How do they get that shot where it looks like the camera is hovering maybe 20 feet above the field? It doesn’t look like telephoto. It seems to have come into use only over the last few years. They use it a lot to show how the offense sets up before going to the wide shot. Is it some sort of goal-post cam?
Sometimes it’s exactly that… a camera suspended over the pitch on cables.
Hmm. When I first saw it I thought to myself gee it looks like they have a camera on cables but then figured those cables would get in the way of an airborne football. I guess it’s that simple after all and there hasn’t been too many problems with the cables interfering with the ball.
Well, upon visiting the skycam site I find that it’s not simple in the least! Thanks.
Ah yes, the Skycam. Besides Rod “He Hate Me” Smart, the only thing from the XFL to actually make it into the National Football League.
I hope this isn’t too much of a zombie, but how can they be sure that this rig won’t interfere with a ball in play? I have been wondering that for a while.
Have you noticed the camera is always placed behind the field of play?
Yes, but the cabling must extend to the other end of the stadium. I have never seen a long shot that showed the thing in action very clearly. It just seems like this thing is, sooner or later, going to interfere with gameplay, then adios!
It’s generally high enough that it would only get in the way of a kick, and it’s a rare kick that goes backwards.
Also, the cables usually run to the sides of the stadium, and the way the thing moves around there really aren’t any cables downfield over the field of play.
BOWLING?!?! WTF!?
I know! You put on these incredibly ugly shoes, and you pick up this giant heavy ball, and you hang the giant heavy ball on just the tips of your fingers, and then you try to fling and spin the bastard down this really long narrow strip of slippery wood and bash the crap out of a bunch of beakless albino penguins! I mean, really!
What?
Mr. Legend designs gimbals to stabilize helicopter- (or cable- or ship-) mounted cameras. He worked on the Cablecam camera system for Superbowl XXXVIII, and it was, indeed, not at all simple (nor did it work quite the way he would have liked - he kept cringing during the game, and not because of the play on the field).