Camera angles in MLB and how it affects us, A Deep-Dive
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 сер 2022
- If you've ever thought to yourself, why isn't Gerrit Cole's slider moving as much today? Or, why does Clayton Kershaw's 12-6 curveball look different today? It may be because the camera angle of the ballpark your favorite pitcher's pitching in that day is different from what you're used to seeing. In this video, Ollie Cotran (baseball nerd representative at Bleacher Boys Media) breaks down all the differences between the different camera angles different MLB ballparks use, and explains why he thinks some ballparks are better than others to fully see how certain pitches are moving.
Hope you guys enjoy!
Make sure to follow us over on Instagram:
@bleacherboysmedia - Фільми й анімація
The problem with letting MLB standardize where to put the camera is they would put it in THE WORST PLACE and then they would ALL be bad.
Plus it would make every game and stadium look the same. This happened in hockey. Back in the 90's you could almost tell where the game was played solely based on the camera angle, but now it has been standardized in almost every arena. I think that takes away some of the character of each arena. So I hope this doesn't happen in baseball. But maybe they could put a second camera out there to track certain pitches on replays.
Then MLB will blame the players and analytics and decide to change the rules.
I knew this when I seen baseball on TV when I was 11.. wooohoooo that was 19 years ago!
would be cool to see a team's broadcast experiment with different camera angles for different pitchers
Yeah... I mean, even if it was just used for replay, or it caused a few second delay to pick the best angle.
@@nacoran well it could be as simple as like, having a camera in right for a lefty and a camera in left for a righty or vice versa
Ya but then they could cheat and see what the pitch was
@@rrhockey9311 ???
genius 200 iq
i watched this whole thing before i realized it had barely any views… really informative video you did a great job compiling and editing
I concur
It has 70k views wtf you Talkin bout bro lmao lol at you cringe hahah lol
@@NoName-fo7mz it had 2k when i left the comment
bro i thought this was like a more well known channel
@@NoName-fo7mz It has 100k, not 70k you clown 🤡
This video should go viral. There are entire channels dedicated to pitch tracking that never mention camera angles at all. Not that this would affect professional teams in any way, rather, this could affect the gambling market behind MLB
Burner account😂
ehh no. maybe do a big more reeach on gamilbing before you make a igonrat statement about gambling. ffs, dont talk about stuff you have no clue about. you only make yourself look stoopid
The Astros camera points directly at the opposing catcher’s glove.
The fact is that baseball camera angles are generally not determined by the teams' broadcasters. As someone who directed Major League Baseball broadcasts for 33 years I can tell you that camera positions are usually mandated by the clubs as a result of how fans' seating is laid out. Just think of how many camera shots you see with cables running through them, or screens or other obstruction.
These are the standard baseball camera positions you're likely to see at any MLB park. It doesn't mean that all of them are used by every team:
High home - generally up in the announce booth up behind home plate that follows the ball when it's put in play
High 1st - called the primary "shag" camera, it follows the action tighter than high home - like great defensive plays and pickoffs at 1st
Low 1st - side shots of right-handed batters, tight shots of the pitcher, dugout shots, tight game action, runners scoring
Centerfield - This is the shot you dealt with in your video, it is used about 70% of the time in every broadcast. Interesting story about this camera. It was first used by NBC director Harry Coyle in the 1955 All-Star Game, but it did not get a ringing endorsement. Many thought that the team hitting would steal catcher's signs, relay them to the dugout where someone would relay them to the hitter. In 1959 Commissioner Ford Frick convinced NBC to abandon the use of the centerfield camera. It wasn't until 1965 when the centerfield shot became ubiquitous and something demanded by the fans. This camera revolutionized baseball on television.
Tight Center - Usually right next to the centerfield camera and gets tight shots of the batter, players in both dugouts, and pitcher reaction shots after giving up a HR or other timely hit or acknowledging a great defensive play by one of the pitcher's teammates. Some broadcasters like to use it as a "tight pitch follow" shot.
Low 3rd - a field-level camera that mirrors the low 3rd camera, but is not generally used to score runners.
High 3rd - This is the standard pickoff shot of the pitcher, the 1st baseman and the runner at 1st. Because it is high, it also can provide nice tight shots of players on the field
Low Left Field - This camera is set up not far from the left field foul pole and focuses on the defense of the 3rd baseman . Broadcasters who use this position also employ it to follow a homerun from the hitter to the place where the ball lands in the stands.
