics of one production or a series of productions. Gives overall vision for a production or a series of productions. The executive producer’s responsibilities generally include finance, scheduling, and sometimes major creative decisions. Other responsibilities may include negotiating...