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For nearly four decades, NFL Films has been responsible for many of the images that defined professional football. When NFL games are filmed through a telephoto lens wielded by one of the company's expert camera operators, and are then shown in that distinctive slow motion, with rousing music and poetic narration, something magical happens. A crunchingly violent football game becomes a beautiful ballet. In this video from
National Geographic, the camera is on the camera operators of NFL films as they cover their biggest event of the year, the Super Bowl. Shots of the filmmakers preparing their long lenses in a locker room make it seem as if they are a third team in the contest. They know that their films will be seen for years, and they labor to capture, as one camera operator puts it, "the single play that defines the entire game." The viewer gets to tag along with the film crews as they capture shots of frenzied fans in the parking lot, players performing lone pregame rituals, and, of course, the camera operators getting the perfect angle for those incredible shots that sports fans have come to expect. This is a fascinating documentary, and it does much to answer the perennial question asked by football fans: "How'd they get that shot?"
--Robert J. McNamara
