Meet Megalodon, the Fox camera that made a splash in this made-for-TV NFL season
The first clue that Fox’s NFL production had stumbled onto something really cool came Sunday morning when the video footage of pregame warmups from FedEx Field in Maryland made its way to Fox’s executive control booth in Los Angeles.
The technical crew working Sunday’s game between the Washington Football Team and the Seattle Seahawks had been experimenting with a new hand-held camera, a Sony a7R IV with a Canon lens owned by technical director Jarrod Ligrani. The crew’s newest toy even had a nickname: “Megalodon.”
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The pregame shots from earlier games had been interesting but not quite ready for a live broadcast. But the footage from Sunday was so crisp — so dynamic and so, well, different — that Mike Davies, Fox’s senior vice president of field operations, sent a message to the crew at the stadium: Megalodon was going live.
“Slap a wireless transmitter on it, let’s see what we get,” Davies said. “And that’s what we got.”
Viewers of that Washington and Seattle game saw what Davies and the rest of the Fox crew did for the first time early in the second quarter, after rookie receiver Freddie Swain appeared to catch a touchdown pass from Russell Wilson (the catch was later ruled incomplete). The camera, operated by Mike Smole, zoomed in tight on Swain’s face as he removed his mouthpiece and raised his arm. The empty seats of FedEx Field blurred behind him and Wilson entered from the left of the screen.
The images were in such intense focus it looked like a video game simulation.
“It gave us this really cool cinematic look,” Davies said.
This camera angle is insane 🤯🤯
📺: #SEAvsWAS on FOX pic.twitter.com/j6PWGjd8JJ
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) December 20, 2020
Even in the era of 4K broadcast cameras and advanced production quality, it was a marked difference from a typical end zone shot. Viewers noticed, and responded, almost immediately.
“Why does this Seahawks Washington game have the best cinematography I’ve ever seen in my life?” tweeted ESPN analyst Mina Kimes. Popular Seahawks fan blogger Josh Cashman tweeted a picture of director Stanley Kubrick: “Fox sideline video people in this Washington game.”
Later Sunday afternoon, someone sent Davies that same black and white photo, only with Smole’s face photoshopped onto Kubrick’s body. It was official: The Megalodon experiment was a hit.
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“It always looks pretty good, but today I think we had it really dialed in,” Davies said. “What was different about today was being able to use it seamlessly in a live game.”
With only a fraction of the number of fans able to attend live games this year because of COVID-19 restrictions, the NFL games have become even more of a made-for-TV event. Networks have experimented with audio tracks and visual elements to make up for empty stadiums with added crowd noise and extra graphics. Early in the season, it seemed like the networks were trying hard to avoid shots of empty stadiums; lately, there have been more sweeping overhead shots.
Each of the broadcast networks has had to abide by COVID-19 restrictions that have limited the number of camera operators allowed on the sidelines and the area they’re allowed to roam and reduced the number of people allowed in the on-site production trucks.
Creativity and ingenuity have been at a premium, and at Fox, that’s how Megalodon ended up in an NFL end zone.
About that nickname: Years ago, Davies started referring to any new “crazy” camera by the nickname “Megalodon,” a popular word around his house when his young son was crazy about the prehistoric shark. So this Megalodon isn’t the first Megalodon. But if the reaction to its performance on Sunday is any indication, it could be the last.
The awesome on-field shots on FOX’s broadcast of #Seahawks–#WashingtonFootball Team are courtesy of this contraption the crew nicknames “The Megalodon.” Here it is. And here’s Mike Smole, who is operating it today. He calls it a “poor man’s Steadicam.” We should all be so poor. pic.twitter.com/RWuYjeaBCe
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) December 20, 2020
The process started with Ligrani, a technical director who works on Fox’s remote NFL broadcasts whom Davies described as a “technophile” and comes to work armed with his own personal equipment for the crew to play with. This season, that’s included the Sony a7R, a hand-held DSLR-like camera (digital single-lens reflex camera) that retails for about $3,000, without a lens. It was outfitted with a Canon lens and mounted so Smole could hold it steady as he shot pregame footage.
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The full setup cost under $10,000. Comparted to bulky broadcast cameras, which can run up to $200,000, it was a bargain — but it wasn’t built for live television.
Said Davies: “We had to Frankenstein it.”
The Megalodon needed a wireless transmitter to send the images back to the production truck immediately, just like the cabled broadcast cameras could do. With the green light to try it during Sunday’s game, the on-site crew, from Smole on the field to director Bryan Lilley and Ligrani in the truck, began integrating the Megalodon footage into the live broadcast.
As the game progressed, the camera took viewers inside a Carlos Hyde touchdown celebration and followed Washington running back J.D. McKissic through a celebration with his teammates, among other scenic shots transmitted almost in real time.
“We have a job to do in terms of covering games, but we like to spend time seeing what will work out in the field. This is part of the innovation,” Davies said. “It doesn’t normally catch fire like this.”
Davies has already approved Megalodon for live action next week when Ligrani and that production crew travel to Dallas for the Cowboys game against the Eagles. And Davies said we could expect to see it in the postseason. Fox might try the same camera technology in other sports, potentially for Major League Baseball games in spring.
Davies said he received inquiries Sunday afternoon from colleagues at other networks, wondering how Fox got those shots.
“This can live in the family of the other 10-11 cameras we have,” Davies said. “This was an added camera for this crew, now we might have trouble prying it away from them.”
(Photo of Freddie Swain: Randy Litzinger / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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