NEFA video production

[Matt DeAngelis]

What do the members think about NEFA funds being applied towards the purchase and production of NEFA tournament broadcasting? Keep in mind that this topic/idea is in line with the mission of our organization for promotion of the sport in our region. This is something that has been on my mind for some time. I would love to see more disc golf coverage involving local courses, events, and players. It's rare that we get the focus from the national broadcast folks, so I feel our region needs someone to pick up the slack!

What would it take?

Money. We would definitely need money. How much money, I'm not sure. The end goal would be to have our own equipment that can be utilized to produce these videos. That of course will take some capital, but I think it could get off the ground without having to purchase any equipment.

To start out, I would want to reach out to the local colleges (high schools?) that have videography departments. I know my college had one and would let their students utilize any of the equipment for their projects. Obviously, it was restricted to students, so we would encourage the programs to offer suggested project for the students to focus on (planning, shooting, editing, and publishing a video that emulates current ball golf broadcasts). I know, that seems somewhat unrealistic, but this is exactly the type of thing that happened when I was in school. The teacher said we had a project to complete that would encompass all those areas of production and provided us with a list of suggested topics or we could come up with our own. I don't think it is that far fetched to consider reaching out and floating the idea.

What kind of equipment would be needed?

This could probably get answered after a few trial runs. Could we get away with GoPro equipment to shoot the video? Maybe we can get discounted equipment prices if we have enough subscribers to our broadcast, publish on public access, and slap their logo/commercial on it. If so, we could capture a boat load of footage without a lot of man power during the event. Would it provide enough detail/quality to make something that people will want to see? Can you give me the go ahead to buy a freakin go pro and drone already? 36 GoPro cameras (one for the tee and one for the basket) located on every hole would provide enough footage to choke a donkey.

We would then need distribution.

It would be great if we could connect with the local cable acccess stations to get us out on TV. At the very least we should get a youtube channel for people to easily subscribe and watch on a variety of devices.

Timing is everything.

We need to make sure that the production is done quickly enough that it can be relevant. We don't want to put out hours of footage of players walking between holes and boring stuff like that. We also don't want to have the final product come out four weeks after happening. That portion I think would come with time and be able to get fined tuned as things progress.

[Bill Bertera]

I don't know if go-pros alone would cut it. they have a pretty short focal length. You wouldn't capture the whole flight of the disc. They would be a good supplement with a manually operated camera with a zoom, because the camera-person wouldn't need to focus on the thrower and then quickly zoom to follow the disc, they could focus just on the flight of the disc.

[Mike Dussault]

I think you might first need to put together a team or committee of volunteers willing to help make this happen. Spending money on expensive equipment with no one to film or use it would be a waste.

[Matt DeAngelis]

I don't know if go-pros alone would cut it. they have a pretty short focal length. You wouldn't capture the whole flight of the disc. They would be a good supplement with a manually operated camera with a zoom, because the camera-person wouldn't need to focus on the thrower and then quickly zoom to follow the disc, they could focus just on the flight of the disc.

Good call.

[Matt DeAngelis]

I think you might first need to put together a team or committee of volunteers willing to help make this happen. Spending money on expensive equipment with no one to film or use it would be a waste.

I agree. Third paragraph describes a way to possibly accomplish both the equipment issue and the manpower issue.

[Josh Connell]

The idea of mounting go-pros and letting them capture video saves on manpower, but IMO makes for boring viewing without even taking into account what Bill brings up about focal length. There's only so much editing you can do with shots from the same angles on every hole before it gets repetitious.

Expounding on Mike's idea, I think it might be better money spent to help underwrite one or two video "teams" to produce tournament coverage in the same vein as existing youtube coverage like McFlySoHigh or SpinTV rather than buy the equipment (not knowing if it's even the ideal equipment) and hope for folks to use it. Find folks willing to go out and video a tournament and edit the footage, then give them something to help their efforts whether it's a grant for equipment/software or travel expenses to get around to tournaments (though I'd suggest tournaments that want the coverage should be offering to pay that themselves).

I like the idea of using college students...almost like NEFA video interns.

[Steven Dakai]

We filmed hours of Tourney 54 last year. We used a go pro and an HD video camera. Filming was the easy part. Video editing is practically an art form and unless you have an experienced person you wont like the product.

[Eric Desmarais]

Jasin Bayer knows a guy..... His name is Joe Canali..... Pretty sure he plays on team maple hill. Guy is awesome at editing and has a clip from the GHDGO. He uses or its on Vimeo. The video is SUPER HIGH QUALITY !!!!!!!!!!

I rode up to Bosquet and then hit Conway with him and Chase and Axline.... He talked about editing and his plans for it and growing the sport the whole way. My gut tells me he would have, or have access to equipment. I know he is on the facebook and could likely connect the two of you if you thought it was worthwhile.

Just a thought.

[Joe Wander]

Interesting discussion, gang. I bet there are plenty of capable folks in the area interested in pitching in.

When you get some stories put together, I'm always interested in pieces for upcoming episodes of Disc Golf Live. The show plays on many public access stations in the region (and elsewhere) so it would be some nice publicity about regional disc golf action. Tourney coverage is always popular, but how-to segments, course tours, club or player profiles etc are also appreciated. Almost anything disc golf related would work if it tells an interesting story. (Pieces with commentary work best; although easy to produce, footage-over-music pieces, not so much.)

