Highlights

Highlights

The LT11-produced highlight reel from last weekend’s SCS Nationals has provoked good discussion here and on other outlets that I think is worth addressing. On a certain level I agree with a lot of the critiques offered where people feel that they aren’t getting a good sense for what actually happened at the comp.
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However, when you watch a show like SportsCenter they don’t show the entire 4th quarter or all of the 9th inning when they are highlighting what happened in a sporting event. They show the exciting moments that defined the event. That’s why they’re called highlights.

The crux of the issue though is how to best represent climbing in a condensed format that still makes sense. Climbing is not like other sports. With some exceptions there are no home runs. Showing brief snippets of each climber makes it hard to get a sense for what happened, but showing entire attempts, especially in a lead comp, is pushing the envelope for what most people would sit through. I do think there is a middle ground though, even within the confines of a tightly edited highlight package.
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Showing an extended run on the climb by even one climber from each sex would go a long way, but even this creates a problem with how to keep the pace of a clip from dragging.

Perhaps this situation is one of the better arguments for why a live feed of the comps is so important. Live broadcasts give people the choice to sit and watch as much or as little of the event as they want as it happens. Then, after the fact, the highlight reel can be just that: a highlight reel. The problem with there being no broadcast is that climbing fans—people who are really interested in seeing each and every move—are not being well served at all. They see none of the action as it happens, and the highlight reels can really only offer just that: brief snippets of the action.
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Fortunately, the internet is a big place and the fact that there was a well-produced LT11 highlight package didn’t preclude rival film crews from posting footage from the comp. Just check out this video Carlo Traversi took of Sasha DiGiulian cruising her way to victory. It’s probably asking too much, but having a highlight reel and long form clips like this for every climber would be pretty sweet…

Sasha DiGiulian Winning 2012 SCS Nationals

Posted In: SCS Nationals

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17 Responses to Highlights

  1. dc April 11, 2012 at 1:02 pm #

    I’ve had this issue with almost all LT11 productions.

    Great production, but I’m not a fan of their editing. They just love using jump cuts for style (and so they can edit cuts to the soundtrack), and I guess it’s ok in highlight reels, but when you’re showing a bouldering video (like their Ben Spannuth video, or any other video of somebody’s ascents at a certain area), it’s annoying. It’s so hard to get an idea of the moves, the effort, the power, strength, and style of a climber when the video is cut like that. I mean they’re showing the climber climb 90% of the route anyway, why not show the whole damn thing?

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  2. Dan April 11, 2012 at 2:37 pm #

    Narc, I have a disagree with you a bit on the SportsCenter analogy. For the most part, sports are broken down into a serious of plays. Therefore its very easy for the viewer to put a home run or hail mary pass into perspective. Now maybe if the route was the exact same for every comp, the viewer would have enough perspective to know what is going on. However, routes obviously vary and I view one climb as equal to an entire “play” from a sporting event, not each move being its own “play”. Imagine if the only highlights on SportsCenter were the second the wide receiver stepped into the end zone or the ball flew over the fence, the viewer likely would want to know what happened up to that point to put the play in perspective.

    In my opinion that missing level of perspective is what we need in a sport climbing video. LT11 does a great job highlighting bouldering comps, it just seems they need to employ some different editing techniques when the type of comp changes.

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  3. Sid April 11, 2012 at 3:13 pm #

    I think what LT11 tried to do with with this video, albeit in a shorter, more abrupt fashion is what I’ve seen done with other highlight reels of rope comps. Show the last seeded climber to their high point, then cut. Backtrack a few moves and that’s where the next climber starts from to their high point. Sometimes when many climbers had a similar high point, a few falls are shown in succession which is also kind of cool.

    This technique seems to work fairly well for rope competitions and gives you a pretty good idea of what the route is like.

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    • texasclimber April 12, 2012 at 8:17 am #

      I agree

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  4. sweatpants April 11, 2012 at 3:29 pm #

    I thought it was a great highlight video! The look and the ‘shots’ were very smooth and well done and disagree with people that felt lost. I felt like I had a great grasp on what happened in the comp by watching this video. I’m a person that watches Sportcenter and ESPN a lot, daily, and perhaps I’m better equipped to process things via Narc’s assessment on highlight videos. Bravo to the LT11 guys on this, I thought it was really well done!

