Three stages and we're now 10 miles from where we started. Tomorrow's stage, Modesto to San Jose, brings the riders back to a spot about 10 miles from the start of the Prologue last Sunday.
Two pretty crappy hotels since I last wrote: the Holiday Inn in Sacramento and now another crappy Holiday Inn in San Jose. But, hey, I arrive exhausted to the point of incoherence, I sleep for a few hours, and I'm gone. The Abu Dhabi suite at the Raghead Inn would make little difference to me.
It rained today and the racing sucked, but Cipollini got third. He almost won the damn thing. He was right there in the hunt, as aggressive as ever. Pretty cool for a 41 year old guy who hasn't raced in three years. I admire him.
This "Rock Racing" is quite an outfit. Their team car is a Hummer limo, and their podium girl is a rent-a-slut in studded motorcycle leathers. If anyone can appreciate that sort of thing, it's Cipolini.
I'm having problems with Matt, the graphics coordinator. He's worked for VERSUS on six Tours de France. He demands things "because that's the way we do it at The Tour". However, the way VERSUS does a lot of things at The Tour are just plain wrong. 180 countries take the graphics & results from the ASO as-is, and one does their own - Versus. Versus's graphics suck, and Versus is a joke to the people at The Tour.
Today Matt had me re-write a clock program because he didn't like the way it looked. Then when the Producer & Director saw Matt's "revised" look, they told him to shove it up his ass.
I wasted an hour of programming in the middle of a show.
Fred's Lynx photofinish system displays results in a cycling-specific format like this:
1 Boonen 4:04:09
2 Bettini same time
3 Cipollini same time
Matt demanded that my interface program display stage standings "the way we do it at the Tour". Like this:
1 Boonen 4:04:09
2 Bettini +0.00
3 Cipollini +0.00
Well, Fred and I KNOW the guy responsible for all photofinish & results at Le Tour, a fellow named Gerald. Fred called him, and Gerald said Matt is full of shit. ASO displays their photofinish results like this:
1 Boonen 4:04:09
2 Bettini M/T
3 Cipollini M/T
M/T stands for même temps, or SAME TIME in French.
So I worked for a few hours on a program which does things Matt's way, but Matt is wrong and it looks fucking stupid.
1 comment:
Great blog Skunk. I'm a cyclist I work in TV too and I love the rants. Your descriptions of your dealings with the producers alone has me in stitches, I know the feeling. Keep up the good work and don't let the biz drive you nuts.
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