Sunday, May 16, 2010

Weak Link

Televising the Cardinals/Reds game today was difficult.
When a pitcher is working slow, his teammates on the field are not the only people affected. The whole TV crew is affected as well. The telecast started out with a good flow but, because of the pace of a starting pitcher, I could feel members of the crew becoming disinterested.
It is a fact that if the viewer is bored that means that the director must be bored. I can't say that I was bored during the telecast/game today but the slow pace certainly was maddening and, thus, my concentration level was not where it should have been.
Being on the back end of a dual feed makes it all the more important to keep the concentration level up. My cutting between the home feed and my cameras was awful. There were a bunch of "jump cuts" and some just plain bad TV baseball directing. This telecast looked like it was directed by someone doing his first game.
Our producer looked at me twice today with a look of "What the heck is wrong with you?"
He was being very professional. He could have given me "the look" many more times than just twice.
The camera operators were affected as well. They stopped (for the most part) listening to the announcers about the fourth inning and had to be directed for almost every shot. I put NO blame on these camera operators who usually do a great job. They were just following me and my "rookie" cut.
This is my summary of today's telecast:
Technical Director (TD) - excellent.
Audio - Great mix.
Video - Very nice pictures.
Graphics - Super job.
Cameras - Performance affected by the weak link - me.
Tape Room - On top of things all game.
Fox Box - Perfect
Pitch Trax - Solid
Stage Manager - Flawless
Producer - Flummoxed by the director.
Director - None of the above.

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