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19. Fenway HD Camera - S…
5 months ago
I shoot the Red Sox for a living in HD. I enjoy working with expensive and state-of-the-art television equipment.
A few people emailed me recently and asked me if I could shoot a video blog of my very expensive HD camera that I use to shoot for the networks at Fenway Park. Well, here you go!
I use a Sony HDC-910 camera head with a 75x (9.5mm to 700mm zoom 1:1.7) Canon HD lens with an optical image stabilizer. The camera head new has a retail price of $94,700.00 and that does not include the viewfinder or the lens! The lens is almost as much! The camera is mounted to a large fluid head on Miller sticks. The fluid head is the Vinten Vector 70 and I would ague that this is the best hard camera pan head ever made.
I brought my PMW-EX1 to work today and during my lunch break, I shot a quick video explaining the camera the best I could. I had a million other things I had to do that day. I did not spend much time on this, but this short little film should answer the questions I was asked.
Keep watching until the end. I got a shot of the moon rising over the right field seats and I think you will like it. I shot this during the game a few days ago and TV color analyst Jerry Remy even stated that it was “the best shot he has ever seen on NESN” (New England Sports Network). Now keep in mind, this shot had nothing to do with baseball or sports for that matter. Go figure.
I see shots like this on the Discovery channel all the time!
The moon shot I added to this video was off a dvd copy of the clip. In crappy standard def. I up-converted it to 720p in Final Cut. I did not have a chance to get a HD version yet.
Email me any questions. My website is tomguilmette.com
A few people emailed me recently and asked me if I could shoot a video blog of my very expensive HD camera that I use to shoot for the networks at Fenway Park. Well, here you go!
I use a Sony HDC-910 camera head with a 75x (9.5mm to 700mm zoom 1:1.7) Canon HD lens with an optical image stabilizer. The camera head new has a retail price of $94,700.00 and that does not include the viewfinder or the lens! The lens is almost as much! The camera is mounted to a large fluid head on Miller sticks. The fluid head is the Vinten Vector 70 and I would ague that this is the best hard camera pan head ever made.
I brought my PMW-EX1 to work today and during my lunch break, I shot a quick video explaining the camera the best I could. I had a million other things I had to do that day. I did not spend much time on this, but this short little film should answer the questions I was asked.
Keep watching until the end. I got a shot of the moon rising over the right field seats and I think you will like it. I shot this during the game a few days ago and TV color analyst Jerry Remy even stated that it was “the best shot he has ever seen on NESN” (New England Sports Network). Now keep in mind, this shot had nothing to do with baseball or sports for that matter. Go figure.
I see shots like this on the Discovery channel all the time!
The moon shot I added to this video was off a dvd copy of the clip. In crappy standard def. I up-converted it to 720p in Final Cut. I did not have a chance to get a HD version yet.
Email me any questions. My website is tomguilmette.com
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I do love those high tech things and was wondering how pros handle them. Well explained man. Thnx.
Superb moon shot, looks like Mars. I presume the focal extension is digital. Do you loose some quality there like with our small beauties?
I've always wondered- is there a reason sports camera monitors are always B&W? I've only seen a few but they always seem that way. What's the reasoning there?
today with high def, there are color monitor options for viewfinders on these cameras but they are like twice as expensive. i have used them. i still prefer b/w.
ultimately, if the camera is set up right...who needs a color monitor?
i must admit, i use one when i light sit down feature interviews. also the client may request it.
I wanna be like Tom :)
Great job on the vid Tom, loved it and the last shot was just stunning. Hope you get a chance to drop in the HD version.
- Ray
sports camera ops us them all the time when a director tells us to "suck out his eyeballs". that means drop in the extender and slowly zoom as tight as you can into the guys face as an extreme close up. this adds drama as they say.
i am harnessed to the position per order of the red sox and the networks just in case.
And a camera worth more than 180,000 bucks, that's much!
Do you also build it up yourself? And do others use it as well? Because it looks pretty like it's your personal camera..
the metal sticks, the pan head, the lens and the camera head. all this stuff (except the sticks) travel in tough road cases. i use a cart to push it to my position.
yes this is my own camera and i build it myself. but i do not own it! it is close to $200 grand new and costs more than my house!
there are seven other hard cameras just like this one around the ball park. there are also a few robotic and hand held cameras as well.
next time you watch a baseball game, think about how much money in tv equipment is out there to bring the emotion of the game into your living room.
