For my video story in WSU COM 561, I decided to focus again on my fascination with the Oakland A’s and their stadium mess.
As a baseball podcaster based in the San Francisco Bay Area, I often get asked why are the Oakland Athletics stuck playing in an awful stadium when the city of San Jose is willing to have them move to their city and build them a stadium.
I decided to use this video as a method to explain it the best that I can.
My idea was to explain it piece by piece speaking into the camera, but where I am standing physically will be in the various places that are relevant to the story.
The illusion would be it is one continuous explanation with me physically hopping from place to place but never breaking the narrative.
The result was me running all around the Bay Area with the various backdrops.
I wrote out the script and then split the text into different locations. Some sentences would be said in Oakland, others in San Jose, others in Fremont, still more in Santa Clara, a few in front of Cisco headquarters and more in San Francisco.
The San Francisco segment needs to be reshot as the sound simply did not work. In its place, I put in a placeholder of the sound.
I also designed a few illustrations in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photo Shop, but they are not complete yet. Temporary place holders are in this draft.
I played with titles and graphics to help keep where I was physically in the Bay Area clear. I also experimented with various transitions to try and keep a seamless feel to the piece.
The image of the 1958 San Francisco Giants and of the 1989 World Series are owned by The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The image of the San Francisco Stadium proposal is owned by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The image of the Golden Gate Bridge is owned by SFGate.com.
The maps were screengrabs of GoogleMaps.
The photo of the split hat and of AT&T Park were taken by me.
I know for the final draft, I need to include the Photoshop and Illustrator images of the territorial split and the spots where the A’s tried to move that will help the overall flow of the video.
Below is a JPG of my Storyboard.
Sully Baseball 
Thanks for all of your comments. I am making many changes as there are some things I ran out of time to do.
First I am going to design a map where I show HOW the regions were carved up. The Giants having the Peninsula and the A’s taking control of the East Bay and South Bay. A second map will show the South Bay under Giants control as that is the crux of the entire controversy.
I am also going to record myself in front of Candlestick Park, or what is left of it, to make the sound more consistent… you know the sound of me screaming over traffic and wind
Also it fits with the motif of be being in front of all the locales.
That would reduce the need of some of the filler pictures that are essentially placeholders. The maps are by Microsoft Maps. The picture of AT&T Park was taken by me.
I realize the camera is kind of shaky. Perhaps I can put a filter on the video to stabilize it.
I need to cut out about 40 seconds to get it under 3 minutes. I will probably cut out Levi Stadium as the cut doesn’t quite work for me.
Some of the other moments can be trimmed back.
I like everything about your video. If I were to make a suggestion, I would say to find a way to steady that camera. You need image stabilization. When you move your head for emphasis (as you normally would in conversation) the camera goes with you. A little shake is fine, but this might be too unsteady.
To fix this, you might be able to get some time of makeshift stand (even a music stand would work and is easier to borrow than a tripod) or have someone else hold the camera and if you are still going for that “selfie” feel, pretend to be holding it too while someone else is really holding it.
One of the shots seemed to have a little more sun than the others, but overall a great video full of enthusiasm. I can’t wait to see the final project.
This is a really cool topic and a perfect concept for a video. It’s obvious that you’re very knowledgeable about baseball and experienced in podcasting. You really showcase the potential of video by showing different locations – something you can only do in 3 minutes by video. I’ve never been to the area and I imagine that if I read a news report or something similar about this situation it wouldn’t resonate nearly as well. The shot planning and panning on Cisco was especially effective. Obviously well planned.
Your delivery is great and enthusiastic and you inflect like a news reporter. Excellent consistency in your live delivery. I did notice that at 1:40 and 2:15 it sounds like you switch from a live take to a voice over. Not a huge deal but it’s just a little bit disruptive. If you could conjure up the live enthusiasm in the studio it would flow a little better, at least to my ear.
I would also second your own recommendation in your post to include a map of the territorial split to show where these things are in space.
Lastly, and maybe it’s beyond the scope of this project, but…what’s the solution? Where would you put them??
Great work!
Hey Sully! I really loved your video project! You are so at ease and have such a nicely developing story, that even me (that I hate sports podcasts and blogs) was intrigued to see more of your blog! You sound like a real reporter (yes, I know you are!) and you give your audience a fast-pace story to follow, without making people feeling bored! Really amazing! I also loved your storyboard (I wish I could do something like this in my project – my hand skills though are not that talented I suppose). I don’t find much of what to propose for your video. But for the sake of this training phase, perhaps I could say that if someone else and not you took the shots, they would look more professional and more stable. Another thing that I would propose is to have animated marks on the map you use to explain about the two teams’ territorial rights. Anyway, you look great in your video and I hope my comments are helpful to lift it off to perfect! Best of luck!
Hi Paul,
Really interesting video! You used great storytelling technique. I’m not particularly interested in baseball (I really dislike it, actually) but you managed to keep me interested. GREAT job. I also like that you shot on multiple different locations. You really took us around the block!
To my mind, the greatest weakness of the video is the shaking selfie-style that it was shot in. Maybe you could use some more images of the stadium or the content and just put your audio over it, to minimize the number of shots you use of yourself. I understand that the point is that you’re “on location”, which is really cool, so I can understand why you would be reluctant to part with those clips. I think you do a couple shots in front of the current stadium. Maybe that could be one of the ones you take out?
Maybe you could also more explicitly tie back your “teaser” intro (how the owner thought he was being clever but really screwed up) with the signing away of the rights to the Giants. I didn’t make that connection until the second time I watched.
Anyway, great job! Really looking forward to the final product.