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  • R

    Roone ArledgeOct 27, 2009 at 8:45 am

    Eddie,
    The media, newspapers included, have created an environment where anything goes. The sidelines, the playing field, the locker room, your personal life, NONE of these are considered sacred ground. Read your own newspaper, read your Dad’s column, watch news and sports tv. Where does anybody draw the line anymore?

    Do not like a camera in your face? I am sure that others do not like a pen and pad in theirs. Want more sound? Isn’t that more of an intrusion. Although you are right that RBTV could benefit from more ambient sound, score, down and distance graphics, player name graphics, stat graphics, replays, a stat guy in the booth, etc. Not that Jason Flam and Tim Brasic don’t do a nice job with the games. Hey Prokes, this 2009, not 1957.

    RBTV has every right to ‘get in your face’ because you believe you have every right to get in theirs! Let’s keep it UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL………….

  • L

    Lorenzo P CordovaOct 26, 2009 at 1:13 pm

    Mr. Morrissey,

    Congratulations on reaching the position of Sports Editor. It truly suits you.

    I feel this article has been a long time coming. In my many years at RBTV as a producer (in my high school years) and as a production assistant (in my post high school years), I have seen football players on the sidelines viciously curse at the cameramen and tell them to get out of their way. These heated actions are sometimes recorded.

    I have been the sideline camera operator for football games, and I have, even, once, directed a football game. As a camera operator, I was told to get close-up shots of the players, and as a director, I told my camera operator to get close-up shots of the players. Without the close-ups, the broadcast of the game would just be wide shots from the cameras in the press box.

    Also, the sideline camera operator also gets shots of cheerleaders, sideline spectators, the homecoming court, administrators and faculty members on the track beside the field, and even spectators in the bleachers. The sideline camera’s purpose is to give the viewers at home a sense of the atmosphere at that game. It shows the intensity of the players and coaches, the dedication of the fans, and the skill of the cheerleaders.

    One of the first things AV/TV Production Supervisor Gary Prokes taught me and my fellow classmates in Introduction to Television Production Level I is that “television is a close-up medium.” That means that in television, the camera needs to be close to the action in order for it to look great when broadcast. If the sideline camera operator stood far away from the coaches and players, the shots would look bland.

    Mr. Prokes’ comment in this article is right on. The game cannot be completely covered with one or two cameras in a press box.

    As for sound besides the announcers, it has been discussed at production meetings. The reason RBTV doesn’t turn on the microphones mounted on the cameras is because the sound would not be of good quality when broadcast. Also, with all the cursing and intense comments from coaches and players at huddles, the sound would require extensive editing. That doesn’t mean RBTV won’t find a way to do it in the future. Your point there is well-made, Mr. Morrissey.

    This article is extremely insightful.

    Lorenzo P. Cordova,
    Former Editor-in-Chief, 2006-2008
    Former RBTV Senior Producer, 2007-2008

    Sent from my iPod

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Get that camera out of my face! Why RBTV needs to relax on the sidelines