FSN Production Is Horrible

[Glennron]

I'd rather watch the ESPN telecast. Sure their announcers probably don't know much about the Brewers, but at least you'll see every play and where the ball lands in the outfield. Plus, it'll be nice to go one game without hearing Bill say "Not sure how you lay off that pitch with two strikes" or BA say "A deep fly ball!" when it's hit like 250 feet.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I agree with Invader3K. If you had Extra Innings and had to watch the other team's broadcast, you would realize that Brian and Bill are one of the better duos out there. Same goes for Uke and Jim on the radio for those of us who rely on XM. It's nice that DirecTV has both feeds this year so I rarely get stuck with the other team's announcers.

 

The production on the other hand has really been rough this year.

[Invader3K]

Exactly. I don't get what more people expect out of the FSN-WI duo. They're not responsible for the production end of things. All announcers have certain pet phrases they tend to overuse. Schroeder has gotten much less corny in the last couple seasons, as has the whole telecast in general. BA is definitely growing as a play-by-play man, after some initial rough spots, which were to be expected. There's only so much an announce team can do to be insightful during a three hour baseball game.

[mikevan1818]

If you had Extra Innings and had to watch the other team's broadcast, you would realize that Brian and Bill are one of the better duos out there.

Totally agree with you here.

 

Also, having Extra innings and catching a bunch of games on other FSN's - they have the same production problems. My person favorite is when they show a close up. side-angle shot of the pitcher as he is in his wind-up - then right after he throws it they go to the shot from behind the pithcer of the batter - and my eyes don't even have time to adjust before the pitch is in the glove or hit - which leads to a new camera angle.

 

It almost gives me headaches to watch FSN broadcasts this year. I know it wasn't top notch in years past - but they have taken a LARGE step backwards in my opinion.

[TooLiveBrew]

I haven't seen the caliber of craptitude in terms of production on any of the other FSN networks, mikevan. Not trying to shout you down, just weighing in.

 

 

Exactly. I don't get what more people expect out of the FSN-WI duo. They're not responsible for the production end of things.

 

But... the weatherman makes the weather, so the TV announcers make the TV... right?!

[Invader3K]

If you had Extra Innings and had to watch the other team's broadcast, you would realize that Brian and Bill are one of the better duos out there.

Also, having Extra innings and catching a bunch of games on other FSN's - they have the same production problems. My person favorite is when they show a close up. side-angle shot of the pitcher as he is in his wind-up - then right after he throws it they go to the shot from behind the pithcer of the batter - and my eyes don't even have time to adjust before the pitch is in the glove or hit - which leads to a new camera angle.

 

It almost gives me headaches to watch FSN broadcasts this year. I know it wasn't top notch in years past - but they have taken a LARGE step backwards in my opinion.

Maybe the issue is that they have one guy doing a half dozen or more telecasts, some at the same time. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[olsonnet]

I sat in the club level right behind home plate tonight and briefly chatted with the FSN cameraman (who does the main shots when a ball is hit) - he said he'd heard about the awful production and just said there wasn't much he could do about it if the producer doesn't choose the right shots. I think part of the problem is that during any lull in play, his job appeared to be finding hot girls in the crowd for the boys in the truck to look at, so they might not be concentrating much on the game, lol.

[1992casey]

Yeah, cameramen do that. Back when I had C-Band, before an ESPN football game, cameramen were looking for "hot" women and the broadcasters were commenting on them.

[jazzytrav]

Isn't there some kind of Man Law about sports over women?

[danzig6767]

Besides all the countless camera debacles already mentioned, i have a peeve with the post game show.

 

We already get subjected to tons of pretty much worthless babble by Craig and Davey stammer half the words i speak Nelson, but then nearly every time they go to Ned being interviewed by the press, they cut from the Ned question/answer after like a minute to go back to more uninteresting babble between Craig and Davey.

 

Don't they realize most fans would rather hear Ned's thoughts or reasons for why he did what he did than listen to even more pointless talk from Craig or hear Davey stammer his way through every other sentence like it's his first time in front of a camera?

[Dragonbait]

Personally i would LOVE to watch the post game press conference. Its something we just dont get to see too much..

 

I always love listening to 4 different reporters ask the same question 4 different ways and get the same answer.

[pitchleague]

danzig,

 

I thought the same thing last night, since they pretty much did one answer from Ned (never did hear the question, but I'm assuming is was about Bush) and then they cut away. But I think the reason was because the broadcast was nearing the bottom of the hour (10:30 pm for WI) and the producers may have decided to cut things short so FSN could get on with regular programming.

 

Just a guess, though. Maybe Ned just wasn't very interesting in the win.

 

I kind of wish they'd have players in the media room from time to time to get their opinions from the media, besides Trenni and her questions.

[jazzytrav]

Just realized this, but won't the broadcast on ESPN be blacked out in Wisconsin?

