DIY TV Truck Owner to NBA "Cavs" TV Director: Dan Sevic’s Broadcasting Journey

On this episode of the ZoomPod, TV Director Dan Sevic stops in the Lab to talk about his journey in broadcasting. From Cleveland State to building a small TV truck to Directing Cleveland Cavaliers broadcasts, Dan is a force in NE Ohio broadcasting.

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Transcript

TMac 0:57

Let's talk to it. Welcome to the Zoom with our feet podcast. How are you, sir?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Great to be here. Uh, great, great to see you. Great to see you. It's been a while. It's been way too long.

TMac 1:17

So I start with everybody. Same way. How did your journey in this crazy broadcast business start?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Um it started in college. Actually, you already heard part of the story from John Scarato. The other S. The other S and S and S video. Took this TV class. It was intro to intro to broadcasting. And it was like, John, we got it, we gotta take all these classes. This is us. This isn't sit in a classroom, read a textbook, take notes. This is sit in a classroom, take notes, take your notes, go in the other room, bang out a 30-second commercial, shoot something, shoot it good, shoot it bad, forget to white balance. It's make mistakes. And and it just stuck. And that was the beginning. I uh that was that was the beginning of it for both of us. And I again I grew up wanting to be Bob Barker. My mom always talked. I was the kid who had a microphone, you know, I was this guy, microphone finger. I wanted to be on camera. Um, I was always fascinated with it as a kid. You know, if I saw a TV crew or a celebrity, you know, ooh, ooh, you know, it was that. And then I get to college and it was just, oh wow, that's how this is done. This is great. And and that was it. Hooked, hooked instantly, and and and didn't I within the within the first six months in the program, I was like, I I will not go back. This is where I'm going to be.

TMac 3:01

Well, in his telling of it in a previous episode, he said you walked in and said, Hey, I'm thinking about taking a TV class. Typical John fact today.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

He goes, I'm in. Yeah. Well, that was it. I mean, him and I just had such a we had a very different, we we're two very, very driven people, very singularly focused, but we're two very different personalities. I'll always have been. Um, but we just that's part of why we click. And like he just became somebody that I liked just spending time with, and we had the same, we had common interests, music, sports, you know. Uh, we had he, my best friend growing up, uh was in a band. John played drums for him. You know, my best friend Dave, hey, this is my new drumber drummer, John. I always remember that day. This is hey, John, Dan, Dan, John. Hey, we all go to Cleveland State. Great. A month later, Dave's over there going, hey, thanks for hijacking my drummer. You know, he's thinking he's getting a new awesome friend out of it. And it's like, no, he's my friend. He'll play drums for you, but he's my he's he's my friend. So yeah.

TMac 4:18

So leaving Cleveland State, the two the SNS Tucson, what were the career goals at the time?

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Um, get a job. Uh, I get a job, work, figure something out. I think early on, um I didn't I didn't have this career path in mind. Um it's I was exposed to it in college, and I thought about it, but in the back of my mind, there was no way sports was a different animal. I mean, to me, sports was in the same realm as you know, Hollywood, making TV shows. Like that's a that's different, that's big. That's not local news, that's not working in uh in a in a post house making commercials. You know, I again that I that's where I would have, you know, I would have been fine ending ending up there. Sports never hit my radar. I shouldn't say it didn't hit my radar, it did hit my radar. Um, but that wasn't I I never know my it until about maybe my senior year. This wasn't what I thought. But I did, but I didn't. Pat Murray, I always remember Pat Murray came and spoke. And for those of you who don't know, Pat Murray, for people who live in the greater Northeast Ohio area, Pat Murray was the only yes, they called him the great one. They still do call him the great one because he is still the great one, because I'm not here without a guy like Pat Murray, who blazed the trail for me. He produced and directed one-man band, Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Indians back in the 80s and 90s. He did it all. And I he spoke to my class. John and I sat in the back of class, long hair, my leather jacket. Poor Frank Masick, who was at Channel 3, directs the news now. He sat between John and I. Quietest, nicest, sweetest guy in the world, this poor, poor guy. And John and I would just torture our instructors. But Pat walked in. This is Pat, he directs the cabs. I didn't say a word. I sat there and hinged on his every word. I went, I want to be him someday. And and again, we all say that. I want to be, I want to do that. I want to be him someday. You know what? 30 years later, I am him. It happened. And and it took a lot of work, but it can anyone can do it.