Low Home - This camera is ground level from behind the catcher/umpire. Depending on its location, it can also show the movement on an individual pitch. It isn't used as much as it used to be because there is generally a screen behind home plate that gets in the way. It is often deployed as either a robotic camera or just locked off on a tripod,.
Please note that the list above is basic. Different directors use the camera positions available in different ways. it all depends on what the club allows. But my point is that where they place the centerfield camera is not something that broadcasters generally get to decide. If you're a network big shot like ESPN, they may be able to convince teams to make a position for the "North-South" centerfield camera that works with the pitch tracking system. And they might be asked to pay for the construction needed of the position.
I wish we could have interviewed you before making this video. Thanks for all the info and clarification. 33 years! Wow. Which clubs did you work for?
Filming a pitch on camera is actually quite a challenge. The camera has to be far away so it doesn't get in the way of the players or the ball, but the very long focal length flattens everything out. It's so far away it almost looks like an orthographic view (where there's no perspective and objects of the same size appear the same size no matter how close they are.) I wonder if there's a way to get the camera closer to the pitcher. Like maybe a drone camera or something? 🤔 but then there's a small risk of the ball hitting the camera and interrupting the play so that couldn't work ...
I wonder if a technology exists to have a drone camera that is able to quickly react to a ball that will hit it and have the drone move out of the way
That also brings about the drones distracting the players and I really doubt they'd get behind a drone on field
@@jonathanzuckerberg8850 Even if you could solve the noise you'd get people complaining about aero wash from the rotors affecting the ball
as a silver lining, a line drive blowing up a drone cam would make for awesome broadcast footage.
I have never liked the standard "off center" field camera position. One time a few years ago I saw a "center " position and it was great. Much more representative of real life. I thought it would have been adopted everywhere but I never see it anymore. I don't watch a lot of baseball, actually I don't watch any baseball, but I don't see it in any of the highlight clips.
I guess I learned today that it is up to the home teams/stadiums to decide. Thanks!
I don't know about other ballparks, but St. Louis used to have an angle that was perfectly in line with home plate. A couple years ago they moved it off to the right hand side in order to show off the ads behind home plate better and it's bothered me ever since.
I imagine part of the issue with being able to pick the best angle for pitches in various parks is, well, the shape of the park itself (and the spaces you can put the cameras without taking away seats you can sell to fans)
Although with all the cameras that the Blue Jays have in center field, it would be cool if they moved some to the other side of the batter's eye so they could have better options for left-handed pitchers.
Correct. I work in sports TV and the biggest consideration to exact camera placement is space. Depending on the game and how many broadcasts there are (home, away, national, rarely but sometimes international, and in-house scoreboard video) you could have anywhere from 2-8+ cameras in the batters eye, each taking up a few feet. And then often you have vertical beams or other obstructions that limit where you can put a camera in the first place.
So it doesn't just depend on the park, it also depends on which broadcast you're watching as the home and visit show cameras might be 20' or more away from each other depending on how the camera platform is built. That said, the home broadcast always gets first pick of camera placement so they're the ones who really have decision-making ability.
@@user28a7dj8e7 Couldn't the home team make their camera feed available to the visiting and/or national broadcasts? So that way you only have one camera?
@@BachBeethovenBerg They could, and occasionally they might in the right circumstances. But different broadcasters have different things they want to focus on with their cameras throughout the broadcast. For instance before the game starts, the home show might zoom in on a particular player warming up so their announcers can talk about him, while the visit show might go to a wide shot and put up a graphic. Ultimately the networks are paying SO much for a pro sports contract that they want to make sure they have communication with their own camera ops and can tell their operators what to do at any given time.
So enlightening and makes me appreciate non-standardization (don't think this is just an American thing however) even more. For every pitcher there is a at least one ballpark out there that will show them in the best light which is only possible with the diversity of camera angles. If all ballparks had the same angle the only way for every pitcher to show off their best pitches is if they all adopted the same pitching style, arm angle, and pitches...Yuck!
IMO the most satisfying pitch was a Greg Maddux two seamer at Wrigley. Looked like 36 inches of break lol
Awesome video dude. Never realized how different angles AND heights can really show off how nasty some pitches are but can also diminish the filth of other pitches
Yea, that’s cause you don’t have common sense genius
Like others have already commented, this is a fantastic video, and something I hadn't really thought of much. That point about the left-handed sinkers was particularly illuminating. These kinds of analyses help certainly help non-baseball fans appreciate the skill that goes into the game all that much more!
