I was watching the Boston Red Sox play the Baltimore Orioles earlier this afternoon. Not a great game, with the exception of one plucked-from-the-stands catch.
What interested me more than the action on the field was the green, rectangular box mounted on the brick facade behind home plate. Actually, there were two of them, equally offset from the center line.
I know it was green because on those random shots where it just happened to be partially caught, that’s what you saw. On the ‘bread and butter’ shots of an “at bat,” the box was filled with ads.
The first ad I saw was for Pepcid. Later there were others. Each was ever so slightly out of focus, as you’d expect for something significantly distant from the object being shot.
If it looked too good it would look unreal.
Though the box is green, like the chromakey wall behind me at the TV station, I sense that only assists the process. In other words, it’s a lot more complex than just a green screen.
As the camera moves, what’s seen of the ad and it’s aspect versus the camera changes proportionally. This leads me to believe it’s the same technology used to show the first down marker in football.
I don’t mind it. I don’t care. Yes, it’s another ad in an environment full of ads. It’s an intrusion, but not an interruption. That’s a distinction and a difference.
There is one part I do mind – and it drives me nuts.
For whatever reason the video in the box is not totally sync’ed with the ‘real’ video from the camera. On still shots, with the camera unmoved, the ad will jump up or down ever so slightly.
Without that little tipoff I probably wouldn’t know it’s electronically inserted. But the tipoff is there… and I do know. So now, it’s driving me nuts!
Someone’s should get the problem fixed or get it off the air. Easy for me to say, because in this I have no pull at all. None.
Another interesting thing happen several weeks ago when the Yankees were playing a team who were wearing shirts that were a very close match to the monochrom (that day the monochrom was blue).
The players were “ghosted” with the ads showing through them.