waterbury video footage redux (this time it's personal)

[orgcandman]

Ok, so for the past 2 waterburies there has been no feature match coverage. No videos, nothing. What do people think? Would they rather have videos? Would they rather wait in suspense? Also, what sorts of things would you like to see on the videos? Should I interview the "big names" like BrassMan, Kowal, Ray himself, and others? What sorts of questions would you want me to ask in that case?

Also, any of the "Big Names" please sound off if you'll be going, or send me a PM so I can make a list of who's going and what questions to ask.

-Aaron

[Pave]

As a player very far away (Australia) I would love to get a better sense of the Vintage scene in the US, and visuals would certainly help that.  I've also never seen Vintage played on video, so an opportunity to see some of the best go head-to-head I would relish.  I would watch whatever you could muster with intrigue and delight.

[Matt]

I always liked the videos. Yes.

[49 Cents]

I saw some of the Gencon videos that were posted a while back (I don't have them anymore, but I would love to check back - Anybody still has those videos?) and I loved them. It also really helps to put faces to the names I see online..

I would love to see more of those videos!

[Scoops666]

I think it would be awsome if you made it kinda "documentary style" With interviews, a little back story, match coverage, etc. That would be awsome.

[49 Cents]

Yeah sure, but then you would get a problem: Who is going to do that? Who is going to travel to a tourney, not to play, but to film? That guy (or those guys) need to get paid, I guess. And who are going to pay for that? The attendants.

Unless there is someone out there who would love to spend a lot of time on this, and that for not too much money, I don't think that we are going to get professional video..

Or, another idea, you could sell the video? I don't think SCG would be interested in making/selling the video because it is a lot more work than the coverage they did in the past, and it probably costs more as well. But through TMD or some kind of mailing list, it could be done, right?

[vartemis]

Unfortunately, since I live in Ontario, I cannot attend the tournaments due to current finances, but I would be more than happy to help edit it for free if someone wants to shoot it.  If someone is interested in filming it, I would be more than happy to correspond with them on filming techniques I think would work.  I have a few ideas im gonna go doodle with at lunch and will post back later today.

j

[Machinus]

Oh my god if there is any way to have videos of these matches please do it

[Bram]

I remember the waterbury footage from back in '04. It was awesome, and I want more

[vartemis]

I am testing out some screen mats (like you would see over a sports broadcast) to see if this would work.  What kinds of things would you put on it?

-Names
-Life
-Active player
-Game #
-Phase

Should we know what is in their hands, or is this getting too complicated?  I have wanted to do this for quite a while, just to see if it could work.  I was thinking of somehow meshing a sports broadcast with hold em.  I love how in holdem you have the ability to see the cards the players are playing with.  It would require too much work to get it to go live, but being added after would definitely give it a more professional feeling.  You couuld also do interviews with name titles, and get reactions after the game by both players.

j

[Machinus]

Names, Life, and who won the counterwar seem to be the only necessary points.

[Bram]

Active player is usually self-evident after about 3 seconds of watching. Game number (and outcome) might be relevant.

[vartemis]

Well for active player I would just put the Player's name in a different color.

j

[Kowal]

I wouldn't pay like, actual money for the videos, but I would watch them.

I think interviews are a better idea than match footage, given how much downtime there is in a match.  How many of you actually manage to watch an entire match after you've scrubbed/drawn in?  It's a lot of "hmmmmm" and mana fiddling, and very little action.

A cropped video might be a good solution--  capture the whole thing, and keep only the parts that are really worth watching, like the major counterwar, or the huge topdeck, or the brutal turn one kill, and cut all the shuffling and the inarticulate vocal thinking.

[vartemis]

A cropped video might be a good solution--  capture the whole thing, and keep only the parts that are really worth watching, like the major counterwar, or the huge topdeck, or the brutal turn one kill, and cut all the shuffling and the inarticulate vocal thinking.

Hmmm well we could edit out all the unimportant stuff, like the attack phase, and fill it with commmercials  :lol:

j

[Scoops666]

A cropped video might be a good solution--  capture the whole thing, and keep only the parts that are really worth watching, like the major counterwar, or the huge topdeck, or the brutal turn one kill, and cut all the shuffling and the inarticulate vocal thinking.

Hmmm well we could edit out all the unimportant stuff, like the attack phase, and fill it with commmercials  :lol:

j

Attack phase? Whats that? There's no attack phase in Vintage! SHAME ON YOU! 

[Apollyon]

Attack phase? Whats that? There's no attack phase in Vintage! SHAME ON YOU! 

There is. It's called the "Colossus Beatdown Phase".

[emidln]

A cropped video might be a good solution--  capture the whole thing, and keep only the parts that are really worth watching, like the major counterwar, or the huge topdeck, or the brutal turn one kill, and cut all the shuffling and the inarticulate vocal thinking.

Hmmm well we could edit out all the unimportant stuff, like the attack phase, and fill it with commmercials  :lol:

j

Attack phase? Whats that? There's no attack phase in Vintage! SHAME ON YOU! 

Apparently someone's never played against Slaver and their infinite mox monkey beatdown.

[Mr. Nightmare]

Heaven forbid I go back on topic, but here it is anyway.

