PSA: GOD DAMN BLAZERS BROADCASTING CAMERA ANGLES

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BoBoBREWSKI said:
I got the opportunity to sit in the truck with HCP a couple years ago and it was awesome! It's controlled chaos. My head would explode if I had to juggle everything they do and do it on the fly.
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Like what, Chainsaws?
 
HCP said:
How do I reply to these well thought out, well composed educated posts..........

Broadcasting LIVE action sports is a tricky business. A LOT goes into showing you guys the action. Now covering soccer, golf or baseball is COMPLETELY different. Those sports are very slow and you have time to set shots and other content up. Basketball is probably one of the fastest to work along with Volleyball or LaCrosse or arena football, but who watches those?

That said, I believe Sly mentioned above that there are over 200 trips up and down the court on average during a game and you guys are bitching about a handful of mistakes. Albeit they were key plays, shit happens. If it makes you feel better (I'm sure it won't) but of my basically 12 cameras I had access to last night, only ONE was focussed on Davis during that steal. Every other camera was focussed on what we call a HERO shot of whoever had just made a key play or whoever the MIKES are speaking of.

You see mistakes when we cover the Ducks football games quite a bit actually. There speed and type of play fakes out our camera guys all the time.

Now this Yuyza person on here. Bro I gave you my man's Twitter handle out of respect to you to maybe vent some frustrations or maybe pass along some ideas. But you coming on here putting my people on blast about an industry you know nothing about is a tad ridiculous. Jeff Curtin is our Director of Broadcasting along with being our director of the actual broadcast. This dude knows his shit. For you to call us the "Worst in the business", really?

I don't see threads on here after the 5-10 times a game over the past 12 years I've found that one frame of the ball going off the other teams finger, or a toe on the line that gave the other team a 2 instead of a 3. Or when everybody on twitter is all screaming because they don't know why Dame is limping and I fly back an hour of game action and analyze 12 different camera angles to find where he hurt his arm WHILE THE GOD DAMN GAME IS STILL BEING PLAYED! So then everybody can tweet about it when they see our replays as if they have that INSIDE info. I can actually think of 3 games that our replays from those angles have actually won us a game. And we have been acknowledged about this from the President and head coach.

At the league meetings in New York, every year Blazers Broadcasting is singled out as leading the league in not only interesting ways to get sponsored elements on air (See: Wear in the World, where now about 5 or 6 other teams have straight up ripped that idea off and use now themselves) but also creating graphic packages that nobody can touch. Everywhere we go around the NBA other teams media and or broadcasts teams give us props. BB is pretty damn respected in the broadcast community.

As a reminder we have also won an Emmy for our "Worst" broadcast in the league. We beat out quite a few quality broadcasts for this honor. Mariners/Seahawks/Timbers/Pac12 and others. That may not ring true or not hold much credibility with some on here, but in my industry, that literally is the gold standard.

I never thought about this before I got into this industry, but what a lot of people don't realize or know is that the only reason to broadcast games in the first place is to get our sponsors..... Wells Fargo..... for example message on the air. WITHOUT the sponsors money, we wouldn't be on the air. So the fact that we can get all that promotional info out, please them, AND get a ball game on the air is amazing if you ask me.

Now you can take this "rant" how you want, obviously because you are critiquing ME and MY team, but I think if you look at the 75 games or so we've played and multiply that by the 200 trips a game, I believe we are covering the game quite nicely. I'm biased because I'm part of this, but I think it would be interesting to set a camera up and analyze EVERY move YOU make at work. Breaking down how you pump the gas or wash the windshield. Or how well and fast you change the hotdogs on that thing that rolls them around. Grandma used to tell me when you are pointing a finger at somebody, look down and there are 3 pointing right back at you.

Now I think the proper way to handle your critiques and frustrations of all your expert eyes of Broadcast Television would be to have a sticky thread at the top where you guys can voice your opinion in a polite professional matter. You clowns coming on here blasting everybody and everything about Blazer Broadcasting isn't helping. My man Jeff reads this forum on the regular, and I can promise you if you critiques hold merit he'll see 'em. Whatever you think of me, read what I posted and really think about it.

And one last thing...... I've said this before......do me a favor and mix in some other teams broadcasts and I think you'll see ours in a different light.
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Excellent post The. Thanks for sharing. I think you and the crew do a fantastic job with the replays and stuff like that.

I do have a pet peeve of my own, and it is highlighted here:

HCP said:
If it makes you feel better (I'm sure it won't) but of my basically 12 cameras I had access to last night, only ONE was focused on Davis during that steal. Every other camera was focused on what we call a HERO shot of whoever had just made a key play or whoever the MIKES are speaking of.
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Why is every single camera focused on a "HERO" shot, instead of the game? WTF?

