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Getting on at the X

Mar 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Cody Holt

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Getting a freelance job with ESPN—or any other live-sports broadcaster—can be tough. But that didn't stop these shooters and editors.

About 400 freelancers—from camera operators to editors to cable runners—dot Aspen’s Buttermilk Mountain during ESPN’s 2003 Winter X Games, Jan. 30 to Feb. 2. Closest to the action are the six Follow Cam operators who, carrying Sony PD100 cameras on counterbalanced rigs, follow the athletes down the mountain on skis. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

TRUDGING THROUGH THE WET SNOW ON HER WAY TO A SNOWMOBILE parked at the base of Buttermilk Mountain, a smile spreads across Dee Gall's suntanned face as she spots Bob Braudis, the tall, jovial, gap-toothed sheriff of Pitkin County, Colo. Amongst the 10,000-plus alternative sports fans who have gathered in Aspen for ESPN's 2003 Winter X Games, the two longtime Aspenites pause for a moment to appreciate a familiar, friendly face before returning to their respective jobs — Gall as a utility on ESPN's broadcast crew, and Braudis overseeing the event's security.

Although they're heading in different directions now, the two seemed to be on similar paths three years ago when Gall worked for Braudis as an administrative assistant in the sheriff's office. That's when she got her first job in broadcasting. Since then, she has traveled all over the country working on live-sports broadcasts — mainly ski and golf events for broadcasters like ABC, NBC, SFX, and ESPN. She's one of approximately 500 on ESPN's broadcast crew for its seventh annual Winter X Games, a four-day mini-Olympics for extreme athletes on skis, snowboards, snowmobiles, and motorcycles. (For a behind-the-scenes look at ESPN's production process, see “X-Rated Video,” March 2001.)

Paul DiPietro, operations manager for all of ESPN's X Games events, including Summer X, Winter X, and Global X, which will debut in May, is the person responsible for assembling the broadcast crew at each event. At Winter X 2003, which is being held Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, he has put together a group of about 400 technical personnel, including camera operators, editors, and support staff. There's another 100 or so on the production team, which includes producers, directors, and graphics artists. Of the 500 people working for him, DiPietro estimates that 100 of them are full-time ESPN employees. The rest of the crew is made up of freelance broadcast professionals like Gall.

The Weasel Cam, developed by Alex Milton, a freelance operations producer who now rents the equipment to ESPN, is a Toshiba TU-51 camera mounted in a steel box with a hinged door at the top. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

DiPietro says many of the same freelancers work all of his X events, but adds that there are some new faces at each broadcast, especially in the less technical roles like the cable crew and utilities staff. To fill vacant positions, DiPietro says he relies on word of mouth from other freelancers and ESPN staffers, and also looks for local freelancers to save on travel expenses. He also visits college communications departments near his event sites to fill lower level positions.

“I'll train a monkey as long as they have one thing: spark,” DiPietro says. “If they got spark, no problem. I'd be happy to help them. But I'm not out here to be Julie the Love Boat tour director and entertain them. I have a lot of work here. I'll do whatever I can to help them but they gotta have that desire, that spark, that initiative. Like anything, it's 100% up to them. The opportunity is here.”

Indeed, DiPietro says if a freelancer is willing to work he will take a personal interest in their career goals. “If they give me a direction — ‘I wanna be in audio,’ ‘I wanna be in video,’ ‘I wanna be behind the camera’ — then I do what I can,” he says. “Obviously I'm not going to throw them into our lead camera, but I try to put them in positions, lower level positions, in that area so they can learn and either aspire into their dream, or realize that maybe that isn't their dream.”

Once a freelancer proves valuable, DiPietro says he'll often talk to the crewing department at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., to try to get that freelancer additional work. “I hope that happens because I only have four events a year so I personally can't keep them afloat,” he says. “So I hope they do a golf tournament or a basketball game so financially they can stay in it and I can get them back on my next event. Once they get in the mix, we usually have no problem keeping people busy. There's a lot of programming [on ESPN].”

