How To Film The World Cup

From Moscow to Maracanã

From midnight-in-Moscow to the Maracanã. Premier League, Champions League, and World Cup camera man, Paul Burbidge speaks to Pitch about a lifetime spent filming the Beautiful Game

Fresh off the plane from England’s October Autumn Nations League fixture against Finland, life-long football cameraman Paul Burbidge joins us at Medicine Bakery in Birmingham. A hub for the city's creative scene in the1980s and 1990s, it’s an appropriate setting for our conversation about his career spent behind the lens. “The travelling is brilliant when you’re younger,” ‘Bubs’ opens up, having self-admittedly only seen the back of a viewfinder during his 24 hours in the White City. “It’s different being older and having a family,” he continues. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but I’d much rather go down the road to Villa Park.” It’s the club he’s supported his whole life, the 47-year-old’ssubtle Brummy accent serving as all the justification needed, if there were ever any doubt.

“My old man used to tell me that you’re only as good as your last game. Thankfully, my last game at Villa Park was the win against Bayern Munich. ”He says, referencing The Lions’ 1-0 hitjob over the six-time Champions League winners on October 2.“I caught every frame of John Duran’s winner,” he says, describing Neuer’s futile dive as though wading through lumpy custard. “I had to be at that game, and I’m so thankful I was there to film it.”

From there, tales of Villa’s 1982 triumph in the competition–again against Bayern in the final–get passed around the table. “It’s one of the few times I’ve shouted during a football match. After 25 years in my profession, that’s got to be the best moment. My Dad went to the semi-final in ’82, he was there again to see this with my lad. ”As Paul reflects on past triumphs, the present demands of his job continue to grow. In the last 14 months alone, he’s seen England lose two major finals, seen nearly every major football-playing nation via the Champions League, and spent the best part of two months in Germany for the Euros.

“Elevenses is a nice change of pace,” he jokes. “I’ve never sat down and counted the number of football matches I’ve been to but with TV money flying about like it is now, that number is quickly rising. You’d think stadiums would be built to suit, but that’s far from the truth.“At the old Boleyn Ground, I had to walk through Ray Winstone’s box every week. Security was never too happy but Winnie always welcomed me with open arms, and more often than not a drink after the game.”

The Wembley gantry, the shutterbug suggests, is far too high. “We built a temporary gantry on the bottom tier, it means being closer to the action and results in a far better watch come matchday.

“At Anfield, we had to do the same,” the lensman continues. “The cameras behind the Kop are on lightweight tripods, people knock those over all the time, it’s a battle but football’s greatest asset is its voice, it’s why eight million tune in every week.

Despite stadia remaining in the dark ages, Burbidge emphasizes that “filming in any discipline has changed dramatically since the advent of 4K.Games are filmed with a wider lens thanks to the picture-perfect nature of the result.

“Watching footage from the ’80s, Camera One–the one sat on the half way line filming most of the game–follows the ball around the pitch. Now it’s all about giving people at home the full picture, tactics-wise,” he says. “The average football fan is far more clued up on the game. It’s changing how football is played, watched, and importantly for me, filmed.

“Wider shots help broadcasters meet criteria for sponsorships. Cutting to Bukayo Saka or Kobbie Mainoo dribbling their way out of a tight corner might be good for television but it’s counterproductive for commerce. Spanish crews take this to another level, which I think makes La Liga a horrendous watch, it’s an inescapable labyrinth of Buy Buy Buy. Bet Bet Bet. Mesmerising for all the wrong reasons.”

“Pep Guardiola has ruined my life,” Paul says, half-jokingly, but there’s truth behind the statement. “Passing round the back makes filming a tactical minefield and it can be a dull watch.”

“Special moments caught on film matter now more than ever”

Football’s proverbial winds of change have been blowing tactics that way since the Premier League began, the cameraman reckons. “Special moments caught on film matter more now than ever, 30-yarders seem to become rarer each year. And yet, appetite for the Prem is higher than ever. ”It’s a statement the stats back up, with the latest media rights deal coined at £6.7 billion.

Beyond the land of billion-pound notes and shiny-headed tacticians, the lower leagues bring their own nuisances. Squat stands and route-one football fosters more action with camera in hand. “FA Cup fixtures and scaffold gantry’s never get old, that’s football nirvana for me–side ways rain and sleet aside–I always feel like I’ve earned my crust after a 0-0 draw in the freezing cold.” Being able to do it all exists as the very parameters for the job, Burbidge continues: “I’ve taken in sounds, smells, and sights from all sorts of stadiums all across the world.”

“My first World Cup was 2002 in Korea and Japan. That was the first tournament to switch to Home Broadcasting Services (HBS),” a specialist broadcast organization, established with the mandate of producing television and radio for major football tournaments. “It was a change that saw football become universal. People crowded around a ’90s box telly in Rio were receiving the same pictures as folk enjoying a pint of brown ale in Stoke.

“The World Cup is a different beast. Filming the Germany vs Argentina final at the Maracanã in 2010 has to be the biggest game I’ve covered. That Mario Götze goal was the game's single most significant moment. Big games are often decided by fine margins, but for it to happen like it did, in the113th minute, from the left boot of a 22-year-old not much of the world had heard of was magnificent.”

“On a selfish note, I was distraught because I missed it. Perhaps the biggest goal in football history and my fucking director told me to film the crowd about a minute before, he wanted to see nervous fans. I missed the tournament's defining moment because I was facing the wrong way. My biggest regret, without question.

