1. Introduction
Producing video that captures the excitement of live sporting events can be a very exciting and rewarding activity. With sufficient production skill and knowledge you can achieve impressive motion picture results by combining good video and audio with good editing. You productions can inspire athletes as well as encourage and entertain sports enthusiasts. We have provided the following guidelines to help you achieve the best possible results when producing school sports action video.
We have also laid out some basic rules that must be followed for all contributions to schoolsportsaction.tv. These rules form part of the terms and conditions of the site and must be obeyed by everyone who visits the site. Please read the rules now.
(All video and other content uploaded to School Sports Action TV must follow and comply with rules designed to protect the right of children and young people to participate in sport and online activities in a safe, supportive and enjoyable environment. See our Online Safety Guidelines.)
2. Aims, Goals, Technique
The video you produce should capture the best of the action in whatever sport you are filming. This includes what we traditionally think of as "match highlights" such as goals scored and tackles made; but it can also include other aspects of the sport where one or more players excel, such as great passing or a skilful assist.
At School Sports Action TV we really do believe it's how you play the game, not whether you win or lose. And if the sport is a team sport, then it's all about how the team performs, as a team. Of course, if you're filming a rugby match and capture the winger beating a tackle and making a spectacular run all alone on the outside, you're going to consider that footage a contender for uploading, and the focus is obviously going to be on that winger. The point is not to focus only on outstanding individual action. Try for a mix of team action and a range of different plays.
How you shoot the action will depend on several factors, not all of them in your control. There is the question of vantage point, lighting, and the capabilities of your camera. Then there are decisions like including commentary, or live audio, or setting the action to music (or perhaps a combination of all three). You might also want to experiment with a combination of still photography and video, or even still photo montages using slide show transitions and effects. We have some tips on these topics here and this section is growing as more people participate. We encourage you to share your sports video production experiences and perhaps contribute tips and techniques you have picked up.
3. Rights and Responsibilities
School Sports Action TV is dedicated to the proposition that persons of all ages have the right to enjoy the benefits of the Internet without fear of deception or harassment or abuse of any kind. Furthermore, we actively support the right of all young people, whatever their age, culture, ability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief or sexual identity, to protection from abuse. To this end School Sports Action TV follows the National School Sport Strategy Protocol for Safeguarding Children. All School Sports Action TV content, including video production, is reviewed and moderated with this in mind. Content which is not supportive of these rights, responsibilities and protocols will be removed.
4. Video Production Rules
Please keep the "Rights and Responsibilities in mind when creating your video. Avoid embarrassing shots and extreme close-ups, particularly when shooting sports such as athletics and gymnastics.
If you are supplying commentary on your video, be sure to check the [commentary guidelines]. Do not comment on or portray any player in a way that may humiliate or embarrass them. The same principles apply to the written description you supply when uploading video.
Ensure that players are referred to only by first name and team position. Avoid revealing other personally identifiable information (for example, you don’t want comments like "Jack Adams, the Surrey Grammar fly half, keeps in shape by running with his golden retriever Rover along Grant Road every morning"; but it is fine to note that "Jack, the fly half, keeps in shape by running with his dog every day"). Wherever possible, videos should refer to teams by team name and not location specific names.
Further advice and helpful discussions can be found in the online School Sports Action TV Media Centre Forums.
5. Copyright and Permissions
Photographs submitted to School Sports Action TV must comply with the School Sports Action TV Site Terms and Conditions including Copyright and Permissions.
6. Technical Issues
Video technology is constantly evolving and so it is difficult to make hard and fast rules about what works best in any given area of videography. This is especially true in the specialized field of web video. It doesn't help that some advertising for video products make it seem like all you have to do is point-shoot-edit-upload. Of course, that is the basic workflow, but there are lots of parameters to consider along the way. Should you shoot in 16:9 or 4:3? What about hi-def? What frame rate? What file format? Unfortunately, there are very few definitive answers.
For example, while filming in high definition creates a richer image most web video is not shown in high definition, due to the large amount of bandwidth that would be required. You can certainly shoot in hi-def, but what you upload will not be displayed in hi-def, at least not yet. You will find discussion of these questions and more in the Media Centre.