IMG Media called me to work in France for a weekend to film the last match of the French season at Valenciennes' home ground against Nice. We interviewed Abdeslam Ouaddou, the team captain. It was for The Arab Football Show, a series which concentrated on players with Arabic routes, although he was more French than his native Moroccan name suggested. The producer Alex and I filmed the town, interviewed the coach and watched the fans line up outside the stadium gates. It was to be the first ever football match I had ever attended, and I was nervous.
During the entire game my adrenaline was flowing. It was not an easy task to follow the ball with my camera, especially since I had to zoom in very close and therefore move the camera a lot to follow the ball. This was not as difficult as actually anticipating (the essence of all good camerawork) where the ball was going to go, so I quickly realised I needed to use both eyes. My left eye is usually closed when I look through the viewfinder with my right so I can concentrate on the image I'm recording. But for football I needed to use my left eye to see which players expected to receive the ball and where they were running to. I found I had periods of intense concentration where I was totally successful in my anticipation, and highly satisfied, and other times I was tired and would miss the game entirely, my filming being nothing more than a blurred green swishing left and right with no decent image at all.
Whilst Alex was watching the game with me he would direct me sometimes with where the ball was going. Before half-time he said 'Nice are attacking' - I quickly framed wider and panned to the goal to see their first goal go in. Brilliant, I captured it! Both sides fought more aggressively after that, and Nice were a much stronger team. It was almost like predictable clockwork filming Nice's attacking style, they always played the same tactics and I knew where each three strikers were going to go, as if I had seen Nice play football a thousand times. Valenciennes on the other hand were angry and weak, they defended most of the time. Then Nice scored their second goal and I had been filming the coach sitting on the bench so I missed it. I felt terrible.
After half time the red team were trying harder, but I could see Uaddou getting more irritated in defence. Then suddenly their striker charged up the right wing and the whole stadium went crazy. I could barely hold the camera on the tripod for all the excitement. He didn't score but was fouled and the popular striker Savidan took a penalty and scored. I knew where he was shooting so it wasn't hard for me, and after catching two goals out of three I didn't feel so bad. And that was the first match I had ever been to.
During the entire game my adrenaline was flowing. It was not an easy task to follow the ball with my camera, especially since I had to zoom in very close and therefore move the camera a lot to follow the ball. This was not as difficult as actually anticipating (the essence of all good camerawork) where the ball was going to go, so I quickly realised I needed to use both eyes. My left eye is usually closed when I look through the viewfinder with my right so I can concentrate on the image I'm recording. But for football I needed to use my left eye to see which players expected to receive the ball and where they were running to. I found I had periods of intense concentration where I was totally successful in my anticipation, and highly satisfied, and other times I was tired and would miss the game entirely, my filming being nothing more than a blurred green swishing left and right with no decent image at all.
Whilst Alex was watching the game with me he would direct me sometimes with where the ball was going. Before half-time he said 'Nice are attacking' - I quickly framed wider and panned to the goal to see their first goal go in. Brilliant, I captured it! Both sides fought more aggressively after that, and Nice were a much stronger team. It was almost like predictable clockwork filming Nice's attacking style, they always played the same tactics and I knew where each three strikers were going to go, as if I had seen Nice play football a thousand times. Valenciennes on the other hand were angry and weak, they defended most of the time. Then Nice scored their second goal and I had been filming the coach sitting on the bench so I missed it. I felt terrible.
After half time the red team were trying harder, but I could see Uaddou getting more irritated in defence. Then suddenly their striker charged up the right wing and the whole stadium went crazy. I could barely hold the camera on the tripod for all the excitement. He didn't score but was fouled and the popular striker Savidan took a penalty and scored. I knew where he was shooting so it wasn't hard for me, and after catching two goals out of three I didn't feel so bad. And that was the first match I had ever been to.
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6 comments:
JAAAAAAAAa, bueno, los goles no son tan importantes... por uno que te pierdas...
Casi un comentarista de football!! Es que sos tan plástico! Cuando empece a leerte pensé: claro, Icaio no ve mucho football, por eso le está resultando dificil. Pero a medida que seguía leyendo, me fui dando cuenta de cómo te metiste en el juego y cómo te las ingeniaste para capturar con la cámara lo más interesante. Claro! haber perdido solo un gol no es nada!
Ah! me olvide de decirte: cuando vaya, si no me mostras esta filmación no importa eh? sería incapaz de valorarla. Jeje
jaja!! no te preocupes tolenti, me parece que la mayoria de mis lectores regulares tampoco les interesa mucho el football!
a vos no te contesto ro porque estas justo aca
No subestimes a tus lectores... ¡a algunos nos gusta [mucho] el fútbol!
Una vez le dije a Ro, esto es como un castigo: que vos tengas que ver fútbol no por gusto ¡sino por trabajo!
Igual tené cuidado, que pronto podés tomarle el gustito y volverte un aficionado al fútbol...
[Y si alguna vez te toca un partido de Boca, por favor, no te pierdas ningún gol –¡que sí son importantes!]
Abrazo
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