All six Follow Cam operators at the Winter X Games have experience skiing competitively. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

Of course, the challenge is getting in the mix. While DiPietro insists the opportunity is there for the taking, there are undoubtedly scores of video professionals who would benefit from a roadmap of how to get freelance work at ESPN — or any other live-sports broadcaster for that matter. The following success stories might provide some direction.

The Utility

Halfway up Buttermilk Mountain near the starting gate of the X course — a series of jumps and curves that skiers and snowboarders race down, often five or six abreast — Dee Gall is taking a break from the chaotic life of a utility, or “super utility,” as she has come to be known.

Closer view of the Sony PD100, which is mounted to a counterbalance rig developed by Follow Cam operator Reid Nelson. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

“What I do is a little bit more than what a utility is actually defined as,” says Gall, whose husband, Steve, is on top of a camera platform 3,200ft. below at the bottom of the X course. Although he's behind the camera today, Steve worked as a utility with his wife prior to the event getting the mountain broadcast-ready. “We're different than most utilities. We take responsibility for a lot of things: getting all the hardware on the mountain, for instance. During the events I help with the cameras and make sure things are operating. If they're not, then I'll run equipment out. If something fails, I assist in getting it fixed.”

Three years ago, when she was performing clerical duties in the sheriff's office, Dee says she had no knowledge of video or much interest in it. That's when Steve, who had been working as a freelance broadcast utility and cameraman for more than a decade, got a call from Terry Brady, then a freelance technical manager for ESPN who now works full-time as vice president of technical operations for the network.

Handheld cameras—Philips LDK10Ps, LDK20Ps, and Sony 950s—are used to capture action on the mountain. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

“I just happened to ask him if he needed any help or if he had an extra position, and he said, ‘Yes, what can you do?’” says Dee, recalling her phone conversation with Brady, who hired Steve for a ski broadcast in Deer Valley, Colo. “I said, ‘Well, I can climb mountains and I can carry heavy things.’ He said, ‘You're hired,’ and that's how I got on. It was as simple as that.”

Since that day, the husband-and-wife team have been a two-for-one deal: Steve usually working as a utility and on camera, and Dee as a utility. However, Dee says she is reaching the high end of the pay scale for utilities and is looking for other opportunities and has even gotten behind the camera on a few shoots. She says utilities, who are typically some of the lowest paid on a broadcast crew, can earn anywhere from $75 to $200 for a 10-hour workday.

ESPN’s hardmount packages include either a Philips LDK10 or LDK20 camera with various Fujinon and Canon lenses. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

However, Dee says if you're willing to work, you will climb up the broadcast hierarchy. “It has a lot to do with your attitude,” says Dee, who at one point last year worked for 60 days straight before taking three weeks off at the end of ski season. “I've done very well, but it's only because I'm willing to learn. At first, it might be a little tough because the pay is not all that great. But once they see that you're trying to excel and you're trying to learn and you're trying to create something and make it happen for them, you get pay raises. And you pay-raise yourself. As a freelancer, that's what you do.”

In addition to negotiating a fair salary, Dee says it's important for freelancers to consider other perks, like paid travel and hotel accommodations. While hotel and airfare are always provided for the Galls, Dee says many freelancers find their own way to an event and sometimes stay with friends. “That's how they open the door,” she says. “But you have to be sure that's the direction you want to go because there are some sacrifices you have to make.”

Most of ESPN’s platforms were built from the ground up with scaffolding, but the network also used four Spider Cam platforms. This is the first time ESPN used the mobile system at Winter X. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

The Cameraman

Like the Galls — and most freelancers who help broadcast winter sports, it seems — Reid Nelson is right at home on a mountain. A self-described ski bum, Nelson competed as an amateur mogul skier in the late '80s and early '90s, often spending 150-plus days a year on the slopes.

He got his first job with ESPN in 1991 when the network came to Winter Park, Colo., where he was living at the time, for the Alpine National Championships. Since he was enrolled at the University of Colorado's film school, a friend suggested he try broadcast work and put him in touch with ESPN. “Because I was such a good skier, I could get around the mountain well,” Nelson says. “They tend to hire people that can tolerate the winter environment with a smile, get things done, and not mind working late. And another thing that really helped was that I could coil cable really well.”