I first noticed this while pitching in The Show and seeing how the projected lines for the same pitch looked drastically different depending on the ballpark. The only way to truly appreciate all the horizontal and vertical movement is to have a camera guy standing pretty much where the rosin bag is
As more people continue watching sports online, I suspect that we'll soon have the option so manually select between multiple cameras in realtime while watching any game. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years we have online broadcasts where you can choose between different camera angles like you can in a video game. Imagine watching an NBA game and being able to switch between broadcast, nosebleeds, player-lock, and courtside whenever you want.
That would be really cool and, I think, doable as well. It would really up the immersion of watching the game, somewhat mimicking the freedom to walk around the park and get different perspective that you get with physically being at the stadium, which can make even a "boring" game at least slightly more interesting.
Something like a "player cam" on, say, the catcher's helmet, would do so much for the game, IMO - being able to offer the player's perspective of the game and more of an idea as to how much actual skill it takes to pull off hitting a MLB level pitch.
This is something that I've thought a bit about recently and I'm convinced that this is inevitably where all the major sports are going, as well. It just makes too much sense not to pursue and capitalize on. It can really only be a good thing (granted that they offer you the option to stick with the old way of watching too).
I have not checked in awhile, but the NBA did have 2 or 3 camera options for a given game when watching on League Pass (have not had league pass in a few years so unsure if they still have this).
F1 TV Pro also lets you choose what camera you want to watch. You can choose between the Race broadcast angle, front/rear camera on each of the 20 cars (along with that car's uncensored radio comms), a 2D track map with the positions of all the cars, and a data screen with detailed timing and some other information. You can have multiple tabs open at once with multiple onboards w/radios and the main broadcast and commentary at the same time. They also have a camera in (some?) of the drivers helmets that shows what the driver sees but those are only for the main broadcast to use and can't be selected to watch manually. Best part is this all works exactly the same for old races, you can go back and watch them later and choose the cameras and everything, it's so good.
We have honestly had the ability to do this for a decade at least with the sports that don't have a massive playing space like in the NBA (they have been doing the streaming League Pass since at least 2013, but it feels like all the major US sports are so reliant on the TV contract money that the streaming services they provide are almost always gimped because of the TV contracts.
Local blackouts, nationally broadcast games aren't available on the streaming service, etc.
Slightly different to what you're saying, but watching Formula 1 racing on their subscription service F1TV, you can choose to watch the normal broadcast, or you can watch the onboard camera of any driver. It's really cool to be able to rewind and watch incidents and passes from individual drivers' perspectives. It would be awesome to be able to do this with MLB and other sports
Years ago I remember NBC experimenting with a stream online of SNF where you could toggle between the classic broadcast angle or the "Madden" camera angle of the line of scrimmage behind the players.
I remember seeing different areas of the ballpark for playoffs on a TBS cam in the early 2010s iirc. I don’t think they moved much though
this video is fucking amazing. this has been one of the things i’ve thought about all season and you explained it all perfectly
Also interesting that it wasn't until the 1970s that video telephoto lenses became reliable enough to shoot the game from behind the pitcher in middle field bleachers. Before that you always saw it from the press booth areas behind the batter. Makes a big difference in which position is depicted as being the main player.
Great point. It also reduces the view of the defense, taking away an entire part of the game from the tv audience.
This is so good. How do you only have 284 subscribers? This is like SB Nation/Foolish Baseball level analysis.
Jomboy needs to blow this video up. It’s such a small thing in our game but has huge consequences for the consumers. Great analysis!
oh man... more of this for sure ! can't believe this is your first dive into something video... excellently presented and edited... man i hope this blows your channel up !
This video needs so many more views. I feel like so many people don't know this who have been watching baseball on TV for years.
The video I never thought would be recommended to me that I didn't know I needed
Appreciate you highlighting this and I wish more big time baseball analytics and content creators recognized the impact of camera positioning on pitch appearance.
Keep up the good work!
This is incredibly in depth and it definitely answers a ton of questions, thanks for this man
Seems like they all have drawbacks. I like the visual interest of the Cleveland broadcast that uses almost the full height of the frame and a sigificant portion of the width of the frame.
It's actually how you'd see the camera in almost every videogame that has a behind-the-pitcher view, like Sony's The Show and EA's MVP Baseball series. Even Slugfest on the Nintendo 64.
