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The Art of Capturing Excellence: Two of A Kind

If content is King, and style is Queen, then sports cinematographers are the creative force which unites the kingdom.

Everyday, sports performers push themselves to be the best. Athletes have perfected their art through practice, and the support of sporting developments. This sporting excellence cannot, however, reach the public knowledge without the help of the media. Sports cinematography and TV broadcast has played a fundamental part in its exhibition since the BBC first broadcast the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Subsequently, technological advancements have transformed sports coverage; from 1955 seeing the first colour broadcast* and instant reply service**, to the introduction of 3D sports viewing in the late 2000s.

Being passionate about art and sport alike, I believe they marry together harmoniously through sharing a similar ethos. Whether it be capturing the perfect shot, or scoring the perfect goal, both present ways by which one can fully express themselves: they celebrate excellence. Sports performance and sports cinematography have similar characteristics which have evolved through time and advancement. Both need to appear as if made effortless: requiring preparation, an end goal, and effective positioning - be that of the athlete’s body, or the camera respectively.

With the desire to document the supreme athleticism of those involved in the most extreme sports, cinematographers are providing both the film and TV industry with a unique and refined process to create a narrative using original techniques involving timing, emotive visual cues and all-round power: always aiming to be one step ahead to test and break the limits of their own, as well as their subject’s, filming capabilities.

However, despite media based sports coverage being of huge benefit to the sports and their supporters, the Achilles heel to this explosion of media representation is that it can prove detrimental to a sport or athlete’s performance. Although great feats of technological advancement have in many ways improved both the sports themselves (such as through instant replays) and the spectators’ viewing experience, introducing film and TV crews into an already high pressure environment has been known to take its toll.

Therefore, this blog sets out explore how far we have come in both our technological and theoretical developments in how we film sporting greatness, and how these advancements have impacted the sports themselves which act as our subjects. This is the art of capturing excellence.

* A Davis Cup tennis match covered by NBC
** George Retzlaff, invented the technique when working for Canada's CBC

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