Basketball season is a busy season for At Will Productions. Co-owner, Joe Schmitt has already worked ten games for ESPN, and another handful for Raycom and CSS.
Schmitt says: "Shooting hoops is always a blast. It's easier than football because the court is much smaller, so the ball can only go so far. Since the cameras are physically closer to the action, the coaches are easier to spot too." So far, Schmitt has operated a handheld camera, slash, and camera two.
Want some insight on basic basketball coverage? Hard cameras (like the one pictured) with long lenses, usually 55x or higher, are used for camera one, two, and five (slash camera.) Camera one is the game camera. This is a wider shot that covers the entire play. Camera two is set up next to camera one and is head to toe on the player with the ball. This camera follows the ball through the hoop and whips over to get the hero. Invaluable for replays. Camera two follows the announcers stories between plays. So when they talk about a player or coach, two quickly gets a shot of them. Camera two gets the player who committed the foul, no matter where it is on the court. Running cam 2 is by far the hardest.
Learn more about basketball coverage in future posts.
