Thoughts on the Draft Production & Broadcast

[Rocky Landing]

Apologies for the length of this post.

 

I thought this deserved its own topic, and now that the first two days of the draft are over, I was interested to see some discussion on people's thoughts on the actual production of this event, and to present some of my own. Depending on how this Covid-19 "new normal" environment plays out, this could really end up being a ground-breaking event. I've worked in motion picture/television production for almost 30 years, including a fair amount of reality, and broadcast television. The challenges to coordinating hundreds of live streams into one live television production is pretty staggering, and if this becomes a standard, then this will be looked upon as the pioneer production.

 

A few thoughts on the coverage:

Pros:

• I'm actually quite impressed with how well the feeds back and forth were managed. Very few bobbles, and dead air.
• I've always thought Wingo was pretty good at his job, but in controlled situations (like television studios) there are a lot of people keeping things moving, and coherent. Trey did an admirable job considering the circumstances.
• Kudos to Goodell for inviting fans to boo him from the screen behind him. His performance was lousy, but that made him seem uncharacteristically human.
• Just the right amount of Kiper looking like he was high on meth, and about to chew his own tongue off.
• Smart how they had different pundits prepared to comment on different draftees, and their highlight reels. All in all, the entire production was well organized.

 

Cons:

• They could have kept anything Covid related, and anything requiring slow, somber piano music to the first two minutes of the broadcast, and left it at that because 75+% of the commercials were all about that. 
• WAY too many talking heads. It looked to me like they replaced all of the footage of screaming fans, and all the malarkey that happens during the gala environment of what would have occurred in Vegas with a higher volume of talking heads. I was hoping for the screaming fan footage to be replaced more with actual college football footage, with analysis.
• Goodell was as wooden as Tom Brady's* legs.
• Kiper looked like he was high on meth, and about to chew his own tongue off.
• More care should have been taken to sync the remote footage, specifically the draftee's homes, and the GM's offices, with the picks as they were announced. Most of the picks that came in were met with shots of players and their families, and GMs doing... nothing.
• Not a lot of out-of-the-box- thinking went into this very out-of-the-box production. I'm sure they were rather consumed with the technical challenges (which were HUGE) in pulling off this event, but I think there were a lot of missed opportunities in what could have been presented.

 

Things I would have liked to have seen:

• There are a lot of NFL football fans (like me) who don't pay any attention to college football until draft season (at which point, we all become experts). And then, the only things we generally see are highlight reels, which present an utterly skewed version of the players, and their programs. There was an opportunity here to educate the masses on the particulars of college football, in short format segments that could have been fitted in between picks.
• As mentioned above, a lot of the live feeds weren't well synced with the broadcast. I would have liked too have seen a lot more interaction with the players at home, and the GMs, and HCs. For example, a nice part of each pick would have been for the GMs or HCs to answer a few quick questions on each pick. Example: Trey Wingo: "So, Mike, what stood out for you when considering Isaiah Wilson?" Mike Vrabel: "blah, blah, blah..." Of course, this would've been coordinated with all the teams ahead of time, but that shouldn't have been too hard. Same goes for draftees.
• Just to expand on the above-- each team should have had a point man to communicate with the broadcast. Ideally, that would have been the GM, or HC. But, given how busy they were, a third party-- be that an assistant, or known personality-- would have sufficed. For example: The Bills could have had Kyle Williams in the loop for all their draft prospects, and he could have done a quick, post-pick interview on the thought process going into their pick. Such a format would have been interesting, and educational, and not all that hard to coordinate.
• Kiper successfully chewing his own tongue off.
• I know this was a first-of-its-kind production, and rife with technical challenges which had to be met, and I'm sure took an enormous amount of effort. But, going forward, if this sort of production happens again, I would think the NFL would be smart to elicit the help from a broader talent pool. Things don't need to be so stodgy. Memes, short-form docs, short films, even Tic Tok, and Instagram, and FaceBook have some very talented people coming up with viable content that could be culled. 

