Live from Budapest: World Athletics Productions shakes up the 2023 Championships broadcast perspective with directors from outside the sport

Westbury Gillett, a hugely experience director in the field of motorsport, is one of the directors working at the World Athletics Championships 2023 for World Athletics Productions

World Athletics Productions is shaking up the way athletics is perceived on television by using directors from outside the sport to create new perspectives on screen for the World Athletics Championships 2023, which is taking place now in Budapest.

The host broadcaster – a joint venture between governing body World Athletics and ITN – has deliberately chosen to use directors that have not necessarily had experience in athletics before, to give the sport fresh angles and idea and therefore change the way it is normally broadcast.

Steeped in tradition

The template of how athletics has been produced historically has not changed in a very long time. World Athletics Productions is shaking that up. Speaking to SVG Europe in Budapest, Alastair Waddington, director of ITN Sport and managing director of World Athletics Productions, states: “I think [athletics is] a very traditional sport and there’s lots of things that you have to do in a traditional way, and you’re restricted because there are 60 commentary boxes waiting for athletics to be produced in a certain way. So they know that after the finish line, what they’re expecting in terms of replays, and how you cut stuff, etc. It’s a balancing act and occasionally a bit of a challenge to take that forward; you’ve got to preserve everything that’s good about the past but also introduce some innovation and so forth.

“So, if you walk round the compounds you’ll find some very conservative broadcasters and some very radical broadcasters and we got to try and match that, either way.”

“We felt that athletics has been covered similarly for many years; shot quite long, quite distant, quite anonymously, and we wanted to get up close and personal and created a bit more passion and a bit more connection between the athletes and the audience”

Also working tirelessly in the 34 degree heat and humidity of Hungary’s capital city is Mark Fulton, World Athletics Productions executive producer. He tells SVG Europe: “Athletics is a really, really funny sport. It’s steeped in tradition and when you try and change something, it doesn’t necessarily sit well with certain people, like a lot of things. But I’ve been involved in athletics since the mid-eighties, and you see what was produced in the mid-eighties, up until maybe five or six years ago, the template was the same.

“Then coming in and trying to change that template, you almost get a, “what are they trying to do here?” response, but then the penny drops, and then they suddenly realise, “right. Now I get it”.”

He continues: “The sport had to change. It was very modular. It was a bit of a track event, bit of a field event, bit of a track event, bit of a field event. And if you go back, the BBC would be on air for five or six hours for the World Championships, but nobody can spare that air time these days. So it’s all condensed into three hours.”

However, Fulton adds: “Trying to condense everything into three hours, you’ve got to be really on the ball because you can’t get everything in that you need to. You’ve got to be very, very selective sometimes about what you do, but still tell the narrative all the way through.

“There’s three narratives with the World Championships,” he continues. “There’s the narrative of the overall championships, when you start, and when you finish. There’s a theme that will run through it. And then there’s the narrative of a day. So you have a morning session, and you have an evening session, and it’s the narrative of the day and how you weave that into the narrative of the week. And then there’s the narrative of the session, which you weave into the narrative of the day, which you weave into the narrative of the week. And the trick is try and get those three to gel together.”

Mark Fulton, World Athletics Productions executive producer [centre] works closely with his PA Lorna Dalgetty and Richard Carr, presentation director

Waddington comments on the directors that have been bought in to direct this World Athletics Championships: “Most our directors have no background in athletics, until they come to us. The reason [we decided to do this was] we felt that athletics has been covered similarly for many years; shot quite long, quite distant, quite anonymously, and we wanted to get up close and personal and created a bit more passion and a bit more connection between the athletes and the audience. So, a lot of these guys brought their skills from other sports, and I think you can see here what’s happening [as a result on TV].”

Fulton comments on the people that have been chosen to direct: “They’re all phenomenally experienced directors. We would never put somebody into a position where we didn’t think that they could actually work on the sport, but they’re all very unique in the types of sports that they work in. If you take somebody like West [Westbury Gillett, a hugely experience director in the field of motorsport], for instance, this is his third world championships, but he’s used to doing motorsports, so he’s used to things going round in circles, or round a track. He’s got a really good eye for detail.

Read more: Live From Budapest

• World Athletics Productions head Alistair Waddington talks complexity and collaboration
• World Athletics Productions brings AI foreign language news bulletin proof of concept to broadcasters
• World Athletics Productions shakes up the 2023 Championships broadcast perspective with directors from outside the sport
• World Athletics Championships 2023 picture gallery

“I think it’s the attention to detail that we’ve got with a lot of them as well. They all understand the sport. We wouldn’t bring people in that didn’t understand the sport and didn’t understand what we were trying to do; they’re all phenomenally experienced. They bring a wealth of background from everything from football, cricket, tennis, a lot of different sports that they work on.”

