[Press Release by Well Above]
Nudgee Golf Club’s 5988 metre par 71 North Golf Course was recently the host for this year’s National Indigenous Golf Championship. The Championship was played over 72 holes stroke play and saw the Men’s and Ladies Champion receive exception to the 2009 Australian Amateur Championships to be played at Royal Queensland Golf Club and The Brisbane Golf Club. A quality field of Indigenous golfers from Queensland and interstate competed in the Championship that was shot with JVC ProHD cameras.
Brisbane companies Carbon Media and M3 Media partnered to produce a ‘virtual OB’ of the tournament and as Carbon Media’s Nik Lachajczak explained, the limited budget provided by NITV, the commissioning broadcaster, forced a rethink of the normal golf course coverage. “Ordinarily the cabling alone at a golf event is a massive logistical and technical feat and certainly not cheap.” Said Lachajczak. “Our method involved using teams of 3-4 camera operators following the players on the course and accompanied by a mobile commentator and sound guy providing the coverage in the field. The camera operators ‘leapfrogged’ over each other to provide maximum coverage, especially on the greens with Camera One on each team also handling the ENG and commentator PTCs.”
The footage was being acquired continuously on Firestore drives and also running to tape as a back up. Audio was synchronised on one channel wirelessly with the commentary track while the other channel contained natural sound from the shotgun microphone. One camera stayed close to the play and commentary golf cart. At times interviews would be done to camera to enhance the coverage. Two other cameras would be positioned ahead to capture the ball follow. At the end of the day the vision was ingested in a production room on the course and synchronised for a multicam edit session in Final Cut. Supers, scorecards and segments were also inserted in post.
Lachajczak added, “The JVC ProHD cameras were chosen to be part of this unique workflow because of their affordability and portability. I have owned a GY-HD251E for a while and am very happy with its ability to handle longform acquisition. On the day of the tournament we used 9 ProHD cameras in the field and they all performed very well. The camera operators really liked the ProHD’s flexibility and the lens on them is excellent – with the extra throw a ‘must have’ for golf. Our shots were a combination of handheld, low angle, fixed and travelling from carts so the cameras were really put through their paces.”
One of the commentators for this year’s championship was Djuro Sen who added, “The tournament was a lot of fun but also a very high standard. Calling the action ‘live’ on course was a great and challenging experience. Everywhere I go I see these JVC cameras and plenty more of the GY-HD251E model in action. I believe they chose wisely with the JVC cameras due to the simple nature of golf. Some of these shots are taken from a couple of hundred metres and have to follow a small object. I saw some of the daily captures and the colours were great as was the detail. The HD lenses made a big difference. On a typical hole we would have three JVC cameras covering tight, medium and long shots but on the final day we had four on each hole that would follow the leading groups.”
Nik Lachajczak concluded, “This is the largest course where we have used this method of coverage and I’m pleased to say the most successful yet. All the crew were outstanding in very tight conditions as were the JVC ProHD cameras.”