My longest running peeve in watching basketball is when someone makes a play, the camera focuses on a closeup of them running up the court for 12 seconds, and we miss the game in the process, including the next play. (I'm talking about basketball broadcasts in general, not yours.) I haven't noticed this nearly as much as I used to, so I appreciate that it seems to have been addressed at least somewhat. But seriously. I've almost broken my TV over this too many times to count.

Keep up the good work.

:cheers:
 
BBert said:
My longest running peeve in watching basketball is when someone makes a play, the camera focuses on a closeup of them running up the court for 12 seconds, and we miss the game in the process, including the next play. (I'm talking about basketball broadcasts in general, not yours.) I haven't noticed this nearly as much as I used to, so I appreciate that it seems to have been addressed at least somewhat. But seriously. I've almost broken my TV over this too many times to count.
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I wonder; do you think using an occaisional split-screen or PIP for those kinds of shots might alleviate your and others' frustration with them?
 
Boob-No-More said:
Again, use those camera angles for the instant replay during a stoppage in the action. Getting too creative during live action leads to missing key plays, like Crowder's lead-changing 3-pointer last night. Sure, show me the emotion on Aminu's face during the next dead ball. During live action, I'd rather see that actual play 100 times out of 100.

BNM
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They can't. Apparently, every camera is zoomed in on a "HERO" shot. SMH

;)
 
HCP said:
Interesting that there is such a backlash to that low "handheld" camera angle with the action coming at you. I see that is how a bunch of you guys feel. I can tell you that all directors do this. TNT/ESPN/ABC Even in football when there is a long bomb in the corner or a breakaway run, they go to that camera. I kinda like it, feeling that it makes you feel you are there. You guys just feel you are missing something when they go to that or the "slam cam"?
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I hate it. Please tell your director to stop doing it. When a guy is running on a fast break, then we switch to this lower angle from the baseline, you can't even tell how high or far he jumped. Same with those worthless angles from overhead. It's fucking stupid. You don't need to overthink it with these camera angles during live play. We just want to watch the game. It's not about how creative Quentin Tarantino is in the truck with the camera cuts it's about the game. Just let us watch. Feel free to use those different angles after the fact in a replay or one of those great HCP highlight reels.

Every other area of a Blazer broadcasts is great and I think heads and shoulders above most of the other teams, but this one thing has become exceedingly annoying, at least to me.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
I wonder; do you think using an occaisional split-screen or PIP for those kinds of shots might alleviate your and others' frustration with them?
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Hmm...probably.

Although, split screen shots of someone talking while the game is going on, so we can see the person talking but can't see half the action, is the absolute gold standard of rage-inducing stupidity in sports broadcasting. Like I need to see the face of the fucker talking while I'm missing the game. Thanks, fucktards.

Oh, Sorry. Started to rant there for a second.

Yeah, it sounds like an ok compromise, but they'd still need to cut back to the game in a timely manner.
 
BBert said:
Hmm...probably.

Although, split screen shots of someone talking while the game is going on, so we can see the person talking but can't see half the action, is the absolute gold standard of rage-inducing stupidity in sports broadcasting. Like I need to see the face of the fucker talking while I'm missing the game. Thanks, fucktards.

Oh, Sorry. Started to rant there for a second.

Yeah, it sounds like an ok compromise, but they'd still need to cut back to the game in a timely manner.
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What gets me, and it doesnt matter what channel or what game, it happens to all, is the huge ads tossed over the screen when coming back from commercial and there is a view of the city. I love checking out the arial views of cities ( a passion of mine actually) and almost always you get 4.5 seconds of huge ads and .5 seconds of the actual view...

I must say though, thats about my only real complaint
 
HCP said:
Interesting that there is such a backlash to that low "handheld" camera angle with the action coming at you. I see that is how a bunch of you guys feel. I can tell you that all directors do this. TNT/ESPN/ABC Even in football when there is a long bomb in the corner or a breakaway run, they go to that camera. I kinda like it, feeling that it makes you feel you are there. You guys just feel you are missing something when they go to that or the "slam cam"?
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I think it's freaking great for replays. But it sucks when they cut to in during a live shot because by the time your brain picks up who is who and where the ball is and who else is where and what they're doing, the play is over and you're left wondering what you missed. Especially when you're watching the game in a bar and can't hear the announcers...
 
One of my big peeves is when teams display the previous quarter's stats on a graphic that covers half of the entire screen while the subsequent quarter is getting under way. The Blazers did this for many years but thankfully they revamped it this season. Keeping the stats on a dynamic banner on the lower portion of the screen is much better.

