Three marvellous Italian locations were involved in sports events aired on Rai Sport and Gazzetta Tv. Sportcast is the Roman production company involved in these tv programs: Volleyball in Florence, Fencing in Turin, and Water Polo in Capri. Alfredo Nardoni, Production Manager, describes the events:"
January 2016
"Preparation is important in these cases and preliminary specifications decisive because we have to respect the different purposes of the event. In these moments the sporting and the tourist dimensions sum up. As an example, in Florence a Jimmy Jib dolly was placed so we could take the best images of Santa Croce and in Capri a camera was inside a restaurant about 50 m from the action with long lens to capture Faraglioni very suggestive images.
Set construction and rehearsals were the day before but in Taormina, due to a concert the night before in the same place.
A dozen people were deployed while
in Florence we were 14 and all cameras were manned.
We chose to bring in a tv director with the function of video mixer in Capri and Florence in these cases cut decisions are faster. In fact it is the same director who switches the shots and you do not have action delays if not minimal. While in Taormina the cameras were greater in number and the realization a bit more complex for the presence of two wipes, one on input, one on output and two keys. We brought here two distinct professionals, a director and a video mixer.
The graphics of all three events were always entrusted to an external company, Multimedia & Grafica of Luca Definis (Calcinaia Pi), which specializes on shooting sports in general.
In Florence, for the National Women's Volleyball in Piazza Santa Croce, we used six Sony HD cameras and a single OB mobile unit. Two cameras, the 1 and 2, were positioned on the long side of the volleyball court, a back goal with long lens was on the short side; then in the field we deployed an 8m jimmy jib, a radio-held camera, a shoulder camera on the benches, and a fixed tiny camera close to the net. Everything was connected via triax. Evs stations were on the OB van and a journalists comment site was on the short side of the field. The event was followed by a bi-power group and a satellite uplink.
Capri and water polo was a bit 'more complicated to film because reachable only by very small vehicles, nearly SNG, not more than 7 m long.
The television compound was at Marina Piccola.
Here the scene was shot with five cameras by placing the 1 and 2 on the long side of the pool and using long shots; camera 4 was equipped with standard lens and positioned near the goals, while the last could grasp very striking images of "i faraglioni" in the distance. In Capri we also had a drone, although limited operations, due to the strong presence of the public on the beaches and on boats, it allowed us the creation of very striking images. It was equipped with a GoPro action camera and a radio link that sent the images to the ground, while the receiver was connected via optical fiber to the control room.
Two cameras were equipped with two 70x long lenses and two with standard lenses.
Taormina and Fencing was the event of the greatest complexity. The shooting took place in the Antico Teatro, reached by a very narrow road, where mobile units actually had to be very small. A van gathered the audio section and the camera controls, while on the second ob-van was the video mixer and the RVM. Taormina had to be set up the same day and not before, because of a concert.
In addition, before and after the sporting event of fencing a light show was staged simultaneously, without any previous rehearsals. Among the cameras, the 1 and 2 in axis with the platform, a 10m Jimmy jib was on the field and a radio camera very close to the fencing platform; one camera on the bottom of the platform on a wheeled trolley and a beauty was fixed from above.
