Sports and Events Video
One professional video field I did excel in was sports and events video, and that is because of my association with the teams or the venue, where I didn’t have to promote myself, just show up and do the job I was employed to do. Furthermore, its a niche that I found I enjoy and only wish I could do more of it locally.
Arena Football
I got started with the Fort Wayne Fusion of the Arena2 Football League. It was a relatively easy job: show up with a camera and tripod, record the game on cassette tape, then go to the team office the following week to let them use my digital recorder to digitize the footage. (The league required the teams provide a video record of the game.) It was fun until the league folded, taking the teams and especially my payment for the last half of the season with it.
Much the same people tried again to create an arena football team the following year, the Fort Wayne Freedom, but they experienced cash flow problems and didn’t pay me after every game as contracted, so they eventually decided to replace me with an intern video the games after about four games. It didn’t really matter, though, because I was already working for another team.
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
I parlayed my experience with the Fort Wayne Fusion to get the game day video contract with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League in November, 2007, and I have been with them ever since. (Seven years through the 2013–2014 season for a total of 168 regular season games and four post-season games.) Originally I arrived at the game with a cart full of equipment: camera, tripod, digital recorder, DVD recorder, laptop and external DVD drive, plus all the power cabling needed to supply everything. Over the seasons, that load gradually dropped to nothing as the league and the team started providing all the equipment and resources themselves.
Allen County War Memorial Coliseum
The following year, the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum installed video display boards in the scoreboard and needed camera operators to supply footage. I was possibly the first camera operator hired for the production crew, based on my experience with professional sports. That also led to not just sports events (flat track derby bouts and college basketball) but also other events, such as commencements and speakers.
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