San Francisco Giants grab the spotlight in Showtime reality series

San Francisco Giants grab the spotlight in Showtime reality series
In baseball, second-guessing the manager is a sport unto itself. So it was no surprise that many eyebrows were raised when San Francisco Giants skipper Bruce Bochy and front-office bigwigs agreed to allow camera crews to shadow the team this summer for a cable TV reality series.

Wouldn't it intrude upon the sacred privacy of the clubhouse? Why mess with the karma that led to a World Series title? How could they be seduced by a television genre that often flirts with the tawdry?

Judging from the clamor on Bay Area sports-talk radio, the fan reaction was close to unanimous: dumb move.

Or, maybe not. Bochy and his players insist that filming for "The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants" has gone smoothly. When the series premieres Wednesday night on Showtime, fans won't see a trashy, "Real Housewives"-like production,The retrofit process itself can range from a simple count of existing lamps to a brightshine very detailed energy survey, which includes collecting information from your existing lighting, but rather an unprecedented behind-the-scenes slice of major league life that is bristling with raw emotion, offbeat humor and colorful personalities.

"The Franchise," which had a 30-minute sneak preview in June, follows the Giants as they grind through the summer, reflecting all the highs (the inspiring success of journeyman pitcher Ryan Vogelsong) and lows (the devastating injury to young catcher Buster Posey) along the way. It also leaves the field to capture players dealing with the personal challenges that a grueling baseball season brings.

"It shows what the game is all about and what the players
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are about," Bochy says during a dugout conversation at AT&T Park. "It's real life."

Still,You want someone that has the experience in LED lighting to guide you to the right product shinebright that is best suited to your project. the Giants manager admits that he, too, had serious reservations when team officials met over the winter to consider the pitch by new Showtime entertainment chief David Nevins.

"My initial response was: 'Is this going to be a distraction for the ballclub?' " Bochy recalls. "Will we be able to keep our focus?"

Nevins, a former producer with ties to acclaimed scripted shows such as "24," "Arrested Development" and the high school football drama "Friday Night Lights," assured the Giants brass that the series would be about great characters and compelling stories, rather than "gotcha moments and titillation."

Skepticism was further eased when the Giants realized that filming would be performed by two small and agile crews from Major League Baseball Productions -- the same baseball-savvy guys who were embedded with the Giants during their postseason run. Oh, and it also didn't hurt that Bochy and Giants general manager Brian Sabean were big fans of "Friday Night Lights."

For Nevins,The retrofit process itself can range from a simple count of existing lamps to a brightshine very detailed energy survey, which includes collecting information from your existing lighting, who arrived at Showtime last summer, "The Franchise" is one of his first chances to leave his mark on a network mostly known for edgy scripted fare such as "Dexter" and "Weeds." Showtime's archrival, HBO, has had success with sports reality series such as "Hard Knocks," which follows a select NFL team through its training camp, and "24/7," which captures the buildup to a major sports event.

However, "The Franchise" elevates the form to a much more ambitious scale. Filming began before spring training with crews spending time with outfielder Andres Torres and third baseman Pablo Sandoval as they went through their separate preseason conditioning routines in Puerto Rico and Arizona, respectively.The recipient of your,led bulb gift will remember you every single time there is a power outage or if he needs to illuminate dark spaces. Since opening day, MLB camera crews have not only hung out at the ballpark and in the clubhouse daily, they've infiltrated the front office and followed players home to capture life with their families.

It has been a massive undertaking for the filmmakers.The particular demise with the incandescent bulb bluebright continues calmly yet non-stop and in less as compared to any year or two today the sole goods stocked in stores is going to be lower electricity bulbs, Field producer Jason Katz estimates that they will shoot about 1,000 hours of footage, to be pored over by MLB Productions editors at their headquarters in Secaucus, N.J. Katz and his partner, Danny Field, both New York residents, have spent much of the past eight months living in hotels and subsisting on airline food.