Once he got his introduction at ESPN, Nelson says it took nearly five years driving to events in Colorado and Utah before he could entirely support himself on his broadcast work. To subsidize his television gigs, he spent his summers working as a stagehand at a 19,000-seat amphitheater in Denver, and in the winter months worked part-time at ski shops.

ESPN’s traveling X Games tape library includes 2,500 hours of footage on 1,600 tapes. The racks are shrink-wrapped and shipped as shown. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

As Nelson got more and more work with ESPN, he also gained more responsibility. At first he was asked to shoot supplemental broadcast footage with a handheld DV camera, and later was asked to take a handheld broadcast camera into the start shack at World Cup events, a familiar setting for him after his racing days. After that, he was asked to set up and maintain the POV cameras at a motorcross event — a job that, he says, “real camera guys sneered at.” Today, Nelson is one of the Follow Cam operators who have become a trademark of ESPN's Winter X Games coverage.

The Follow Cam operators, all six of whom have skied competitively, follow the athletes down the various courses holding Sony PD100 cameras on counterbalanced rigs that Nelson designed (see photo lower left page 66). In fact, Nelson owns all seven rig-and-camera combinations in use at the X Games. He also rents them to other broadcasters, typically for broadcasts of snowboard events.

Freelance editor Chuck Diehl, working in one of seven Avid 9000 nonlinear editing suites, got his start with ESPN in 1990 and is now a regular at all X Games broadcasts. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

“I usually bang up two cameras per winter season. I can count on wrecking one at the X Games,” says Nelson, who has provided the Follow Cam equipment at the last three Winter X Games. “It's a running joke at the place I go to get them fixed in Denver. They're waiting to see me next week when I come back to see how many I break.”

In addition to the risk of breaking his cameras, Nelson says there's also the risk of broken bones for Follow Cam operators, who could make as many as 30 runs down a different course each day of a winter sports event. “Much of the time I'm not looking where I'm going,” he says. “I'm hauling sometimes 45 mph and not looking because I'm framing up my shot. If you want to get really good follow shots you have to look in the viewfinder a lot. And when riders collide and go all different directions, we've had some collisions. So far they've been minor ones and they've made really good replays.”

Outside ESPN’s broadcast center at the base of the mountain, 10 mobile broadcast trucks are used to create and transmit 17 hours of original programming that will air on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

Because Nelson's Follow Cam crew is made up of former competitive skiers, he says it's hard to break into. However, he does have advice for freelancers who would like to work live sports broadcasts. “When ESPN comes to town, it's being willing to work cheap and really being at the bottom,” he says. “You have to show them a good work ethic and be willing to put in the long hours, and still get along with people and keep your chin up. I dug a lot of snow ditches.”

Additionally, Nelson says his work as a rock 'n' roll stagehand helped him get acclimated to the role of a broadcast freelancer. “When you're dealing with a different crew all the time, you have to learn to deal with different personalities,” says Nelson, noting that ESPN's X crews are some of his favorites. “You have to learn how to take direction instead of coming in and being a know-it-all. You just shut up, do your job, and get through the day.”

The Operations Producer

Alex Milton supervises the technical staff on the Superpipe course and Slopestyle events. He serves as the interface between the producers and directors in ESPN's onsite broadcast center and his 55-person crew, which includes camera operators, audio guys, and the utilities staff on the mountain.

Alongside the Superpipe course, which is 54-feet wide, 16-feet high, and 500-feet long, a freelance camera operator captures B-roll footage during a practice round of the snowboard competition. Photo by Tony Donaldson.

“We provide all of the toys for the production people to tell the stories with,” says Milton, who has worked on all 15 X Games broadcasts. “So I'm working with the directors and producers to make sure the cameras are in the right places and technically everything is glued together correctly and the camera guys understand what they're supposed to be shooting.”