Btw HCP, I've gotta say compared to the rest of the league, you guys have the best-looking graphics hands down. Sleek and professional. I can't stand the uniform packages that CSN or Root Sports use in other markets. I'm glad the Blazers aren't beholden to CSN's graphics here.
 
Orion Bailey said:
What gets me, and it doesnt matter what channel or what game, it happens to all, is the huge ads tossed over the screen when coming back from commercial and there is a view of the city. I love checking out the arial views of cities ( a passion of mine actually) and almost always you get 4.5 seconds of huge ads and .5 seconds of the actual view...

I must say though, thats about my only real complaint
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Oh, and graphics over the dancers' butts. Just stop and let me see them wiggle for a couple seconds already.
 
Natebishop3 said:
At least we don't really do the stupid thing that they do during the summer league where they think interviewing some schmuck is more important than the game.
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"Look. It's John Malkovich taking in a summer league game!"

"Bob..... Did you know that John Malkovich was making a movie in Vegas?"

'No I didn't. But he's getting quite a highlight of Myles Turner and Joseph Young here tonight."

(Camera pans onto John Malkovich for every commercial break the rest of the game.)
 
ripcityboy said:
"Look. It's John Malkovich taking in a summer league game!"

"Bob..... Did you know that John Malkovich was making a movie in Vegas?"

'No I didn't. But he's getting quite a highlight of Myles Turner and Joseph Young here tonight."

(Camera pans onto John Malkovich for every commercial break the rest of the game.)
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They leave the game playing in a tiny little box in the upper right hand corner and you need a magnifying glass to see what's happening.

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Natebishop3 said:
At least we don't really do the stupid thing that they do during the summer league where they think interviewing some schmuck is more important than the game.
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They don't just interview him. They show the interview on the screen and you can't even see the game. Gah!!
 
HCP said:
Even if you weren't talking about me, this offends me as a sports fan with common sense.. You must not watch many NBA broadcasts. "Worst" in the business?
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Im sorry. Im not referring to your work whatsoever. The replay work is amazing and one of the reasons i want to keep on watching. I was hyperbolic and exagggrating as usual. I tweeted @ the guy nicely, I've pointed out things that bug us on the broadcast, and I've bitched at him while showing him national posts that agree with me on how ridiculous those angles are in live action. I'm sorry i offended you. Was not my intent.
 
yuyuza1 said:
Im sorry. Im not referring to your work whatsoever. The replay work is amazing and one of the reasons i want to keep on watching. I was hyperbolic and exagggrating as usual. I tweeted @ the guy nicely, I've pointed out things that bug us on the broadcast, and I've bitched at him while showing him national posts that agree with me on how ridiculous those angles are in live action. I'm sorry i offended you. Was not my intent.
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Props! Nice post.
 
I hate how the radio broadcast sounds horrible, sometimes like they're playing it with a fluctuating signal. And Im close in town, and it doesn't matter what radio I listen on.
 
julius said:
I hate how the radio broadcast sounds horrible, sometimes like they're playing it with a fluctuating signal. And Im close in town, and it doesn't matter what radio I listen on.
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Do you have a smart phone? If you are in the Portland area you can listen to the Blazer games on radio via the Blazer app. It's digital so the sound quality will be clear but if your phone has shitty speakers you should get headphones.

No, this won't work with a flip phone.
 
SlyPokerDog said:
Do you have a smart phone? If you are in the Portland area you can listen to the Blazer games on radio via the Blazer app. It's digital so the sound quality will be clear but if your phone has shitty speakers you should get headphones.

No, this won't work with a flip phone.
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psh... flip phone.... my phone gets amazing service.

46268b0bde759846b6eca36fb49a596e.jpg
 
Draco said:
Couldn't see the Crabbe three here in the second quarter because Blazers broadcasting crams in slow mo replays in the middle of game action.

When the games being played please show the game.
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I tweeted HCP right as that happened thinking how ironic this thread was and we had just missed a '3' the game before due to Hero shots/replays. He manned up and responded and you could almost tell he knew immediately that was coming.

Props to the work they do. For the most part I think they do very well. I agree with some of the angles being unnecessary and could do without so many Hero shots but if Mike and Mike called the game as well as the Production team showed it, we'd get a much more accurate accounting of what is going on. Instead we get Mike calling the game the way he 'hopes' it is going and then back tracking multiple times a game because unrealistic fandom got in the way. I like that he is a fan but at times, it gets irritating that the missed descriptions happen so often.
 
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