Stamping down the divots: Sky Sports' Georgina Sadler on her career from polo to Formula 1 By Heather McLean, Editor Monday, December 6, 2021 - 11:39
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Georgina Sadler, assistant producer at Sky Sports Formula One, has moved from one kind of horsepower to the next, going from her first job working for a polo production company where she concentrated on capturing each chukka and every pony's twists and turns on the field, to the roar of Formula 1's engines.
Commenting on her first job in the sports broadcasting industry, Sadler says: It was a few weeks after graduating that I found a small production company [Polocam TV] that was looking for a graphic design artist to help publicise their services. I am enthusiastic about anything equestrian and when I learnt they were filming polo matches this was music to my ears.
Sport can be such a fast-paced, reactive, passionate environment, and capturing that to share to the world, really increased my passion and drive. I instinctively knew that this was the career I wanted.
I offered to help them as an intern for a month, full time. They were filming this amazing sport all over the UK. Then I was able to train to film matches for them. After two weeks of filming matches, I was sent to India to film for the Indian Army Polo team, she continues.
In the five years I spent filming polo with that company, I went all over the world including trips to Australia, Thailand, South Africa, US, and all over Europe and the Middle East and in particular, Dubai.
In her first job filming polo matches for a production company, Georgina Sadler was often found perched at the top of a Versalift
Finding opportunities
Back in the UK it was by no means glamorous, she goes on. We had to drive Ford-Transit vans with Versalifts' on the back, which were used for filming polo matches from high above (rain or shine).
Sadler helped the company diversify by coming up with ideas for additional content: I started putting together match highlights for the players and teams, which then grew another part of the business income. The company evolved and we were live streaming matches all over the world and supplying multi-camera world feeds to ESPN.
She notes that finding opportunities and being ready to do any role helped her greatly in her first job: What I think was an important lesson was that I found a company I wanted to work for, which gave me the unique opportunity to carve out and create my own role. I found room to grow and help develop the company. There was just three of us, so I played many roles, from camerawoman to vision mixer, production coordinator, director, video editor, and even a few times as a presenter.
Getting a foot in the door
Sadler did a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, then went to The University for Creative Arts where she gained a BA Hons in Graphic Design, which helped her get her foot in the door in her first job in sports broadcasting by designing a poster for the polo production company. Discovering this company was also Sadler's first introduction to the idea of broadcast.
She explains: The first time I realised that I might be able to pursue TV broadcasting as a career was when I started filming polo matches. I knew instantly that I wanted to get the footage that I was filming onto TV. Being passionate about horses and having a career where I got to film this sport felt like living the dream (not to mention travelling the world as well with the job).
In 2015 ESPN approached myself and the company to supply a multi-camera feed for them of the Cartier Queen's Cup Final (one of the biggest tournaments on the polo calendar). I was both directing and vision mixing for that day. Successfully delivering a multi-camera broadcast, gave me the drive to further develop my knowledge and skills in building bigger and better productions for the future.
Georgina Sadler filming polo
She continues: Sport can be such a fast-paced, reactive, passionate environment, and capturing that to share to the world, really increased my passion and drive. I instinctively knew that this was the career I wanted.
As to why sport?', Sadler says: Sport brings people together, whether in the office or on location. Having this feeling of inclusion is really important to me, and a sense of belonging. I am driven to live sport because of its fast-paced environment. Sport is ever-changing, sports is ever-evolving, technology used to produce sport is ever-evolving, and I love being part of it.
But eventually, it was time for Sadler to move on. It got to a point where I out-grew the company, and felt a strong desire to learn how major broadcasters were producing sports. After five years in polo, I landed a job as an assistant producer at Arsenal FC. I produced most of their partnership content, which enhanced my confidence to further developing my career as a producer.
During this time, I attended one of the first SVG Europe Women events, which opened a network of great connections in many other companies and sport.
This led me to then become producer at Budweiser for their football content. I really enjoyed it as I was more involved in live filming, production planning, and editing. We were producing content for social media, and I loved being part of growing the platform and using fun, reactive content, she notes.
Onto the next chukka
Getting her job at Sky Sports was something of a surprise, having applied for a role at the broadcaster a year beforehand. Sadler explains: I actually applied for the job while still working at Arsenal, and it was a whole year later when I got a call from Sky Sports HR, asking if I was still interested in the job I had applied for, as assistant producer for Sky F1. I think I might have squealed with excitement over the phone when I took the call. The in
