When you watch an NFL or a college game on television, you'll notice that the scoreboard is always on the screen. It's become a vital part of watching football to know the status of what's going on at all times. Well, you as a cameraman at a football game do not have the luxury of putting a scoreboard on the screen constantly in the bottom corner. But you do have the ability to show the audience the scoreboard at appropriate moment at appropriate moments to communicate information. And that's what we're going to do. So as we look at shooting the scoreboard, we're going to look at a couple of different rules.

And the first one, of course, is to film the scoreboard at the end of every quarter, first quarter, halftime third quarter and end of game. It lets the audience know that the quarter has ended that we've switched sides because the clock will either be zero or might have been reset to 12 minutes for the next quarter. It's a good visual clue. It also updates us as to what the score is at this point in time. So rule one don't win at the end of every quarter. Rule two fairly obvious we want to film the scoreboard at the end of every score.

So after a field goal, team kicks a field goal, it's three nothing. We film the scoreboard to show us that when a team scores a touchdown though, we're only going to film the scoreboard after the extra point. In other words, team scores a touchdown, don't film six nothing. And then the extra point gets kicked and then you film seven nothing, film the touchdown. Wait for the extra point, and then film the scoreboard at seven nothing. If the extra point is missed or blocked, it doesn't matter because you'll film the scoreboard at six nothing at that point.

The other big one that we like to use is every change of possession. Every time the ball goes from one team to another, we're going to shoot the scoreboard. So after a punt, for example, team punts, the ball gives up possession. We film the scoreboard and it's a way of saying, Okay, this is where we are in the game. The next team is going to get the ball. This also happens after a turnover.

So if a team fumbles the ball and the other team the defense recovers We'll film the scoreboard because it tells the audience again, here we are at this point of the game. Here's the time on the clock when the offense is starting their drive. And it's an important way to communicate that something has happened, something has changed. So the three big ones are at the end of every quarter after a score and when the ball changes possession. Okay, one word of caution about filming a scoreboard after a touchdown or a field goal, make sure that the scoreboard operator has updated the score before you film it. So if you're at a game, and it's seven, seven, and a team kicks a field goal, and it's 10 to seven, if you just shoot the scoreboard before they change it to 10 people are going to think it's still seven, seven, it's going to cause some confusion.

So make sure you wait for the scoreboard operator to change the score. Sometimes he doesn't. I've been at games where I'm pointing the camera to scoreboard waiting for him to change it so that I can roll for three or four seconds and it doesn't change and if that happens, don't film it. Only film the scoreboard if it's correct if they don't get a change before Next play. Maybe you film the kickoff, and then come back and film the scoreboard. But we really want to make sure that we get an accurate score.

Now, what if the scoreboards not working? This has happened several times you're dealing with high schools or youth football leagues, and there's no scoreboard. Well, guess what? We're gonna film it anyway, most of the time. And the reason that we do that is because even though it's not working, if you don't film it, the audience is going to wonder why you're not filming it, what's going on in the game. So by filming it, you're telling the audience two things, you're telling them that it's not working, but you're also giving them a visual clue that something has changed.

So if it's the end of the quarter, you can always film it. film it blank. It's a visual clue to say change of possession, end of quarter. Another way to handle the end of a quarter if you don't want to film the scoreboard is that you can take a shot of the team's changing sides. What I like to do is zoom out wide. That is a visual clue that communicates that the quarter has They're flipping sides.

Even though the audience might be able to understand that a team that was going this way, is suddenly now going this way. It's always nice to have that visual clue. So to sum it all up, the best way to remember when to film the scoreboard, besides the obvious rules is to think about yourself watching this game as you've edited it in the camera. If there's any point in the game where you want to know what the scoreboard says, that's when you should film it. This also applies to a team running a two minute drill at the end of the game, you might film the scoreboard at the end of every play to let us know that there's a minute and 10 left, and then there's 53 seconds left, and then there's 35 seconds left, and so on. So you can film the scoreboard when you feel it's appropriate that the audience wants to know what's going on.

But otherwise, follow the main rules and there's no problem anybody will have with the way that you communicate information about the game to them. Good luck with that and let's move on to the next section on down markers.