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SUPER BOWL XXXIV: Super Team at the Super Bowl, NABET-CWA All-Stars Shine
Super Bowl XXXIV. Tie game, 16-16. Rams’ possession. First down at their own 27.
Tommy O’Connell of NABET-CWA Local 16, New York, zooms in on Rams’ quarterback Kurt Warner as he drops back, looking for his receiver. With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Warner fires. O’Connell pushes in and follows the football 73 yards through the air. O’Connell is there as wide receiver Isaac Bruce makes the grab and runs it in for the touchdown.
O’Connell’s shot — and those from nearly 40 other cameras — feeds through miles of cable linking the Georgia Dome with the ABC Sports compound outside. There, Director Craig Janoff, Local 16 Technical Director Joe Schiavo and Producer Kenny Wolfe monitor a wall of video screens.
Janoff sees the shot. He tells Schiavo to punch it up, first to a preview screen then, on command, to a program screen showing what goes on the air.
Senior Video Operator John Monteleone, another Local 16 member, adjusts color and clarity before sending the picture out. Senior Audio Operator Don Scholtes, also of Local 16, adjusts levels so the resounding applause will not distort speakers.
The feed goes to New York, where ABC Television beams it via satellite to affiliates throughout the nation.
Sports TV Veterans
Schiavo, 56, is foreman of this 30-year anniversary crew of the popular ABC Monday Night Football broadcast: more than 80 camera and sound engineers, set-up people and maintenance technicians from the New York local and from elsewhere in the United States, all represented by NABET-CWA. All the football, sideline drama and the pageantry of halftime filter through this crew and into America’s living rooms.
Producer Wolfe insisted that the Monday Night Football crew handle the Super Bowl. Schiavo, who has five Emmys for technical direction, explains why.
“The people who are here are here because you can’t miss the shot,” says Schiavo. “This is not a motion picture, where you’ll take 20 hours to shoot one scene. This is it. Boom, then it’s gone.”
Extremely animated, he continues: “That’s why the game cameramen — Drew DeRosa, Tommy O’Connell and Bill Scott — are here, because they don’t miss plays. And the rolling camera guys and the sideline camera guys — they’re here for one reason only: because they belong here. They earned that spot, to be here.”
O’Connell’s experience is typical of this crew. At age 49, the NABET-CWA 16 shop steward has 24 seasons with Monday Night Football. He also has shot horse racing’s Triple Crown, the World Series seven times, the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Full Coverage
Six cameras the size of cannons shoot the Super Bowl from press box level. Each can go wide to take in the whole field or come in tight to capture the emotion in a player’s face. O’Connell shoots from the right 30-yard line, DeRosa, from the 50, and Scott, from the left 30. Jack Cronin — shooting his last game before retirement — operates one of two reverse-angle cameras from across the field. Paul Martens gets the high, long, end zone shots from press box level.
Equally powerful cameras shoot from down on the field. Kurt Struve, from Los Angeles, and Steve “Yaman” Brangle, from Raleigh, N.C., shoot from the left end zone. Mike Todd of Fort Myers, Fla. and Dave Bushner, from L.A., get the right end zone action. Mobile platform cameras cruise up and down the side of the field, shooting replay action from 20 feet in the air.
Tony Gambino controls remote cameras in the lighting grid; Ed Martino, remotes on the goal posts. Greg Ciccone operates the telestrator, a special camera that allows commentator Boomer Esiason to superimpose “chalk talk” diagrams showing patterns in replays. Numerous hand-held cameras scour the sidelines.
Set-up for the event began three weeks earlier, at the 49ers vs. Falcons game at the Georgia Dome. Then the production truck headed to Washington, D.C. for the playoffs featuring the Redskins and Tampa Bay.
Most of the crew was back in Atlanta two weeks before the big game. Communi-cating with Schiavo and Janoff through portable headsets, they rehearsed every detail — even the timing of fireworks — the day before.
Says Schiavo, “There’s no margin for error here. They want to be perfect all the time, even the maintenance guys. Frank Heyer, Jeff Vinton, Phil Barrecca, George Romansky – this is my crew. These guys have countless hours of on-air television experience.”
