WMRT - Innovating and pushing the boundaries of TV production

7:53 PM Tue 6 Apr 2010 GMT

'Sam Usher from Red Handed Television at the skippers briefing. Monsoon Cup 2009. Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.' Monsoon Cup &copy Click Here to view large photo

How should the sport of sailing be broadcast on TV or the internet? Who better to talk to than Sam Usher, MD at Redhanded TV, that has been innovating and pushing the the boundaries of TV production since 2005 at the Monsoon Cup and now of the entire World Match Racing Tour.

Television commentator Andy Green. Monsoon Cup 2009. Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. - Monsoon Cup &copy Click Here to view large photo

What was wrong and how it changed since the 2005 Monsoon Cup?
The Monsoon Cup has been one of Patrick Lim's creations who brought his immense knowledge of sports such as Formula 1 and sailing. Then forging a relationship with Peter Gilmour being one of the world's best match racers and a sailor for all his life, always believed that television never matched up to the quality of the sailing. They felt that what was produced up to then failed to portray the sport of sailing as exciting. As a result, from the very onset, the idea was to make the most professional, exciting, exhilarating and interesting TV production and whatever it was necessary to do to accomplish he would make it happen.

For five years now, Usher and his team have been producing innovative coverage of the Monsoon Cup, streaming live since 2005 and starting this year they will be in charge of TV production for the entire ISAF World Match Racing Championship and it is great to be working with the entire WMRT team and their events.

Telling the story

According to Usher, in 2010 they will be looking at sailing as a 'TV Reality Series'. If you take Big Brother for example where you have 20 cameras that film 20 people 24 hours a day in order to produce a half-hour show, it's very much about taking the correct decision which stories to tell. To that end, Mark Chisnell will join the production group as Editorial Director with the role of finding new ways of telling stories, to look more at the people than it has been done up to now. The focus this year will be to tell the stories of the people, of the competitors in a more compelling way so that the actual racing has more effect and more impact. They will try to give more highlights to specific parts of the racing than just filming racing while talking over it. That's one key part of their strategy, to develop the intrigue just like in Formula 1 between Button and Hamilton with Schumacher coming back or between Alonso and Massa and the battle in Ferrari. The buildup about these characters made the actual race dull in comparison.

At the end of the day, match racing is a one-on-one battle, a gladiatorial-type of encounter between two sailors, two teams and the philosophy is to tell the story of the characters beyond narrating the simple story of the race.

For the rest of this story including video click here

by ValenciaSailing

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