Live from Budapest: World Athletics Productions shakes up the 2023 Championships broadcast perspective with directors from outside the sport By Heather McLean
Friday, August 25, 2023 - 12:04
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Westbury Gillett, a hugely experience director in the field of motorsport, is one of the directors working at the World Athletics Championships 2023 for World Athletics Productions
World Athletics Productions is shaking up the way athletics is perceived on television by using directors from outside the sport to create new perspectives on screen for the World Athletics Championships 2023, which is taking place now in Budapest.
The host broadcaster - a joint venture between governing body World Athletics and ITN has deliberately chosen to use directors that have not necessarily had experience in athletics before, to give the sport fresh angles and idea and therefore change the way it is normally broadcast.
Steeped in tradition
The template of how athletics has been produced historically has not changed in a very long time. World Athletics Productions is shaking that up. Speaking to SVG Europe in Budapest, Alastair Waddington, director of ITN Sport and managing director of World Athletics Productions, states: I think [athletics is] a very traditional sport and there's lots of things that you have to do in a traditional way, and you're restricted because there are 60 commentary boxes waiting for athletics to be produced in a certain way. So they know that after the finish line, what they're expecting in terms of replays, and how you cut stuff, etc. It's a balancing act and occasionally a bit of a challenge to take that forward; you've got to preserve everything that's good about the past but also introduce some innovation and so forth.
So, if you walk round the compounds you'll find some very conservative broadcasters and some very radical broadcasters and we got to try and match that, either way.
We felt that athletics has been covered similarly for many years; shot quite long, quite distant, quite anonymously, and we wanted to get up close and personal and created a bit more passion and a bit more connection between the athletes and the audience
Also working tirelessly in the 34 degree heat and humidity of Hungary's capital city is Mark Fulton, World Athletics Productions executive producer. He tells SVG Europe: Athletics is a really, really funny sport. It's steeped in tradition and when you try and change something, it doesn't necessarily sit well with certain people, like a lot of things. But I've been involved in athletics since the mid-eighties, and you see what was produced in the mid-eighties, up until maybe five or six years ago, the template was the same.
Then coming in and trying to change that template, you almost get a, what are they trying to do here? response, but then the penny drops, and then they suddenly realise, right. Now I get it .
He continues: The sport had to change. It was very modular. It was a bit of a track event, bit of a field event, bit of a track event, bit of a field event. And if you go back, the BBC would be on air for five or six hours for the World Championships, but nobody can spare that air time these days. So it's all condensed into three hours.
However, Fulton adds: Trying to condense everything into three hours, you've got to be really on the ball because you can't get everything in that you need to. You've got to be very, very selective sometimes about what you do, but still tell the narrative all the way through.
There's three narratives with the World Championships, he continues. There's the narrative of the overall championships, when you start, and when you finish. There's a theme that will run through it. And then there's the narrative of a day. So you have a morning session, and you have an evening session, and it's the narrative of the day and how you weave that into the narrative of the week. And then there's the narrative of the session, which you weave into the narrative of the day, which you weave into the narrative of the week. And the trick is try and get those three to gel together.
Mark Fulton, World Athletics Productions executive producer [centre] works closely with his PA Lorna Dalgetty and Richard Carr, presentation director
Fresh perspectives
Waddington comments on the directors that have been bought in to direct this World Athletics Championships: Most our directors have no background in athletics, until they come to us. The reason [we decided to do this was] we felt that athletics has been covered similarly for many years; shot quite long, quite distant, quite anonymously, and we wanted to get up close and personal and created a bit more passion and a bit more connection between the athletes and the audience. So, a lot of these guys brought their skills from other sports, and I think you can see here what's happening [as a result on TV].
Fulton comments on the people that have been chosen to direct: They're all phenomenally experienced directors. We would never put somebody into a position where we didn't think that they could actually work on the sport, but they're all very unique in the types of sports that they work in. If you take somebody like West [Westbury Gillett, a hugely experience director in the field of motorsport], for instance, this is his third world championships, but he's used to doing motorsports, so he's used to things going round in circles, or round a track. He's got a really good eye for detail.
Read more: Live From Budapest
World Athletics Productions head Alistair Waddington talks complexity and collaboration
World Athletics Productions brings AI foreign language news bulletin proof of concept to broadcasters
World Athletics Productions shak
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Live from Budapest: World Athletics Productions shakes up the 2023 Championships broadcast perspective with directors from outside the sport By Heather McLean 