As an example, he singled out Local 16’s Phil Mollica. “He counts the hours on the heads of the tape machines, and after a certain number of hours, they’re out,” Schiavo says. “He puts new ones in; he doesn’t wait for them to go down. This year we were probably 99 percent, on-air perfect.”
Schiavo gets butterflies during countdowns to air, but he loves the job. “It’s fun, it’s exciting to do live television, it’s very exciting to shoot Monday Night Football.”
Four, three, two, one . . .
End of halftime with Phil Collins, Toni Braxton and Christina Aguilera. Exploding fireworks have left mist in the air. A camera mounted in the Budweiser blimp shows the Georgia Dome lit up along with all of downtown Atlanta. NABET-CWA graphics operators Rich Deangelis and Steve Corn superimpose logos of Budweiser, Mountain Dew and other products that pop out on TV screens, while a voice-over brings viewers up to date: “The first half, no touchdowns, dominated by the St. Louis Rams. Nine to nothing with this very potent Rams offense, and three field goals accounting for all of the scoring.”
Cut to Al Michaels and Esiason in the commentators’ box. Gambino gets the shot. Then a quick fade to replays.
More voice-over: “Still a 9 to nothing lead, Boomer, as we take a look at the highlights from the first half.”
Deangelis and Corn roll a graphic displaying “1st Half” superimposed over a fiery explosion.
Michaels: “It began with a mishandled snap. (Rams punter) Mike Horan couldn’t put it down . . . They had five field goal attempts, three of them good. The score is 9 to nothing, Boomer, 294 yards for the Rams and only 89 for the Tennessee Titans . . . who are very fortunate it’s only 9 to nothing.”
Esiason, a former All-Pro quarterback, talks about how the Titans should get back to their game plan: “Give the ball to Eddie George.”
The director checks hand-held shots from George Montanez, Jeff Zachary, Mark Lynch. He selects a closeup of Rams sideline commentator Leslie Vissar. “Dick Vermeil said everyone has a plan until they get hit, well they’re killing us. We’ve got to get the ball to the outside receivers, and we’ve got to run up the middle to take advantage of all the blitzing. Vermeil said he told the team: ‘We’re 30 minutes from a championship and we lead 9 to nothing; let’s bring it home.’”
Cut to hand-held shot of Titans sideline commentator Lynn Swann. “I talked to Jeff Fisher . . . (roll closeup of tense Fisher walking the sidelines). He said, ‘offensively, when we come back we’ve got a good game plan, but what we’ve got to do is convert on the third down, and we have to get the ball.’”
Late in the third quarter. Titans begin a comeback. NABET-CWA Camera Operator Bill Scott has the long shot from the left 30. He follows quarterback Steve McNair’s 23-yard run and pushes in as he’s tackled at the Rams’ 2. First-down handoff to Eddie George gets another yard.
Second and goal. Brangle, on low near-side, left end zone camera, picks up teams in huddle. He stays with the shot as Scholtes runs a voice-over commercial
for “NYPD Blue.” As play resumes, Brangle stays with running back George as he slams into the far end zone, putting six points on the board for the Titans.
Hand-held camera operators Diane Cates and Tim Tew, in from North Carolina, capture rapidly changing isolation shots. Viewers see Fisher’s exuberance, Vermeil’s disgust, the crowd on its feet applauding. Referee calls a penalty, McNair’s 2-point conversion pass to tight end Frank Wycheck is incomplete, and the quarter ends. NABET-CWA’sBill Bores and his team spin videotape on 21 machines to give Director Janoff options for replay.
Fourth quarter. 8:31 left in the game. O’Connell’s camera follows McNair as he walks to the line of scrimmage. Director Janoff cuts to Frank Melchiore’s closeup from left mobile platform. Back to the right 30 game camera as McNair fires a screen pass to tight end Jackie Harris, who gets it to the Rams’ 3.
Next play, Eddie George pushes defensive tackle Jeff Zagonina across the goal line to make it 16-13. Parabolic microphones scattered around the field pick up the crowd applauding wildly. It’s even more dramatic in slow motion replay. A mobile platform camera shows George’s knee touching the turf just short of goal. The extra point kick is good. A penalty is assessed on kickoff.