 

All in all, it was a pretty impressive effort. I'm sure that the production crews who were involved in this learned a lot, and probably developed a lot of systems for managing this enormous amount of streaming content that we'll never hear about. But, I think there's a lot of open ground here for what could ultimately become a are paradigm in television production. Interesting times...

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2020 by Rocky Landing

[1ManRaid]

Too much tragedy porn and fawning over athletic families.  Sure mention the pedigree but I want to know about the PLAYER.

 

*edit*

Oh and they already apparently committed to returning to Vegas next year.  Don't expect this to be the "new normal".

Edited April 25, 2020 by 1ManRaid

[Lurker]

Starting to really suck now.   Too much fluff...

[1st Ammendment NoMas]

Basic network bullsh^t. Too much pandering to the pandemic, too much fake empathy. 1ManRaid nailed it with "tragedy porn".  Every damn network is the same politicizing monster posing their thought agenda upon us.  It's f'kin football. Stick to football.  Also I'm sick of listening to horrible audio, home video webcam quality crap.  

[FireChans]

34 minutes ago, Rocky Landing said:

Apologies for the length of this post.

 

I thought this deserved its own topic, and now that the first two days of the draft are over, I was interested to see some discussion on people's thoughts on the actual production of this event, and to present some of my own. Depending on how this Covid-19 "new normal" environment plays out, this could really end up being a ground-breaking event. I've worked in motion picture/television production for almost 30 years, including a fair amount of reality, and broadcast television. The challenges to coordinating hundreds of live streams into one live television production is pretty staggering, and if this becomes a standard, then this will be looked upon as the pioneer production.

 

A few thoughts on the coverage:

Pros:

• I'm actually quite impressed with how well the feeds back and forth were managed. Very few bobbles, and dead air.
• I've always thought Wingo was pretty good at his job, but in controlled situations (like television studios) there are a lot of people keeping things moving, and coherent. Trey did an admirable job considering the circumstances.
• Kudos to Goodell for inviting fans to boo him from the screen behind him. His performance was lousy, but that made him seem uncharacteristically human.
• Just the right amount of Kiper looking like he was high on meth, and about to chew his own tongue off.
• Smart how they had different pundits prepared to comment on different draftees, and their highlight reels. All in all, the entire production was well organized.

 

Cons:

• They could have kept anything Covid related, and anything requiring slow, somber piano music to the first two minutes of the broadcast, and left it at that because 75+% of the commercials were all about that. 
• WAY too many talking heads. It looked to me like they replaced all of the footage of screaming fans, and all the malarkey that happens during the gala environment of what would have occurred in Vegas with a higher volume of talking heads. I was hoping for the screaming fan footage to be replaced more with actual college football footage, with analysis.
• Goodell was as wooden as Tom Brady's* legs.
• Kiper looked like he was high on meth, and about to chew his own tongue off.
• More care should have been taken to sync the remote footage, specifically the draftee's homes, and the GM's offices, with the picks as they were announced. Most of the picks that came in were met with shots of players and their families, and GMs doing... nothing.
• Not a lot of out-of-the-box- thinking went into this very out-of-the-box production. I'm sure they were rather consumed with the technical challenges (which were HUGE) in pulling off this event, but I think there were a lot of missed opportunities in what could have been presented.

 

Things I would have liked to have seen:

• There are a lot of NFL football fans (like me) who don't pay any attention to college football until draft season (at which point, we all become experts). And then, the only things we generally see are highlight reels, which present an utterly skewed version of the players, and their programs. There was an opportunity here to educate the masses on the particulars of college football, in short format segments that could have been fitted in between picks.
• As mentioned above, a lot of the live feeds weren't well synced with the broadcast. I would have liked too have seen a lot more interaction with the players at home, and the GMs, and HCs. For example, a nice part of each pick would have been for the GMs or HCs to answer a few quick questions on each pick. Example: Trey Wingo: "So, Mike, what stood out for you when considering Isaiah Wilson?" Mike Vrabel: "blah, blah, blah..." Of course, this would've been coordinated with all the teams ahead of time, but that shouldn't have been too hard. Same goes for draftees.
• Just to expand on the above-- each team should have had a point man to communicate with the broadcast. Ideally, that would have been the GM, or HC. But, given how busy they were, a third party-- be that an assistant, or known personality-- would have sufficed. For example: The Bills could have had Kyle Williams in the loop for all their draft prospects, and he could have done a quick, post-pick interview on the thought process going into their pick. Such a format would have been interesting, and educational, and not all that hard to coordinate.
• Kiper successfully chewing his own tongue off.
• I know this was a first-of-its-kind production, and rife with technical challenges which had to be met, and I'm sure took an enormous amount of effort. But, going forward, if this sort of production happens again, I would think the NFL would be smart to elicit the help from a broader talent pool. Things don't need to be so stodgy. Memes, short-form docs, short films, even Tic Tok, and Instagram, and FaceBook have some very talented people coming up with viable content that could be culled. 

