aakar
Nitro Member
- Joined
- May 3, 2020
- Messages
- 395
- Age
- 68
- Location
- frankfort il
Would be interested to hear Alan's take on this alsoAs a 20+ year veteran Commentator and host, I can talk with some authority on why the announcers talk right up until the green:
1. They are setting the scene for non die-hards. Remember, although you are watching you are not necessarily the target audience. The music... well I can take it or leave it BUT I will say that silence is always your enemy in broadcasting. Cars idling up to the start line doesn't count as "action" unfortunately.
2. A usual request from directors these days is to "re-set" ; i.e. give the editors a clean edit point to snip either a social clip, a news story or if there is a post show produced show made from the live commentary. The simplest way to do this is to re-set as the cars are staging , for example " championship Doug Kalitta in the left lane, with the rookie Tony Stewart in the right". The re-set is before that sentence and allows them to utilize the clip with the commentary with the shortest lead in - key for social media and news clips.
3. Directors are almost certainly in the announcers ears as they are talking on mic, feeding them info can include anything from the graphics that are on screen and to cover it, to what will happen post run (from a broadcast perspective) such as a Commercial break, Top End Interview, Start line interview, pre-recorded package or anything in between. If you have to stop talking to listen to instructions, from a broadcast perspective, then you are dead in the water as a professional host.
4. Hindsight is always a really handy tool when announcing; but you never have it when you need it.
Brian Lohnes is a FANTASTIC host. he has the voice, the knowledge and the charisma to bring it all together. TP has definitely improved since he began. Unfortunately there is no substitute for experience in this area. you have to make the mistakes to learn what NOT to do.
Rusty