press passes for each team

i went to one off season event were each team got one press pass . that person was allowed on field when team was playing. i thought it was a great idea. do any first events allow this ?

Championships issues one Media pass to every team, so you can go down on the Dome floor and capture the action close up.
I haven’t heard of any Regionals that issue passes to team photographers.

the bottom line is that they want the least amount of people down there. so i dont ever expect to b able to, but i wish.

at regionals the officials dont really care if your team has one additional person on the field taking photos as they have no official press pass. You might get away with two (we did) at a regional but only one at nationals because they have actual passes.

They did at VCU (nobody else is allowed with the teams on the field).
But VCU did reserve the first row of seats for team photographers.

Just about every regional will allow a team member or 2 to take some pictures or record your teams matches. They have a designated area where team members can do this which is normally right behind the judges chairs. Championship only allows one team to a pass due to the amount of traffic thats moving all around and space constraints. While the Dome is huge imagine 6 team members or more depending on who’s recording what, volunteers, team 108 (SOAP), NASA Video production personnel, and FIRST Video Production Personnel trying to capture the same action and do their jobs. The field and the area surrounding it gets very crowded very quickly However most if not all the events have a video feed output center where you can plug in a digital recording device (Camcorder, ZEN, VCR, or other Multi-Media Recording Devices) and record the footage that way. You may not always see your team completely but you will definitely have clear footage of what FIRST is recording and you don’t need to get a Press Pass to hook up the device. Ask the production crew where the video feed is and they will direct you where to go. You need to bring your own AV Cables since they don’t supply them & Make sure you label your property clearly with a tag or something so it doesn’t disappear easily. Your other alternative is go out and by a tripod and set your recording device in the stands away from where it can be damaged or step on anyones toes due to the “No Saving Seats Rules”.

our camera man was always right next to the field filming the action. Maybe the refs at SVR and Davis are just chill, but even at champs our camera man was right next to the field (not this year because a stray arm could reach out and hurt him).

The organizers of the PNW event provided two passes per team that allowed photographers and videographers out onto the arena floor. This was the first time I’d seen this at a regional and it appeared that most teams didn’t know the opportunity was available to them.

We left the event with something like 20 GB of pictures.

PNW had press passes??? That would have been cool to know…

BAE had press passes, something i make use of every year. not only does this provide access to the field to film matches, it provides access to the Sam Adams lounge [invited guests only] which happens to be the best vantage for filming the enitre field [without 175’s big yellow flags in the way] :cool:
and there is the press entrance to the parking lot out back [no long trip around the stadium]

the press guys were really nice, in return for the pass i brought them all of my photos for use by FIRST and in return they burned them all to cd for me :smiley:
i even captured a last minute award ceremony after all the official photographers had left.

i strongly suggest asking officials at your regionals about passes!

The announcement about that was not made until about 1PM Saturday afternoon. I certainly could have missed it although I was there for ALMOST every match.

To the best of my recollection, Lone Star has had media passes for the teams for the past few years at least.

yeah, they didnt do much at vcu in the way of allowing people to take pictures and film until saturday, when our front row seats were taken.

Philly had two passes per team last year, but I think members of my team sometimes still had problems getting in during our matches.

I believe GLR allows it, seeing that we had one father taking some great action photos today, of all bots

Yeah… I saw you there with the press pass. Only a few people took advantage of that.

Jacob

I do not believe any regionals do this. And trust me when I say that becuase I am one of the ones that takes all of the teams footage. It is difficult to even get anywhere near the field in a regional.

Really? I saw someone at BAE with an actual pass around their neck that looked EXACTLY like a volunteer pass, except at the top it said PRESS…

Could be wrong tho…

Jacob

Does anyone have a picture of one, that they may have recieved at one of the regionals?

When you refer to the “Press pass” are you refering to the “Media” pass given out. I’ve seen quite a few of those today at GLR. Didn’t see any “press” passes though. I hope those action shots are posted on CD.