Friday nights are the most intense thing we do. There is so much going on around you, so much pressure to produce a good show for the audience. One of the most important jobs at the Friday night games is working camera.

Most people probably think it’s as simple as pressing record and letting it run, but its a little more than that. First off, you have to get to the games at least 2 hours before kick-off to set up the camera. Setting up the camera starts with putting up the tri-pod that holds the camera and attaching many different wires for audio and other important signals that need to be transferred between the camera and the production trailer. A

fter you have put the wires and tripod in place you can start to white balance the camera. As the day goes on we have to constantly do this because of how the light outside changes during the game. The cameras are left alone until the game starts once you have set them up and turn them on and press record. Now is the nerve-wrecking part. When the game starts, there are 3 cameras; camera one, positioned on the left side of the press box, camera two, positioned on the right side of the press box, and camera three, which is the field camera.

During the game, the camera that I was on was camera one. When you first get on camera you have to place your headset on. The director of the game production communicates what shots they need from you and lets you know if you’re live through this headset, so I had to make sure I had it on.

The director would tell me to get a tight shot of the field, so I would zoom in. When the director would tell me to get a wide shot, I would zoom out. As the game goes on you have to remember to watch the ball so you know which way to pan, or turn, the camera. You have to pay attention to that little brown thing like your life depends on it!

This continues through the whole game. Although it may sound like a lot, it’s really fun to know that the entire show could be messed up if you don’t get the right shot (at least to me).after the game is over, we take down the camera, roll up some wires, pack up others and take a deep breath until its time to do it next Friday.