SAN ANTONIO - Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys premieres tonight on HBO, and it comes on at 10 p.m. for a reason.
NFL Films has created a 60-minute cin?ma v?rit? that has captured the honesty and the reality, sometimes even the profanity and the brutality, of an NFL training camp.
The blinds are open. The censors are off. The players and coaches are seen as themselves because of constant fly-on-the-wall filming, mostly inside the Alamodome and around the team's 30-floor Riverwalk hotel.
Executive producer Steve Sabol estimates that 165 hours of footage was shot during the first week alone.
NFL Films employs 300 people, 150 of whom have been assigned to the six-week Hard Knocks project at two locations: San Antonio and Mount Laurel, N.J., where NFL Films is headquartered and the show is produced.
Basically, it comes down to a marathon workshift that begins on Tuesday morning and doesn't end until the show is taken by helicopter to New York City and placed in HBO's hands roughly 4 1/2 hours before it is aired.
"Most other shows, you have three months to edit it," Sabol said. "With this one, you're flying by the seat of your pants every day. There's no format. There's no shooting script. It's a continuing work in progress."
The stars of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys range from Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones to NFL rushing record breaker-to-be Emmitt Smith to practice-squad receiver Richmond Flowers III to rookie cheerleader Leah Lyons.
Rookie wide receiver Deveren Johnson is a storyline as a sixth-round draft choice who is trying to make the NFL from Division I-AA Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.
"It's been weird," Johnson said. "I went to my room the first day of camp and [a film crew] already was there. I hope my roommate [rookie cornerback Pete Hunter] let them in. ... At least we haven't had them try to follow us into the bathroom yet."
NFL Films is using parts of the seventh and 15th floors of the Riverwalk Marriott, where most of the company's 50 on-site workers have either video, audio or shipping responsibilities. About 23 hours of film is digitized onto hard drives and sent by courier (along with the raw footage) to San Antonio International Airport. Nonstops are a must. From there, the shipment arrives at Philadelphia Airport and is taken by courier to NFL Films in Mount Laurel. "It takes six or seven hours, door to door," line producer Michael Greenwood said.
Cameras used for Hard Knocks include four hand-helds (used in three-man crews) and four robotics, swivel-based surveillance cameras placed near the ceiling in the offices of Jones, Dave Campo, and Cowboys coordinators Bruce Coslet and Mike Zimmer.
"Anytime anyone walked into any of these rooms, we're rolling tape," said Nathaniel Damron, audio mixer for the robotics who works on the floor where the Cowboys' administrative offices are located.
The rooms are miked. So are Jones, Campo, Coslet and Zimmer. Each is asked to wear a button-sized microphone underneath his shirt, which he does as soon as he steps out of the shower in the morning. Jones was stopped in the hallway and given a fresh battery Sunday morning.
NFL Films wasn't about to take a chance of missing something Jerry Jones might say.At Friday's opening news conference, Jones joked with his wife, Gene, in attendance, that NFL Films' omnipresence in the Alamo City had made its way into their hotel room.
It was a joke. Everyone laughed. But truth of the matter, Charlotte Jones Anderson, Cowboys' director of charities and special events, had to tell NFL Films "no" when the question actually came up about a robotics being put in her father's hotel room. For the most part, the cameras have been unobtrusive. But not all the players are comfortable.
"It's like you want to be yourself, but you really can't," said defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban. "You're eating your lunch. All of a sudden, you look up and find a big fuzzy [microphone cover] stuck in your face. And you have to watch what you say because you know your mama is watching back home."
Receiver Rocket Ismail, whose brother Qadry was with the Ravens last season during the filming of the original Hard Knocks, believes a camera/sound crew must be discreet for reality TV to work. "Otherwise, it feels corny," Ismail said. NFL Films is receiving unprecedented media access.
"Actually, I feel like we've had all-access [with the media] since 1989," Campo said with a smile. "The Cowboys are the Cowboys. But I'm comfortable with it. I think this helps the players focus."