TMac 6:56

First professional gig. Money paying gig.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

City of Cleveland. Um so um my instructor in college, I consider him one of my three mentors. John Bond. It was his first year of instructing at Cleveland State. That poor guy, he had he got he got me and John Scarada and a class full of other misfits. And we were the two, we were the two rowdiest of the bunch. He called us rock and roll, long hair, obnoxious, making wise cracks. But you know what? We were the first ones with our project done. We would turn in an extra one for extra credit because we were bored while we were waiting on everyone else to finish. And generally, our product, our project was the best one out of the bunch. And him, you know, someone like him, he he had a lot of fingers and a lot of pies. And he was doing a lot of things, and he just said, Hey, my friends over at the city of Cleveland need help. Dennis Knowles, Henry Picturna. Uh, we need camera, we need camera people. And they would, they would take us Cleveland State students out, and we would be the camera crew and the audio crew for like City of Cleveland flag football in the middle of winter or rec league midnight basketball. Hey, come run. That was my first time ever running camera for the great Pat Murray. I'm I ran game camera, and that halftime he pulled me off and put me on a handheld because I was a horrible hand, I was a horrible hard camera. I mean, you know, that's how you learned. Um, but the city of Cleveland, John got uh got us in, we got credit for it, and eventually they went, this guy's dumb enough to stay around. Hey Dan, do you wanna do you wanna hey? We got council meetings on your days off from school. We'll pay you 50 bucks. Come come sit for six hours in the back of a room and shoot a council meeting because none of us want to do it. And I did, and then it turned into I did a I did a weekly they they from there they parlayed that into a weekly TV show for me that I produced called Just Chillin'. Um, we I won some some awards. Uh we did a documentary, um, and then I was still in college, and then eventually the sports thing happened.

TMac 9:21

Did the experience uh I know the answer, but I want people to understand there is a direct connection to the to the doing and the first job and the mentors and the first job, and how this business rolls, because now as the other end of it, I'm recommending my John Scratta's and and Dan Stuvics all the time to people. And and it's it's how I think the business sustains itself.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

The business is definitely has and always will be referral-based. We're a referral business, and there's no better referral than someone who is a professional who is greatly loved and admired going, hey, see this kid over here? I think he has what it takes to make it. He or she has what it takes to make it. Give them a shot. I'll put my name on, I'll sign my name on this dotted line. And there's some again, you can take a group of college kids or a group of high school kids and you can send them out, hey, come on, let's go do a project. That's one thing. But then go, oh hey, um I uh ESPN's coming in and we need we need a bunch of utilities. Uh hey, Dan, how would you like to go down to Youngstown and get paid 250 bucks to stand in a snowstorm and pull cable for a handheld guy for the division for the division two football game uh semifinals. Yeah, okay, I'm in. And then that just and it just breeds more. Yeah, again, without without yeah, without the without your without the mentor. The mentoring process is a big part of it. You early on, if you're smart enough and wise enough to attach yourself to good mentors, your career has your career will have wings. But now, after 35 years, I have to be that guy who I'm you know, I I want to be that. I you I mean, I I say that because you you had I have three mentors, John Bond being the first, because he's the guy who got me into this business. The second one is Steve Warren, you who you had on this show, who for a brief time was my boss, but now we work in different capacities. Um, handling, he handles operations for ballet and live sports, and um, you know, I deal with him during basketball season. The third one was Mike Lear. Mike Lear was the head of broadcasting at the Indians in '94 when the Indians moved into their new ballpark. And he needed some, he needed a young, out, fresh, out-of-college kid who could edit, shoot, write, learn, direct, listen, and work on a little bit of a shoestring because he couldn't, he couldn't go to a post house and steal some editor who was making 50-60 grand a year 35 years ago. He had to find somebody who was making who he could pay bare bones, and that was me. And myself and Steve Warren went with Mike over to the Indians and I helped them get the scoreboard up and running and got to play with every piece of equipment, and the rest that kind of led me down that path.

TMac 13:01

It's funny you mentioned the sort of circle of it all because I can very clearly remember a mentor of mine saying, after he had made that arrangement for me to go work, he looked at me and he said the following You now represent me. And he let that hang. And I'm looking at him and he goes, If this goes bad, he's not gonna call you. He's gonna call me. So you represent me, you have the skills, you I think you have the attitude, and you know, but always remember you're working on my Rolodex now. And it struck me then, and I almost verbatim have given that speech to a number of students that I felt, as you said, were worthy of uh advancement. But I can, you know, I can pull them aside and say, okay, this is how it works. They know me, they don't know you, but they are willing to take a chance on you because you know me. But if this goes bad, and there's a lot of ways that it could, they're gonna call me. They're not gonna call you. That's just how the business works. So good luck. You're ready to fly, go.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Don't mess up, kid. Yeah. I again, I I I you know, I feel like I've I've met so many young young people who you you you know you know within about a month or two. It really comes down to three shows, dude.

