Philip Stevens talks to directors Paul McNamara and Tim Goodden about how theyve been directing ITV Sports horse racing coverage from home.
By Philip Stevens
Published: January 7, 2021
Philip Stevens talks to directors Paul McNamara and Tim Goodden about how they've been directing ITV Sport's horse racing coverage from home.
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In the days preceding the resumption of horse racing in the UK, ITV Sport had developed plans that would enable its production teams to broadcast the events, while still adhering to the coronavirus restrictions in place at the time.
After a barren period for TV sport, we wanted to be ready to provide viewers with the best coverage possible under the conditions - and we were prepared, states BAFTA Award-winning director, Paul McNamara. And those plans involved as many of the team working from home as was deemed possible.
He goes on to say that his first experience of directing from home was for ITV's main channel and included coverage of the prestigious 1000 and 2000 guineas races from Newmarket. This was an important date in the horse racing calendar and it was, therefore, a really big show.
As well as McNamara, the producer, production assistant and presenters were all operating from their homes. The vision mixer was also remote - but in an OB van parked at another famous racecourse, Ascot.
McNamara already had experience of directing remotely, albeit from a studio gallery. This included the FIFA World Cup in Brazil and the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
There are massive differences between home and gallery directing. When directing at home you have no technical support. You are completely isolated in your spare bedroom with a multiviewer and talkback panel. Yes, both in home and gallery directing are remote - but they are different operations - in fact, as different as chalk and cheese, he says.
Equipment The multiviewer set up at McNamara's home allowed him to see TX and what the vision mixer had on the preview bank. As well as the individual camera feeds and VT, there were individual sources for the presenters and guests. Talkback was provided to all the normal sources. But, just as important, explains McNamara, I had a computer next to the monitor on which a Zoom grid was displayed. I could see the faces of the producer, vision mixer, PA and others. That came in very useful when my multiviewer screen crashed in the middle of a programme. I could ask on Zoom if the others had also lost the feeds - and when they all said they were OK, I had to plan the next sequence without the benefit of seeing the sources. But I could see, via Zoom, that the vision mixer was across what I was saying.
In fact, crashes occurred on three occasions. That's what happens when you are relying on broadband. There are external influences outside of your control that can affect what is going on.
He goes on, Obviously you do your planning as if you were in a studio gallery - but it can take a lot longer. For example, our programmes were due to go to air at 1pm, but we all started switching on equipment at about 9am. We all needed to make sure WiFi was working and talkback was operational. You cannot take anything for granted when you are working from home.
Useful tip McNamara says that one vital factor when working under remote conditions is the importance of presenters not asking open questions. In a studio situation, you can see by eye contact to whom a question is being addressed. That obvious doesn't work remotely. If a question is not put to a specific person, everyone might start answering. Then everyone realises the others are speaking - and all stop. Not very professional. We quickly learned at rehearsals that the presenter must say Now xxx, what do you think of such and such horse?'. Then just one person answers. Much better!
He adds, It is a great testament to all involved that the coverage went extremely well. I am really proud of what was achieved through hard work and dedication of the team. Of course, one of the best things about working remotely in this way is the journey back home at the end of the day. Just down the stairs.
Magazines, too Linked to the coverage of the racing is The Opening Show, a weekly one-hour magazine show broadcast on Saturday mornings on ITV4 and every day throughout major festivals such Royal Ascot, Grand National, Cheltenham. The show previews the day's racing alongside features and interviews. Usually this is a studio programme with one presenter and three guests, presented from the race track from which the live afternoon racing is originating.
However, with Covid-19 restrictions and social distancing, it was decided early on that the guests and presenter would broadcast from their homes, with key production crew including director, script supervisor and programme editor operating in the same way.
Broadband bother I had carried out remote directing from a gallery prior to Covid where presenters were on site at a stadium working to an OB truck which fed into our off-site gallery, explains Tim Goodden, who directed multiple editions of the magazine programme. But this was a different operation. And working away from the studio you are relying on home broadband.
And this proved to be a problem. I quickly discovered that my home broadband speed was not up to the task of driving the equipment, so I had to rush to change provider to improve the signal quality. Let's just say that one provider'
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Philip Stevens talks to directors Paul McNamara and Tim Goodden about how theyve been directing ITV Sports horse racing coverage from home.
