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Phantom Debut

Chelsea Baker is a 13-year-old girl whose knuckleball baffles the boys of Plant City, Fla.


Producer Ben Houser wanted to tell her story – of crossing baseball’s gender line with a signature pitch she learned from the late Joe Niekro – in a special way.

“How do you represent the knuckleball visually?” Houser asked himself. “I wanted to see it coming off her fingers.”

He decided to throw the high-tech version of a knuckleball – the Phantom HD Gold Model camera– at E:60 viewers, for the first time.

The Phantom shoots in extremely slow motion – 1000 frames per second as compared to the normal 30-40. It also shoots in a 1080p resolution, which is presently the highest HD TV video format available.

Because of its speed and resolution the Phantom requires “a ton of light”. It also requires more planning than usual.

“You can’t do it on the fly – it has to be directed like a movie,” Houser said.

Shooters Joel and Jesse Edwards and Bill Roach helped Houser conceive several Phantom shots that tell the story in gorgeous slow-motion metaphor.

One is of a fluttering butterfly – captured for the crew by Baker’s brother.

“I put it in front of the lens and let it go – we shot it for maybe 1 ½ seconds before it flew off,” said Jesse Edwards.

The Phantom turned it into six seconds of air time.

The crew purchased glass panes and had Chelsea throw baseballs through them. Shards of glass explode before the viewers’ eyes.

“We put Plexiglas in front of the Phantom so as not to damage it,” Houser said. “That’s a $300,000 camera we rented for a day.”



Posted by Steve Marantz, July 20, 2010

A League of HER own

Chelsea Baker

E:60 Blog Entry

Monday, July 12^th

A League of HER own

Chelsea Baker is a thirteen year old female little league pitcher. She’s as dominant as any little league pitcher in the country.

In the last four years Chelsea has NOT LOST an official sanctioned little league game.

Zero.

Undefeated.

Perfect.

Oh yeah, and she pitched TWO perfect games in the last two years, one of them was in an all-star game…all against BOYS.

Can you remember when you played little league and there was that one pitcher that threw harder than everyone? You grabbed a batting helmet, walked to the batter’s box and saw the hype in your area. I remember the first time I faced Corey Meyers. He was the best little league pitcher in my area along with former Villanova pitcher Casey Geib. I vividly recall not seeing the pitch, but hearing the sizzle of the ball go by. I trembled, stood there waiting for the next pitch. I shook, took strike two, strike three. I sat down and dreaded going back up to face Meyers. Call me a wimp, but I was more afraid of getting hit than swinging the bat and hitting the ball. Luckily, I was on Geib’s team, Harmony and Sons. I don’t really remember facing him, but if I did, I guarantee I struck out.

(If you are wondering the scouting report on my little league career it wasn’t stellar. I made one year of all-stars as a replacement player. You might as well call me a little league scab. I hit a few home runs that year, and probably broke the record for most errors at third base.)

The point of my story is that Chelsea Baker is that pitcher, except she is in a league far better than my little league in Palmyra, Pennsylvania. She is playing against boys that look like full grown men in Plant City, Florida, a state where baseball players seem to be born and bred.

Chelsea’s story is unique in that she is a girl completely superior to her boy counterparts in little league baseball. She isn’t just a good player; she dominates…and throws a knuckleball!

Our E:60 cameras filmed Chelsea for four days in June, and I personally witnessed her pitch against 16 batters. She walked one. Three players grounded out, (one into a double play), and she struck out twelve boys. As I sat in the stands an opponent’s mother explained the situation, “they were all intimidated before they ever got in the batter’s box.” It was seriously like watching a late 1980s Mike Tyson fight. One young spectator had built her up, saying to our E:60 cameras, “She throws a 65 mile per hour knuckle ball.” He was close…she throws her knuckle in the low fifties, but her knuckle ball is legit. We also filmed in Hinsdale, Massachusetts at former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette’s Sports Academy.  I witnessed the best knuckleball I have ever seen live in my life. She struck a boy out after throwing two fastballs right past him and completed the K with a knuckle curve that would buckle the knees on any hitter.

Duquette told me after watching her pitch, “Chelsea has a good delivery, and I saw that she throws down hill. I also say that she has good life on her fast ball and she’s a good competitor.”