Best of luck with this.

Joe

[Doug Callaghan]

would we need a new website to post videos? also, you think the booze policy is an issue with doing nefa videos?

[Matt DeAngelis]

would we need a new website to post videos? also, you think the booze policy is an issue with doing nefa videos?

Not necessarily. We certainly wouldn't want to host all that data! We would just create a YouTube channel.

That's a good question. Especially if we solicit sponsorship as part of this (which is something I would want to pursue to raise money for the org). Won't know the impact until it gets off the ground...if it gets off the ground. What if our sponsors were local micro breweries? Then I guess it wouldn't matter!

[Bob Johnson]

To quote the great Ron Burgandy…"That escalated quickly…!!"

While I love the idea of doing video projects and I like watching You Tube videos of the latest majors, I think this is way out of the realm of NEFA capability and budget. NEFA is not able to keep the blog current, Facebook is a ghost town, and the last update to the photo page was almost 4 years ago. Point is we can't stay on top of the current media we use. Adding video production to the mix just seems like it is asking for trouble.

I will go back to, lets get the basics right. A good looking website that is worth going to, Content updated frequently, especially during the NEFA season, photos and stories about NEFA personalities, Courses and Events. And Within that context, if people want to submit video tours of their courses, do tourney montages, or player interviews, we can best support that by having an online community worth posting it too. Provide an outlet for their talents and projects and creative people will come. And by improving the website content and traffic, you encourage not just videographers, but photographers, writers etc.

[Matt DeAngelis]

This is a far off idea that came out of left field. Something that I have no immediate plans to implement, but wanted to get the creative juices flowing. I agree, that efforts are best focused on current endeavors.

[Matt DeAngelis]

I will go back to, lets get the basics right. A good looking website that is worth going to, Content updated frequently, especially during the NEFA season, photos and stories about NEFA personalities, Courses and Events. And Within that context, if people want to submit video tours of their courses, do tourney montages, or player interviews, we can best support that by having an online community worth posting it too. Provide an outlet for their talents and projects and creative people will come. And by improving the website content and traffic, you encourage not just videographers, but photographers, writers etc.

Maybe we need to go the route of hiring/paying for a person to keep these things updated then, because volunteers are not able to meet the expectations.

[Steven Dakai]

Im not sure its a failure of the volunteers. I think its a breakdown of systems,or lack of systems in this case. Paying someone to continue in the wrong direction seems like a waste of money.

Ask yourselves this question. How much time do you spend on the home page? I spend 1-2 seconds myself,there is nothing there.

What I envision is a home page that has a current leader board for the NEFA points series; Latest tourney results; a special interest story (like the grants); links to full results; Tourney registration links (we could charge for this); A BIG button that says "Join/Renew";Another big button that says "sponsor/donate";all surrounded by ads from Marshall street,Vibram, Pure Flight,Community,etc.

Make the ads cheap and use a promo code that kicks us back 2%
Results and Standings could be populated by the data we already collect.
Pre reg and waitlist would be user generated
Pics could be attached to results,submitted by TDs

What we have is a blog and a message board. Its like going to visit 2001 every time you log in.
Lets modernize the site. We already collect a bunch of data. People work hard at keeping it organized but we hide it in the bowels of our site.

A single home page could contain most of the information we all want. Digging through the site,especially the MB is not what current or potential players to do. Forget about a sponsor having to look at the MB,that would kill us.

Rant over and out.

[Matt DeAngelis]

Great points, now share that with the NEFA BoD email list.

[Andrew McManus]

NEFA is not able to keep the blog current, .

ouch!

Alright, I admit I have definitely slacked on the blog until recently

I agree with Steven Dakai about changing the home page to display more current/pertinent info and have it updated accordingly. I think that forming a committee to discuss the possibility of providing some video of NEFA events is certainly worth pursuing. This committee could scope out the feasibility of the endeavor and assist in finding volunteers...no financial commitments.

[Doug Callaghan]

Im not sure its a failure of the volunteers. I think its a breakdown of systems,or lack of systems in this case. Paying someone to continue in the wrong direction seems like a waste of money.

Ask yourselves this question. How much time do you spend on the home page? I spend 1-2 seconds myself,there is nothing there.

What I envision is a home page that has a current leader board for the NEFA points series; Latest tourney results; a special interest story (like the grants); links to full results; Tourney registration links (we could charge for this); A BIG button that says "Join/Renew";Another big button that says "sponsor/donate";all surrounded by ads from Marshall street,Vibram, Pure Flight,Community,etc.

Make the ads cheap and use a promo code that kicks us back 2%
Results and Standings could be populated by the data we already collect.
Pre reg and waitlist would be user generated
Pics could be attached to results,submitted by TDs

What we have is a blog and a message board. Its like going to visit 2001 every time you log in.
Lets modernize the site. We already collect a bunch of data. People work hard at keeping it organized but we hide it in the bowels of our site.

A single home page could contain most of the information we all want. Digging through the site,especially the MB is not what current or potential players to do. Forget about a sponsor having to look at the MB,that would kill us.

Rant over and out.

+1.