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800 Red Sox Games Later – How I Remain Creative as a Sports CameramanI am a professional broadcast sports television camera operator. That is what pays the bills and I enjoy it. Most of the time. I am about 80 percent television technology guru and 20 percent sports fan at the moment. I love using the top of the line high definition camera equipment that costs more than my house. I get pulled deeper into the job when a newer camera is given to me or I see a Phantom high-speed or 3D camera entering the game. Sports is a breeding ground for new television tech and I am on the top of the wave. The problem is, I’m shooting the wrong subject matter! I want to be 50 percent television technology and 50 percent natural history documentary creator. I’m not complaining, but I’m defiantly not living my dream! I work atop the left field roof at Fenway Park covering the Boston Red Sox. The perch is on the fifth level and it is the most exposed position in the entire ball park. I track a mating pair of red tailed hawks as they search for food and build a nest. I watch storms move in from the West. I am the first to see lightning and the first to run from the roof when I witness the buildings around me getting struck. That part is fun. But I am at Fenway to cover a baseball game, not in Africa waiting for an animal to appear at a water hole. I am one of 10 cameras inside the ballpark that bring the action into your living room and we are documenting sports history. I am paid to track the ball through the play and lock onto players in the dugout or on the field as the announcers talk about them. I have shot nearly 800 games. Take a look at this ten minute video blog I shot over the summer of 2009 from the $100,000 Sony HDC-910 broadcast HDTV camera with 75x Canon telephoto zoom lens. You will understand why I often stand behind the camera at the ball park wishing I were covering wildlife in the middle of nowhere… with the same camera. My director, Mike, gives me a lot of freedom as a camera operator as I shoot the game. I must thank him for letting me try new things and shoot stuff other than what is happening on the field.
Video footage courtesy of New England Sports Network. 90 comments to 800 Red Sox Games Later – How I Remain Creative as a Sports Cameraman |
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Copyright © 2012 Tom Guilmette - All Rights Reserved |
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This was awesome Tom, thanks! That Jupiter shot blew me away.
amazing that a camera i use to cover a baseball game is powerful enough to see another planet. i basically have a high power telescope mounted on the roof!
Could you even take that huge Canon camera into the Wildlife with industrial set-up it has? Awesome blog Tom.
yea you could take it into the wild.
you would need a small generator, the camera control unit, the camera operating panel, a bit of fiber cable, a recording deck (like hdcam), the camera, tripod, panhead, lens and lens controls. lots of stuff, but possible to load in with a truck. or, you could set up a remote “fly pack” or small tv truck to shoot with this type of camera system.
to take it to the next level, mount this 75x lens (or even a 101x) on a sled with a phantom hi-speed camera system to cover raw nature from a safe distance.
Right on, Tom. Great to see that behind the scenes stuff: Great head & great lens. It would be awesome to take that out in the field. I’m actually a natural history filmmaker who hopes to someday shoot sports. Football seems like it would be more interesting than baseball.
lets switch jobs for a week!
i always enjoyed shooting football from the sidelines. i followed the spiral like nfl films! really! but at 30FPS…..
Very cool Tom.
Almost every time I go hang gliding I get to fly with Red Tail Hawks! They are amazing creatures and the real pros at soaring. Usually they have no issue with us flying with them but occasionally they roll over, flash their talons and let out a “stay away from me” yell!
i got a bit to close to this hawk at fenway as it was devouring a rat in the stands. lets just say, “it went for my eyes”. crazy bird, but beautiful.
The small birds ALWAYS go after the bigger birds, not the the way around!
yes they do (in mid air), but for some reason, i never see a little bird eating a big bird…
Wow, the fly and the moon shots were ****** amazing. Looking forward to watching your future work.
amazing, very inspirational, thx for sharing
this jupiter shot is insane
Wow, the 75x Canon telephoto zoom lens is very awesome. Very good shots Tom.
Hey Tom! Thanks for these cool inside views to your job!
And that moon shot is just amazing! So cool that you get to work with such equiment!
Keep us posted with your projects!
Cheers,
Sascha
best part of working in boston sports television is the fact that i am exposed to very hi-quality and cutting edge television technology.
…why is streaming this video so slow? And now that I post this comments I bet it’s going to have to load the same bit it has loaded thus far, again. Would like to see it though… so, i’ll wait…
not sure. the .mp4 was encoded at 3500kbps. the ten minute video is about 230MB in size, so it will take time to download on slower connections. sorry! i am still trying to find the best quality encode at the best bit rate for downloading. there is no perfect fit for everyone right now.
did you get it to work?
I have quite a fast connection. The video just doesn’t download that fast…
hmmm. not sure. i will try to re-upload a different encode later tonight to see if i can make it faster. it could be my server. i only pay like $100 a year!
I was in awe at the amazing moon shot and then you zoom into JUPITER!
jupiter and the moons that circle the planet!!!!!
This was really cool Tom. Thanks for showing us what it’s like to be a camera operator. That camera you use is awesome, I can see why you wish you had it in settings other than baseball. Great stuff, thanks.