Regardless of how you do the video, if it goes online, please PLEASE make it higher quality than Wizards'.  In their torrents, I'm lucky if I could see who's playing, let alone what cards they play.  Your best camera angle is one with an overhead view of the table.  Make sure we can see the pretty cards, not the ugly players.

As for the screen mats, I'd like to see at least:
Player (AP/NAP would be nice)
Life
#Cards in hand (specific cards would be difficult)
Storm Count (If Relevant)
Game #
Deck they're playing (Could be formatted with name, ie:  Travis LaPlante - 5C Stax)
TMD handles would be sweet, and it would help with recognition of each other at future events, as well as tournament reports.

[vartemis]

I am going to do some work on this since I have a long weekend and no cable up at my cottage.  This is something I have wanted to do for a while, and something that would look good in any film/television production person's portfolio.  I dont want to make it too cheesy, but here are some things I brainstormed last night.

Pregame Bio  Sometimes on a sports program they will do a profile on a particular player.  It includes a profile pic, accomplishments and stuff like that.  For magic players you could have name, age, hometown, team affiliations, deck playing and accomplishments.

Camera Setup  If I had the ability to film it with unlimted resources, I would run a simple 3 camera operation (technically 1).  1 camera would be focused down on the playing surface for a bird's eye view.  I would also use 2 small camera (web cams would do) planted on the edges of the table allowing you to see the players hand. I could get rid of the 2 smaller cameras if I had trusted spotters keeping track of players hands.  Is it nessesary to know what the players have in their hands?  If I used the cameras, I would just put a small display of the players hands at the bottom of the screen.  If I used the spotters, I could just put a list.

Player Display  I would set it up like a fighter video game.  Names on top, deck in smaller letters bellow. The active player's name would be yellow, and the nonactive white.  Beside the name in the middle is where the life would be, or in the event of a timed match, a timer with the life total below it.  To keep track of the games, I would just use dots for match points; green for a win, yellow for a draw.  This would be relatively easy to do post because it simply requires notes on the match (what the starting hand was, what was draw/tutored for).  A live version would be impossible without the proper hardware (http://www.vizrt.com) and that stuff aint cheap hehehe.

Interviews  Postgame, name players' reactions, name players that scrubbed out, TO's, Judges, or anyone else of importance on the scene.

Here is another point:  Should there be a commentary?  A live commentary would prove difficult as it could give away hidden information, but one added in post can sound fake.

j

[Rapalaman1]

I'd love to see videos, especially match coverage. Something similar to how they do it with Pro Tour coverage

[Scoops666]

Commentary wouldn't really work, unless we were going to do like Kowal suggested and have the footage be key moments in the match instead of a full match. Then you could have a narrator say stuff like "Its now 3 turns later, X and Y have happened." That way people won't feel like they've missed anything in a match.

Also inteviews would be awsome. Maybe ask all the name guys what they think the metagame will be like before the event begins. Then ask Ray, myself, or one of the other staffers for a real metagame breakdown based on the decklists submitted (If you wanted to do this, I would be more than happy to break the decklists down during rounds 2/3 and give a little interview on it round 4-6ish).

-Mac

[Anusien]

I hate when the coverage just shows highlights.  I like seeing the entire game.  Would it be possible to mic the players to eliminate the audio problems in previous Wbury videos?  You could interview the players afterwards and get their reactions, and also let them do some pre-match trashtalking.

[vartemis]

If you were using something like a Canon XL2 to film the game, you could run 2 lappel mics into the back and have stereo sound.  Player right would speak in the right channel, and player left would speak out of the left.  You would also have the ambient sound from the front shotgun mic.

Essentially this comes down to how much work does someone want to put into this.  You can do a really good job with basic filmwork.  You could do it with 3 people and 1 camera, but it would be a bit of post work (longer than SCG decklists thats for sure) but it could leave a lasting record of what happened.  What would be hilarious is if people started watching these like coaches watch game films to get an idea of the competition.

j

[TheAlpha]

I still have a video which was made by Ric Flair on my PC. It was totally awesome, when I think of it, it still makes me laugh. He went towards Zherbus asking him: "TMD Name and real name!". The expression on Zherbus was priceless .

Some other cool stuff:
R: "TMD name and real name!?"
JP: "JPMeyer, JPMeyer"
R: "WHOOO that's handy!"

R: "Which deck is going to win today?"
<some random>: "His deck!"
A: "Yeah my deck!"
R: "Piloted by who?"
A: "BY ME!!!"

R: "Oh you're Mixing Mike!"
M: "MIXING MIKE, OH MY GOD!"

R: "So what's she playing?"
Girl: "I cant tell you"
R: "Oh oh.. tech!"
Girl: "If I tell you, I have to kill you"
R: "Oh noooo!"

It also point out the awesomeness of Rich Shay for replaying the "Ivan-the-terrible-plays-a-free-time-walk"-game.

Seriously though, I'd like to see more videos. They're cool

[WildWillieWonderboy]

If the people supervising the cameras could also take notes on what's happening/being said, they could be voiced over or subtitled later.

And yes, more videos.

[Pyromaniac]

Attack phase? Whats that? There's no attack phase in Vintage! SHAME ON YOU! 

There is. It's called the "Colossus Beatdown Phase".

I thought the "attack step" was the "Get Drain mana after playing a sorcery" step