TMac 14:42

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

It comes down to it comes down to attitude, it comes down to work ethic, attitude, and the it. Like everyone who works in television has especially in sports, you have that weird it. You get it, you understand it. This is entertainment, this is a business, it's fun, but it's still a business. And you if you treat it like that, and you have a great work ethic and you have a great attitude, you know, I I you know I've rarely had to have that. It again, I feel like more now in my later stages of my career, I don't have to have that. Like if I'm gonna put my name on somebody for something, I already know that they're gonna do fine. Because I've worked with them enough that I know that they're not gonna burn me. You know, and and and and that's and that's 30 plus 30, 35 years of me looking at someone and going, I was them, you know, I was them back in 1991.

TMac 15:50

So up to now we've done uh, in the words of our mutual friend John Schrata, stage one of a career. And that Act one. Act one, correct, sorry, three act structure. Um if you now transition to now you're at the Indians working on the scoreboard, meeting all of the uh players in the in the local slash regional, and it was a great come on, it was a great time. That team was outstanding in the early 90s. I mean, we both took part in all of that uh on the baseball side um in that during that time, but I think it's all a setup for Act Two. So tell me about Act Two for you and where does somewhere in Act Two, there is a point where you are offered freelance work. You know, you've you've done the entry level, you've got your mentors, you've sort of starting to target what what you really want to do. Tell me about Act Two and where where does freelance enter into that picture?

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Uh I started to I uh freelancing hit me square in the face in 1994. Um I I I had done a little bit of stuff with like the city of Cleveland, um, you know, uh Beachwood Studios, you know, classic video. You know, I I mean I went out to the hey, we've got a thing with a bunch of little kids today. Can you come run camera out at clay at out at the Coliseum for us? You know, we'll pay you uh 75 bucks and buy you lunch. All right, yeah, I don't have anything going on. And so for an hour I'm out there and and rest his soul, Steve Bunn would yell in my headset at me, give me a shot of this, give me a shot of that. That was my introduction into freelancing, and I learned real quick that that's how all of this, especially sports, when I got to the Indians, that's how this operates. It it operates in a f in a very freelance heavy environment. And then in 94 when the strike hit, I I I was out of work. I mean, you know, I'd put a lot of eggs in that baseball basket. I'd put in a lot of I put a lot of faith in Mike Lear and Steve Warren to uh take good care of me at the Indians, and then Major League Baseball decided to go on strike. And Steve Warren went, look, he goes, I can't guarantee I can get you work. He goes, but I can give you names, I can put you in front of people and tell them what you've done. And I did everything. I ran camera, I ran audio, I was a utility. I did every possible crew position. I worked for image video, I worked for classic telepr uh, classic video productions, Jerry Patton, Bob Anderson. At that point, I mean they weren't at the Coliseum anymore, they were just moving down to the uh arena. I did all of that. I was I was slowly putting those freelance skills in my belt, but I still, unlike John, who dove headfirst into freelancing, I still kept my head in that corporate world working for the Indians because then when the Indians came back from strike, I went in '95. I went back to directing the Jumbotron. John was my TD and the editor. And then when I'd have to go and do things, John would slide over and direct. And Steve Oren oversaw that. And then, and so we kind of, you know, I I I built a lot of skill sets and learned a lot about that freelancing that way. And it was nice because then in the off-seasons, it was like, hey, Dan, you want to run camera? Image Video would call. Hey, Dan, come run camera for us. We've got we've got a basketball game in Canton. We've got a sewing show in our studio. We've got uh they used to do these weird uh uh show, I don't know, it was a show with kids, and you know, it was kind of like a a friendly, scared straight, and they had this guy steward who was an educator, and they bring kids on and talk about stuff. And John and I ran camera and all that stuff, you know, but all right, yeah, you ran camera, and but you also had to set up the cameras, you also had to tear down the cameras, you also had uh like, hey, we gotta run monitors and audio, and you know, so I again I I didn't I never focused on one aspect of the business. You know, the Indians afforded me the ability that any piece of equipment in that room I could touch. Um, not everyone gets that. If you go to a TV station, if you're an editor, you're an editor. If you're a shooter, you're a shooter. I yeah, you you you worked with the blinders that were put on you by the jockey. No, I here, this is your room, Dan. We need this done. Make it happen. And up until like after the first year, when they hired Johnny, they brought in Pete Berman, who's at the at the Cavs now. They brought in Joseph Simmons, who was like he was like the another producer. Like that first year or two, like I was building everything. Like I was building headshots, I'm building vignettes, you know, and then we we had a weekly TV show. I you know, it was it was it's it was nice that I was able to immerse myself in a lot of different skills, and that led me to freelancing and then finding what was my calling, at least initially.

