The Crane Pool Forum

Michael Kay and Jomboy controversies this week was a good if unintended prelude to an event Lunchpail & I attended last night at the Museum of the Moving Image.

SNY Mets game director John DeMarsisco (Bill Webb's successor) discussed the intersection of baseball fans and cinephiles, and how he takes inspiration from movies to create shots shown during Mets games.

You may have noticed the broadcasts over the last couple years adding effects like spilt screens, dissolves and wipes, different angles etc. --what a sore Jomboy this week called "avant garde" as though it were an insult. That's all intentional and inspired by film. He showed a short film interspersing Mets game action alongside the movies that inspired the shots--lots of classic Westerns for the way they shoot the batter-pitcher confrontations, but other stuff too like Dorothy opening the door in Oz/Diaz stepping out of the bullpen; a shot of Buck getting mad about hit-by-pitches was a KILL BILL reference there was a complicated 7 picture shot they borrowed from ELVIS etc etc.

good way to spend the offnight before the debate ruined it

Good stuff. There was a cool, new bases-loaded shot this week with the camera locked on the runner on third. After a few beats, it rapidly but steadily swept to the right before suddenly halting to lock on second. A few seconds there and then it swept right to first and locked there. It was a very cinematic sequence that had clearly been set up with the cameras programmed beforehand.

I didn't know there had been a Jomboy controversy.

one of the best things about watching mets games, aside from getting to listen to gary keith and ron, is getting to actually watch the way mets games are shot. they do it better than anyone else i've watched. and certainly a fuck-ton better than any of the national broadcasts.

That's really too bad, as you know that the national broadcasters put a lot of thought and money into the broadcast, and they still come up empty and uncreative.

DeMarcisco spoke highly of the head Fox director fwiw.

He also talked about how this season has been more challenging than others by lacking a "leading man" on the pitching staff (they showed the extendo-cut of deGrom warming up before his injury-return game) and i=you could tell he's disappointed not to have a dominant Diaz and the production that walk-in represents

that's true. fox does a good job of showing baseball. not the best listen, though.

better than whatever the fuck espn thinks we want to hear.

Did anybody ask what happened to the old camera in the mezzanine behind home plate? I'd still rather see that view than the imposed box on shots from a camera in center field.
Later

no. But he talked about the limitations of the center field camera --its the best way to see batter and pitcher at once, but it lacks the ability to impart the speed of the game, which is why he's trying more shots from behind the hitter. He also doesn't like the strike zone box but didn't seem like he had any influence in getting rid of it

Great stuff

I wish they kept the camera behind the catcher for an occasional batter here and there, they used to it regularly long ago

Those long low shots from behind really do give a sense of just how fast the ball is on the batter. The good shots can make you flinch on your living room couch.