Safety First: Where Do You Draw The Line?

Pushing oneself to the limits ultimately means you're going to crash and burn on at least one occasion.

 And sportspeople specifically aren't immune to this. Much like "the top 10 funniest cat videos", you don't need to go far to find a compilation of "the worst F1 crashes ever" or "skiers crashing out". The fact I didn't need to even look for long before finding this old video of me falling when skiing definitely supports this theory (either that, or it shows my lack of skiing ability...)

Maybe with this clip of me falling as an exception, seeing someone crash and potentially injure themselves is not something people generally enjoy watching, so TV broadcasters have to consider this when filming an event. The BBC for instance has a safety guide specifically devised for adventure activities and high risk sports. 

 Another example is the award winning Swiss ski crew, SRG, who produce spectacular images for the infamous Wengen ski race. The company's director, Beni Giger, is seen as the Steven Spielberg of ski racing. He aims for the “best ski production ever, very clear” and has captained SRG to go on and win the Golden Rings award at the IOC Olympic Golden Rings Awards in 2014 for Best Sports Production for their filming of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. Along with project manager Karin Nussbaumer, Giger filmed all the games’ alpine races (downhill, super G, super combination, giant slalom and slalom).

Would their mother want to see this? 

 When a skier crashes in a race, it is up to the director in the gallery how much of the crash should be shown on the television broadcast. They then instruct the vision mixer when to cut away from the camera focusing on the crash. In an interview in 2016, Giger said it’s difficult to call, but the only question you have to ask yourself is “would the mother of this racer like to see this picture? Yes or no?”.

When I worked filming the SsangYong Blenhiem Palace Horse Trails this September, we witnessed and filmed a bad fall after a horse didn't make the jump and fell with enough impact to have the rider's safety airbag jacket fully inflate. At the time I was acting as boom operator, and having been not even twenty metres from the crash, I heard the full effect of the fall through my headphones. The jump comprised of an A and B jump platform. We had our camera focused on B, but the rider fell on A so we did not fully capture the fall on camera.

 In working with Tigervision's Stephen Hervieu at the trials, we discussed what techniques he would have used if he had been the director or vision mixer in this situation. He said the general rule he follows is that if the person's head hits the ground, that's when you cut to a different shot. However, in equestrian sport, the camera has to keep rolling by rules of the sport. This is down to needing to keep the footage as evidence of the crash, so officials can make decisions following it.

Stephen Hervieu filming the SsangYong Blenhiem Palace Horse Trials 2018 on an FS7 (Source: own photo)

Crashes can happen everyday...

 Unfortunately due to their nature, although risk can be reduced, it's unlikely crashes and falls will ever be eradicated from sport. So, no matter what technological advancements time may bring, the TV broadcast industry always needs to be prepared to take action when dealing with sensitive situations.

 Yesterday, a new series of BBC show Ski Sunday returned to our screens for the snow season. The first episode covered the men's slalom race in Zagreb, Croatia, and was just one piece of evidence of how this still happens to this day - following many vision mixing techniques employed by SRG when they film these extreme sporting exertions.