Picture this: the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky on March 30, 2019. Tensions are high for the Elite Eight game between Purdue and Virginia, just a year after Virginia lost against University of Baltimore, becoming the first number 1 seed to lose in the first round to a 16th seed. For the average CBS viewer, it’s easy to imagine the emotions and atmosphere of the game thanks to phenomenal broadcasting during this game.
The broadcast began with a strong start including analysis over past games, predictions and the reasoning behind them, the teams’ history together, and players to look out for. Once establishing the key talking points of the game, shots of the stadium and the crowd are aired, followed by close-ups of players warming up and their facial expressions. The most used camera was on the East side of the stadium, with an overall view of the whole court; a majority of the broadcast was streamed from this camera’s view, with the exception of baskets and remarkable plays. Other cameras were placed both above and below the baskets, facing the bench, and a drone was utilized for shots of the arena. Microphones were placed around the lines of the court, alongside the benches, and mics were placed on the clothing of the previous coaches of the team. The crew was able to prevent any obvious technical difficulties and overall had smooth transitions from camera to camera.
The producer followed a seemingly straight forward pattern between three main cameras; during the plays, the main centered camera above the court is utilized, followed by close up shots behind both baskets to capture the players’ reactions to the play. While this may seem monotonous to people deep diving into the technicalities of the broadcast, it’s an easily digestible format that views are able to follow quickly and seamlessly.
The broadcast focused on quite a few storylines throughout the game. With the old coaches of the teams mic’d up, the producer used clips of their banter to intensify the game and make it more personal. The old coaches, which includes Tony Bennett’s father, input and reactions to the game helps replicate the stressful atmosphere which they are in. Additionally, because Tony Bennett had not made it the Final Four yet, they paid special attention to his father’s previous success with the team. Much more interestingly, they had a precorded clip of an interview with Matt Haarms- exclusively about his hair. This interview was followed with shots of him adjusting his hair, which was irrelevant and made it seem like filler content. Besides those two, the main storyline of the game was Virginia making a comeback after the disastrous March Madness 2018 event (because everyone loves a good underdog story).
The replays of important plays were shown right before and after commercial breaks, allowing the in-game time to be completely focused on the action at hand. This allowed for a practically interrupted view of the game and allows viewers to focus on the storylines and follow the cohesive broadcast. The speed of camera transitions also picked up when the intensity of the game did- making even home-viewers feel the intensity and pressure of the game.
The broadcast did a phenomenal job of translating the intensity of the game to the viewers at home. My mom, 2 margaritas in, stood for the entirety of the second half- despite having seen this game over 5 times. I have seen it around 3 times myself, and the broadcast was able to catch both of our fleeting attention spans for the entirety of the game. Obviously being Virginia fans our whole life, we are bias, however; a fan of either team could have thoroughly enjoyed this broadcast. Especially due to the “Virginia comeback” storyline, people all over the world were able to watch this nail-biting game and feel as though they are also involved- something every broadcast should strive for.
(Post-Conclusion) Excluding a remarkably ugly Coca Cola ad that blocked the footwork of the players during a crucial free throw- the broadcast was pretty cool
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