Team consultant Calvin Hill appreciates the concept of reality TV and understands the business side of it, yet he recommends to the players: "Wear blinders."Sabol remembers how Tom Landry gave NFL Films the go-ahead to make Don Meredith the first NFL quarterback to be miked during a game, and how Tex Schramm was the league's master promoter of the '70s and '80s just as Jones keeps the Cowboys on the cutting edge in marketing and entertainment now.
"This is my 40th year," Sabol said. "I've never seen anything like these Alamo- dome crowds for a training-camp practice. Certain camera angles, it looks like you're filming a game."
Sabol plans to follow a policy set by his father, Ed Sabol, to pay certain players for their time. It dates back to the 1962 NFL championship game between the Giants and Packers when NFL Films paid Frank Gifford $250 for an interview.
If Emmitt Smith is asked to do the most during Hard Knocks, as Sabol believes is possible, he will be paid as much as $8,000 as an appreciation fee. Selected Ravens players received between $2,000 and $8,000 last year."We're not journalists," Sabol said. "We're movie makers."
What goes into the making of a Hard Knocks episode is extraordinary in the breadth of coverage and the little bit of time to edit and produce it.
Twelve story lines divided into three- to four-minute segments, assigned to individual editors, may or may not change from week to week. Campo's speech to his players about fines was one of the funniest of Week 1, Sabol said. Rookie Roy Williams' pre-camp party and Smith's thoughts about chasing Walter Payton also made the final cut.
At 5:30 p.m. CST, a helicopter with the first copy of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys lands atop the HBO building at 1100 Avenue of the Americas. The show airs a few hours later.
Everyone watches, then immediately turns to work on the second episode.
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By the numbers
4.5 _ Hours between the time that HBO has Hard Knocks in hand and the time it airs the show.
150 _ NFL Films workers assigned to Hard Knocks, or 50 percent of the company.
165 _ Hours of raw footage filmed in the first week at Cowboys training camp.
$2,000-$8,000 _ Fee paid by NFL Films to players giving up significant leisure time to be featured.
NFL Films has created a 60-minute cin?ma v?rit? that has captured the honesty and the reality, sometimes even the profanity and the brutality, of an NFL training camp.
The blinds are open. The censors are off. The players and coaches are seen as themselves because of constant fly-on-the-wall filming, mostly inside the Alamodome and around the team's 30-floor Riverwalk hotel.
Executive producer Steve Sabol estimates that 165 hours of footage was shot during the first week alone.
NFL Films employs 300 people, 150 of whom have been assigned to the six-week Hard Knocks project at two locations: San Antonio and Mount Laurel, N.J., where NFL Films is headquartered and the show is produced.
Basically, it comes down to a marathon workshift that begins on Tuesday morning and doesn't end until the show is taken by helicopter to New York City and placed in HBO's hands roughly 4 1/2 hours before it is aired.
"Most other shows, you have three months to edit it," Sabol said. "With this one, you're flying by the seat of your pants every day. There's no format. There's no shooting script. It's a continuing work in progress."
The stars of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys range from Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones to NFL rushing record breaker-to-be Emmitt Smith to practice-squad receiver Richmond Flowers III to rookie cheerleader Leah Lyons.
Rookie wide receiver Deveren Johnson is a storyline as a sixth-round draft choice who is trying to make the NFL from Division I-AA Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.
"It's been weird," Johnson said. "I went to my room the first day of camp and [a film crew] already was there. I hope my roommate [rookie cornerback Pete Hunter] let them in. ... At least we haven't had them try to follow us into the bathroom yet."
NFL Films is using parts of the seventh and 15th floors of the Riverwalk Marriott, where most of the company's 50 on-site workers have either video, audio or shipping responsibilities. About 23 hours of film is digitized onto hard drives and sent by courier (along with the raw footage) to San Antonio International Airport. Nonstops are a must. From there, the shipment arrives at Philadelphia Airport and is taken by courier to NFL Films in Mount Laurel. "It takes six or seven hours, door to door," line producer Michael Greenwood said.
