Making sports video compelling -OK, MORE compelling
My sister’s kids LOVE the Yankees.
My brother-in-law Ted pretty much goes into bankruptcy every time the Yankees go to the World Series (which is all too often), because he has to get the kids tickets. When Yankee Stadium was torn down, he bought them each a seat (a real one) from the old stadium. This is Yankee fever. We have often had a dinner at home interrupted because ‘the Yankees are playing’.
My wife’s sister’s kids LOVE Arsenal.
OK, at least the boy does. (The girl is more into horses, frankly).
In any event, the kid never misses an Arsenal game, nor does he have any shortage of Arsenal balls, shirts, shoes, banners, books, photos and apparently, a towel. Arsenal, for our American readers, is an English football team (that would also be soccer for our American friends). The Yankees, for our UK readers, are a baseball team. That would be Cricket for those with short attention spans, for our UK friends).
On with the game!
The Arsenal fans have no interest in anything about the Yankees. The Yankees fans have no interest in Arsenal. But sports is about more than just games and stats. It’s about personal struggles for achievement, or grappling with failure. It can be very very poigniant – and compelling. But that requires focusing less on the game and more on the character. If you focus on the characters you enter a world as compelling as any Greek tragedy or Shakespearian story.
As Roone Arledge, the master of ABC Sports – and later ABC News as well, used to say “The thrill of victory – the agony of defeat” Capture that, and you’ve captured an audience far wider than the Yankee fans or the Arsenal fans.
Here then is a piece done by one of our BBC VJs during a training bootcamp. It uniquely captures both American and British sensibilities, but the story is far less about the team than about the coach. Of course, one of the limitations of working as a VJ in sports is that you cannot shoot a game very well with a small camera on your own. But what you can capture is a very rich and compelling personal story.
Take a look.
