Primary Goal

The Cardinals beat the Astros tonight by the score of 6 - 1 in front of an announced crowd of 12,584. In truth, there were about 7500 patrons for this affair that lasted 3:03. During the top of the first inning I asked the low first camera operator (an excellent op by the way) to give me a shot of the pitcher. As expected, he immediately went to a waist shot. What was totally different about this particular shot, however, was that the background for this shot showed only empty seats. Absolutely no fans were in this shot at all. After my third waist shot of the pitcher, I told the camera operator to ONLY give me head to toe shots of the pitcher. The head to toe shot actually showed some fans in the background. It should be a rule for every sports TV director to try as much as possible to not shoot empty seats. The primary goal of every TV sports director is to promote the game. Shooting empty seats takes away from that goal.