TMac 21:26

Led me right to the next question.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

I've done this before.

TMac 21:31

So that led you to directing. What was the first thing you directed?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Uh well, directing.

TMac 21:38

Um I mean beyond beyond the what you just described, which is the immersive uh uh uh part of everything, but there's a difference to uh from that to we think of you as a potential director.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Well, I started jump I so I started directing all the Jumbotron stuff. And uh for us older television watchers, back in the day, sports weren't all on cable or streaming, they were on over-the-air channels, for those of you who remember what over-the-air channels are. And they weren't always on. There were days, Sundays. If there was football, if there was a bit, if there was the Masters, a Cleveland Indians game on a Sunday, Masters weekend, was probably not getting aired. That game was not on television because no one was going to bother putting it on because it was going to take a beating of the ratings. So what we did is we treated it like television. We got an extra camera. We did a four-camera show. I directed, I directed the TV show, and it went, it went to the suites in the arena, or in the ballpark, I should say, and it went to all the news stations. And then I'd go home and I'd watch the news. And I'd watch sports, and I'd go, there's my show. Hey, look, I want to see what they use. What did I use? That double play, did I do a good job heroing it? Did I score the did I score the runner in a timely fashion? You know, did I get a good react at the end of the game of the pitcher when he won? Did it, you know, I watched. What were the news stations using? That was that was the that was my that was my kind of my my baptism into directing. And then the city of Cleveland actually, Pat Murray used to direct all of their sports. And then Pat left. Um, if you remember, Pat left in late 90s, early 2000s, and it even before that, he just became busy with other things. Um, and so the city of Cleveland went, hey, we can't get Pat Murray. You're the only you work in sports now. Here, come direct flag football, come direct Muni League football, come direct uh flag football, come direct uh the Larry Doby charity game at League Park, you know, between the firemen and the policemen. You're our sports guy. You tell us where to put the cameras on to number them. We'll hand you a script. I mean, the guy, Tim Wells, he's still to this, he just retired this year. I mean, in the 90s, in 90, 91, I when I was at Cleveland State and we were doing those games as college kids, he was the guy calling them, he was the guy producing them for the city. Um he's he literally just retired this year. I mean, it it just here you go. You know sports, you know television here, you make it work. Because everyone at the city, they were they were production people, and they were very good production people, but they didn't have they didn't have that sports uh eye, I guess. Yes.

TMac 24:58

Experience. It's a specific I always tell people that sports is a specific genre within a genre. Yeah. That that live editing, if you will, uh that we all know is uh funny you talk about scoring runners, and that's all a part of the sequencing and all a part of the basics of remote multicamera production.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

It's any sport, it's a really sport, it's a music, it's a musical number. It really is.

TMac 25:32

It really is. Okay, so you were you are essentially honing your skill at it. You had no idea what was down the road, but you were building a foundation of experience. And then when does the theory off oh and by the way, you're forgetting, shout out to John Scrata. So S production somewhere in there is created, and off you go doing independent productions, and you are taking on the role of director, and John was, you know, you guys were running the company, but on shows you were the director, again building up skills and experiences and stuff like that. When does the serious offer for you director now come?

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Uh 2010. So John and I had started the company in '97, like he had said. Uh somewhere around 03-04, we build the truck. We start doing high school stuff, Spectrum, um, Mansfield, WMFD, Cox Cable, Lorraine County. John and I were doing all of that. We were doing this little, we built this little four-camera, five-camera bread truck, replay.

TMac 27:02

Killer.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

It was to do our own little thing, an analog truck. Eventually it would turn into a high def truck and then turn into other things. So that was part one. Part two of what leads me to where I am today was uh got into freelancing, and when I wasn't doing my own thing, I became an EVS up. I became a I became part of the replay posse. Um, I did I did everything. I TD'd for a while. I was Steve, I TD'd a bunch of Steve Warren stuff. I did a bunch of TDing for other people. I never did a lot of pro stuff. I did a few Indians games, a few, I did a few Cavs games, um, mostly home shows for Fox back then. Uh the Bob and Doug show when Bob Pennell, Doug Johnson. Um, I I was like kind of their fill-in guy when Dan, their TD couldn't do it. Um, I only did it a couple times, but I was always like the guy. Hey, we've got this little one-off show, the Bill Cower show at some bar in Pittsburgh. Can you come do this talk show? Or uh women's professional basketball in Columbus back when there was a before the WNBA, there was that other women's, hey, come down and do the playoff games in Columbus for Prime Network. I mean, I was I did a lot of that. I TD'd, I did a bunch of things. TDing was fun. TDing TDing and Audio A1 are the two hardest jobs in television. Not that I shy away from hard work, but I'm also smart. Um, I'd much rather be a real All my friends were back in the tape room having fun, getting in my headset, telling me how much fun they were having, and and and hooting and hollering while I'm swatting.

