When Pedro Rozas, head of production of Athens Olympic Broadcasting, makes the startling comment that most sports can be shot with one camera, it may seem out of place for an organization that will employ more than 1,000 cameras during the broadcast of the 2004 Summer Games. To understand the context of his statement you need to read the International Amateur Athletic Federation Television Guidelines, which state: “It is not the total number of cameras which is important, as much as their positioning. The principle should be that it should be possible to show the whole of one performance with one camera.”
While many events could be covered with a single camera, Rozas and his staff know that today’s sophisticated viewing audience wants to feel as though they are in the stadium, or better yet, they want a view that is better than being in the stadium.
The International Amateur Athletic Federation Television Guidelines go on to state that, “It is hazardous and erroneous to believe that the more cameras there are, the better the show will be. The number of cameras alone does not guarantee good coverage. Close-ups are interesting. They show faces, details, and reactions, but the sports fan also likes to see how the competition develops.” These guidelines set the standards for Olympic directors as they create their camera plans.
In order to provide the traditional innovative techniques that allow the viewer to be placed in the center of the action, Olympic broadcasters have chosen a number of goals for their video coverage:
• Uncompromisingly fair and unbiased coverage of all Olympic Competition.
• Insightful, informed story-telling through appropriate shot selection and replay options.
• Tight, expressive coverage of each athletic performance, combined with multiple action perspectives, both live and in replay.
• Enhancement of viewer “appreciation for the athletes” efforts and the drama inherent in competition.
Meeting those goals requires an enormous variety of cameras and lenses, including long lenses for the intense close-ups, tracking, high action, low action, main follow, isolation, overhead, crowd, beauty shot, reverse angle, slow-motion, entrance/exit cameras...the list goes on and on.
Meeting The Challenge
The task faced by every sports broadcaster is to determine the right cameras for each sport and each venue. These decisions must be made early in the pre-planning phase, since they have a ripple effect on other areas including scheduling, crewing, cabling, and the production plan. Some of the types of questions that must be answered in the process of determining cameras are:
• How many cameras are required to give coverage and ambience of the event?
• What type of camera should be used in each position (fixed, tracking, ENG, etc.)?
• Where can camera cables be run? Will cables be protected from people, cars, weather, etc?
• What kind of camera mounting devices, platforms, or scaffolding are needed?
• Are there any special lenses required?
Athens Olympic Broadcasting’s task of assembling and placing more than 1,000 cameras at 42 venues will require a cache of cameras rarely, if ever, seen together at one major sporting event, including:
Location, Location, Location
Camera placement can even be more difficult to determine than the type of camera. However, the International Olympic Committee has produced broadcast guidelines that establish the priority that the cameras must have: “At each competition site or stadium, the necessary space must be made available for the installation of electronic cameras that will be used to provide the ITVR (International Television and Radio Signals). The number and position of cameras will be determined so as to give viewers the best view of all Olympic events. There must be no obstacle, fixed or mobile, which will interfere with the camera view.”
There are a number of factors that directors take into consideration when determining the location for each of the cameras. Although this is not an exhaustive list, it does highlight some of the primary areas of concern:
• Which location provides the best coverage?
• What locations provide the best lighting? Where is the sun located at an outdoor event? The angle of the sun will be a factor when determining the angle from which to capture the event. Cameras should be positioned with the sun behind them.
• Are there signs or billboards in the shot background that could be distracting? Will anything be changed on the day of the event that could become a distraction?
• Will cameras block the spectators’ view? Sometimes you just have to block spectators. Other times, moving a camera slightly to one side or another can make a big difference for the spectators.
• What locations are available that are not in view of the other cameras?
• Does anything obscure the camera shot required by the director? If so, can anything be done about it?
• If a tracking dolly is needed for a mobile camera, what kind is required? What is the ground/floor like where the dolly would be located? Is the ground level?
• If cranes or jibs are needed, where can they be placed with maximum action radius?
In summary, while the number of cameras do not necessarily make a better director or a better show, they do help the audience understand and capture the storyline, the joy, and the agony of the event. However, you have to keep in mind that a good director can take three cameras and make the viewer think there are six. A bad director can make six look like three. Ultimately, the quality of the production will always be determined by the director and the crew, not the cameras or other equipment.