Cameras used for Hard Knocks include four hand-helds (used in three-man crews) and four robotics, swivel-based surveillance cameras placed near the ceiling in the offices of Jones, Dave Campo, and Cowboys coordinators Bruce Coslet and Mike Zimmer.
"Anytime anyone walked into any of these rooms, we're rolling tape," said Nathaniel Damron, audio mixer for the robotics who works on the floor where the Cowboys' administrative offices are located.
The rooms are miked. So are Jones, Campo, Coslet and Zimmer. Each is asked to wear a button-sized microphone underneath his shirt, which he does as soon as he steps out of the shower in the morning. Jones was stopped in the hallway and given a fresh battery Sunday morning.
NFL Films wasn't about to take a chance of missing something Jerry Jones might say.At Friday's opening news conference, Jones joked with his wife, Gene, in attendance, that NFL Films' omnipresence in the Alamo City had made its way into their hotel room.
It was a joke. Everyone laughed. But truth of the matter, Charlotte Jones Anderson, Cowboys' director of charities and special events, had to tell NFL Films "no" when the question actually came up about a robotics being put in her father's hotel room. For the most part, the cameras have been unobtrusive. But not all the players are comfortable.
"It's like you want to be yourself, but you really can't," said defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban. "You're eating your lunch. All of a sudden, you look up and find a big fuzzy [microphone cover] stuck in your face. And you have to watch what you say because you know your mama is watching back home."
Receiver Rocket Ismail, whose brother Qadry was with the Ravens last season during the filming of the original Hard Knocks, believes a camera/sound crew must be discreet for reality TV to work. "Otherwise, it feels corny," Ismail said. NFL Films is receiving unprecedented media access.
"Actually, I feel like we've had all-access [with the media] since 1989," Campo said with a smile. "The Cowboys are the Cowboys. But I'm comfortable with it. I think this helps the players focus."
Team consultant Calvin Hill appreciates the concept of reality TV and understands the business side of it, yet he recommends to the players: "Wear blinders."Sabol remembers how Tom Landry gave NFL Films the go-ahead to make Don Meredith the first NFL quarterback to be miked during a game, and how Tex Schramm was the league's master promoter of the '70s and '80s just as Jones keeps the Cowboys on the cutting edge in marketing and entertainment now.
"This is my 40th year," Sabol said. "I've never seen anything like these Alamo- dome crowds for a training-camp practice. Certain camera angles, it looks like you're filming a game."
Sabol plans to follow a policy set by his father, Ed Sabol, to pay certain players for their time. It dates back to the 1962 NFL championship game between the Giants and Packers when NFL Films paid Frank Gifford $250 for an interview.
If Emmitt Smith is asked to do the most during Hard Knocks, as Sabol believes is possible, he will be paid as much as $8,000 as an appreciation fee. Selected Ravens players received between $2,000 and $8,000 last year."We're not journalists," Sabol said. "We're movie makers."
What goes into the making of a Hard Knocks episode is extraordinary in the breadth of coverage and the little bit of time to edit and produce it.
Twelve story lines divided into three- to four-minute segments, assigned to individual editors, may or may not change from week to week. Campo's speech to his players about fines was one of the funniest of Week 1, Sabol said. Rookie Roy Williams' pre-camp party and Smith's thoughts about chasing Walter Payton also made the final cut.
At 5:30 p.m. CST, a helicopter with the first copy of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys lands atop the HBO building at 1100 Avenue of the Americas. The show airs a few hours later.
Everyone watches, then immediately turns to work on the second episode.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the numbers
4.5 _ Hours between the time that HBO has Hard Knocks in hand and the time it airs the show.
150 _ NFL Films workers assigned to Hard Knocks, or 50 percent of the company.
165 _ Hours of raw footage filmed in the first week at Cowboys training camp.
$2,000-$8,000 _ Fee paid by NFL Films to players giving up significant leisure time to be featured.