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Don’t park there! Fun during batting practice at Fenway Park
Back by popular demand… I talk to a camera, introduce a cool TV subject, shrink myself down into a little box in the lower right corner of the screen and explain what is going on. I work in sports television using sick equipment. Using the insane television gear is often the best part of my job! I hop on camera at Fenway a few minutes early to make sure all my gear is working properly before the game. I am paid to follow the action and I need help to do it. The equipment must be dialed in and balanced correctly so I can lock onto fast moving objects. Most importantly, the video engineers in the truck must properly control the camera. I can’t do it by myself!
14 comments to Don’t park there! Fun during batting practice at Fenway Park |
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Copyright © 2012 Tom Guilmette - All Rights Reserved |
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Thanks for sharing these “behind the scenes” videos of your job at sporting events. So cool to see these. I love watching them. And dude, the picture is crazy! You are way up on that platform, with no railing, and you are not buckled in… I am getting vertigo just looking at that!!
At Fenway tom actually has a full platform now, that is completely safe. There are even seats up next to him.
exactly.
it is much safer now. i am in the coke-a-cola section with a railing on concete. that picture is five years old! and i did wear a belt and strap just so i could not get to the edge. no railings mean more camera freedom when shooting. high railings are a pain!
I could NOT track like that at all. And sucks to be the owner of that car.
it sure does!
Tom,
With that vector 70 do you like to drive you camera? I work in house at all the major sports stadiums in DC doing camera, EVS and shading for the videoboard. I have made some friends on the truck so I got to use MASN’s X-MO camera (mid first base) between innings at a Nats game last week. I have never used a hard camera like that since I havent worked on the truck yet, but the first thing that I realized is that he had the friction all the way up, like so it was a struggle for me to use for like 30 secs. Then he said when shooting at 400fps (or 1000fps which is what the were using that day) even the smallest mistake or bobble looks way worse in super slow mo, which totally makes sense, then I talked to some other guys about there pan heads and they said they like it like that too.
So that brings me to the question with you, since you are tracking that ball some times like you said almost laying on your back try to get that shot. I think you would have to have the pan head semi loose in comparison so you can track the ball one handed at some points.
i run the friction very high (hard to move the camera) because of wind. but also because i want a very smooth and predictable move when tracking the ball. if the friction was low, the camera would bob and weave all over the place.
the fact that the vinten vector 70 is perfectly balanced and very responsive makes these shots possible.
Nice Tom! Working for NESN would be a dream come true. I just got to shoot “in house” handheld for Roy Halladay’s perfect game in Miami. Made sports center for the first time! I’ll work my way onto the network hard cams soon enough. I imagine its not always an easy gig for 9+ innings!
if you love sports and love television. this is the dream job!
(to bad i don’t love sports…)
Dude, You make tracking that baseball look so easy… And I know it’s not! Nice work.
I’ve been considering purchase of the AJA Ki Pro to use with my HD-SDI out on my XDCAM EX1 camera. Partially, to record without having to by so many SXS cards to do a feature project, but also to use the HDMI out to be able to use a DELL 2409WS HD monitor as it is suppose to be a 1:1 conversion from HD-SDI to MDNI. Doing this will provide critical focus and color analysis on locations without having to spend a used car price to buy the HD-SDi monitors. Big difference.
I am wondering if you have used the AJA Ki Pro on your Ex1 and if you have even used it on your DSLR equipment for monitoring.
Would love your feedback on AJA Ki Pro here or in seperate blog if you so choose. Thanks for your time and the great shots of Green Monster.
Tom….killer footage and explanation! How can you get the seats next to you? Also, how many cameras are in the outfield like yours? Cheers!
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