Television Coverage

Peter N. Carbone

Points Scorer
Am I the only one who thinks the TV coverage could be better?

Why, why, why do they always cut away from the action and use a full screen shot of a car in the pits or
the back of some guys head with headphones or the mechanics? I bet they don't give a shit about seeing themselves, they want to see their car.
Why can't they drop those shots into a corner of the screen and keep the action at full screen?
Haven't they ever heard of a PIP?
PLEASE keep the action at full screen ALL THE TIME and put the stupid cutaway shots in a corner?
You waste valuable air time with those moronic shots during the race.

Let's talk about composition for the camera shots:
- They use the same crappy shots every single race, they never try anything new or different?
The lamest thing is the cameras are in place and all they have to do is change the composition.. WTF?

- Have you guys seen any different camera shots in the past 5 years that were truly exciting?
NO and you never will because these people have no vision, they don't know what to do and they won't listen to me.
They waste countless great shots at every race.
- They zoom in and pan on every single corner so we get a blurry, out of focus shot of part of one car and have no idea what corner the car is in.
- Couldn't they at least include 2 wheels from one side in those shots?

- They rarely show us more then 2-3 cars in a shot when there are clearly 20 cars in a race.

- We NEVER get to see simple, wide static shots of lots of cars swinging back and forth through the Esses or
fanning out going down the straights while they jockey for position, from the front or from the rear.
It's interesting to see the rear suspension moving up and down as the cars swing back and forth down the straight,
but we never get to see that.

- We never get to see a stream of cars flying through one single corner. (Turn 13 @ Baku) NEVER.
This could be an image setter for Formula One but they NEVER use it. (What assholes)

And how about the brainless Track Analysis?
Is this the most confusing thing you've ever seen?
Please use the "roll bar camera" from the pole sitters lap for your track analysis,
this way we can see what the driver sees and know exactly what the corner looks like to him.
This could be the smartest thing you've ever done to improve your telecasts.
And please include the Telemetry with that qualifying lap.

I've been a fan since 1972 but have lost interest in the races because they're so boring.
I know it'll turn into a one car race before the end and I know they'll never use any interesting camera shots.
The fact they have 40 + cameras at each event only proves they don't know what to do...?.

Formula One has turned into a crock of shit for me thanks to Sky Sports mindless directing.

Thanks for listening,
Peter Natale Carbone
Being a cameraman for 20 years doesn't make me an expert but it's given me plenty of insight.
 
I agree. The ones which annoy me are when the director cutting away to people watching in the stands or pits, the VIP, the trembling leg of the team guy, and even the pit stops - particularly when some back running team is repairing their car.
I find they tend to cut away from the action more towards the end of the race especially as the tension is rising. The US GP is a particular one where they cut away to VIPs when it's getting exciting on track. Imagine them doing this in a long exciting rally in tennis.
Also I find the MotoGP coverage is better than F1 now. The onscreen graphics and onboard footage stand out.
 
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F1 sells a number of streams to various TV or streaming services, you get what your chosen supplier has paid for and choses to broadcast, generally the production side have little or no interest in what you wish to watch or in the subject, more of whether they consider the finished product is a good programme for in their somewhat limited criteria. In other words the programme is made for their gratification and possible promotion in either that broadcaster or future possible employer not for you to watch as a fan :whistle:
 
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for me i cant really complain about F1 to much because on the whole i think its alright they get most of what we want to see, they have introduced picture in picture this season. but i think as sometimes they say naiveity can be advantage at times because having too much knowledge can ruin things, i heard someone who used to work on talent shows says they cant watch them any more because they know the little lies that others dont know. & or the film rush where i could get past the part in that maranello & entire 1976 season. was based in different parts of brands hatch

ive been thinking for while that the race coverage depends upon how exited the race because i have noticed that more celebs & stats you see the worse the race, i remember during 1 terrible belgian gp them telling me that eau rouge was the height x amounts of double decker buses. but it annoyed me in 2018? when hulkenburg was upside & fans were extremely concerned & they when to get sam smith reaction. i was fuming, "get back to hulkenburg you :censored: "

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That's because in the event of an accident that may be serious, they'll show anything that isn't the accident.

Having watched a very dead Daijiro Kato get carted off on a stretcher on live TV, I'm comfortable with them showing celebs in these instances, until they know the driver is ok.
 
Also I find the MotoGP coverage is better than F1 now.
Moto GP were certainly ahead of F1 with the overlaid 'head-up-display' graphics. My gripe is more with some of the Sky presenters' desire to try and 'add value', when things are perfectly exciting or interesting enough without screaming, self-aggrandising puns (Croft) or dad jokes (Kravitz). MotoGP seem more relaxed in this area, and the presenters' excitement stays within sensible bounds.
 
