Case Study- EL Clasico

                                                           EL Clasico

El Clasico is the name given in football to any match between Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (Real Madrid) and Fútbol Club Barcelona (Barcelona). Originally it referred only to those competitions held in the Spanish championship, but nowadays – in order to satisfy marketing needs – the term has been generalized, and tends to include every single match between the two clubs. In this case I will be talking about a game that was played on the 26/02/13 where Real Madrid won by 3 goals to 1. Football match productions use more than one camera to shoot live footage, in fact they use around 24 cameras to capture the right things at the right moment, for example when a goal is being scored, the viewers would like to see the goal in many different angels. This also helps programmes such as Match of the day talk about the game.

Coverage Of Action

In a Football match like this there is around 24 cameras placed around the pitch and the stadium. Most of the cameras are facing and shooting the action that is on the pitch, this is so the viewers at home are able to see what is happen from many different angles. Like I said before, most of the cameras are shooting live footage of the pitch, there are around 3 cameras behind each goal net, 1 around each corner, 4 on each side, 2 on the crowd that are attending the match, 4 on zip lines that move along with a remote, 3 cameras which are held by a camera man that is allowed to move around and the rest outside the stadium. Behind the goal net there are 3 cameras, 2 of which help give a better viewpoint of the goal that has been scored or some sort of action, and the remaining 1 helps match officials determine whether the ball had passed the line to count a goal or not. The shot types are simple, one camera shows a close up of the ball while the other is panning along with a medium shot of the player and the ball.

In a football pitch there are 4 corners, because this is a lively game viewers would like to see everything that is happen, so in this case there is a camera in every corner. This show the viewers at home or where ever they are a better view of how the corner kick will be taken and by who it shall be taken by. The camera shot types for this particular angle is a close up on the ball and the player. For the two widths of the pitch there are around 4 cameras on each side, 6 of which particularly concentrate on certain players in this case there was Ronaldo and Messi. These cameras focus on their movement, ball skills and many other attributes they may do during their time on the pitch. These cameras normally consist of medium shots and sometimes close ups. The other two are consist of a wide and an establishing shot of the stadium. One of the cameras must stay if focus with the ball at all times and must have perfect timing depending on the speed and direction that ball is moving, basically one camera has to be following the ball at all times.

In a match that if fully pack with people there would have to be some cameras around the crowd and in this case there were 2 cameras facing the crowd filming them. This just give a better feel to the match for the viewers that are at home. Having cameras on the crowd changes the atmosphere around the stadium it also helps capture the crowd’s reaction to when a goal is being scored or when a player has done something astonishing that really entertains the audience. The type of shot being used are mostly wide shots and sometimes close up to really capture someone’s emotions. Also, there around 4 cameras on zip lines that move around using a remote, the cameras give the viewers a bird’s eye view of the pitch, and a close up of some players. Also these cameras help match officials determine whether there were any incidents or offside that officials did not spot. Another point about these cameras is that people are able to change to any view they would like with a Sky sports subscription package. 

The rest of the cameras inside the pitch are hand held by professional camera men, these camera men have to be steady at all times as they are moving along the side lines to capture the best possible shot for when a certain player does a entertain skill, and in this case it was Di Maria from Real Madrid. The three camera men use special rigs to help keep the camera steady at all times, otherwise the shot may be ruined. The final cameras are around the stadium to capture the crowd entering the stadium, or may be some interviews with some fans of different teams.  Cameras outside the stadium usually capture an establishing shot of the stadium and its surroundings. In special cases like this, because it is a hyped game that the whole world is watching, there would be some cameras placed on either Blimps or helicopters, to capture a Bird’s eye view of the stadium and its surroundings.  

Communicating meaning to the viewer

In games like this, there are two programme makers sharing the game. One being Sky Sports and the other being Al Jazeera Sports. For both programmes, before the game starts around 30 Minutes before they both have around 3-4 people in a studio stage where they discuss the two teams performances in recent games, in this case, Al Jazeera sports were discussing Real Madrid’s last game performance against an opposing team  where they performed really well. They also discuss the performance of individuals such as Messi and Ronaldo. They chat about many of the things and attributes both players have used in recent games and also who they shall nominate for Player of the year awards as they are both outstanding players who play intensely against each other, which makes games like this very interesting and intense itself.

