Dallas Crew Heads to Las Vegas for Superbowl LVIII

Managing DP, Nate Galluppi and apprentice, Cooper Patterson were given the opportunity to work the week of Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas, Nevada for CBS Sports. Here’s Cooper’s recount of the week:

We spent an entire day packing up all of our equipment and tools that they were going to need to bring to Vegas. We were planning to check 8 cases of gear, two suitcases, and a cart.  One thing I’ve learned about checking bags at airports is that you’re allowed to check 10 items as well as a carry-on and small bag. Luckily, there’s two of us. So we were able to check all of our stuff, but it’s good to know in the future. 

Saturday, We flew to Vegas with no problems. But once we landed, we discovered that the rental company was two shuttle buses away from the airport. With a cart overflowing with gears and two carry on items, we knew that the shuttle bus wasn’t going to work. Nate took the shuttle bus and listened to the driver Russ talk about his “Russ Bus” while I stayed back and waited for Nate to pick me up in our rental. I think I was the lucky one in that situation. After that, we picked up our credentials,  checked into our hotel room, and called it a night. 

Sunday, we had a set up day and headed to the Mandalay Bay where they hosted ‘Radio Row’ where all the media mediums come together. Our call time was 8 am, but we made sure we got to the resort at 7 to give us time to park, find where we needed to go, and pass through security. As I was pushing the cart throughout the resort. I’ve discovered that carpets are my nemesis and would make pushing the cart twice as hard as the wheels would dig into the carpet. The convention center was humongous and had banners of all previous super bowls hanging up, a cool sight to see. 

We were at Radio Row as a part of the Jim Rome Show, capturing guest interviews and talkbacks to their main set that was elsewhere on the strip. We used a 720 bi color Nanlites our key light and two Light Panel Astra 6Xs our fill and back lights. We met our producer Sean and our technical director who brought and would be monitoring the LiveU unit we would be using for the week. After we set up our shot and tested audio, LiveU, and IFBs, we were released, not a bad first day in Vegas.From Monday through Thursday, we would return to Radio Row and wait for our scheduled guests. We had Hall of Famers such as Dan Marino, Joe Montana, and Emmit Smith as well as current star players like Max Crosby and Ja’mar Chase pass by. I was in charge of the audio as well as the IFBs for the guests. While I was putting the earbud on the guests, I’d ask them two questions. First; “Which ear would you prefer for the IFB?” and “Did you ever think that playing in the NFL meant that a random guy would start shoving things into your ear?” They’d chuckle and little and agree. At the end of our week on Radio Row, we captured around two dozen interviews and talkbacks for the Jim Rome Show, and it all went very smoothly.

Throughout the week, various GTC crew were flying in and we would spend our nights hanging out and getting to know each other. At different points throughout the week, we all managed to have some down time for some bonding opportunities, whether it be hiking up 2000 mountains, or visiting Red Rock state park, or because we were in Vegas, hitting the casinos. It’s great to be part of a crew that can not only help us during our work life, but also be a friend in real life. 

For Super Bowl weekend, Friday through Sunday, we’d be in charge of filming the San Francisco 49ers walking onto the bus from their hotel as they would make their way to the Stadium. Friday and Saturday were practice days to test LiveU, IFBs, and to prepare us from any curveballs that would come in our way, we also did a couple stand up live shots with our correspondent (insert dude’s name here) as a tease for Sunday’s show. Parking wasn’t an issue, but before we were allowed into the hotel compound, which looked like Fort Knoxx, we would have to wait for approval of credentials and for K-9 dogs to sniff our cart full of gear. My theory is that any dogs (K-9, service dogs, therapy dogs) that wear a harness that says ‘Don’t pet’ makes them 10x cuter knowing that you can’t pet them. But those dogs are such good boys and girls they’ve earned the pets. On Sunday, we had a correspondent set the scene of the 49ers and then we would switch to the players walking out of the hotel and into the buses. For the correspondent, we put up a silk diffusion attached to two combo stands to soften the sun and added Astras and Nanlite 300s to  fill. When we switched to following the players, Nate went handheld to catch players as they walked past to get on their bus. 

Once all the players were on the bus, we rushed down the hotel’s driveway to get a shot of the buses taking off. Nate’s holding the camera and I’m with the live u and tripod. We got the shot, broke the set, and called it on our Super Bowl week. We were finished with our tasks, took a little break before we packed up cases for our flight back and watched the Superbowl back at our AirBnb with several other GTC crews that were done for the day. 

Monday, we flew back to Texas. Nate dropped me off with all the gear while he returned the rental car. We landed in Texas early afternoon, and I’d spend the rest of the day sleeping and being sore from all that hiking.