TMac 28:41

Climate controlled.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yeah, while I'm sweat sitting there pushing the buttons. So um I I made my way back to tape, learned replay. Uh then the Elvis became I mean the Elvis was already kind of like the I mean it was Yeah, those systems had come out. Yeah, when the Elvis came out at revolutionized sports because it became the in I mean, the minute the pitch was thrown, you could you could be already sitting on the replay. The pitch hadn't even been hit yet, and the replay was cued. I mean, and you could you could build instant packages, the pitch by pitch in baseball. It's the easiest way to explain it. Five seconds later you're cueing it up because all you had to do was mark in on that last pitch, mark and out, and hit cue, and there it is. And as the guys walking, the guys are like three steps off the mound, and they're already going to that package. I mean, that's where the Elvis, that's where I kind of went to because not it was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun. And I was working with all my friends. It was John and and guys like that. I was I was asked to become the tape producer slash EVS Opera the Cavaliers in 2006. It's the year STO started. Um, the Indians started STO. They started their own network. Fox got exclusivity from the Caps because at that point you still had over the air was still a player. That was the first year of exclusivity. So all 82 games are gonna be on Fox. Bob Pennell said, I need if we're gonna do this, I need a guy who that's all he does. He's my he's going to manage these hard drives and these highlights. And again, that was when LeBron was here. I mean, there were a lot of eyes on those shows. Those shows were getting double-digit ratings, and now you're gonna you're gonna be doing every show. And so it was, hey, Dan, do you want to do this? And I and I fell into it. And when I wasn't doing that, I would go and direct the stuff that John and I were doing. So I was kind of I was dipping my toe into the pro sport water and directing the smaller stuff, and they were kind of slowly, they were slowly creeping down, creeping and converging towards meeting at some point. And that's and then and then now I'm here.

TMac 31:03

Describe for me when that meeting took place, who who said we would like you to um essentially begin doing what your current job is. I'm not giving away any secrets. Um, you are the television director for the Cleveland Cavaliers. When did that happen? How did it happen? Um and and I think the last part of it, because I know I think I know what the answer is, is did you think you were ready?

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Yeah. Um, Doug Johnson was the coordinating producer of Fox at the time. Bob Pennell was the producer, Bob was my they were my bosses. I was I was the tape producer slash EVS. They needed to make a change of director. Um I knew the show. What I lacked in pro experience in directing a show, I made up for in I knew the elements. I knew I knew as as the EVS op when we get to halftime, the open, this element comes from here, this comes from graphics, this goes to here. I I was so a part of inner I was so intertwined into the the the fabric and the the layout of the show that when they made the decision that they needed a new a different a new director, they could have gone and gotten someone who had NBA experience. But then they would have to learn Bob Pennell's cadence, they'd have to learn the show, they'd have to learn the technical director, they'd have to learn me and what I do, they'd have to learn how to work with the talent. I I'd spent four years traveling with Fred McLeod, Austin Carr, uh Scotty Williams a little bit in that first year, Jeff Phelps, all of those people. Allie Clifton, she at some point she was in there. Um it it it Doug and Bob made the decision that what made more sense was the practical knowledge of the show. They knew I directed. It wasn't like I was coming at them and going, they were going, all right, hey, this guy's never directed, let's give them a job. They had seen what I was doing. It was airing, you know, my stuff was airing on cable channels. It was airing, some of it was airing on their competing network, Sports Time Ohio. They saw what I was creating with John and I on the company when we were doing things like John Carroll, football, Baldwin Wallace, basketball, things like that. So they're like, look, this guy knows how to direct. He just has not done the big boy stuff yet. But he knows the show. So let's put him in the chair. And that was the conversation. Doug Doug was like, look, I'm gonna give you the next five games, and you're on the schedule for the next five games. December 26th versus Utah, 2010. Here you go. Merry Christmas. This is your this is your this is your first game, have at it. 2010. And and I did the game, and it was it came at me at 100 miles an hour, and I missed a lot of things. I mean, I don't think I missed any sales omens. Bob kept me pretty honest. Get to that, get to that. Um I the speed of the game from high school to college, from college to pro is exponential. It is crazy how fast the game moves. And that was when that game was over. I looked at Bob and I said, Bob, I'm really sorry. And he goes, You were fine, and I didn't feel fine.