Cheers,
Michael
I’ve always wondered this, but does the visiting team use the same broadcast on their station as NESN? I wouldn’t think so, but where are the other cameras if they don’t? Also, what about those few times where ESPN and NESN both broadcast the NYY / BOS games?
great question.
most camera positions have two cameras…one for the home show and one for the away show. the home and away show have their own truck, announcers and booth. two separate broadcasts.
sometimes ESPN or FOX are exclusive and the NESN guys have the day off. some of us work the big network games.
did that answer the question? post more questions if you have them.
That’s kind of what I figured was going on. I’ve seen some of the camera areas having multiple cameras set up, but I noticed a few seem to only have one (like yours for example).
One last question while sort of on the topic I guess would be what NESN does on the road games for camera operators and crew. Do the truck guys travel to all the games and they have freelancers in the area work the cameras?
on a rare occasion, some of the boston freelancers travel to road games. 95% of the time NESN just hires people from the city where the bruins are playing the game.
Awesome blog post! That was very entertaining, and surprisingly revealing. Much more interesting than most sports coverage, to me at least.
I have been wondering how sports cameramen are able to pull off those amazing pans / tilts / zoom-ins and zoom-outs … now I know. It’s the technology, stupid
… coupled with great skill of course. I live in Austria, and skiing and all kinds of winter sports are a big thing here. As a cameraman, I can’t think of anything more demanding than following a skier racing around a corner and following him in a close-up. Unbelievable.
I agree with you, I’d also rather shoot wildlife documentaries, but I guess what you’re doing now is the best training you could ever get – for whatever may come later.
yea, i have defiantly got a lot of practice. plus dealing with the weather up there will help out down the road when im trying to capture a mating dance of some exotic bird in the jungle!
What’s the sensor size of those cameras? I imagine they aren’t too large in order to be able to “keep the lenses long enough”.
The moon and Jupiter shots were stunning – unbelievable, in fact.
the sensors in all the broadcast cameras i use are 2/3 inch.
Tom, your sports work is amazing! i have used the hdc 1500 with fujinon 76x,86x & 101x and standard lens for handheld, here in new zealand, your work is amazing!, im always on this site waiting for your next video!
we use mostly canon, but i have used fujinon. the fuji 101x is amazing, but i prefer the canon 100 with image stabilization. i find that the fuji lenses “close down” and drop a stop at the very end of the lens.
Wow, the jupiter shot was amazing. The moon shot too.
The image stabilisation is incredible too, makes such a difference. How easy is the servo focus to get used to? Is it particularly sensitive?
I can imagine that shooting 800+ games could get pretty boring, do you ever switch position?
Great video.
I do not use servo focus, i use a manual mechanical focus system. i have used a servo focus, but very rarely. usually the only time servo focus is used in sports is when virtual advertising or things like the “first and ten” line are driven by a computer system with the camera and panhead.
the stabilization system works well, but sometimes it does not engage. i was trying to turn it on when i was shooting jupiter, but it would not lock in. some of our lenses are old, but i have found the best working IS lens on our truck. my left field roof position demands image stabilization, more-so than other positions.
when i first started, i worked for the away show. i moved to a different position every day so i got to experience all the fenway camera platforms. now, on the home show, i have operated camera 7 in left field for over 8 years.
Using a manual focus system? That focus controller of yours caught my eye in this video. I didn’t know you could use a full manual focus with box lenses. All I’ve seen are just manual controllers connected to a digital servo module and from there digitally to the lens. I’ve only used canon’s digital servos on 50x’s and 86x’s.
Care to explain more about this controller? Does it have much better response?
Focus demands don’t usually have the same feel you get with an eng lens and focusing from the lens, I’d want that.
And awesome site man, keep it going. Tech geeky cameramen are curious bunch of monkeys
Uh, and by manual I of course meant mechanical focus…
That’s what you get when you try to write too early in the morning.
got it. hope i answered your question. sorry about the delay.
the controller is manual for focus. you can use a servo, but in sports television on the US, most trucks do not carry them. The manual focus has a cable that twists a mechanical post and moves the lens elements for focus in the box lens.
amazing work (even its just sports coverage) … that moon shot, wow ! … the details … almost a show reel for the lens, the vinten and the operator as well
wish i could post more! but i will get in trouble! i have shot a lot of cool stuff that i can not post to the web.
Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
This is so awesome.
Nice work, Tom! Say, who are you using to host your video streams? Works well…
Dave
bluehost dot com. unlimited service for very short cash. i really like them.
Very kewl video. Alternate Title:”Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of Red Sox Nation”
The astronomy you capture up there “For Fun” is amazing – keep it up.
I’m an armature astronomer too – If I can remember: I’ll try to give you a heads up of any photogenic astronomy stuff happening above the fens during the season. I’ll make sure to explain it well – so even Remy can understand it. Reminds me of the ultimate astronomy + Red Sox connection – Lunar Eclipse 2004 WS Game 4.
M@
thanks matt,
let me know the schedule of the full moon. i really want to be the first to shoot it as it appears over the skyline to the east.
swing by again this summer.