2007 GTR video idea

Hi,

I am a news cameraguy in Toronto and I covered the GTR regionals at the Hershey centre in Mississauga. What I am posting about today is this, another news cameraguy and I were thinking and of course we would have to check with the officials to see if this would be ok but we were thinking of shooting the whole event on professional cameras that we use for news and then making it available on mini-dv or dvd as required should teams and or team members want.

wondering if this would be of any interest? and what would be a fair price for a production that included everything from the pits to the competitions.

you're thoughts?

thanks
mark

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by STORMCENTRE

Hi,

I am a news cameraguy in Toronto and I covered the GTR regionals at the Hershey centre in Mississauga. What I am posting about today is this, another news cameraguy and I were thinking and of course we would have to check with the officials to see if this would be ok but we were thinking of shooting the whole event on professional cameras that we use for news and then making it available on mini-dv or dvd as required should teams and or team members want.

wondering if this would be of any interest? and what would be a fair price for a production that included everything from the pits to the competitions.

you're thoughts?

thanks
mark

FIRST actually has professional level camera work at the regionals and with a regular VCR you can hook into the feed and record the action of what they are recording for yourself.
You guys would be better off doing that for off season events because they don't have that type of production but during the regular season it probably won't work out too well, I'm afraid.

[Pat Fairbank]

Actually, I think there would be a fair amount of interest in this. While FIRST does hire a professional video company to film what we see on the big screen, the type of shots they do (i.e. close-ups) do not convey much of what is happening on the playing field at any given time, as has been stated many times on these fora.

A DVD with video that covered the entire field for every match would be valuable for scouting purposes (assuming it was produced quickly enough) and to have as a documentary of matches. I'd be willing to pay maybe $30 for something like that.

[Steve W]

You can ask but there may be issues with field access since you are not with the recognized media or a team. There also may be an agreement with the current FIRST video people as they also sell DVDs.

[Kims Robot]

This may be me just missing it... but I've never seen a FIRST DVD for sale, much less a Regional Wrap DVD for sale. If you could get permission from FIRST to do this, it would be great. I don't see why they would have a problem, as any team can do it with their own cameras for free... The only problem I can see with it is if you try and sell the DVDs onsite. So maybe offering them online afterward is the answer.

Individually, I might pay $20... if I could buy a set of 5 or a DVD I can copy for my team (not for mass distribution), I would pay $50.

[Greg Marra]

I have always wanted to see someone produce a TV-quality "reality show" type coverage of a FIRST event. Either follow one team all the way through the competition or do it Battlebots style where you show a selection of matches and build up hype about a few 'favorites'.

It has always seemed to me like something that would be both really fun to make and really fun to watch. Producing an episode of NERD Vision at IRI this year was really cool, and I'd love to do something like it again in the future.

thanks for the input and keep the comments coming, it's just an idea I am floating right now....

I did see the camera that FIRST had there but he was more shooting for the overhead screen and there obviously wasn't much time he could spend in the pits, really to do a full fledged production we would need three cameras.

I am thinking if video that includes a stop and talk with each team as the work in the pits and then obviously the competitions on the fields....

The whole thing was just so interesting and so much fun and in news they only show 25 seconds, even with what I shot for the news last year I ended up coming away with close to 30 minutes of video that couldn't be used.

as for the cost, yea just something to cover our costs I guess, the Waterloo regionals and the GTR regionals would be the ones I am thinking of.


It's an idea and let's see where it goes, hopefully FIRST would be positive about it since it promotes FIRST and just makes available to teams what is not available now.....

Now just watch next year's game be and underwater game and everyone saying YES! to the video idea and me having to rent a $100,000 underwater camera

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

FIRST actually has professional level camera work at the regionals and with a regular VCR you can hook into the feed and record the action of what they are recording for yourself.
You guys would be better off doing that for off season events because they don't have that type of production but during the regular season it probably won't work out too well, I'm afraid.

I was actually thinking about that, the Canada's wonderland event is on this weekend but I might be working at the TV station so I can't get too excited yet.....

[Steve W]

For a first venture I would recommend Waterloo. GTR is fantastic but also big. I try to talk to ever team on Thursday and it is a full day job to get through before pits close.

Originally Posted by Steve W

For a first venture I would recommend Waterloo. GTR is fantastic but also big. I try to talk to ever team on Thursday and it is a full day job to get through before pits close.

I was at GTR last year covering it for the news and yea it was big but alot of fun, was interesting cause all I had was a press release and I had no idea what this all was about and there i was probably asking the dumbest questions....but i still made it look good for the news.

Now that I know more I know I could do a better job of it.

mark

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

Actually, I think there would be a fair amount of interest in this. While FIRST does hire a professional video company to film what we see on the big screen, the type of shots they do (i.e. close-ups) do not convey much of what is happening on the playing field at any given time, as has been stated many times on these fora.

A DVD with video that covered the entire field for every match would be valuable for scouting purposes (assuming it was produced quickly enough) and to have as a documentary of matches. I'd be willing to pay maybe $30 for something like that.

Thanks for the response and thats exactly what I was thinking, I talked to another news cameraguy and he is interested in coming out to play, considering what we do in daily hard news....three days at a FIRST competition would be a holiday, not work for us

I should post my email here in case anyone needs to reach me or any of the powers that be at FIRST would like to contact me as I am not always on the chiefdelphi site. Mark Rozitis (stormcentre@rogers.blackberry.net).

Overall if we get the feeling that there would be a good response/demand for this....I will do my best to see if we can do this, would be fun and gets me out of doing real work for three days

mark

[Joel J]

Originally Posted by Steve W

You can ask but there may be issues with field access since you are not with the recognized media or a team. There also may be an agreement with the current FIRST video people as they also sell DVDs.

Where would I purchase a DVD?

[Steve W]

Originally Posted by Joel J.

Where would I purchase a DVD?

I contacted FIRST a year or 2 ago and they gave me the company. You would need to ask FIRST as I am an aged person with a short memory.

BTW you need to have an armored truck to pay for them.