I am always frustrated with the lenght of time the in car shots are held,
(toshort) just when I am getting an idia of were they are on the track and
when the driver is going to pull the next shift or slam the breaks they
pull away to a to close close up of something else . This was especially
frustrating in the last rolex 24 .Some times i wish the comentators would
shut up and let us sit behind the driver for a coulpe of laps Maybe the
teams don't want that much information given to the viewer \ competitors
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Riddle" <dave@microworks.net>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 6:19 PM
Subject: RE: Newsflash From Ferrari-Now CART
> While there is no denying the "entertainment" value of NASCAR I would not
> equate the presence of cameras to "good" racing. While the abundance of
> cameras certainly raise the visual appeal which in turn helps with the
> casual fan at home who will watch a race on TV and thereby help with the
> ability to draw in sponsors it is not as simple for a road/street course.
>
> It is always easier to cover an stadium track with cameras compared to a
> Road or street course. Put cameras around the edge of the stadium and
> shoot down into the fishbowl. To get that kind of coverage on a road
> course would be astronomical in cost and not even Boy George with all of
> Mom's money could afford to do that even if he takes IRL road racing to
two
> or three places next year. Heck, he has lousy coverage on his current
> events and they are run at the same place NASCAR runs what makes you think
> he will put on a better show running at places he doesn't really want to
be at.
>
> The size and shape of the venue dictates how "easy" it is to cover and
> event and how expensive it will be. When I was in college one of my jobs
> was working as a cameraman for sports events. To cover a basic college
> football game took four cameramen and four grips to work the field and
five
> mounted cameras in the stands. To do basketball and baseball the
> floor/field cameras dropped to two and the mounted cameras dropped to
three.
>
> One of my other jobs was working as a Master Control Director. With each
> increase in cameras the number of producers, assistant directors and tape
> operators increases too. That means that to produce road and street
> courses to the level that you (and I) would like to see are going to
demand
> vastly more resources than are required for an Oval race.
>
> I think the only reason Boy George is even talking about running road
> courses is due to pressure from Penske and Gannasi as part of the deal to
> get them to jump ship with their sponsors that wanted to run the Indy 500.
> A Race that barely had a full grid last year and according to reports will
> not have a full grid this year due to a lack of engines along with other
> issues.
>
> The closest thing to what you are talking about is F1 (watched by a
quantum
> number - equal to the population of the entire United States - that watch
> NASCAR). They have multiple camera angles (top of the roll bar facing
front
> and rear, inside the mirrors looking at the driver, along side the nose
> looking at the track down low plus lots of trackside cameras. However,
> even with them, if it is raining or foggy the number of camera shots is
> drastically reduced since the airplanes and helicopters used to bounce the
> video from the cars are unable to fly. NASCAR of course does not run in
> the rain so they don't have this problem. But even the cost to produce
> those shots for F1 where so expensive that Bernie reserved their use for
> his "pay-per-view" which has since folded and why we are now seeing some
of
> those camera angles on Speed's coverage.
>
> I think the new cars that are taking over CART will be addressing this
> issue. They seem to be much more "media" savvy with what looks like
making
> the entire an event a "festival" with music etc... Plus don't forget CARTS
> pioneering use of the "inside the helmet" camera on Paul Tracy - that is a
> cool shot as long as it is not overused.
>
> For another camera angle that CART could use, in addition to the ones that
> F1 uses, would be right above the diffuser looking back. That would be a
> much more interesting shot than the one they currently have looking at the
> gear lever.
>
> Dave Riddle
> Former Sports TV Cameraman
|