This video style of "Pitcher vs. Batter", almost like an RPG encounter, is really fun, even if you can't perfectly see the pitch curves.
*Also - Don't discount the added effect that you can see Straw leading off at 0:50 - this is even more information you don't get in some of the other angles.
RPG Encounter is a great description
The quality of this video is through the roof. Nice in depth analysis of basically each stadiums camera angle and how it can affect perception.
Thanks for opening my eyes to something I didn't think played much of a role in my watching experience!
This channel deserves so much more hype
You earned my subscription. A video of this quality should have hundreds of thousands of views. Keep this up. I am going to tell my baseball buddies to check this out.
Great job on the video. Never realized this. I knew there were some different camera angles, and some I preferred over others, but never knew how much of a difference it made the pitches look.
great video! Top notch information, delivery, and editing!
Brilliant video. Beyond fascinating. I've always known that different parks had different camera angles, which often negatively impacts the appearances of pitches. What I didn't know was just how drastic this effect can be, and which parks are best for which kinds of pitchers/pitches. Keep up the great work!
Hell yeah, I'm glad that other people notice this as well, camera angle affects the apparent shape of a pitch so much. Great work!
Incredible video. I feel honored and lucky to be amongst just the first 500 subscribers to discover your channel! This is going to be huge.
So the thing about the two lefty sinker examples you named (Hader and Manaea), they actually throw “sinkers.” They are gripped like sinkers, but have very little sink or run because of the sean orientation and spin direction at release. Seam shifted wake driven carry and sometimes even cut is what results. A portion of why they both live up in the zone. The camera angle does rob lefty sinkers of their quality but those two probably are not the best examples.
Great video from a channel of your size! Keep it up, you got potential!
Solid video bro, good narration, you deserve more
This video is really well made. Keep it up man.
Amazing video on a topic I've always been fascinated about. Camera angles do not get talked about enough!
Great video man, subbed up. Awesome to see it come from a small channel too, can tell you must have put mad work in.
great analysis and lots of effort put in, see y'all at 100k subscribers
Very informative video, I appreciate all the work that went into it!
Fantastic video. Keep up the outstanding work
Great video! Never really thought about this much but it does make a huge difference
Yes! I'm glad someone did a video on this. I've always noticed how different pitches look depending on the camera angle. A like from me!
Good quality content and insight, here. You definitely deserve more attention, and subscribers, given the level of quality that you've provided.
Keep up the good work! You've got a new subscriber, here!
THIS THE QUALITY CONTENT I'M HERE TO SEE. THANK YOU
Great video! Always loved the Rays' angle.
hopefully the algorithm leads more people here!! great video great quality!
This has got to be one of the best MLB videos I’ve ever seen
This is a great video. I am a big baseball fan and I have not really thought about this much before, but this could change the way I watch games going forward
Nice to see the Brewers have something good going for them, their camera angle
Cant believe you are in the hundreds in subscribers, cause this video is very well done!
Fantastic video! Quite informative and the narrator is awesome ;)
8:30 MLB had actually done something like this with "The Baseball Network" coverage during the 1994 and 95 seasons whereby NBC and ABC used the same graphics packages. Am actually surprised the FIFA/Olympics method hasn't been more widely adopted by other leagues.
Y’all do deserve more followers tho, good quality videos and y’all shall keep it up, you will be big someday if y’all keep pumping out content, I don’t usually sub but guess I will, cuz your content is actually worth watching
Great video, really well made, nice job!
great video! hope to see your channel blow up
Jumped to the comments mid way through the video out of habit more than anything else, was disappointed to realize there was only 140, I must’ve been early.
Nope. Dude has 425 subscribers. You could’ve easily convinced me this was a 500k channel no question. Outstanding video. Can’t wait for no one to believe me when I’m telling people in your future comment sections that I was your 426th subscriber
I also think this is important for trying to call balls & strikes at home, especially before they put the strike zone box on the screen
Really well done. I'm a Blue Jays fan and I've wondered for quite a while now why other teams struggle to hit Alex Manoah's slider. The Rogers center camera just flattens it out.
When this video catches the right share from a major account, it's going to go viral. I will be watching, and criticizing, my favorite pitchers with so much more understanding of what I'm seeing. And not seeing.
This is a great video. I hope someone high up at the MLB sees this and encourage high-low, lefty-center-righty camera angles and change the viewing angle based on the pitcher that is on the mound. This would definitely make the game more exciting to watch on TV.
