Winning Ways For Sports Videomaking

The camera zooms for sweat and chalk and blood, close up. It lingers on the flouncing skirts of tennis pubescents, betrays the bulging bellies of bowlers. Pulls slowly back to reveal a vast ersatz Roman coliseum swanning with half-mad fans.

On the intimate soundtrack we hear the labored grunting of linemen, the sneaker squeak of parquet floors, the pathetic kvetching of desperate coaches, the sudden snaps of bone ending games, careers, and hopes.

The production and shooting techniques developed for sports coverage are where video truly excells. And it's here you can excell as well.

Of course you can't hope to attain the level of the network pros-not without a dozen cameras, a production truck, and John Madden. But you can apply professional guidelines and approaches to single-camera coverage, producing video of sufficient interest and excitement to enthrall even the most sophisticated sports potato.

Suiting Up

Sports video is sort of a sport in itself. It requires the right equipment and physical training, and you must arrive psyched and ready to go.

You need stamina to cover a sporting event. If you're not up for it, your work will lack energy. You must be willing to move about carrying a lot of heavy equipment, climb stairs and stands, follow the action with a camera strapped to your shoulder 'til it feels like you've sliced right through your collarbone.

Purchase and wear a good pair of crosstraining shoes for all the running, turning, pointing, crawling, climbing, aud panning.

Equip yourself with a lens of the longest focal length available. A 12x is better than a 6x because it can zoom in twice as close. And you need to be close for those special sports moments of tension and emotion-capturing foreheads beaded with sweat, coaches hurling clipboards to the turf, pitchers grimly rubbing resin into the ball.

Creative control is essential, so make sure your lens is equipped for manual operation.

Just as runners load carbohydrates before a big event, so must your camcorder be loaded with power. Have plenty on hand. Time your batteries, know how long they'll last under a variety of conditions.

Remember that cold weather and low light will suck the juice as fast as Dr…