The story has its parallels with a successful movie from 1992. A League of Their Own starring Tom Hanks, Madonna and Geena Davis among others. It was a movie about the all American girls professional baseball league in the 1940s. Geena Davis played the best player on the team, her fictional character’s name was Dottie Hinson. My initial thought for a narrator was Hanks…two-time Oscar winner.  I thought about it, even made a call to Hanks agent, but after further review, it was obvious who the perfect fit was for voicing this E:60 story…Geena Davis.  She is classy, successful and has the perfect female voice to narrate Chelsea’s tale.

Today, Geena recorded her voice in a production facility in California and narrated Chelsea’s story. The story should be a special one because of Geena’s involvement and we are all grateful to have her be a part of the E:60 summer premiere.

Geena arrived at the production facility in California around 4:30 eastern today. She was cordial and voiced our story as a true professional. We sent her the script in the morning for her to review prior to the tracking session. She read the script with eloquence.  I directed her by speakerphone and she was very receptive. She respected me in her style and approach. It didn’t take long for Geena to get the voice down for our story and after just a few minutes, she nailed it.

Obviously, actors and actresses are very talented, and Geena was similar to another actor I directed years ago, the star of 24 Kiefer Sutherland. Our ESPN Super Bowl coverage needed a voice to open the show and Kiefer, who was a complete class act, voiced our open. He read it dramatic, slow, fast and punchy. He gave us options. Kiefer liked to read the script three times through, then get feedback from myself and a production assistant who produced the tease, Mike Hughes.

After our voice over session, Geena and I spoke for a few minutes. She told me that she is completely impressed with Chelsea and “couldn’t believe a young girl could throw a knuckleball.”

Chelsea Baker’s story is compelling. I am glad Rod and Missy Mason and the entire family chose E:60 to tell her journey.  The story airs July 20^th in the E:60 summer season premiere and includes some unreal super slow motion shots. Check it out.

Ben Houser is a Senior Producer for ESPN’s E:60.

Combine Demolition Derby

          The Combine Demolition Derby pits giant farm machines against one another in an eerie spectacle suggestive of a sci-fi ‘alien invasion’.

          Producer Al Kahwaty was at the rural town of Lind, Washington – population 500 – to shoot the annual June event that began in 1988.   His challenge, in 2 ½ days on site, was to capture the derby, and its context.

          Lind makes a busy weekend out of it, with a car demo derby, truck races, soapbox races, parades, and a barbecue.  The derby itself draws a crowd of 5,000 to the Lind Arena. 

          “It’s all in good fun,” Kahwaty said.  “But economically times have been tough in Lind.  The town depends on the derby – it donates money back to the community.

          “I wanted to get a feel for the people in town and the event.”

          Interviews with the mayor, the head of the Lion’s Club, and a married couple who met at a past derby helped establish the scene.

Meanwhile, Kahwaty attached himself to “Team Jaws”, the combine crew of Matt Miller and Josh Knodel, seven-time winners of the event.

          In a specialty shoot inside the garage at Knodel’s farm, Kahwaty backlit the combine and shot through machine-generated fog.  Fog was used to make the combine “seem more ominous”, Kahwaty said, as it enhanced the lighting. The shoot went smoothly until Miller unexpectedly hit the gas pedal and the combine lurched forward.  The cameraman jumped to avoid being pinned against the garage door.

          Later, outside the garage, Miller drove the combine in donut patterns, as Kahwaty recorded it on his I-Phone.

          “I had no idea you could do something like that with a combine,” Kahwaty said.

For the derby itself, cameras were mounted on two driver’s helmets in two different heats and on a combine in a third heat.  Another camera was at the perimeter of the arena.

          “Safety is the first concern,” Kahwaty said. “You want to make sure the camera crew isn’t too close to the action.  You don’t want the cameras on the drivers’ helmets to obstruct vision.

          “The safety of the equipment is also a concern.  It’s a challenge to see that everything is on tight and nothing flies off when the machines slam into each other.”

          Kahwaty won’t say if one of his cameras was mounted on the winning combine – you have to watch E:60’s summer flight to find out.  But he did hint at the music: “I’d like to find something ominous-sounding to connect Jaws the combine to its namesake.”

Posted by Steve Marantz, June 24, 2010

Behold...Jaws!!!

Coming to E:60 this summer.
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Mapping out stories for the summer run.