Big Brother

[Joe "get" Carter]

It has already been said that for Paintball to become a true commercial success and become more widely accepted as a credible sport, it will have to get more air time and coverage.
TV success=Sporting success. Problem is, Paintball dosn't have one central point of focus - as in one competitor or a single ball - the action goes on all over the place. So, spectators must end up getting fustrated, missing important passages of play. The only way to do it seems to be to have a zillion camaras, and even then it's going to be a film editors nightmare.
Dose anyone think Paintball can ever be a truely great spectator sport, and why? Or does anyone have any good ideas for effective coverage set up?

 

[Tom Tom]

What was done on the toulouse vid was a good idea that needs developing.

In the bottom of the screen there is a little 2D layout of the field with little dots moving when players do so you get an idea where people are on the field.

It would be better with commentators to help keep people informed in what is going on.

Have it like football (UK) a wide angle shot and a few camera at ground level to get closer to the action. Cut together but simple.

If i had the money or resourses I would develop this idea but I dont so cant. YET

 

[Jones the Paint Magnet]

I think Durty Dan's site has some good ideas about "spectator friendly" paintball. Trouble is, what makes good TV isn't necessarily the format that players have decided works best for them.

Plus you have the audience "idiot factor" involved. It always amuses me how some sports with labryinthine rules constantly get TV coverage, and others are judged as "unfilmable". (actually, "amuse" would be the wrong word here). You'd definitely need a snappy editor with a rewind/slow-mo to replay eliminations, preferably without the Crossfire "dying" histrionics.

 

[rancid]

Isn't it the case that the only people interested in spectating paintball are paintballers? Not exactly the building blocks we need.

 

[jonc]

rancid, yes, I'm sure that's the case, but the whole point is to get the coverage to the point where it can just be watched.

I don't think that live coverage will really work, you need lots of cameras, and a team of people editing it afterwards.
The fact is that you would need to switch to a camera before something interesting happened in order to broadcast it live, which unless you can see into the future, would make it difficult.

Ideal set-up :
1 camera for each player, 1 aerial and 2 roaming. could get a bit crowded though, so i think a max of about 4 ground cameras, plus one aerial camera.

i think before it is broadcast on it's own, it needs to get more coverage generally, so that people know what it's about.

or you could just ignore me....

jonc

 

[Dannefaerd]

Personally I think that the coverage should be more along the lines of the World Rally Championship ... they do all the filming with multiply cameras ... and then edit overnight, and broadcast with relevant commentary over the top.

It is this kind of coverage that (in my opinion) would work best for paintball.

 

[rancid]

I don't know if I'm just being a miserable *******, but I think we're only ever going to have a few hours a year tv coverage on extreme sport-type progs buried at the bottom of cable.

Personally, I think stuff like that Mission paintball could serve the purpose if it was put together a tiny bit better, and had a few more camera-friendly players taking part. No offence like.

 

[Wookie]

Bravo...

The few episodes of Bravo's Mission: Paintball that I saw (Sorry Beaker, I missed the Thunder one) were very good from the point of view of the spectator.

I liked the way that some of the players had helmet cams (hehehehe) and that you could really see the paint flying by, it gave the shot a bit more excitement. Anfd having a 2D map at the bottom would make it a lot more easy to understand.

What we do need is a decent commentator (the Jon Motson of the paintball world) with one of those light pen things to explain the moves at the end of a game. They could show the bunkering and the other stuff and it would make a lot more sense to the non-believers out there.

Potentially, you could even do that sort of thing live, although I am not sure I like the idea of playing in a game with a huge great camera stuck to the top of my head.

Wookie

 

[Al Woods]

Marketing, marketing, marketing

advertising, advertising, advertising....I can't stress this point enough duderanos. Organisers need to shell out a lil' bit extra and sort out a promotional package that looks the business....posters, flyers stickers etc etc. This was one of the things that let Campaign down last year no-one knew if they were in the right place when they turned up coz there wasn't any promo material around to big up the whole shabang.

Hang on, this isn't relevant to the thread is it? Aaaah balls.

 

[Wookie]

Don't worry...

It's too early to be thinking.

Now go and get a cup of coffee.

Wookie