Triviality
No. 24 in an occasional series
Five sports television camera tricks or angles that didn’t exactly catch on
FOX: FoxTrax, NHL
FoxTrax got mixed reactions from fans during its existence between the 1996 All-Star Game and the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals. Instead of the usual black disc, TV viewers saw a blue glow on the ice, which turned into a fireball for slapshots. Casual fans enjoyed the visual cue, but purists found the glowing puck gimmicky and cartoonish, and they resented computer components that changed the feel of NHL pucks. If Fox had transported the technology onto car keys, everyone would be happy.
CBS: EyeVision, NFL
Thirty-three robotic cameras positioned around the stadium upper deck achieved EyeVision’s “bullet time” effect, an innovation inspired by the 1999 action film “The Matrix.” Despite the 18 months of work that Carnegie Mellon University professor Takeo Kanade and his team put into EyeVision, its 220-degree panoramic effect was not as revolutionary as CBS had hoped. When the effect debuted in Super Bowl XXXV on Jan. 28, 2001, fans deemed it choppy and contrived.
NBC: Huddle Camera, XFL
Like everything else about the XFL, which began and ended in 2001, the huddle-cam was a short-lived feature. In the spirit of everything in the league being all-access, on-field cameramen would barge into huddles and record the players calling the plays. Mercifully, the XFL folded before it came up with the idea of recording trips to the bathroom, too.
ABC/ESPN: FloorCam, NBA
When ABC gained the broadcast rights to the NBA in 2002, it immediately started tinkering with different camera angles such as SkyCam (derived from the XFL) and its less revolutionary cousin, FloorCam. The angle is supposed to show the impressive scale of basketball players in action, but all too often it provides voyeuristic shots up athletes’ shorts. Has any other camera angle been as awkward?
FOX: Diamond-Cams, MLB
With a lipstick-sized camera embedded in the dirt in front of home plate and the pitcher’s mound, the Diamond-Cams, which debuted in 2004, offer unique views of catchers and pitchers, though the image offers a rather obscure angle that’s fringed with dirt.
(compiled by Erick Blasco and Max J. Dickstein. Comments? E-mail mdickstein@am-ny.com.)
