that sounds kind of easy…

I was prowling around on CBSCollegesports.com and checked out their “blog” page, and scrolled down to find this article, titled “So you think you can produce?” I read it, and honestly, it didn’t sound very difficult. The preparation and buildup to covering one game sounds quite reasonable, interesting, and doable. The challenge appears to be one’s skill on gameday – THAT’S where these producers make the big bucks. I’m sure it’s insanely stressful to manage graphics creation mid-game, video replays from tons of different angles, network promos, cut-in updates from studio, etc. I quote from the blog post:

“REHEARSE OPEN / REHEARSE CLOSE / REHEARSE ALL PROMOS / TAPE OPEN OR GO LIVE / BROADCAST THE GAME / WEAVE NOT ONLY GAME STORIES BUT GLOBAL ELEMENTS AS WELL”

This sounds like a very simple way of saying it’s incredibly hectic – the guys at CBS, ESPN, ABC, etc. who produce are very experienced and definitely know what they’re doing. This sounds like a really cool job in the sense it sounds like riding a bike – once you get the hang of producing a game broadcast on the fly like that, it probably comes naturally. Everything else in the buildup – from calling coaches, communicating with the broadcasters, watching tape – sounds really straightforward, interesting, and fun. I’d really love to learn more about this type of work!