TMac 35:07

The mark of any, you know, I've been I've been pushing lenses for a thousand years, and I would still get to the end of the game, and I would go, God, I missed that. Yeah. Um so so we've established now since 2010. Tell me about um define the role. So people hear director and they tend to think of film and completely different genre, completely different. Um define the role of, and you can do it in two parts. Define the role of a television director, you were just starting to, and then secondly, specific to basketball, but also you mentioned business. So, what a lot of people don't understand is what you were actually saying is you were already immersed in the show and all of the elements of the show, and when everything happened, all of the mentions, all of the breaks, all of the guess what? The tape room's building all that stuff, and so you knew that really important chunk of it already. Talk about the role of a director and that and or the many roles of a director, because it's not just cutting cameras.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

No, I again that is it's the most important aspect of it to a certain extent.

TMac 36:37

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Um, it's such a small percentage. Um I think I'll go chronologically. The first thing is organization. Um the producer and the director are responsible for the look of the show. Um, the director is responsible for where the cameras are going to go. Um, depending upon what sport it is, whether it's basketball, whatever. Where are you putting the cameras to best give you the ability to a tell the story, again, the game above all else. That's the always been the motto with the NBA every year. The game above all else. Um, and then secondly, in a position like I have, I have to tell our story. I'm not telling a story, I'm telling our story. Because I'm not working for Turner, I'm not working for ESPN. I'm working, I'm working for a company that directly answers to in a certain in a certain way a professional sports team. I have to be I have to be a mouthpiece for that team. Myself whose product is the sports. Yeah, the product is the Cleveland Cavaliers. And and myself and the producer, we we have to align all that. So a lot of my work is done days, weeks before. If we're roll, if we're going on the road and rolling into a city, you know, if we're going on a five-game West Coast trip that starts in Denver, I gotta go, okay, we're going Denver, Utah, Phoenix, LA, LA, flying home. All right, all right, Denver. Denver is altitude, so I gotta know what network they are. Altitude's 1080, we're 720. That means our transmission now has to get converted from 1080 to 720. Are we good there? Um, we're going on the road and we're doing what's called the dual production, um, which is a reciprocal business agreement between us and Denver. When Denver comes to Cleveland, they get three cameras. When I go to Denver, they get they give me three cameras, which means I only have instead of like say five cameras, or for like a home game, I have, I don't know, eight, nine, ten cameras. On the road, I have three cameras. I have a I have my tight follow. I'll have a slash opposite our bench, I'll have a handheld near our bench, and I have and and I will use those, I'll be able to utilize those cameras any way I need to to tell our story, but I also need to be able to go to um Scott Bay, who directs the Denver Nuggets, and go, Scott, what are you gonna do with your slash on a hero? What are you gonna do with your handheld at the free throw line? Uh, what's camera one gonna do when there's a review of the referees? And we have to all work together. And then this way, okay, so all now all the paint now all the pictures are. We've got all the pretty pictures covered. Now the next thing. Where's our locker room? Where's our interview room? Where are our where do I need other drops? Where's our Spanish radio? I need to put a monitor up there so Rafa, Rafa Hernandez Brito can see our feed because we take his audio and send it down SAP back to Cleveland. I I am I am the I am the final gatekeeper technically for everything that has to happen on that show. I don't, I don't, and I say this come I don't care what the content is. I do care because again, it's my team. I you know, this is these are these are my guys, you know. This is this is my team 55 years living in the city, these are my guys. But I don't care what the story is because that's that's our producer's job. That's our pre-game producer's job. My job is them to tell me, hey, we need to be able to do this today. And I go, okay, no problem. I got this. And here's how we're gonna do it. And that's that's just part one. Then part two is the game. I have to know the sales elements. Hey, is there anything new today? Is there a new sales element? How does it get branded? Does it come from the Viz, which is our graphics system? Does it come from the switcher? Does the TD fire off something that has a branded logo on it? Does it have both? I have to mark that on my script. I'm marking it like a new, like a guy doing a new, hey, this has two things on it. Then I have to get those elements from the producer, give them to the Elvis Hop, get them loaded, then get them into the switcher, run them a few times, show them to the producer. Is this correct? Is this the right logo? Did we download the right thing? Are we good? Do all of that. Then at some point, I gotta go out and have a camera meeting with my camera people who hopefully read my paperwork, which got done weeks ago, telling them where I want my camera. Cameras placed and where I need my monitors and where I need my head. I need, you know, not even just the technical aspect. It's, you know, I walk into a truck, I look at the audio person, RA1, and I say, I need three headsets at the table, two headsets and a spare. I need two stick mics. Um, I have an RF mic that RF has its own IFB. I need a backup mic for our sideline reporter under the basket with a married IFB. I need another stick mic for them at their seated position with an IFB in case their headset, in case their RF mic dies. I need a mic in the press conference room. I need a separate mic in the press conference room to do one-on-ones. I need again, it be it's kind of this. And then it's okay, I need a camera here, I need a camera here. You handheld off. You're gonna be on the floor, you're gonna shoot our open, then you're gonna go and do all your game stuff. Then you're gonna go into the hallway and you're gonna shoot a walk-on with an interview with a coach, and then after you'll come back out, you'll do the game, and then after the game, you're gonna go into the locker room or into a press conference room and shoot interviews. I I I'm I'm essentially air traffic control for these people, and I'm the one who has to kind of like point everyone, hey, you have to go here. And that doesn't even get you to all right, now let's cover the game. At the end of the day, if my bosses or the NBA isn't seeing what they need, I don't, it doesn't matter how organized I am. Am I covering the game? Am I bringing, am I, am I, am I entertaining the fans of Cleveland? Am I inner is the NBA happy with what we're doing? Are my bosses happy? Are the sponsors happy? Um, you know, again, like I said, the game above all else. It's about that, it's about the game, but I have to tell it from our from our from our perspective, you know, and and and I and I've after so many years of doing this, crafted how I like my cameras to cover the game. I don't cover it like everyone else. And especially when I go on the road and I have to share resources, you know. Hey, how do you use your your slash camera? How do you use your handheld? I do this and this. Okay, well, just so you know, because you're gonna probably be stealing mine. I do this, which isn't what you do. And then we have to work around it one another. But again, I'll at the end of the day, communication. You know, we we we always joke, this is a communication business. Yeah. I s you know, I taught myself, the producer talk more than anyone else, and we make uh you know 10,000 uh decisions a night. And not all of them are gonna be right, but as long as we were organized and we were clear with what we want, at the end of the day, we're gonna come across, we're you know, we're gonna come walk away with a really good, entertaining show.

