More Whibs

[Bradz]

I guess being serious I don't think we'll change NZ's fascination with Rugby/Soccer/V8's, so as a sport we've just got to be better at promotion than the rest if we want publicity & bitching about it won't change it, there's not enough of us .

Still even seeing the worse motorcycling event on tele beats watching the best game of thugby.

[t595]

Still even seeing the worse motorcycling event on tele beats watching the best game of thugby.

I 2nd that!!!!!!

[Bradz]

I 2nd that!!!!!!

Though what does constitute a good game of rugby??

[clmintie]

"Though what does constitute a good game of rugby??"



The MX1 riders verses MX 2 riders at the after GP function.....

[Chia]

Though what does constitute a good game of rugby??

There's no such thing

[noobi]

Though what does constitute a good game of rugby??

hmmm. a game when there's stoppage at least twice every 5 min for a line out/scrum etc. and when there's plenty of muscly men piled on top of each other in a man stack sort of way. and more man on man touching than a drunkin disorderly on K road on a friday night ?????

sounds about right dont it?

[Keithf]

Waikato, Waikato Cheifs, Waikato winning everything

Though what does constitute a good game of rugby??

[camchain]

Good post Takatimu. Lots of angles to this.

Was just watching CGW, & Andrew Mulligan says "we've got a snowboarder on staff now, so we've got a snowboarding story for you." Easy as that!

TV One was showing MX1 but that will probably stop with Josh winding down. The new WEC coverage on Prime is excellent. It's not like we never get to see any, but just find utterly dissapointing when Kiwis do something extraordinary goes completely unacknowledged in TV Sports News.

Not even mentioning Whibs winning US OMA and GNCC titles or Birchy winning Roof Of Africa - it's a damn disgrace. Especially as these sort of things are so typical of what we like to think is our 'adventurous' NZ national identity.

Andy McGechan is already writing the articles (haven't forgotten chop as well), and chopping up a quick bit of footage can be done on a home computer these days. Is this true or do you need fancy broadcast flavoured editing gear? Even if TV channels ignore an info package, it should still be done anyway. Two main ingredients for success (in anything) is effort + persistence.

I bet if you lined up a bunch of TVs in front of Joe couch-spud with footage of rugby, tennis, golf, and some guys riding a teeter-totter over a river in Romaniacs, the riding would be pretty hard to ignore - it's just visually interesting, even given my bias.

[takitimu]

Andy McGechan is already writing the articles (haven't forgotten chop as well), and chopping up a quick bit of footage can be done on a home computer these days. Is this true or do you need fancy broadcast flavoured editing gear? Even if TV channels ignore an info package, it should still be done anyway. Two main ingredients for success (in anything) is effort + persistence.

In terms of equipment, the days of needing real money are gone, you can get a 3 CCD Video camera decently priced & the video on dSLR's especially low light on say a 5DMkII is amazing, in terms of editing alot of stations are using Final Cut Pro on Mac's, which is again not super expensive, certainly the days of 100k+ tape machines are well gone, used to be weird carrying around a tape machine worth more than a house .

The diff is in production quality, the guys I work for are border line anal retentive about that ( ok not even close they are ) & it makes a diff, watch the MX Nationals on TVNZ vs Supercross on one of the major US Broadcasters.

My read is MX is a bitch to shoot, you need so many cameras to do it well, that realistically I think you need 10-12 robotic with auto tracking & that might not be enough, the only people who can afford 10-12 camera op's are US broadcasters & even they struggle, which is why SX / EnduroCross win the TV stakes to my mind so far.

The other problem is you've got no decent graphics, someone needs to do an America's Cup, ARL ( and a Yank company who's name I forget, but it was parallel, even if Ian Taylor has forgotten ) graphics changed the face of America's Cup yachting. The best people to do that for MX/SX are I believe NZ'ers & they are the two guys who came up with the America's Cup graphics concept & that is not Ian Taylor or Paul Sharp ( I was there ).

Where am I getting to in this waffling ramble, basically I think MX/SX/EnduroCross are sports that are a gold mine for broadcasters that is untapped, sure they require technology to make it work ( Camera tracking, bike tracking, graphics ), but that is very very close now & I'd guess DARPA already have the tracking ( ok, I am pretty damn sure ).
Cross Country/Enduro are potentially also very good, but require alot more technology & work to make work well.

Every TV Broadcaster wants the next America's Cup, that event or sport which with a bit of work can be made into compelling TV viewing & make real money, especially in a world of fragmented markets & integrated online viewing.

[Chia]

My read is MX is a bitch to shoot, you need so many cameras to do it well, that realistically I think you need 10-12 robotic with auto tracking & that might not be enough, the only people who can afford 10-12 camera op's are US broadcasters & even they struggle, which is why SX / EnduroCross win the TV stakes to my mind so far.

You make some good points takitimu.... in particular about the amount of equipment needed for good coverage. It all comes down to $$$$$$$$$

[avgas]

And now back to the news.
Rugby this, netball that.......something a rather cricket......all off season right now but we just thought we would update you

[camchain]

Probably should start another thread on this.

Seems to me a lot of sport is really a type of War Game, involving territory, attack and defence, and delivering a 'weapon' (ball) to a target. It's easy to understand the appeal because you can easily see all the action.
Not a big team sport fan myself, thought I was the only one but looks like plenty on here. A rugby monster mate recently asked, "Where's the man-on-man action?" I said sorry, there's no gay porn in dirt bikes.

Very true, an amazing job was done with making yacht racing interesting. Surely a solid lesson there, but it took some great ideas - and a lot of money. Pity they oversold the idea that there was any proper sportsmanship in the yachting 'industry' (I'm a champion waffler, don't get me started on that).

Everyone has kicked a ball, but very few understand the ins and outs of what it feels like to ride a motorcycle, let alone appreciate the physical skill it takes to do it well. Most folks just don't know what the hell they're looking at. Helmet cam of a lap of each track before MX1 racing on TV1 is a neat extra. Maybe some short clips explaining individual aspects of riding eg. hitting a berm, jump etc would give non-riders a better appreciation of what they're seeing? Can't beat some sexy high speed film for great detail in slow-mo, body position etc explained in voice over.

Good point on the number of cameras needed even for MX, never thought about it before. Never heard of auto tracking either. You only need some basic footage for a short report though. But if mainstream TV sport not keen on showing more than two & a half minutes of the excellent visual spectacle of the Red Bull City Scramble, they must be half asleep! They had that served on a plate.

Was thinking some of the V8 supercar guys also ride dirtbikes, maybe an angle there. Murph has a big banger KTM, and I once saw Mark Skaife's name on a desert storm entry list.