12.13.2009

How to Fake Broadcast a Small High School Basketball Game

Ok, so I have an idea

(I think I'll start every idea post like that from now on)

What if I were to take 4 or 5 cameras to an LCA basketball game? What if I were to just let those cameras roll, and then afterwards, go back and edit them, post audio/produce them, and see if I can get it to look something like a television broadcast? I could set up one like what I do now, for self-scouting purposes, midcourt, top of the bleachers, on a tripod, and make that my main "A" camera, and it would be the one used most, just like a normal televised game you'd see on ESPN or TNT. I could use another tripod in a corner down on the floor. I have my DIY steadicam ( http://www.steadycam.org/ ) I could use on a sideline. And, my personal favorite, I could put a homemade camera jib/crane on the stage behind the goal. Maybe one up in a storage room in the corner on the second floor just set to be able to see crowd reactions.

So, we've got the same game recorded on 4 or 5 different cameras, just 90 or 100 minutes of video or so. What I would then do is go through and watch each of them all the way through, writing down time stamps for when I want to use each shot. For instance, if I want to use my "A" for the first 1:22, and then the crane for some free throws for the next 30 seconds, I write down "C" 1:22-52, and know when to use which cameras when. Then I go back through and cut those times from those cameras, and put them back together in order to get our video production.

I get a couple of people to sit down and record voice-over play by play calls, analysis, you know play Bob Rathburn and Dominique, have some fun. I play that over the video of the game. Maybe add a scoreboard graphic in the corner, throw in some stat graphics here and there, try to make it look nice.

Final product: A high school basketball game that has a broadcast team, multiple camera angles, statistical updates, maybe some behind the scenes stuff thrown in to bring it together.

Thoughts? Additional ideas to potentially make it better? Subtractions to potentially make it better? Lambasting the idea as a whole? Pipe dream? Or something completely achievable that would be cool?