TMac 44:37

Um so tech manager, especially on the road, visual storyteller, right? Um tell me uh or or give me a myth or something that it's not. A lot of people don't make the connection that what that five days that you just described, five games or West Coast swing, involves a whole lot of travel. Talk about um you can't do sports without travel, you can't do sports without working on weekends, holidays, all of that different stuff. Um it takes a toll.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Yeah, again, that was the biggest thing for me when uh when I started doing this. Um you're hey, you're gonna do all 82 Cavs games. That's great. And then you start doing the math. Start doing the math. Wow in November from like November from like November 14th till like the 23rd. I'm gonna be gone for nine days because we're gonna be in Texas and Oklahoma City, or this year, end of the season, we started, we started uh the Saturday before Easter, flew to Denver, off day Utah, off day Phoenix, LA LA. Uh it's it's live sports is nomadic. And because we travel, I mean, because all the games, half the games are played on the road, you know, I've spent the better part of the last 15 years more or less living out of suitcases half the year. You you know, you you you just you have 41 road games, you have to be there. You you miss holidays, you miss weekends, you miss family, you miss things. Family. Um there are you know, early on in your career, everyone says, well, you can't miss those things, and you really can't. Um, you know, now if I needed to take time off or something, if something urgent were to come up, yeah. I mean, I hey, I I need off. Um, but for the most part, that's part of the sacrifice with this job is knowing that you are traveling six months out of the year, and I go back to 2015, 2014, 15 when LeBron came back. You're traveling till you're traveling until June. Somebody is. Somebody's traveling because you're you're doing something, and and myself and the producer split those up. We would we weren't able to do games anymore, but we were still doing content, we were doing pre- and post-game shows, so one of us was always on the road producing content to send back to Cleveland for the shows to have, and it was it was a lot of hard work and a lot of long days, but you know, it's brutal.

TMac 47:52

It's it's you know, career paths. It was because of the travel. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm 20 years into teaching, is I could not hack the travel.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

Um, COVID accelerated um the Remy model. Uh, for those who don't know, Remy is essentially um uh cameras and audio on site and uh a mix of everyone else either on site or back in a studio somewhere in said city. Um COVID kind of we we did world feeds because you just couldn't bring people into uh uh buildings and arenas, but accelerated that process.

