Directing masterclass: Gudren Wanek on setting new records for crew equality at the Women's EHF Euro 2022 By Heather McLean, Editor
Monday, November 21, 2022 - 18:09
Print This Story
Gudren Wanek, freelance director, working on the European Handball Federation Women's EHF EURO 2022
The final weekend of the Women's EHF Euro 2022 saw a new broadcast record in handball, from behind the scenes. The broadcast crew, which was 50% female throughout the event, grew on the last weekend for the Final with more replay operators arriving, taking the female representation on the team to two-thirds.
The team was led by director Gudrun Wanek, who has been directing since 2012 after starting as a replay operator in 2004.
The role of the TV director is basically to make sure that the viewers of the broadcast get to experience every aspect of the event taking place, says Wanek. I usually work in an OB van, where I am in front of a monitor wall, which displays all the sources available: cameras, slow-motion, replay outputs, TV graphics, picture-in-picture frames for video replay situations, and so on. I operate with a vision mixer, on which every button stands for a different source.
At the final weekend of the EHF Euro 2022, which ended on Sunday 20 November, Wanek managed 20 cameras and 10 slow motion replay outputs, as well as six different picture-in-picture frames, plus more.
You can sum it up as I push a lot of different buttons, talk and listen to a lot of people at the same time and, with all this crew effort, try to tell the story of the game as good as possible. It is a bit like being a team coach. You need all the others to deliver a good outcome. You are the guiding figure, says Wanek.
Fast-paced setting
To effectively guide so many people's work in such a fast-paced setting, it helped for Wanek to be familiar with the different team members and they with her. Although the team that worked together for the final weekend of the EHF Euro 2022 had not done so in this exact arrangement before, Wanek has worked with all of them.
I brought the replay crew because that is really crucial; they need to speak the same language. And ideally, they have worked with you before, because you have to be just so quick to bring something on the air that just happened a second before, says Wanek.
The experienced members of the team have backgrounds working in many sports, including football, table tennis, ice hockey, basketball, American football and of course handball. Wanek also played handball and comes from what she describes as, a handball family . Wanek was a director at the Men's EHF Euro 2022, handling the venue in Kosice.
Every broadcast day starts with a plan. You think about what are the possible situations in a match and what do you want each camera to do. So, I have long production briefings before we start the first production day and I go through every camera and tell them what I want from them in every instance of the game. For example, the camera which is low on the court: when there's a penalty, a seven metres, I want one camera to have a close-up of the player who throws and one camera for the close-up of the keeper.
Aside from capturing the match action, there are reaction shots, coaches and the audience. It is important also to capture the emotions of the match; the joy, the disappointment, and so on. I would not differentiate at all between men's and women's handball in terms of quality or speed or anything. In men's handball, they are all like, super serious; mostly. The women, they are having a ton more fun. You see so many smiles and high fives and dancing to music and stuff like that when they start to warm up or before they come onto the court. I see more joy.
When it comes to men's and women's handball, from a perspective of telling the story of the game, there is no difference. The only consideration is the size of the players, which can have a minor impact on some elements of the direction.
I would not differentiate at all between men's and women's handball in terms of quality or speed or anything, says Wanek, although she does find one different prior to the matches. In men's handball, they're all like, super serious - mostly. The women, they are having a ton more fun. You see so many smiles and high fives and dancing to music and stuff like that when they start to warm up or before they come onto the court. I see more joy.
Thinking of differences in men's and women's sport, Wanek says the way different athletes have often been presented in the media and by sports fans springs to mind. She says: It seems clear that some sports photographers, journalists and TV directors focus more on players they deem attractive than others or on trying to highlight features of the athletes' bodies.
As to whether Wanek has seen that change during her career she says: That is definitely something I pointed out to my camera operators as well, says Wanek, discussing some different warm-up games teams might play or exercises they might do that would end up highlighting certain parts of their bodies if shown on TV, as well as particular moments during the matches. That is also something which slowly changes. Many directors don't show that anymore because it is inappropriate, says Wanek.
Clear representation
Although this might be more of a consideration with female players, especially for a female director aiming to ensure positive change in terms of how women are presented and valued, it must also be taken into account for men. That is something which is probably a certain awareness that is changing slowly, says Wanek.
It is not only concerning the athletes where certain shots or focus on particular athletes because of the way they look can be an issue; that can also happen when it c
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
Directing masterclass: Gudren Wanek on setting new records for crew equality at the Women's EHF Euro 2022 By Heather McLean, Editor 