Awesome video dude! I hope everyone watches it!
As a brewer fan and someome born in milwaukee.. its good to hear you call it miller park, even though it no longer is
Very good video, eye opening too. Well done, seriously.
I’ve been aware of this for years so I kinda agree, however I love over the top cameras because they’re straight on with home plate making it easier to see where pitches are actually crossing the dish, where catchers are setting up, and where the hands/barrels on swings are passing through the zone
As a small UA-camr like you in the sports space.. congrats on the banger you’re on your way fam ‼️
These types of videos will do very good bc baseball fans and newer people to the sport love to see these explanations they never knew
Really great video! Interesting topic, super well done, clearly explained, and writing was on point! I would shoot for more consistency with the audio quality, and project your voice more, but those things will come with experience. Keep up the work and you could easily be a channel that is one of those we think of as defining baseball on UA-cam, like Foolish or Jomboy.
This was great! I’m biased as an M’s fan but have always thought the seattle broadcast angle was one of the best, glad to know I’m not crazy
Absolutely awesome video!
This video is great love the baseball content instant sub
I'm a huge fan of N/S camera angles. It gives so much more of a feel for pitch movement, especially on fastballs. Thanks for offering the tracking data comparing the similar pitches between broadcasts with different angles. I'd also like to see more broadcasts with pitch views from behind the plate. This rarely happens, and when it does they usually cut to behind the mound angles JUST before the pitch is thrown. These angles are also amazing for judging the elite pitching from another perspective.
This is such a great video, especially to show to fans new/newer to the game. You made it simple and digestible. Thanks, subbed!
I’m not even a new fan and honestly I never even thought twice about the camera angles changing how pitches look, really gave me insight on why pitch’s sometimes look like they don’t move at all
Great video. Totally made me rethink how I watch baseball pitch by pitch.
This isnt the vidoe the world wants but it is the video the world needs
Great job! Keep it up.
What a fantastic video. Very well done 👍
Great video! I just hope for your future videos that you can fix an audio issue where sometimes your mic catches some spit or vibrations or something. Because I’m watching with my family on our TV with dedicated subwoofers, and there’s many instances where a loud “BOOM” comes from the microphone audio and it can get distracting lol. There should be some programs and microphone spit protectors that should help with this issue
Amazing video. I wondered why sometimes when I watch a pitcher their pitches seem unhittable and the next time seem tame. Very informative!
This was a great video. Thank you!
Man, awesome content!
Genuinely good video. I’ll watch your career with great interest
What an intersting video! Very well made and explained. An instant subscribe from me. Please remember us when you got big someday LOL
we def need to have homogenized camera angles ! cannot believe you only have a small sub count. great vid
This is an awesome video. I can tell you put a ton of work/research into it. No click bait B.S, just a great vid.
i knew about this phenomenon because pitching ninja talked about how bad globe life field’s camera angle is, but i had no clue how drastic a difference it made! incredible video, thank you.
Great video and something I have never thought about before. Are the camera angles the same for postseason games?
This is something I've always thought about, how some camera angles make lefties seem unhittable by lefty batters. Also how I've never seen a east to west angle on a broadcast.
For me, baseball nerd channel = automatic subscription
Really interesting video. Great job!
Great video! A bit embarrassing to realize this after about 15 years of watching pitching 😅
Should also note two camera angles not discussed that had been used as primary angles include the high East-West (used at Yankee Stadium in the 70s and 80s) and the backstop camera (arguably noted as the original broadcast camera angle).
There also appears to be a push over the past few years advocating to return to the backatop angle as a response to the west-east and north-south angles now in 16:9 where the screen space consists of less of the players/play at hand and instead more of ads/non-play related.
Very good and informative video!
Great Video deserve more subs bro
My favorite part of the entire video is that he still calls it Miller Park. Fantastic video!
The low west east angle is the one that is most visually pleasing to me. If you compare Fenway when it had that angle years ago with today’s north south high angle, it’s no contest. Unfortunately many of the newer parks are incorporating the above the pitcher’s head angle.
You lose a lot of movement with the east west angle though. Also very hard to tell what’s actually a ball or strike.
Was thinking about starting a channel with a video like this. Great content brother
Great video. Very interesting to see how some angles makes the pitch look explosive while other angels the ball appear flat. Now I will shake my head less at batters who appear to look at fat pitches down the middle.