Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: Motorsport Cinematography

  1. #1
    LUSE Galant's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Gibraltar
    Posts
    3,252
    Thanks
    502
    Thanked
    555 times in 339 posts

    Motorsport Cinematography

    Not sure if cinematography is the right word but for want of a better one it'll work.

    Been musing over how the various motor sports need to improve their visual coverage of their events - and what an incredible opportunity they have if they do it.

    Motor sports could have so much visual appeal - the vehicles, the battles, the handling etc., and yet, tragically, they're often one of the worst present sports. Generally the events are presented as a sort of live highlight reel cutting from corner to straight, to see a bike or car fly by, or you might see an aerial shot or zoom. I can understand that in the past the technology to do much else wasn't around, however, these days there are tons of ways to take the coverage of motor sports to a new level and increase their appeal and market.

    How many movies and games about motor vehicles find so much appeal purely out of the visuals? Yet the visuals are often so boring for the real thing.

    For me WRC is the most appealing, both in concept and in visuals. The skill on display is incredible and the highlights are stunning. I defy anyone to sit through a WRC event highlight reel and not be impressed. Yet those events end up as either repeated visuals of a single corner or stretch of road, or else just highlights. There's no continuity, no flow - or at least, what there is is broken up.

    Surely these organisations would find a genuine incentive here to investigate and invest into better filming of their events?

    Find ways to show whole stretches of runs instead of just bits and pieces, or even runs in their entirety. Or for races they could follow a battle with more continuity, for longer, or follow one car around the track.

    There are obvious obstacles to doing this, of course, and it's not east. Surely though, this is the clear evolutionary direction of the sport? There's even potential to sell after race access (or even live access) to single cars or teams or to be watched in their entirety - multiple available streams.

    Motorsports are something I tried several times to follow more closely but the format often detracts from my enjoyment of it or makes it difficult to focus in on one particular team or driver etc.

    Does anyone know if the world of motorsports is looking into this?
    No trees were harmed in the creation of this message. However, many electrons were displaced and terribly inconvenienced.

  2. #2
    HEXUS.social member
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Posts
    2,562
    Thanks
    102
    Thanked
    320 times in 213 posts

    Re: Motorsport Cinematography

    Formula E has been testing 360 cameras on their cars. The test I saw allowed someone to rotate their iPad around to look "around" the car; bit of a gimmick but interesting. They also use "Fanboost" to allow the public to vote for a short boost for drivers. Again, very much a gimmick that does little, but at least it tries to get the public a little bit more involved and should be a bit more interesting now that they've blocked Chinese IP's! (The Chinese team were always winning ).

    With streaming, allowing you to pick which car to follow probably wouldn't be too far away. Certainly in F1, following just one car would probably be boring as it is very unlikely that one car will have much action over the course of a race. If you want to track the progress of a race, then an app showing positions and times is probably the best to keep an overall situational awareness, although incredibly dull!

  3. Received thanks from:

    Galant (28-12-2015)

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •