ABC's Awful Camera Angles

[Roma]

I just e-mailed ABC asking them to show the skater's entire body at all times and to avoid those face-only or feet-only shots. (The absloute worst ever was when Yagudin was about to start his fabulous Winter FOOTwork and they showed a closeup of his FACE!) Anyway, if they are still doing this after tomorrow's Skate America telecast, maybe some of you will want to e-mail them too. Perhaps if they get several complaints at once, they'll stop these frustrating camera angles.

[dbny]

Please post the correct email address for us!

[Roma]

I actually just went to their home page http://abc.com/ and there was a 'contact us' option at the bottom of the page. It was surprisingly easy - they may actually want to receive our e-mails! :)

[Pupiczech]

Yeah, but will they actually READ them and take into account WE know more than THEY?

[Roma]

I don't know, Pupiczech, but I figure that it's worth a try, especially if we are specific and tell them exactly what we don't want (heads or feet closeup) and what we do want (to see the entire body at all times). Perhaps if they get several e-mails at the same time, and if we sound knowledgeable, we may get some results. They evidently think that they are giving viewers what they want with these truncated shots, but if they realize that's not want viewers want to see, they might change.

[Roma]

Originally posted by Pupiczech
Yeah, but will they actually READ them and take into account WE know more than THEY?
If anyone is still reading this thread ;) I really gave this some thought today, and we're really not saying that we know more than them about how to film skating, i.e., the technical aspects. What we're really doing is telling them what we want to see. Therefore, I don't think that they will perceive it as us thinking we know more than them about the television business, just that by showing closeups of faces, feet, etc., they are preventing us from seeing the skater's entire body. I actually think they approach televising competitions from the mentality that it is an 'ice show' and therefore they concentrate on providing special effects. They may be way behind the times, and not realize that many viewers have become very knowledgeable over the years.

[erdehoff]

I think my favorite part of the Skate America telecast was when Belbin & Agosto were doing side-by-side twizzles in their free dance, and one of the commentators said, "Now watch the incredible unison and the difficult free leg position in these twizzles!" And all the camera showed was a close-up of Tanith's face. ARRGH! Yeah, great unison... guess viewers will just have to take the commentators' word for it!

The camera work for Skate America looked particularly bad to me. I hope they work the kinks out quickly. I wonder, do they bring their own camera crew or do they use locals wherever they go?