“Waking up that morning in Rio was special. Knowing you’re filming the final, knowing you have your own part to play in history, in a game people could be watching 100 years from now is an incredible feeling.”

“I captured the first slow-motion shot of the game which put the nerves to the back of my mind. You’ve got a foothold in the game then–like scoring the first goal if you will.”

As far as preparations for global tournaments go, it’s a watertight process. Crews from around the world land in the host nation a week before the first game and from there test the pre-prepared equipment to within an inch of its life. “Rocking up to an empty stadium to pretend to film a football game isn’t all that glamorous–I liken it to practicing tying your shoelaces–but it has to be done.

“Everyone wants to be on the artsy cameras, the reverse super slow-mo being the golden ticket. Crowd cam is probably the worst, but they’re all there for a reason.”

“I did England’s group stage fixture against Sweden at the 2002 World Cup, as a rookie back then I was put on manager cam which is (usually) the easiest job in the world–sit and film one manager for 90 minutes from the other side of the ground. A night off effectively.”

“Turning up at the game to find Sweden had recently appointed two managers–both stood at either side of the technical area in Saitama like they’d never met each other–meant my night took a turn for the worst. Sven was at the wheel for the Three Lions, another Swede, three Swedish managers in one game has to be a record.”

As far as the set-up goes, the 47-year-old explains that there are 36 manned cameras at every World Cup game, 50 in total with extras. “The drones, spider cam, and goal line cameras all come from an external company called Aerial Camera Solutions. They get all the cinematic shots; stadia, landscapes, Christ the Redeemer–you name it.

“When it comes to World Cup finals, we might not have filmed a game for a couple of weeks but taking a half to get back into it is out of the question. “You want the big games, outside of the obvious reasons, identifying players from row Z can be disastrous when you’ve no idea who they are or what they look like. You’re going to get a couple blunders in each game. People say it’s not life or death, and I tend to agree, but in miss-quoting the late great Bill Shankly here, ‘I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.’

From Johannesburg to Rio, Moscow and Qatar, international football tournaments are never without political discourse. Burbidge verbalizes that “in South Africa, there were rumors about shanty towns being shipped out for the duration of the festival. And in Brazil, it was the same again, gangs were allegedly being paid off to keep their distance.

“It always feels sanitized at major tournaments, with everyone being on their best behavior but you’ve also got to bear in mind that the World Cupis the biggest cultural melting pot on the planet. People are generally there to have a good time, win or lose. And tickets aren’t cheap.

“Games in Recife and Natal were the worst it got in Brazil. Our bags were stolen in the hotel reception whilst we were standing in the lobby. It’s pretty sketchy being stuck in the middle of the jungle with nothing to do and without a phone or any means of contacting home but you’re there and you’ve got a job to do.

“We have two or three stadiums to cover in the group stages which are all mapped out before we get there. The first time at a stadium is always difficult. And turning up in Recife for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. I was probably a bit naïve in that sense, even finding the camera feltlike a battle, it can be lonely up in the terraces.

“It can be chaotic too. Covering Mexico’s group stage win against France in South Africa in 2010, I was in with the fans again. Javier Hernandez put the South Americans ahead with a penalty. Cue bedlam. The dictionary definition of ‘limbs’. I was kicking fans away; I think I ended up about three rows below where I was originally stationed.

“‘We’re being attacked. We’re being attacked,’ I shouted down the mic. They had to drag the army in to settle things down. Of course, once that blew over, the fans wanted photos with soldiers in front of the cameras. Them being about six-foot-five, the second half was a write-off.”

“The game has evolved since then, and so have the means by which we watch it. The ‘Netflixification’ of sport is shaping how we film. Through introducing ‘celeb cam’, a wholly American invention, we’re leaning on anew audience–brought to life by people like Ryan Reynolds and RobMcElhenney. You’re praying for a viral clip when stationed on that camera–David Beckham punching Noel Gallagher in the face or something like that–it’s never happened for me, unfortunately.

“Back in the days of ITV digital, they tried to introduce an in-yer-face manager cam. I covered a Burnley vs Man City game in '99. It was Stan Turner vs Kevin Keegan. The latter told me to ‘fuck off. You’re not pointing that thing at me,’ he said in the first half and then Turner followed up in the second: ‘Get that out of my face and fuck off. You’ve been pointing that at me all game,’ he said. All the while, the director is telling me to do the opposite: ‘film him, film him.’ Thankfully I didn’t get chinned, and they scrapped the idea a few games later.

“‘Steady cam’, still exists. That involves running onto the pitch at the end of the game on handheld rigs. It’s a specialist position, being able to move like that with heavy kit. One guy has been capturing that money shot for 30years.Running onto the pitch bow-legged–presumably due to the pressure on his spine. He was there for the Beckham free kick against Greece at Old Trafford in 2001 and is still here witnessing the rise of England’s new golden generation. Belting onto the pitch23 years ago, we could all hear the bollocking he got over comms at the time, but it doesn’t half look good on telly.”

And that sums up the crooks of it all. As we reach the dregs of what is now cold coffee, the ins and outs of what it means to be involved in an almost-universal product like football become ever-more apparent. And with that, Paul Burbidge, lensman extraordinaire, concludes that “Everyone growing up dreams of one day becoming a professional footballer. Being so intimately involved with this beautiful game, for me, is as close as we mere mortals can get.

“Everyone growing up dreams of one day becoming a professional footballer.
Being so intimately involved with this beautiful game, for me, is as close as we mere mortals can get”