Camera angles and close-ups

[Duck Billyworth]

(sorry if a similar thread already exists or I if am going over well-trodden ground)
I am wondering if anyone else is a little fed up with the way football is broadcast in terms of the camera angles and use of close-ups.
I don't have foxtel, so can only speak about Seven's broadcast, but a recent game at the SCG was so littered with cuts between wide-shot and close-up that it ruined the experience.
The angle of shot also changed from side-on to behind the goal shooter so often as to confuse me as to which way either team was kicking during the game.
Surely the SCG, with its minimal size is the perfect ground to use a few cameras on one wing and give the viewer a look at the flow of the game behind and (more importantly) in front of the ball carrier.
Often, in one passage of play, the director would cut between close-up (for a contest) and wide-shot for a kick or run so often we were missing parts of the play and certainly any vision of players running off the contest to recieve the ball.
Are channel Seven obsessed with all the cameras they have? Are sponsors demanding close-ups so their logos are more visible on jumpers, or is it just an obsession with getting "close to action"?
Is it bothering others, or am I just a fuddy duddy.
What other aspects of the actual camera work on games gives you the swears??

 

[The_Eagles]

Interesting that in soccer and bball there's generally just one angle until a goal is scored or lulls in play etc

I would like more longshots it's too zoomed sometime

 

[DT2000]

I hate the "reverse angle" shot that they use when a player is taking a set shot. You have a team that is kicking to the left of the screen and then when they take a shot they are kicking to the right due to that stupid reverse shot.

****s with my head!!!

 

[KissKiss]

I hate the "reverse angle" shot that they use when a player is taking a set shot. You have a team that is kicking to the left of the screen and then when they take a shot they are kicking to the right due to that stupid reverse shot.

****s with my head!!!

I don't mind if they can get an angle directly behind the guy taking the shot. Anything else live I want the same longshot so I can see what's happening

 

[scaryness]

Don't know why Channel 7 keep thinking that the ultra-zoom on 2 players at a time is the best way to watch football. Did anyone actually ask for that?

 

[Duck Billyworth]

Don't know why Channel 7 keep thinking that the ultra-zoom on 2 players at a time is the best way to watch football. Did anyone actually ask for that?

Not that I am aware of. It just seems a really poor way to show whats going on

 

[milhouse1]

Yeah, I think they overdo the close-ups. I don't tend to mind when I'm watching as a neutral, but when I'm watching my team and am anxious about the result I hate it when a handpass goes out of a pack and the camera is too zoomed in to see where it goes, or if the ball is kicked into space and the camera zooms in on the ball and you can't see which players are approaching the ball. I would much prefer they keep with the wider shots for most of play, and just zoom in during stoppages etc.

 

[extractasam]

I was wondering why I enjoyed the broadcast of the EJ Whitten game so much in terms of actual play etc.. Channel 9 do it so much better, just sit back and pan across, I dunno camera terminology or anything but that's as best as I could describe it. Footy was just better to watch on 9...

 

[aCunningPlan]

Need to justify all those cameras somehow.wat hing a game from 2003 now they did the same thing then on ten.

 

[Hank93]

I would say 7 have greatly improved on their zoom addiction from 2012ish. It was appalling back then.

Especially at Adelaide Oval, they do a better job than fox now IMO in watching the play from a distance.

Another thing i hate is how Fox zoom onto the ball as it's travelling through the goals. You miss the crowd reaction as the goal is taking place.

 

[Duck Billyworth]

Yeah, I think they overdo the close-ups. I don't tend to mind when I'm watching as a neutral, but when I'm watching my team and am anxious about the result I hate it when a handpass goes out of a pack and the camera is too zoomed in to see where it goes, or if the ball is kicked into space and the camera zooms in on the ball and you can't see which players are approaching the ball. I would much prefer they keep with the wider shots for most of play, and just zoom in during stoppages etc.

Yes - exactly this!!!!

 

[The Speaker]

I was wondering why I enjoyed the broadcast of the EJ Whitten game so much in terms of actual play etc.. Channel 9 do it so much better, just sit back and pan across, I dunno camera terminology or anything but that's as best as I could describe it. Footy was just better to watch on 9...

It is a bit easier for the cameramen to follow.

 

[specq]

It is a bit easier for the cameramen to follow.

Yes, but that's offset by the fact that fewer players fit in the shot.