The directors worked closely with Fulton and his team prior to the championships to prepare for Budapest. Fulton explains: “We ran quite a few, not really workshops, but we had meetings with them beforehand when we went through the whole intricacies of what we expected and what we wanted on site. They’ve gone away and they’ve watched past championships and [came back with a] number of suggestions that come through from them, from “what if we try this?” to “what if we try that?”. The ideas have to come from a multitude of people and we’re really fortunate we’ve got some of the best in the business working for us.”

Adds Waddington: “When we get here we usually have to sit down and talk about an overall directive philosophy and the dos and don’ts. But also you’re trying to encourage some individuality in their sports. So, directing the pole vault is more akin to directing high board diving than it is to directing the hundred metres final, they’re miles apart. So, it’s trying to have that sense of creativity, and just let the individuals’ flair come out.”

Gender parity

On how the directors were chosen, gender parity and finding the right team players was key. Fulton explains: “It was twofold, really. First of all was that we wanted to put women into high profile positions. That was one thing that was taken into consideration. Who are the top female directors and sports directors around, that weren’t necessarily getting the breaks that they would want?

“If I give you an example, Clair Goodwin, who’s our director at the marathon race walks, she vision mixed BBC’s athletics for a long time and never really got the opportunity to direct. We gave her the opportunity to work with us about four or five years ago on a World Indoors. We said, “right, you understand the sport. Come in and have a go”. She came in and she did a phenomenal job. I would say that she’s probably – I’ll spare her blushes slightly – but I would say that she’s probably one of the best women athletics directors in the world, by far. Her attention to detail is phenomenal. Really, really good. And she has a really good eye for it.

“So the gender parity was a big part of it, but then it was how we felt as though people would fit into a team,” continues Fulton. “It wasn’t necessarily, “we’re going to choose that person because of their skills there”. If you actually go around to each of the galleries, it’s a team and it’s how people work together as a team. We put producers and directors together that worked together, PAs together that worked together, EVS operators.”

Fulton gives an example of this team collaboration that has been implemented at the World Athletics Championships: “We’ve got Maura Cabral, a young Portuguese director, who’s working on one of the feeds for us. We worked with her in Cali last year. And again, another very, very talented director that’s not really been given the opportunity, but we’ve surrounded her with a team of people that are Portuguese. We’ve got some Portuguese camera crew, Portuguese EVS operators, but a really good team of people that she can work with and that she can rely on. Because this is a massive team effort; you can’t understate that. It’s not just about one or two people producing a feed. You can’t understate how tough it is, how important the EVS is on a B-feed of a long jumper or a B-feed of a shot put; their roles are just as important as the EVS operators in the integrated feed that are turning the field events around that effectively get distributed as our integrated feed. It is a massive, massive team effort.”

Fulton adds on the importance of his team: “The PAs are the people that keep us all honest and keep us on track in terms of times and things. The PA that I have next to me, Lorna Dalgetty, is hugely experienced, but we have fun when we’re in there as well. I think when we had the production meeting at the beginning of the week and I said to everybody, “look, this is very serious. It’s a serious job, but we’ve got to enjoy it and we’ve got to have fun while we do it. Yes, it’ll be stressful at times, but if we don’t enjoy it, there’s no point in doing it. And if we enjoy it, we get a better product”. And I think it shows on the screen that when you enjoy it, the product is 10 times better.”

Fulton adds: “You go on air and you think you’re going one way and suddenly something is thrown completely left field and you’re going another way,” continues Fulton. “And I love it. I think it’s exciting. I think, certainly from my side, I think it brings out the best of what I do as a producer. But again, I have Lorna [Dalgetty] keeping me honest when it comes to timings. And I have Richard Carr, who’s I would say probably one of the best presentation directors around, who is just phenomenal and very calm, understands the sport. I can’t overstate that the team is massive on this.”

The World Athletic Championships 2023 feed directors are:

INTEGRATED Director: Richard Carr
TRACK Director: Westbury Gillett
LONG THROWS Director: Melanie Walker
HORIZONTAL JUMPS A Director: Kate McKeag
HORIZONTAL JUMPS B Director: Maura Cabral
VERTICAL JUMPS A Director: Paul Gardam
VERTICAL JUMPS B Director: Breeze Lomas
SHOT PUT A Director: Sarah McLaughlin
SHOT PUT B Director: Charlie Smith
MRW: Director Clair Goodwin