So you've arrived early for the game. Now let's talk about setting up. And this should be pretty obvious the two key words we're going to talk about as far as where you should set up our elevate, and center. And obviously, that means get as close to the 50 yard line as you can, and also get as high as you can see that you can get a good vantage point. Sometimes, of course, you can't always do that sometimes you have very low bleachers, no press box, sometimes they ask you to shoot from the field level and sometimes maybe even the end zone. And for those last two, we're going to have separate modules at the end of the course that show you specifically how to handle sideline shooting and how to handle end zone shooting.

But for this, we're going to talk about getting yourself as high as you can, as centered as you can. Let's take a look now at a couple of different fields to see the kind of situations that you might be presented with when you show up for a game. This one you can see of course has a press box above the bleachers and there is room above the press box to shoot from. So this is the best place to shoot here. If for any reason you were late and we talked about arriving early before but if you're late or if there's a crowd up there, and there's No room for you, you would have to shoot from the bleachers below. And that could be problematic because even though you could be centered, you might have people that are stomping the bleachers in excitement that would shake the camera, you could have heads in the way.

So in a situation like this one choice, but it's the best one get above the press box. This next field provides a couple of different options, you can see that you have a place to go above the press box. And that is ideal. But right here you have another little area a platform next to the press box, which we've actually shot from before and which is suitable, but you still face the risk of some shake if they're shaking the bleachers. So you want to be careful, I always recommend shooting from above the press box, but at least here, you have another option to be on that platform on the side. This third field is interesting because you'll notice there is no area above the press box to shoot.

It's just a roof and you're not allowed up there. This is a fairly new field and a lot of fields are being built this way. And what they have instead are platforms here and here on the left and right of the press box. You have to be in one of those spots. And because of that your vantage point, although high enough, is not going to be dead center 50 yard line. In fact, here's a shot of this field during an actual game.

So you can see a little bit of the angle, how we're not quite centered, and how it looks when we're filming a team that's on the opposite end zone. It's a little further away than we'd like. But this is what you're stuck with. But you have to make do with what you have on these fields. If you wanted to shoot 50 yard line, you'd have to be right here in the bleachers, that wouldn't be ideal because once again, you're dealing with people around you, you're dealing with the possibility of shaking bleachers, heads in the way etc. So in this case, you have to just grin and bear it, you can't be centered I would recommend being on one of the platforms as close to the 50 as possible, but just know that you're not going to be centered.

As long as you are high enough for a good vantage point. That's key. Here's a situation where there is no press box and there's also no platform next to the press box. So I'm forced to shoot from the bleachers. And as you can see, I'm as high as I can be in these bleachers and I am centered on Deadshot 50 yard line here, we've also set up our tripod in such a way that we don't have any heads that can stand up and get in our way, I've gotten this tripod up as high as I'd like, which is something that we talked about earlier with the tripods. And you may be saying yourself, Well, you've got a press box up there, it's air conditioned, it's beautiful.

Well, here's the problem with that, when you're inside and behind walls, you might be able to see what's in front of you. But if you pan left or right to see what's going on in the end zone, you're going to be shooting a wall, the only way to see to the end zones from inside the press box is to lean forward and be halfway out the press box. And that's not a great, great way to shoot. So get that idea out of your head, we don't shoot from the press box, we shoot above it next to it, or in this case in the bleachers. So here are the legs of my tripod, and you can see how I set them up. I don't put the legs on the seats of the bleachers.

I put the legs on the floors of the bleachers where people's feet are and the reason we're going to do that is we have more stability and less risk of it falling. So if we for example, had our tripod up here on the seat like this, if there's any Sort of bumping the tripod or slippage or if you knock it, there's a chance that it can come off, it's got a ledge to fall off of. So we always want to put the tripod legs where people's feet go. In fact, you can almost put it up against the bleachers like so, it almost serves as a good way to hold the tripod in place if you can try that. Here's another bleacher setup situation. And in this case, these bleachers are a little lower than the ones I was just standing in.

So in order to get as high as I can, I've chosen to stand on the top bleacher itself, and it's good that I have this fence here to lean on. But because I'm standing up on this back step, I have to get the tripod even higher. And this goes back to what we were talking about with tripods. When you have this centerpiece that goes up most of the tripods I showed you that you can buy in an electronics store. Don't do this. So here's the value of a tripod that can get higher, I can stand on this step and set my tripod up so that it's high enough for me to operate.

The legs are also on the part of the bleachers where people put their feet but the difference with these bleachers as you can see these are not made of concrete and there are actually slats where things could fall to the ground. So your tripod legs could go falling through. So you have to be really careful with that. So I suggest you put your tripod legs on the feet as you did before, basically hold your camera most of the time, but by standing on this final seat, you're going to get the extra elevation that you need when the bleachers don't provide it for you. So in summary, you want to make sure you're as high as you can, as centered as you can, but hopefully we've given you a couple of other options in case that scenario doesn't present itself.