Pub Charity Track and Field Nationals 2009
In January 2009 I began talking with Scott Kinnear, friend and runner about filming the track events of the Track And Field Nationals that were to be held in Newtown at the end of March. These discussions escalated to include NZrun.com. The idea was to film the events on Hard Drive handy cams and upload them to NZrun.com using their new site featuring the upload tools from flotrack.com, Americas largest Track website.
The idea for coverage along with a quote was passed on to Athletics New Zealand who took it on board and found funding to cover the production through its naming sponsor, Pub Charities. I worked closely with both Athletics New Zealand and NZrun.com to create a call sheet with selective events and interviews to cover over the three days. In the end the track and field footage would be shown on www.anznationals.org.nz whilst extensive track events would be available on www.NZrun.com
I located 2 camera operators and a production assistant and organised meetings and updates prior to the shoot. I also conducted a location scout and made sure the gear we had could handle the conditions and work flow. New Balance sponsored Spark productions for the event and gave all the crew polo shirts to wear across the 3 days.
During the 3 days the event was on I directed and shot 69 events and interviews. I also acted as a media liaison helping 3 News and 1 News locate and shoot athletes. Luckily the weather was fantastic but if it had not been I had the equipment to film in bad weather and had other plans and camera positions for the crew.
At the end of each day I imported all the footage, edited it and uploaded it via Flotrack for viewing that evening/morning. On the other end of the line was Scott who tagged and named each video.
The coverage has been received well with athletes complimenting our speed and free accessibility.
Nick Willis: 1500m Olympic bronze medalist.
"It's just awesome service you guys have got going with this video. I have been watching the races on the net as well. So keep up your great work."
Other feedback:
"As both a professional videographer and Masters sprinter, I found the
video clips to be very good and professionally done. It was really
nice for a change to see some steady professional footage taken on a
tripod and good editing of the camera work. Well done to the crew
that organised this. Having videotaped a few events myself, I know
how difficult it can be to get good angles and vantage points, but it
was well put together. It was nice to have the clips available
overnight too, which I know would have taken a bit of time and effort.
The live blog/results was great also, as we were able to have almost
instantaneous placings and times which was handy for those of us that
couldn't be there but wanted to follow the competition at home. I
don't know if this has been done before overseas, but it was
certainly a fantastic innovation. Anyway, well done to yourself and everyone involved in making the
champs a great success."
John Campbell
Auckland Masters Athletics
"I've watched most of the videos of Nats over the weekend and LOVED it. Was great to be able to watch the action/drama rather than just obsessing over the results, reading NZRun and then trying to figure out in my head how it all would have happened. I was absolutely stoked to see Demelza get up for a medal in the 800m and to be able to see her do it, I almost got emotional (it's a friendship thing…) but I certainly didn't react that way just reading the results when they were first posted. Much cooler to be able to watch it. And good to see the old girl still uses the same tactics rather than just assuming she would have! I liked that there was more than one camera too."
Online participants response.