An EX1 is nothing considered to this...
:)
Some funny observations:
The $94k camera head, is that with or without the cardboard sun-sheild and masking tape? (Trust me, I love tape, Duct Tape, Masking tape)
Second, loved the zoom part in on the babe....that's hilarious. (rough job, bud!)
Totally loved this video, Tom. Seriously, it was really neat-o, stuff that only us Vimeans would get into...
okay...and I'm jealous.
not to mention running cable under the stands where the big rats live. that is work.
Tom, as much as Im goofing around here in comments, I am loving this stuff...bring it on. If you ever come to LA for the big blue....give me some heads up, I'd love to see all this. Sure I have friends in the industry, but it's mostly reality stuff nowadays and their not keen on visitors on set.
Have your people call my people.
The moon shot is awesome!
the form factor of the crt monitor is 4:3. i have a switch that i can flip to see a letterboxed version of what my camera is outputting in 16:9 but i do not use it.
it is much easier to follow the action (and the ball) with the viewfinder set to 4:3. the image is bigger in the monitor.
as for the 16:9 area i cannot see, i dont care really. i know this sounds wrong, but we still frame for 4:3 in the sports world. that extra 16:9 area is what i call "gravy".
the only time i would ever flip that switch is if i were shooting something and i wanted to be sure that a light stand for example was not in the hd picture.
Although, sometimes I do make the reporter carry the sticks.
Seriously amazing stuff Tom, but I must admit to being impressed with the EX1 that filmed this cool info too.
i edited all this in a few minutes in the press media room on my mac book pro and uploaded it to my site and vimeo when i got home.
Thanks for all the technical information. I enjoyed it tremendously.
link: nesn.com/content/playground/story.aspx?content_id=bc69dbac-ed72-4083-bd4d-f548cf1dc3e1
we are still shooting on mini dv!
I think it's just because the video board isn't HD
Very cool, I have to find time to get up to your post one of these days.
BTW do you adjust iris or is that done in the OB truck and are there any other functions the OB truck can do/overide on your camera?
i override nothing. i could hit the green button and adjust the filter locally, but the video guy hates that!
haha nice stuff.. I like how your "little" cam is 6k + :)
anyways,
thanks for sharing
:-)
i saw the moon rising, i saw the airplane approaching. i followed the airplane into the moon. what you see in this video is not the entire shot.
Nice to see some insight in those big production camera's.
Love it!
vimeo.com/1206384
Awesome video! That is one of my dream jobs. I was there at Fenway 6/22, Dice K's worst start ever, and looked up where your perch was and didn't see you or a camera. Actually I didn't see a camera anywhere in the left field bleachers in the upper decks. Day off?
Great moon shot.
Is that camera equally as good as the EX1? I bet it's 1000 times our camcorders are.
I miss shooting with true pro camera's vs these.
Time for me to go back to school and give up self productions.
Go Sox!
The link to the MESN article was very helpful, but I still have a couple of questions about your workflow/communication, if you don't mind:
Do you shoot like you're "always on" or are you warned before your feed goes out?
Are you free to pick creative shots (crowd etc.) between plays or are those shots assigned?
What are some typical commands from the director?
All the expensive gear is cool, but I find the level of organization required to execute a live broadcast flawlessly even more fascinating.
Thank you
the director gives a ready cue just before he gives a take cue to the technical director to push the button. so in other words, if i were camera 7 and i get the next shot in the live sequence, it would sound like this...
"ready three, take three, ready to dissolve six, dissolve six, ready seven, take seven, ready to effect blue, effect blue."
The numbers are cameras and blue is a replay tape machine.
when we have no shot assignments, we usually look in the crowd for stuff.
* Just Kidding! *
The NESN memo link is busted; any chance you still have that info? I'd love to learn more about how you do what you do...
Thanks.
Edit: I think I found the new address. Is this it?
playground.nesn.com/blogs/behind_the_screens/archive/2008/06/10/3097461.aspx
Quote:
Director's cut
I have been the director of Red Sox baseball at NESN since June 1, 2001. When I meet people socially, and they ask what I do, the next question is almost always, “So what do you actually do?”
(etc...)
today I went on a tour of fenway. walked right past your post, and thought of this video.
Thanks Tom!