PHILADELPHIA—As senior producer for the Philadelphia Eagles, our team is responsible for everything from game footage to features to high-production value content. The Eagles have a great history of storytelling and in 2014, we began looking for cameras that could streamline what we were doing and bring that storytelling to modern cinematic life. Our work is heavily “run-and-gun” and we needed a way to be more efficient.

At the time, it was hard to match footage as we were using different cameras from a variety of brands. Luckily, with our facility being located near NFL Films in New Jersey, we were able to easily stay in the loop about new technology. This is how we discovered ARRI.

OUR ARRI ROSTER

At the time, NFL Films was moving a lot of their infrastructure over to ARRI’s AMIRAs. With our content being aligned with theirs, we knew this camera would work for us as well. We purchased three AMIRAs based on customizable switches on the side, the intuitive menu and the overall look of the ARRI footage. Other cameras tend to be too menu-oriented, which makes them difficult to use during a high-paced game. These features allow us to quickly capture more slow-motion and other stylistic footage. Also, by switching to the same platform as NFL Films, we could use their footage interchangeably with ours, knowing it would match.

My favorite feature often flies under the radar—an interchangeable native lens mount on the AMIRA and ALEXA Mini. We have a large inventory of lenses in PL, B4 and EF mounts that we’ve gathered over the years. The ARRI mount system lets us utilize all of these lenses on any given shoot, with only a minute needed to swap out camera mounts.

As a department responsible for producing multiple forms of content, we need to utilize the cameras in a variety of ways. For example, our game day content is the most prominent and arguably the most important that we produce. We use all of our ARRI cameras on game day in more of a post-production capacity.

Our ALEXA Mini shoots at a high-50 (referring to the 50-yard line) angle, which covers whichever player we have wired for sound. One of our AMIRAs shoots high framerate game action as an alternative to the typical broadcast style. We use our other two AMIRAs on the ground, splitting them up as multipurpose cameras capturing stylistic game action, fan and atmosphere shots.

Outside of game day, our ARRls are our main camera for short stories or features, whether it’s local or on the road, sit-down interviews and shoulder-based handheld work with players. This allows us to use our best cameras in as many situations as possible in order to produce and maintain overall high production value.

MASTER CONTROL AT OUR FINGERS

ARRI Master Grips also help us get the most out of our cameras. These hand grips allow us to assign and control complex camera and lens features with fingertip control. In the field, if we are shoulder-mounted, it gives us so much flexibility in the moment when you’re trying to dial in multiple settings to get the shot. In our world, we do not get a lot of second chances to shoot a moment. Instead of turning the camera on its side and trying to figure out what’s what, you’ve just got it all at your fingertips.

As a content team, we strive to create the best content—simple as that. Viewers sometimes may not notice the cinematic quality we aim for, but they do recognize and appreciate when it has the same look and feel as movies or big brand commercials. The ARRls allow us to achieve that goal, while also helping us operate efficiently day in and day out.

Nick Rotondi is a senior producer with the Philadelphia Eagles. He can be contacted at NRotondi@Eagles.nfl.com.

For additional information, visit www.arri.com.

LOS ANGELES—After working with music concert and festival company Goldenvoice and the Coachella organizers for years, we wanted to do something special for this year’s Coachella music festival in Palm Springs, Calif. I’ve always felt that the way traditional broadcasters capture and live stream music festivals is flat—they use the same camera and equipment to capture a music festival as they would a baseball or football game. But music needs more artistic elements as well as more style and more of a cinematic feel.

That’s what led me to propose a new approach to Coachella this year: Take over one of the stages, shoot it with cinema cameras, lenses and DPs, and livestream to YouTube. Our goal was to improve the look, feel and style of the live stream and give the audience a stream that’s more representative of live music.

Goldenvoice allowed me to take over the outdoor stage and work with the Springboard broadcast company to give the show a whole new feeling. We wanted to improve the artistic expression and feel of the shots, to bring back that cinematic element to the live cast. To achieve this, one of the most dramatic changes we made was to replace traditional broadcast cameras with true cinema cameras from ARRI.

BROADCASTING CINEMA QUALITY

For me, the ARRI look is more representative of film and the great concert films of the past that were captured on film, including the dynamic range, highlight control and the deep blacks. We used a combination of the ARRI AMIRAs and the ALEXA Mini in a multicamera format.

We used the ALEXA Mini on a Technocrane and the AMIRAs for our fixed camera positions as well as with our handheld camera operators. For the handhelds, we incorporated wireless video to transmit the signal, allowing the camera operators to be mobile and not tethered to a cable.

The AMIRAs operated in multicam mode. With a DTS fiber chain, we converted the SDI signals to fiber, brought them back into the broadcast truck and streamed to YouTube live, a remarkable achievement. Even though we were shooting in a film style with DPs, cinema lenses and ARRIs, we were able to incorporate it back into the same traditional broadcast fiber system. So, the AMIRAs with the DTS System worked flawlessly.

It was a real game‐changer and an eye‐opener for the broadcast crew who have never seen anything like this. Because the technology now exists, we can keep moving forward with this live cinema approach.

NIGHT AND DAY

The change of look was definitely noticed by everyone, including spectators. Our stage definitely garnered the most positive reviews and comments. If you looked at the broadcast feed side by side with our feed with the ARRI cameras, it was night and day. It just looked beautiful, especially in daytime exteriors with high contrast situations. I held the highlights and also held the bottom end and the shadow detail with the increased dynamic range.

It just crushed the broadcast cameras so even to the untrained eye it just looked better. To the trained eye, it was a remarkable difference—it looked like you were watching a movie or a Drake concert film or music video live.

It was so remarkable that we were asked to do this again with the ARRI cameras next year on the two biggest stages at Coachella. I’m really looking forward to upping the game for live music broadcast with the ARRI Multicam System.

Kenny Stoff is a director and DP with nearly 20 years of experience shooting live music, concerts, documentaries and more. Based on his experience and feedback at Coachella, Kenny has started a new high‐end multi‐cam production company, wide+close. Contact Kenny Stoff atkennystoff.com.

For more information, please visitarri.com.