I agree. The ones which annoy me are when the director cutting away to people watching in the stands or pits, the VIP, the trembling leg of the team guy, and even the pit stops - particularly when some back running team is repairing their car.
I find they tend to cut away from the action more towards the end of the race especially as the tension is rising. The US GP is a particular one where they cut away to VIPs when it's getting exciting on track. Imagine them doing this in a long exciting rally in tennis.
Also I find the MotoGP coverage is better than F1 now. The onscreen graphics and onboard footage stand out.
You know of what I speak Rufus. I can't wait for the shot during the race where they show one car coming into the pits getting serviced and going back out, alll during actual racing action on the track. This idiot director would rather waste the air time on one car going 40 mph while the other 19 are going 160+ mph???????? It's pathetic and doesn't look like it's gonna change anytime soon. God help is.
 
F1 sells a number of streams to various TV or streaming services, you get what your chosen supplier has paid for and choses to broadcast, generally the production side have little or no interest in what you wish to watch or in the subject, more of whether they consider the finished product is a good programme for in their somewhat limited criteria. In other words the programme is made for their gratification and possible promotion in either that broadcaster or future possible employer not for you to watch as a fan :whistle:
Dartman, I suppose being ADD and an artist with OCD the shortcomings in the broadcast are more noticeable to me. I can only see how exciting it could be if they used my suggestions for camera shots. Damn. That's frustrating.
 
for me i cant really complain about F1 to much because on the whole i think its alright they get most of what we want to see, they have introduced picture in picture this season. but i think as sometimes they say naiveity can be advantage at times because having too much knowledge can ruin things, i heard someone who used to work on talent shows says they cant watch them any more because they know the little lies that others dont know. & or the film rush where i could get past the part in that maranello & entire 1976 season. was based in different parts of brands hatch

ive been thinking for while that the race coverage depends upon how exited the race because i have noticed that more celebs & stats you see the worse the race, i remember during 1 terrible belgian gp them telling me that eau rouge was the height x amounts of double decker buses. but it annoyed me in 2018? when hulkenburg was upside & fans were extremely concerned & they when to get sam smith reaction. i was fuming, "get back to hulkenburg you :censored: "

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That's what I'm talking about and they do it every single race.
They will cut away from actual racing to show some nameless strangers in the stands????
They miss more fantastic shots then we will ever see from Sky Sports.
It's sad because the production could be so exciting.
They really don't know what to do.
 
A simple example of how the camera angle can change the perception of speed. There really needs to be more thought about how the "action" is shown to the TV audience given that we pay for the bloody sport.


FB,
EXACTLY !!!!!
There is a way to show how fast the cars are going but these idiot directors at Sky Sports have no idea how to do it.
Their moronic solution is to ZOOM IN AND PAN, ZOOM IN AND PAN, ZOOM IN AND PAN! More mindless directing.
All they have to do is sit on a medium wide shot (no wider then the track limits) across a series of "S" bends or a fast corner
AND LET THE CARS SHOW YOU HOW FAST THEY ARE GOING!!!!!!!
Especially after Mick's crash at turns 10,11 and 12 in Saudi Arabia.
It's easy to see how fast the cars are moving when they "turn in" at 150 mph but those idiots at Sky Sports don't get.
How can they be so effing blind?

Those idiots think zooming in and out and panning makes it more exciting, that's how clueless they are.
All that does is make it harder to focus on the subject because the point of view keeps moving all over the place.
I turned the race off because I got a headache trying to follow the cars do to the idiotic directing and mindless camera work.
Wake up Sky Sports and get your heads out of your asses and listen to me if you really want to make Formula One more exciting to watch.

I think they finally listened to my complaining about "cutting away from the action" during the starts and during the race.
You know what they do, when the race starts they zoom on the first 2 cars and forget about the other 18!!!!
They finally sat on a wide shot on the straights so we could see the cars fighting for position. That was my suggestion,Thank you.
Unfortunately after the first few laps they resorted to their mindless zooming tactics but at least a couple of the opening laps were more exciting.

Another way of showing the speed of the cars is with a camera mounted on a wall at the exit of a high speed turn.
Turn 13 in Baku is an excellent example of this because the cars exit the turn at around 125 mph and come within inches of the wall.
All they have to do is set up a medium wide shot and let the cars move through the frame. NO PANNING!!!
NASCAR does this all the time and the cars look like arrows and sound like bullets whizzing by!!!!
But Sky Sports has no clue about this?????? What a bunch of idiots they must be.

They used the shot once and showed 3 cars going by and it was fantastic BUT THEY NEVER USED THE SHOT AGAIN?????
WTF is wrong with these assholes?
It truly showed how fast these drivers are flying on the ground.

I'm loosing my interest in Formula One because of the horrible directing and camera work.
It's totally frustrating to watch a race when they never show the shots that would make it more exciting??????
To bad for me.

Thanks for listening,
Peter Carbone
 
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