2:12 remaining. Titans’ fourth and 7. DeRosa’s 50-yard line camera follows Titans kicker Al DelGreco as he walks in for a 43-yard field goal attempt. Cut to Paul Martens’ long shot from left end zone, press box level. Martens pushes in for closeup as the ball splits the goal posts, “right down Broadway.” The score is tied 16-all. Isolation shots include teammates slapping DelGreco on the helmet and a low-angle hand-held of ebullient Titans teammates.
Cut to closeup of Rams quarterback Warner, apprehensive as he prepares to come back into the game. Voice-over from Michaels: “This is the situation every kid dreams about. Two minutes (to go) in the Super Bowl, the game is tied, thinking, ‘How can I win the Super Bowl in this situation?’”
Warner answers on first down with his 73-yard shot to Bruce. Closeup on Brenda Warner, Kurt’s wife, hugging another woman as tears of joy stream down her face. Martens captures the extra point kick from left end zone. It’s the Rams, 23-16.
Titans’ final possession. 22 seconds remaining, third and 5 at the Rams’ 27. O’Connell’s right 30 cam follows McNair as he drops back, gets flushed from the pocket and is nearly tackled by defensive ends Jay Williams and Kevin Carter. Saving his balance by placing one hand on the turf, McNair fires to Kevin Dyson. The 17-yard completion takes it to the Rams’ 10. Closeups show an angry Vermeil, Fisher signaling timeout, tense faces of players on both teams.
O’Connell’s shot. Six seconds left to play. McNair passes to Dyson, who cuts in from right and makes the grab. He’s tackled by the Rams’ Mike Jones just one yard short of the touchdown that would have thrown the game into overtime. Slow motion replays show Dyson desperately stretching to put it into the end zone, but the ball is dead — one of the most dramatic finishes in Super Bowl history.
DeRosa captures the explosion of confetti, signaling end of the game.
Stats and Winners
For Warner, it’s MVP and a Super Bowl record 414 yards passing. For McNair, a tough break but an impressive 214 yards passing and 64 yards running.
And for the veteran NABET-CWA crew, it’s a championship caliber performance by another team at the top of its game.
ABC commentator Esiason has this to say at the end of the broadcast: “It is rewarding to work with great professionals who show commitment to our product. While people like me who work in front of the camera get all the notoriety, it is the people behind the camera who are the ultimate offensive line.”
Tommy O’Connell of NABET-CWA Local 16, New York, zooms in on Rams’ quarterback Kurt Warner as he drops back, looking for his receiver. With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Warner fires. O’Connell pushes in and follows the football 73 yards through the air. O’Connell is there as wide receiver Isaac Bruce makes the grab and runs it in for the touchdown.
O’Connell’s shot — and those from nearly 40 other cameras — feeds through miles of cable linking the Georgia Dome with the ABC Sports compound outside. There, Director Craig Janoff, Local 16 Technical Director Joe Schiavo and Producer Kenny Wolfe monitor a wall of video screens.
Janoff sees the shot. He tells Schiavo to punch it up, first to a preview screen then, on command, to a program screen showing what goes on the air.
Senior Video Operator John Monteleone, another Local 16 member, adjusts color and clarity before sending the picture out. Senior Audio Operator Don Scholtes, also of Local 16, adjusts levels so the resounding applause will not distort speakers.
The feed goes to New York, where ABC Television beams it via satellite to affiliates throughout the nation.
Sports TV Veterans
Schiavo, 56, is foreman of this 30-year anniversary crew of the popular ABC Monday Night Football broadcast: more than 80 camera and sound engineers, set-up people and maintenance technicians from the New York local and from elsewhere in the United States, all represented by NABET-CWA. All the football, sideline drama and the pageantry of halftime filter through this crew and into America’s living rooms.
Producer Wolfe insisted that the Monday Night Football crew handle the Super Bowl. Schiavo, who has five Emmys for technical direction, explains why.
“The people who are here are here because you can’t miss the shot,” says Schiavo. “This is not a motion picture, where you’ll take 20 hours to shoot one scene. This is it. Boom, then it’s gone.”
Extremely animated, he continues: “That’s why the game cameramen — Drew DeRosa, Tommy O’Connell and Bill Scott — are here, because they don’t miss plays. And the rolling camera guys and the sideline camera guys — they’re here for one reason only: because they belong here. They earned that spot, to be here.”