TMac 48:33

Accelerated that process.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

And and we and you know, like this this year I traveled, um, I think I did of the 41 road games, I think I did it 12, 13, not counting the playoffs. Um the rest I stayed in Cleveland. Uh so again, it's it's a it's a again a different animal. It was a de it's a different learning curve. Um, you know, but there is still that element of travel from time to time.

TMac 49:08

What is the most rewarding part of your job for you?

SPEAKER_00 49:14

The friendships. I have met some of the best people in the world from all walks of life. Um, people who will be my friends forever. Um, you know, guys who I will reach out to um even after we have quit doing this. Gary Lehman, uh Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Braves, TNT director, uh legend, legend, uh he retired uh about two years ago. He's a big Cleveland Hawk. He lives and dies with the Browns. Um, so him and I are always texting, always, you know, you know, hey, how you doing? Um, you know, I think that's the thing. It's because whether you're camera op, camera person, or a producer, director, an audio person, it's such a small fraternity that we we especially those of us who've done it for so long, you just you can't not be friends. And that to me is the the best part of it, is you know, is is that friendship, that camaraderie, and then on the off chance, you know, once or year or on an off day, if you can you can meet up with someone, it's you know, it's it's magnificent.

TMac 50:58

You are far and far enough along in your career that I know this happens. So last question. This is um what I ask everybody. Um what would you tell now that you've lived X one and two and you're cruising along, what would you tell the young rock and roller that that wants to get into this business? How would you advise them? What would you tell them uh that that they need to know? Because we're now f we apparently blinked our eyes, and now we're the guys that are being asked, hey, I want to do this, what do I have to do?

SPEAKER_00 51:47

It sounds it sounds I feel like sometimes I say it and I see a couple of you know, I'll speak to a college class. Your work ethic, your attitude, and your ability to work with others supersede all of that. I I don't know who it was, it might have been John who you had on earlier, who said, I'll take somebody who's got a great work ethic and you know is gonna work hard and try, but has average skills over somebody who has a horrible work ethic but is really good at the job. Ten times out of ten. I'll I I'd I'd rather have that person. This is a hard enough business. That's again at the end of the day, everyone has to remember it is a business, and it's and it's a demanding business because there's so much money involved based on sponsorship and what it costs to produce a single game that you can't just brush that aside. But if you can walk in with a with a with a kick butt work ethic and a great attitude, and an ability to just work well with others, you're set. You know, learn everything. The other part of it is learn everything. Don't pigeonhole yourself. Um you can you can find a niche, find the thing that you enjoy. Camera, replay, audio, any of it. Learn that niche, make that make that your base, but step outside your comfort zone. You know, try and try and get involved in other things, do other things. Because if you if you end up in a position like I have, I now need to understand more everything. Yeah, I everything. Audio doesn't work. Well, what doesn't work? The you know, I don't I don't know. Uh the the ENCO, the thing that plays music doesn't work. Okay. Is the system down? Is it playing music and you're just not getting into the audio board? You know, I I I there there have been many a times, and I get and maybe I'm a little too hands-on. I'm the director who's gonna stand over an engineer's shoulder and go, did you do this, did you do that, did you do that? And I've had a couple engineers go, look, just go away. This is this is our world. And then I remind and I'll remind them, I built two TV trucks, little ones, but I built two TV trucks. I'm not every director. I I've I I've gotten dirty, I've run cable, I've wired a truck, I've installed a switcher. Um, you know, I've I've hooked up a transmission unit in the bowels of Boston Garden so that we could do, you know. The new one's not much better. Um, trust me. I got I got I got to become good friends with all the critters underneath the stands at the new one. Um, but again, I like you know, I learn as much as you can because all of that, even the dumb, the the the most mundane thing, the score bug. Don't well it hooks up. Well, learn how it hooks up. Watch the engineer hook it up. You know, because if something's not right, maybe you can go, hey, this, hey, this isn't plugged in, you know. Ask questions. You know, I that's that's that's my strong suit. You know, I've asked a lot of questions. I know a little bit about everything enough to be dangerous, and then you know, I'm a competent director.

TMac 56:14

Danic, can't thank you enough for being a part of the project. Well played, sir. Uh hope to see you soon.

SPEAKER_00 56:22

Yeah, we have we we definitely have to uh meet a face-to-face and do this.

TMac 56:34

Thanks again to the multi-talented Dan Subic. You can check out his work directing the caps podcast on Valley Sports. The Zoom with our feet podcast is a production of TV Commander Media. The Zoom with our team is put in November, and they're funky to find. Until next time, creators, if you're not working on the craft, you're not working.