Milton says he got his start in live-sports broadcasting in 1990 when he moved to Lake Placid, N.Y., after spending nearly a decade working in corporate video in New York City. “I started out doing lots of medical video,” he says. “The dermatology people come to mind because of how disgusting it was. People have a lot of skin problems. But I got frustrated because in the corporate world it's such a scripted and structured environment. Here, you basically have to be prepared for anything that happens. The event's going to happen whether you're ready or not. That kind of pressure is what I thrive on. It's an adrenaline thing.”

Today, Milton estimates that the X Games broadcasts account for two-thirds of his annual employment. He's also worked on NBC's Winter Olympics broadcast crew. Although he has an engineering background and has worked as a cameraman in the past, Milton says his greatest asset as a freelancer is seeing the big picture. “I like to tell people the reason I do what I do is because I do a little of everything but nothing as well as they do,” he says. “I have the ability the look at the big picture, while they're all specialists in their area. I'm kind of a techno guy.”

Because of his technical background, Milton was able to carve out a niche at the X Games. After working a few events, he opened an equipment rental company, The Video Facilities Group, near his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The company specializes in POV cameras, primarily three-chip Toshiba TU-41s, or “icecubes,” which Milton rents to ESPN for its X Games broadcasts. The cameras are used all over the mountain where a cameraman dare not go, reinforcing ESPN's reputation for using technology in new and exciting ways.

One of Milton's latest contributions, called the “Weasel Cam,” is a Toshiba TU-51 camera mounted in a steel box with a hinged door at the top (see photo upper left page 66). The box can be buried in the snow in the middle of a course to capture approaching athletes. If a skier or snowboarder gets too close, an operator on the side of the course pushes a button to lower the door and the athlete glides right over. Milton has used the Weasel for coverage in auto races and is in talks to use it in college football games with a patch of grass covering the hinged door.

The Editor

At the base of Buttermilk Mountain, the ground floor of the Inn at Aspen has been converted into a fully operational broadcast center. There's a tape library of past X footage, animation rooms, graphic rooms, and seven Avid 9000 nonlinear edit suites where flashy graphics meet unique camera angles. Most of the graphics and edit rooms are linked together via an Avid Unity system. And the whole operation is connected to ESPN's servers back in Bristol.

In one of the Avid suites, Chuck Diehl cuts bumpers, specials, and what are known in X lingo as “pretures,” a fusion of previews and features. Diehl seems to be one of the few Winter X freelancers from a warmer climate. He lives in San Diego, and got his start as an editor with ESPN when the network was in town for the America's Cup sailing races in 1990.

Since then, he has remained close to Steve Lawrence, an ESPN producer who also lives in San Diego. In fact, when ESPN was first considering taking the X Games nonlinear just three years ago, Diehl cut a few sample segments for Lawrence on his Avid Media Composer.

In addition to his broadcast work for ESPN, which includes traveling to both Summer X and Winter X and editing a weekly segment called Walton's World with ex-NBA player Bill Walton, Diehl also works for a variety of corporate clients in San Diego. “In the corporate world, there's some satisfaction that you're helping them out. It's less creative sometimes, but I like the work,” he says. “[The X Games] is cool because I get here and see so many talented editors. They pick things off of you and learn, and you pick things off of them. It's a good way to keep yourself fresh and current.”

Although he says he no longer solicits jobs since he has a group of five or six core clients that keep him busy, Diehl says there are similarities between trying to get work in the corporate world and for a broadcaster like ESPN. “If you go to any company and tell them that you'll learn their system, that will help get you in the door,” he says. “When I was getting started I told people, ‘This is not the system I worked on in college, but if you give me the books and let me come in here a couple nights I could figure it out.’”

He says if you pick it up and show you're competent, you'll get the job. And he has one more piece of advice: “I always try to meet people in person. I don't believe in sending out resumes. I get a lot of resumes myself and I'll typically just toss them. I want to see a face,” he says.

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Cody Holt is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Email him at codyholt@kc.rr.com.

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