O’Connell’s experience is typical of this crew. At age 49, the NABET-CWA 16 shop steward has 24 seasons with Monday Night Football. He also has shot horse racing’s Triple Crown, the World Series seven times, the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Full Coverage
Six cameras the size of cannons shoot the Super Bowl from press box level. Each can go wide to take in the whole field or come in tight to capture the emotion in a player’s face. O’Connell shoots from the right 30-yard line, DeRosa, from the 50, and Scott, from the left 30. Jack Cronin — shooting his last game before retirement — operates one of two reverse-angle cameras from across the field. Paul Martens gets the high, long, end zone shots from press box level.
Equally powerful cameras shoot from down on the field. Kurt Struve, from Los Angeles, and Steve “Yaman” Brangle, from Raleigh, N.C., shoot from the left end zone. Mike Todd of Fort Myers, Fla. and Dave Bushner, from L.A., get the right end zone action. Mobile platform cameras cruise up and down the side of the field, shooting replay action from 20 feet in the air.
Tony Gambino controls remote cameras in the lighting grid; Ed Martino, remotes on the goal posts. Greg Ciccone operates the telestrator, a special camera that allows commentator Boomer Esiason to superimpose “chalk talk” diagrams showing patterns in replays. Numerous hand-held cameras scour the sidelines.
Set-up for the event began three weeks earlier, at the 49ers vs. Falcons game at the Georgia Dome. Then the production truck headed to Washington, D.C. for the playoffs featuring the Redskins and Tampa Bay.
Most of the crew was back in Atlanta two weeks before the big game. Communi-cating with Schiavo and Janoff through portable headsets, they rehearsed every detail — even the timing of fireworks — the day before.
Says Schiavo, “There’s no margin for error here. They want to be perfect all the time, even the maintenance guys. Frank Heyer, Jeff Vinton, Phil Barrecca, George Romansky – this is my crew. These guys have countless hours of on-air television experience.”
As an example, he singled out Local 16’s Phil Mollica. “He counts the hours on the heads of the tape machines, and after a certain number of hours, they’re out,” Schiavo says. “He puts new ones in; he doesn’t wait for them to go down. This year we were probably 99 percent, on-air perfect.”
Schiavo gets butterflies during countdowns to air, but he loves the job. “It’s fun, it’s exciting to do live television, it’s very exciting to shoot Monday Night Football.”
Four, three, two, one . . .
End of halftime with Phil Collins, Toni Braxton and Christina Aguilera. Exploding fireworks have left mist in the air. A camera mounted in the Budweiser blimp shows the Georgia Dome lit up along with all of downtown Atlanta. NABET-CWA graphics operators Rich Deangelis and Steve Corn superimpose logos of Budweiser, Mountain Dew and other products that pop out on TV screens, while a voice-over brings viewers up to date: “The first half, no touchdowns, dominated by the St. Louis Rams. Nine to nothing with this very potent Rams offense, and three field goals accounting for all of the scoring.”
Cut to Al Michaels and Esiason in the commentators’ box. Gambino gets the shot. Then a quick fade to replays.
More voice-over: “Still a 9 to nothing lead, Boomer, as we take a look at the highlights from the first half.”
Deangelis and Corn roll a graphic displaying “1st Half” superimposed over a fiery explosion.
Michaels: “It began with a mishandled snap. (Rams punter) Mike Horan couldn’t put it down . . . They had five field goal attempts, three of them good. The score is 9 to nothing, Boomer, 294 yards for the Rams and only 89 for the Tennessee Titans . . . who are very fortunate it’s only 9 to nothing.”
Esiason, a former All-Pro quarterback, talks about how the Titans should get back to their game plan: “Give the ball to Eddie George.”
The director checks hand-held shots from George Montanez, Jeff Zachary, Mark Lynch. He selects a closeup of Rams sideline commentator Leslie Vissar. “Dick Vermeil said everyone has a plan until they get hit, well they’re killing us. We’ve got to get the ball to the outside receivers, and we’ve got to run up the middle to take advantage of all the blitzing. Vermeil said he told the team: ‘We’re 30 minutes from a championship and we lead 9 to nothing; let’s bring it home.’”