 

[Gibbsy]

Worst thing about 7 is how they don't show any replays until their ad break is over. So when watching on Fox, you'll just get fixed vision of the goal kicker running to the middle or to the bench for 30 seconds until you finally get one shitty camera angle of him celebrating which is then interrupted by the centre bounce. Not as farcical as when they went silent during the breaks in the first few rounds of 2012 (which I still see from time to time!) but still pretty arrogant and dumb.

 

[Juggs Magnetic]

So many cameras, such little HD.

The constant changes of angles and zooming in really does my head in. Channel 7 would have to be the worst (not just at this but pretty much everything). Just keep it simple.

 

[enzso]

Interesting that in soccer and bball there's generally just one angle until a goal is scored or lulls in play etc

That's largely because contests between individual players in soccer and basketball are far fewer and of a shorter duration than AFL. The ball doesn't get tied up in a contest for as long so there's less need to cut tighter to show what's going on. It also helps that the playing areas are smaller than AFL, so you can stay on the wide shot and be able to show the team structures well without getting too distant from what's going on with the ball.

In AFL the contest is often the most spectacular part of the game. A great mark or tackle or a fantastic pickup and quick handball just aren't done justice when captured in a wide shot. With shorter stoppages around the ground it's difficult to save those moments for replay only.

 

[Sultan]

I can't stand watching SCG games on telly. The angles that the cameras are at are terrible and make for some average viewing.

 

[simba_]

yep the camera isn't even centralised at the SCG, i assume they can't get on top of the stand on the wing or something. the crows - swans game was absolutely ridiculous, zoomed allllllllll the way out at the centre bounce then slooooooowwwwwllly zooms in when the ball breaks out. you can't see what happened in detail. it was absurd.

 

[Billy ray]

yep the camera isn't even centralised at the SCG, i assume they can't get on top of the stand on the wing or something. the crows - swans game was absolutely ridiculous, zoomed allllllllll the way out at the centre bounce then slooooooowwwwwllly zooms in when the ball breaks out. you can't see what happened in detail. it was absurd.

agree
I cant stand watching games from the SCG

 

[simba_]

But that's what the early posters want to see - fewer tight shots showing detail and more wide shots showing team structure!

Seems there's no consensus

i think everyone wants the same thing - zoomed out when we need to see everything and zoomed in when we need to see the action.

 

[Clint Bizkit]

Watching the Melbourne game on the weekend I go so frustrated by Fox Footy constantly using close-ups, it was so difficult to tell what was happening outside of about a five metre radius around the ball.

Very frustrating.

 

[Billy ray]

I hate the "reverse angle" shot that they use when a player is taking a set shot. You have a team that is kicking to the left of the screen and then when they take a shot they are kicking to the right due to that stupid reverse shot.

****s with my head!!!

Wouldn't a 'reverse' angle be the shot from behind the goals looking back toward the commentary position?
What they call reverse angle should in fact be called opposite angle. From the opposite side of the ground but toward the same action.

 

[Registered User]

Ah, s**t! I started a thread about this last year and forgot all about it. Sorry to those who replied. I'll dig it up later.

Anyway, it's also happening with cricket. If extreme close-ups are meant to make it more "exciting" and give a greater sense of action, then surely crap like this defeats the purpose. Having only body parts in shot and no ball? WTF? I could take a hundred still-shots like this during a game of footy, I reckon.

Yeah, yeah, the ball has passed the batsman, but the camera moved so fast from the bowler to the batsman to keeper that it was almost a blur, especially to my aging eyes.

 

[AlcoaCat]

That's largely because contests between individual players in soccer and basketball are far fewer and of a shorter duration than AFL. The ball doesn't get tied up in a contest for as long so there's less need to cut tighter to show what's going on. It also helps that the playing areas are smaller than AFL, so you can stay on the wide shot and be able to show the team structures well without getting too distant from what's going on with the ball.

In AFL the contest is often the most spectacular part of the game. A great mark or tackle or a fantastic pickup and quick handball just aren't done justice when captured in a wide shot. With shorter stoppages around the ground it's difficult to save those moments for replay only.

Its so annoying when people speak knowledgeably. Don't they know we come here to get our panties all knotted up?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Duck Billyworth]

Lets see how annoying the close-ups are tonight with Syd vs Coll...