Attention Videographers for FIRST...

[Don Wright]

Maybe I'm WAY off base here, and everybody please correct me if I am...

When I'm watching a video saved from the FIRST webcast, there is something that happens quite a bit...

It's the video footage of the human players.

I know it's exciting to see ourselves playing the match, and see how excited the students are playing, but when I watch webcasts and stored video files, it's to see the robots.

I just watched one where probably 20 secs of the match was filming the humans...all the while Wildstang and Beatty were scoring like a zillion points...

Sorry if this is an un-FIRST like comment, but I wanted to mention it...

Again, maybe I'm alone in this...

[Barry Bonzack]

When making promotional videos, I like to able to have some of the actual students in them. I go on SOAP and download the matches, and whatever is taken on the FIRST video is what I have to work with. I do agree, however, that anything more than five seconds of it would be a bit excessive when trying to watch a match online. The main thing I would like to see from the video is every robot as close to equal air time as possible, instead of an entire match being just the best robot on the field. Although this does make it exciting, and should be shown perhaps while shooting, all teams have worked hard on their robots and deserve air time. From the videos I've seen this year of the UCF regional, the Videographers were a lot better about it this year than last.

All this being said, I'm not sure how many FIRST videographers are on Chiefdelphi. If so, Keep up the good work

[aksimhal]

I know this question may seem a bit off topic, but where can I see the matches FIRST taped at the Chesapeake regional, as they had some pros tape it, but it wasn't broadcated on NASA TV.

Thanks

[b-rant]

yeah i think they should leave the webcast on the camera that has a view of the entire field. I know they are just trying to make it more exciting but let's face it it's not like it's the NFL were they go back and look a good plays and point out stuff inbetween matches. so the simplest solution would be to just do the entire field view so all of the match can be seen.

check ya later,

Brantley

[JAH]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe each regional/event has videographers brought in and they do not work directly for FIRST. The guys shooting really have no idea as to what people want on the screen (other than what is told to them prior to the event) so they go for what they perceive as the most action. Match after match they see robots shooting and they get bored with that so they film other things. It is extremely difficult to do robot video for two days and not lose interest. I do the video at the Indiana Robotics Invitational and it proves to be a challenge not to fall asleep after all the repetitiveness of the same type of matches over and over. I, however, know that people want to see robots, not people, so that is what we film at IRI. Those guys on the video crews work hard for 3 days plus setup/tear down. It's much harder than one would think. Just my .02 cents on the matter.

Edit: I'm not by any means trying to attack anyone or their comments. I agree that 20 seconds of human players throwing balls isn't quite what we at home are interested in watching when teams are scoring big time. I was just pointing out a view from the guys who do the shooting and defending them a bit for not always having the ideal shots when we want them.

[Don Wright]

I so don't want it to sound like I don't appreciate what they are doing or how hard they work.

I just think that if they knew what most people would like to see then maybe it would be helpful to them.

So, maybe the people organizing the videographers would just mention something...

Or even a comment to just back out a little when filming a robot to get more of what's going on around them...

Just my humble opinion...

[dhitchco]

Let's split videography into several different buckets:

1) The video that gets shot by the FIRST-authorized cameramen at the regionals and championship:
a) The primary customers for this video is the public audience and for FIRST for their own future promotional DVDs; that on-screen video really isn't for our use since we pretty-much know what's going on in the game.
b) You can't fault the court-side videographers for seeking-out whatever "action" is going on (human players, robots bumping, faces of drivers, etc). Personally, I think the regional footage I've seen is pretty well-rounded "action" shots.
c) That said, I would like to see FIRST add a couple of more camera angles such as a high-ceiling camera and/or an over-the-goal camera angle. Siwtching between the angles is fine with me; this isn't for match strategy.

2) As a team videographer, it's much more important for me to capture the spirit of the team rather than just "fire-hosing" back and forth on the robot in each match. yes, it's nice to have two team videographers, one assigned to doing "match strategy" video alone.
a) It's now very easy in software to do split-screens between the actual match footage plus still shots and/or other source of video of your team. watching the match by itself is boring; one or two matches in your highlight video plus the game animation is just enough to get the message across
b) Think about your customer for your team highlight video; don't forget that next year's students are a customer as are your current and future sponsors and patrons.
c) For theam highlight videos, be sure to get lots of "tight" face shots of every member of your team. In fact, a set of rolling cast credits will help you make sure you get shots of everybody.

[Ilana.zer0]

Putting in my own two cents, I also believe that there is more to a competition than just the robots fighting. What I mean exactly is that if there wasn't the spirit of the human players behind what the robots were doing, then most likely, there would be no one there at all and probably be no robots. You need to see the human interaction to get the full extent of the game.