Rat Race on TV

[harry]

I didn't see the coverage but from what I've heard they basically told the story they wanted to tell and used any footage that fitted in.

I reckon they probably made me look like a total useless idiot but I got talked into it at the last minute and got dragged round with Bruce and Phil despite an injury (which is ongoing) and managed to survive and got through all the challenges even though I'd never done any of them before -abseiling was fun - the climbing less so as you probably noticed if you saw the footage!

Someone said it must be the hardest thing you've ever done, nah not the hardest but certainly the silliest!

I heard they only they showed the orienteering at Wester Hailes, that's a shame because what a joke that was and so far from real orienteering.

Some thought is needed if the orienteers involved really want to manipulate the Rat Race in order to publicise our sport. I would say that this could be a waste of time, something like the Rat Race is all about the razzmatazz and not so big on substance, a bit like that dvd nopesport made showing orienteering, it was beautiful to watch with some great action and nice editing but it said very little about orienteering. Theirry's videos give a better idea because you actually see the map fitting to the ground.

Other development work that's going on is undoubtably doing a lot more good for orienteering than the Rat Race but there is perhaps some potential for getting our sport on TV. I can name a lot of orienteers who aren't quite at the top of our sport who could go on there, have fun and do really well and give a good message about orienteering. But if they are going on to advertise nopesport then they should get their entries paid (£££) If I was lining up a teamNopesport I would include people like Rachel Majumdar who have done a wide range of outdoor sports already.

[Nails]

I was particularly dissapointed by the farcical way in which the RR in Edinburgh was portrayed. As has been said earlier navigating is a necessity for getting round an adventure race.
From an outsiders point of view it would look as if you just 'got' between all the special stages. "Dunno how they get between each special stage -maybe they cycle to the station and get a train?" This needs to be spelt out -competitors were given a map showing a route, which they had to follow with only map and compass.
For f sake its not a treasure hunt -though sometimes ar's do feel like a hunt -mostly because they don't have orienteers like brooner et al on the organisation.

My biggest pisser was the fact they didn't even show us finishing in 2nd place! I do remember them filming us and interviewing at the end -but as far as the programme was concerned it finished up:

1 Macpac
2 Sleepmonsters
3 Saab Salmon
8 maybe or 12? Compasspoint -think they jacked -but who knows?

Not impressed

[Adventure Racer]

I didn't see the coverage but from what I've heard they basically told the story they wanted to tell and used any footage that fitted in.

That's just the way TV programmes work.

I reckon they probably made me look like a total useless idiot

I didn't think so particularly - but then I knew a bit of the context which may have made a difference. Yes you were on tow all the time - but then so was every other woman they featured! I suspect the average viewer didn't get the point when Bruce said on Sunday morning about you having had some food and rest though...

the climbing less so as you probably noticed if you saw the footage!

Indeed!

I heard they only they showed the orienteering at Wester Hailes, that's a shame because what a joke that was and so far from real orienteering.

The question is, would any of the other orienteering have looked any different? All the viewer would have seen was a team of 3 people running about in the woods rather than round a housing estate. They did actually show some of Arthur's seat on Saturday night, but it wasn't made clear it was a navigation exercise, and even if they'd shown the map I don't think it would have been any clearer that this was orienteering and somehow special. I think the big problem is that it's difficult to make orienteering into good television - bearing in mind the target audience is the general public rather than other orienteers. What would have been good would have been to film the Elite-only Micro-O looking down from the top of the crags as Brooner suggested - with proper editing of the people in various teams (you could superimpose runners as they do in coverage of rallying), though of course it's only really interesting when people make mistakes! I'd have personally found that a lot more interesting than a lot of the stuff they did show anyway (was interesting being the only orienteer in my team to try and work out directions to the other checkpoints to help the others out - might be a good training exercise to do something like this). The secret here is that you have to sell it to them as making interesting TV rather than because it shows off orienteering.

[harry]

I agree. The best TV programmes featuring orienteering are when it is an exciting elite race building to a climax but to make it good you need a LOT of cameras.

That is the only reason MicrO in WOC was going to be good because NTV4 were going to pay for loads of cameras - but it could have been even better without the MicrO and lots of cameras.
Maybe that will still happen who knows.

But back to O on TV in the Rat Race. They would need an orienteer to be involved in the actual TV production and flash up clips of the map perhaps with markings superimposed of where the runners were heading -lets face it they aren't going to commission TracTrac for the Rat Race! This approach would be more entertaining if they are making a big mistake!

It's unrealistic to imagine they are going to go to this effort. But, correct me if i'm wrong, orienteers are currently massively helping the Rat Race (organisation of all the orienteering stages including control hanging, volunteers, maps) for free or for minimal perks like the odd free jacket. The Rat Race at least from the outside seems like a massive commercial operation. Does it make money?

Shouldn't the orienteers be giving their services in return for something, eg. exposure for the sport? Even if this is just a free entry or some control over O coverage or something?