For last night's Michigan-Ohio State men's basketball game, ESPN "decided to use an extremely strange camera angle," according to Alysha Tsuji of USA TODAY. Rather than the usual wider shot of the court, it was "more zoomed in" and the cameras were "closer to the court." It was "sort of like the view you'd have if you were sitting courtside." During highlights and free throws, the angles changed around, so there were "other cameras aside from the ones on the floor." At various times throughout the broadcast ESPN commentators Bob Wischusen and Dan Dakich "attempted to explain the reasons for this angle (to show the harder cuts and the speed for this rivalry game, they said)." Within the last couple minutes of the game, Wischusen said on air that "this was something ESPN wanted to try out for this game, and that it is not something they'll be doing for other contests" (USATODAY.com, 2/16).
SEEING IS BELIEVING: ESPN said that it "would evaluate feedback before bringing back the 'floor seat' shots." ESPN College Sports Manager Rachel Siegal in an email wrote, "ESPN was built on trying new things and taking risks, and tonight is just another example of that." ESPN last week announced that it "would be using the 'floor seat' view for the game." But in Detroit, Tony Paul writes that news "apparently didn't get out -- because once fans tuned into the game Twitter lost its collective mind" (DETROIT NEWS, 2/17). YAHOO SPORTS' Jeff Eisenberg noted the floor seats camera view "might have been a success if ESPN had used it sparingly, but it detracted from the game the way it was deployed." Viewers "want to watch the game without repeatedly losing sight of the ball on the far side of the floor behind another player or one of the referees" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 2/16). In DC, Des Bieler added what viewers also "got was a close-up look at the backsides of players and referees close to the cameras, often combined with a very poor look at whatever was happening near the baskets, which is usually, you know, important" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 2/16).