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I like the post-game analysis from the whole Brewers Live crew, but I agree with last night. This was probably the biggest win of the season and I wanted to hear everything Yost had to say. Instead we got subjected to this lame umpiring demo. Don't get me wrong, I'm so desperate for Brewers anything out here I'd probably watch a 3 hour discussion of the evolution of the umpire's proper feet position, but I'd rather see the Yost presser in it's complete condecending glory.

[FVBrewerFan]

I agree, showing the entire Yost press conf each day seems to be a no-brainer. The other thing that irritates me most is the audio. (Sorry if this was mentioned earlier.) The commercials are about 10 times louder than the game broadcast, and it blows out my windows every time they go to a commercial break. I don't need to have the old timer from Menards yelling at me so loud the base knocks my beer off the table. I already know where to go when I need a garden hose buddy, no need to yell.

[Invader3K]

The other annoying thing on FSN is right before they switch from national commercials to local ones, you get that kind of "telephone dialing" sound, and the audio goes from stereo to mono (or at least that's how it sounds on my surround sound system). You'd think they'd have a better way of handling that.

[TooLiveBrew]

Sort of OT, but watching the ARI @ LAD game right now. The Dodgers' broadcast has to be the best in baseball. It goes beyond Vin Scully, even though it certainly wouldn't need to. Scully is what every baseball fan ever dreamed an announcer could be... and oh yeah, he works solo -- and you don't find yourself wishing for him to have a partner in the booth. His knowledge is stellar, and he doesn't belch out idiotic baseball 'truths' like the vast majority of MLB announcers.

 

Cheers to the Dodgers' FSN broadcast! I'll certainly be tuning in anytime I can to catch a broadcast by this crew -- fantastic all around. The #1 reason why it's so good is awesome -- its simplicity. No element of the broadcast tries to do any more than is necessary. No crappy gimmicks, camera angles, catch-phrases, or promotions. Just baseball. This is a thing of beauty. Now I'm really looking forward to the Brewers visiting Dodger Stadium.

 

Also, Vin Scully is pwesome.

[marquettefan13]

Just realized this, but won't the broadcast on ESPN be blacked out in Wisconsin?

I think so - the ESPN2 broadcast on opening day in Chicago was blacked out. I wish I could watch it on ESPN though - I like listening to other broadcasters sometimes.

[PeaveyFury]

Sweet jeebus- do they employ a sound guy? Two straight days where Bill and Brian's mics are so high that they're crackling?

[brewtown82]

I know! the sound is absolutely garbage! Why was ESPN blacked out again?

[ELCABALLO45]

Because they black it out so that everyone in Wisconsin will have to watch the FSN broadcast.

[Invader3K]

The audio has been either over modulating or distorting for the past two days. Don't they pay attention to this stuff? Or do they just figure "Well, the game is going out over the air...that's enough"?

[jazzytrav]

Seriously, I've been waiting for just one game where FSN gets this right. This is just amazing to me. I have never had a problem with the FSN broadcast until this year.

 

So, here's my thought-process. Someone correct me if I'm way off.

 

I imagine someone that produces a broadcast for a baseball game would be a baseball fan. Perhaps I'm wrong on that, but I really hope I'm not. Since I'm a baseball fan, I'll put myself in that place. If I'm flipping the switch on the cameras, I imagine it would be as easy as, well, flipping a switch. I would watch the game, and go to the cameras that I would wish to see if I was watching the game. So how can this producer repeatedly fail to switch between the camera on the pitcher and the camera behind the pitcher? I don't want to see a close-up of the pitcher's nose hairs when the pitch is on its way.

 

This is getting ridiculous. I think I need to take some time off from FSN and just listen to the games on the radio for awhile. Maybe things will be better when I come back.

[RightFieldCoder]

The producer also needs to direct all of the cameramen on what shots he wants. He has to direct Treni to what parts of the stadium and what to talk about. He is getting information from his stat guy and deciding what to throw up on the screen and what camera to use to show the stat. He also has to worry about getting the promotions up at the right time. While all of these people are talking to him he also needs to listen to the broadcast to make sure the video is following the audio commentary. He's also looking at slo-mo angles from previous plays to try and find something that was missed in real time. I'm not apologizing for the broadcast, but simply pointing out that the producer's job is a lot harder than just picking from a couple of camera angles. This is why it becomes obvious when a producer who's never done a live sporting event is trying to run the production.

[Invader3K]

I agree with Robin that running a TV broadcsast is a lot tougher than it looks. I think the frustrating thing is just how much the quality of the broadcasts has gone down since last year. It would be one thing if the Brewers were new to FSN, but they've been on the channel for several years now. It just seems weird to look at how much things seem to have declined. You would almost think the Brewers were for sure going to be gone after this season, and FSN was just throwing out some team of interns to handle the broadcast as an after-thought.