Before the game starts the host and the guest at the studio tell the audience and the viewers at home the team line ups and the formation that will be used during the match. Once that is done a short advert comes up for the viewers at home which is around 30-60 seconds long. Once the advert is done an establishing shot of the stadium and its surroundings in show for around 5-10 seconds, it then switches to a bird’s eye view of the stadium showing the players come out of the dressing room and lining up to show both teams give each other respect by shaking hands. This normally takes around 2-3 minutes, during this time the screen cuts to a camera man where he is moving around steadily following the players shaking each other’s hand. Once that is done every single camera man should be outside the pitch in their correct positions so that the game could get started, only match officials and the starting 11 form both teams should be on the pitch.

Once the ball starts to move at kick off the programme makers put on an overlay of both team names up with a scoreboard and a timer to let the audience know how much time has been played and the score from each team. Normally at a football game the mostly used camera is the one up in stands by the side line of the pitch, this is so that it captures the entire pitch and lets the audience at home know where the ball is. Like I said before 6 of the cameras around the pith are filming certain players at all times just in case anything happens such as in injury or they perform a certain skill that the audience would like to see from different angels. When a goals is about to be scored on one team is causing danger to the other, most of the time they cut to a different camera which has a better view of what is going on. Once a goal is about to be scored all three cameras behind the net are active, in this case Real Madrid scores first, a camera is on the ball to watch its movement and speed, another is on the players positioning and movement and the last is on the goal line to determine whether the ball fully went in or not.

Visual Style

Before any game starts the team line ups pop up on the screen for the people at home or where ever they are. Once the team line ups pop up, under each profile image of each player is their name, the font used is a custom Futuristic font used by Sky Sports. In the other hand Al Jazeera uses a simple but elegant font as it looks professional. Once the games kicks off, a timer and a scoreboard overlay are available for the viewers at home. The font on both overlays are similar to the font used for the team line ups. Other texts being used may be when a goals is being scored. Once a goal is scored a short clip of a 3D next pops up which says ‘GOAL’. The text had been created in two editing applications, one being Adobe After Effect and the other being Adobe Premier, the same happens when a substitution is in progress, an overlay pops up stating the players be substituted in and out. Other text may be when the presenters are in the studio. The presenters may be discussing a top, and some information would be typed up so that the viewers at home could see the information.

Before each game we start of in a studio where presenters would introduce the game and talk about many other things. What we see in the studio varies from many different things such as couple of screens, posters of legends of football, tables, chairs, drinks, and in some occasions we would see some supporters in the studio, and we may also see a large window where the stadium is outside of it, where as you would see supporters entering the stadium. For the presenters in the studio they must all be looking professional, so what they are wearing are suites. Once the game starts we see many things around the stadium such as, flags of the teams, flags of the courtiers the supporters are from, footballs, ball boys, fans, match officials, players, managers, cameras, the press and police who are there to protect fans from clashing with each other. For everyone attending the stadium, they are all dressed casually as you want to be as comfortable as possible. The players in the other hand are all dressed according to their team colours. And match officials in black, so that they stand out from the rest. Before the game starts an advert starts, most of the time the advert is related to the match, and in this case, it was an advert for Audi, but Audi had related it back to the match as it attracts a lot of audience, especially the game had been watch worldwide. Link for the advert is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVJvcTf5sWs

Maintaining viewer interest

Most of the time the audience for the El Classic is engaged from both the female and male audience from a young age to any age possible, as long as they enjoy the sport. During football matches like this there are around 2-3 commentators explaining everything happening on the pitch with a hyped tone to keep the audience focused on what is happening. Like I stated before, there are many cameras around the pitch, this helps keep the audience focused on the ball at all times which keeps the audience engaged and maintains their interest.

When in the studio, the way the presenters keep the audience engaged is simple, they use clips of past El Clasico where something special had kicked off to form a special moment in the history book, for example when Zidane, one of the world’s best footballers had demolished Barcelona. Link to the video is below. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOBnGPh9WL8

Constraints of studio or location environment

Like I said before, cameras are placed all over the stadium and are able to capture everything that is happening around. For filming in a stadium where the El Clasico is going to be played the budget would be very expensive because they are filming for 90 minutes straight, the audience would also impact the budget, as Sky Sports or Al Jazeera may know that this game is watched all over the world. Some cameras are not able to move around as much as they are being told by the director so concentrate on a certain place or player.

Multi- Camera simultaneous recording

The good thing about having many cameras is that what if one camera went down, the directors would not what to miss anything happening on the pitch, also during a huge game like this more than one thing good be happening around the pitch, so this is why it is important to have more than at least 10 camera around a pitch for a game like this. Like a stated above, there are at least 2 cameras on the crowd, this is so that they capture their reactions and/or emotions.