Cut to hand-held shot of Titans sideline commentator Lynn Swann. “I talked to Jeff Fisher . . . (roll closeup of tense Fisher walking the sidelines). He said, ‘offensively, when we come back we’ve got a good game plan, but what we’ve got to do is convert on the third down, and we have to get the ball.’”
Late in the third quarter. Titans begin a comeback. NABET-CWA Camera Operator Bill Scott has the long shot from the left 30. He follows quarterback Steve McNair’s 23-yard run and pushes in as he’s tackled at the Rams’ 2. First-down handoff to Eddie George gets another yard.
Second and goal. Brangle, on low near-side, left end zone camera, picks up teams in huddle. He stays with the shot as Scholtes runs a voice-over commercial
for “NYPD Blue.” As play resumes, Brangle stays with running back George as he slams into the far end zone, putting six points on the board for the Titans.
Hand-held camera operators Diane Cates and Tim Tew, in from North Carolina, capture rapidly changing isolation shots. Viewers see Fisher’s exuberance, Vermeil’s disgust, the crowd on its feet applauding. Referee calls a penalty, McNair’s 2-point conversion pass to tight end Frank Wycheck is incomplete, and the quarter ends. NABET-CWA’sBill Bores and his team spin videotape on 21 machines to give Director Janoff options for replay.
Fourth quarter. 8:31 left in the game. O’Connell’s camera follows McNair as he walks to the line of scrimmage. Director Janoff cuts to Frank Melchiore’s closeup from left mobile platform. Back to the right 30 game camera as McNair fires a screen pass to tight end Jackie Harris, who gets it to the Rams’ 3.
Next play, Eddie George pushes defensive tackle Jeff Zagonina across the goal line to make it 16-13. Parabolic microphones scattered around the field pick up the crowd applauding wildly. It’s even more dramatic in slow motion replay. A mobile platform camera shows George’s knee touching the turf just short of goal. The extra point kick is good. A penalty is assessed on kickoff.
2:12 remaining. Titans’ fourth and 7. DeRosa’s 50-yard line camera follows Titans kicker Al DelGreco as he walks in for a 43-yard field goal attempt. Cut to Paul Martens’ long shot from left end zone, press box level. Martens pushes in for closeup as the ball splits the goal posts, “right down Broadway.” The score is tied 16-all. Isolation shots include teammates slapping DelGreco on the helmet and a low-angle hand-held of ebullient Titans teammates.
Cut to closeup of Rams quarterback Warner, apprehensive as he prepares to come back into the game. Voice-over from Michaels: “This is the situation every kid dreams about. Two minutes (to go) in the Super Bowl, the game is tied, thinking, ‘How can I win the Super Bowl in this situation?’”
Warner answers on first down with his 73-yard shot to Bruce. Closeup on Brenda Warner, Kurt’s wife, hugging another woman as tears of joy stream down her face. Martens captures the extra point kick from left end zone. It’s the Rams, 23-16.
Titans’ final possession. 22 seconds remaining, third and 5 at the Rams’ 27. O’Connell’s right 30 cam follows McNair as he drops back, gets flushed from the pocket and is nearly tackled by defensive ends Jay Williams and Kevin Carter. Saving his balance by placing one hand on the turf, McNair fires to Kevin Dyson. The 17-yard completion takes it to the Rams’ 10. Closeups show an angry Vermeil, Fisher signaling timeout, tense faces of players on both teams.
O’Connell’s shot. Six seconds left to play. McNair passes to Dyson, who cuts in from right and makes the grab. He’s tackled by the Rams’ Mike Jones just one yard short of the touchdown that would have thrown the game into overtime. Slow motion replays show Dyson desperately stretching to put it into the end zone, but the ball is dead — one of the most dramatic finishes in Super Bowl history.
DeRosa captures the explosion of confetti, signaling end of the game.
Stats and Winners
For Warner, it’s MVP and a Super Bowl record 414 yards passing. For McNair, a tough break but an impressive 214 yards passing and 64 yards running.
And for the veteran NABET-CWA crew, it’s a championship caliber performance by another team at the top of its game.
ABC commentator Esiason has this to say at the end of the broadcast: “It is rewarding to work with great professionals who show commitment to our product. While people like me who work in front of the camera get all the notoriety, it is the people behind the camera who are the ultimate offensive line.”