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  5. Chum April 11, 2012 at 4:13 pm #

    Aside from perhaps a few too many quick cuts introducing the competitors this was excellent comp coverage.

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  6. ktmt April 11, 2012 at 6:33 pm #

    I’m with the Narc. I’d really like to see long clips of the entire climb. And of course, a live feed. Short highlights just leave me wanting more.

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  7. Carlo Traversi April 11, 2012 at 8:05 pm #

    Great highlight reel and a step in the right direction, but I still had a hard time watching the whole thing. It felt like the progressing story line was abandoned the moment the climbing footage started playing. The cuts were way too quick and lacked purpose, and the zip line camera shots were relied upon far too heavily. Being slapped in the face by action packed climbing shot after climbing shot has been tried for years and still has yet to capture an emotional investment more than the typical shallow level of psych. The stories exist, and they are not being told.

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  8. Tyler April 12, 2012 at 2:28 am #

    I think we should all just take a moment to acknowledge the most incredible part about this video: The fact that Sasha has not only won three consecutive scs nationals, but hasn’t even FALLEN in three consecutive scs nationals. That statistic is absurd.

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    • Narc April 12, 2012 at 6:47 am #

      That’s almost a topic for a separate post, but it is a pretty incredible stat. It’s not surprising though I guess if the route was “only” .13a since, you know, she’s onsighted 5.14a! Crazy.

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  9. climb2core April 12, 2012 at 7:55 am #

    I actually thought I misheard when the route setter said the grade was set at 13a. Seems kind of soft considering the field. Shouldn’t the routes get progressively harder and top out somewhere near where the top of the field is climbing? Seems like it should have gone closer to hard 13 or even 14a to the chains…

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    • coach April 12, 2012 at 9:24 am #

      Given the level of the rest of the field, I think the setters hit the mark with the grade for the female finals. While Sasha obviously has the ability to onsight much harder routes, the remainder of the field would have struggled on a route in the .13c/d range (or harder). Having many of the competitors fall lower on the route with only one or two making it near the top wouldn’t put on the best show for a finals round.

      I’m a little skeptical of the .14b grade on the mens route, but again it is hard to get a feel for the full difficulty of the route with such short clips of competitors and sections of the climbs.

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  10. dand April 12, 2012 at 9:31 am #

    they’ve got all those cameras flying around on cables, which must be distracting, they should release full videos of attempts like they do for the lead world cup events, on youtube or whatever and then do the highlights seperately. That itself didn give a clear impression of the results , it left me thinking woods came second when he actually came 3rd (right?). Good otherwise though.

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  11. Noidea April 12, 2012 at 4:12 pm #

    HAHAHA climb2core….

    you have no idea what you are talking about 🙂 14a? really? hahaha

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    • climb2core April 13, 2012 at 10:59 am #

      Perhaps you are right. Perhaps American women in sport climbing are not as far as long as I had thought. I just assumed that most would be on-sighting 13a pretty consistently. Considering that people like Lynn Hill and Katie Brown have been on-sighting harder than that years ago.

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  12. grubber April 13, 2012 at 2:31 am #

    first off, I liked the video and the way it was intended: as a highlight reel..
    secondly, I would like to see at least one full climb (preferably by the winner, to get the most moves), but I want to stress that we are in no way entitled to that. LT11 doesn’t NEED to do anything.
    ideally, I would like to see a highlight reel, backed up by the possibility of seeing each climber’s attempts separately. maybe the juror’s feed could be used for that, especially after the protest-window has closed.

    cheers!

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  13. Boyd April 17, 2012 at 1:57 pm #

    just another sub-par LT11 climbing video. i appreciate that these guys are trying to capture what is happening in the climbing world, but i’d rather see half the amount of videos done well then a new video every week that is hard to watch.

    the ‘behind the scenes’ video (done by their intern) was better than this highlight reel. it also raised more questions – if you had multiple cameras filming and a big team working on this, why is the quality so bad? why are you saying in the behind the scenes video that it is ‘easy’ to shoot a comp when you apparently can’t do it well?

    is no one else thinking this?

    comments above are correct – there is a story here, look at the Sasha story! important stuff like that should be the focus (let alone clear shots, good camera angles, and cutting out the boring interviews). LT11 may be on the right track, but they have a long way to go… and I think i’ll be tuning them out before they get there.

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