Not over even after the video stops rolling
Two days of shooting four games a day on tape is insane. It’s one thing to shoot a game for TV where 2-4 shots are used per game. Trying to create nat sound video highlight mini-stories is tough when you shoot that many games over such a small time frame.
By the end of the second day my brain was mush. The whole ‘edit while you shoot’ goes out the window when your mind crashes and burns because: you have been mentally going through all the different shots you have taken in the past eight hours (and 3.9 games) so you can find a suitable transition that gets you from gameplay to the winning/loosing buzzer shot that’s approaching in 40 seconds.
When that happens you begin the slog of capturing your video, one tape after another, and you feel like cashing it in for the day because you are spent.
Your arms are tired from keeping the camera as still as possible through each possession. Your legs hurt from running up and down the stadium steps to catch moments from slightly different angles and improve audio acuity, and your ears are bleeding because you have been wearing headphones all day with amplified stadium noise. Finally your brain begins the crash cycle where your eyes loose focus while editing and you are hunched over the computer, seemingly looking through your screen for the end.
That was the insanity of the previous two days. By next year I hope I never have to use another tape driven video camera for state tournaments. I cannot see how the processes of doing the kind of coverage I want to do with a tape camera is physically possible over three weeks. I really want to shoot 3-4 games or more a day and illustrate the emotions and moments that capture those game stories.
The frustrating point is how to get around the technology because I know I can do this and do it well. It’s just so darned time consuming to keep multiple nat sound highlight videos organized without logging them or editing from the camera before shooting your next game. It helps so much when you can clear your mind of the previous games so you can focus completely on the story developing in that next game.
Shooting three games consecutively without logging or editing anything makes for a hellish finale by halftime of the fourth game. Even if you have been pushing your video into the computer while shooting the next game you still need to go through every game again while editing just to refresh what the ‘story’ was that you were shooting 8 hours ago. And that doesn’t take into account problems with the capture or other technical glitches that you are forced to troubleshoot.
These are just a few of my thoughts as the three week tournament comes to a close. I hope to revisit this topic in a couple weeks because I am not the only one out there looking for answers concerning non traditional sports video coverage — but I can definately say I have learned so much these past three weeks.