 

All in all, it was a pretty impressive effort. I'm sure that the production crews who were involved in this learned a lot, and probably developed a lot of systems for managing this enormous amount of streaming content that we'll never hear about. But, I think there's a lot of open ground here for what could ultimately become a are paradigm in television production. Interesting times...

 

 

 

I mean, you expected them to not air picks’ highlights when they are drafted? Bills draft Zack Moss, and you want to see some clips of him missing the hole and getting tackled for a 1 yard gain? Or talk about how he sucks out of the pistol? 

[1ManRaid]

10 minutes ago, BillsRdue said:

Basic network bullsh^t. Too much pandering to the pandemic, too much fake empathy. 1ManRaid nailed it with "tragedy porn".  Every damn network is the same politicizing monster posing their thought agenda upon us.  It's f'kin football. Stick to football.  Also I'm sick of listening to horrible audio, home video webcam quality crap.  

Thanks but I think I stole the phrase from one of the general discussion threads.

 

I can't stand pandering from corporations.  That's how we get political or agenda driven comic books and movies.  They don't sell, and then blame gets flung around and the cycle continues.

8 minutes ago, FireChans said:

I mean, you expected them to not air picks’ highlights when they are drafted? Bills draft Zack Moss, and you want to see some clips of him missing the hole and getting tackled for a 1 yard gain? Or talk about how he sucks out of the pistol? 

Someone sounds like one of those never happy "didn't get MY guy" people.

[Rocky Landing]

39 minutes ago, 1ManRaid said:

Too much tragedy porn and fawning over athletic families.  Sure mention the pedigree but I want to know about the PLAYER.

 

*edit*

Oh and they already apparently committed to returning to Vegas next year.  Don't expect this to be the "new normal".

I'm certainly not implying that this broadcast is the "new normal," or that this is what the NFL draft is going to look like going forward.

 

However, the innovations that were developed for this broadcast will serve as a model for other things going forward, and will certainly have an impact on future NFL broadcasts. It's very likely also that these innovations will be used in other formats. For example, for the last five years, or so, I have been gaffing sitcoms in LA. I was on a pilot when this thing started (our lights are still up, and all my gear is still there), and the "live studio audience" is a real thing, and pretty important to how these things are directed. Several producers are floating the idea of having virtual live studio audiences going forward. However it plays out, and whatever the "new normal" is, the broadcast industry is going through a very rapid transformation.

[FireChans]

8 minutes ago, 1ManRaid said:

Thanks but I think I stole the phrase from one of the general discussion threads.

 

I can't stand pandering from corporations.  That's how we get political or agenda driven comic books and movies.  They don't sell, and then blame gets flung around and the cycle continues.

Someone sounds like one of those never happy "didn't get MY guy" people.

?

[Rocky Landing]

14 minutes ago, FireChans said:

I mean, you expected them to not air picks’ highlights when they are drafted? Bills draft Zack Moss, and you want to see some clips of him missing the hole and getting tackled for a 1 yard gain? Or talk about how he sucks out of the pistol? 

Of course I expected to see highlights. Did I say I didn't' want to see highlights? 

 

Also, there was plenty of criticism of certain players' abilities as the picks came in. Booger was especially critical of a few players, and I was glad to see it. (The criticism, not the Booger)