Live From Final Four: TheW.tv’s Dynamic Duo Pulls Double Duty

Conference video team lends Gonzaga a hand as Bulldogs make a run to the Final

For a school like Gonzaga and a league like the West Coast Conference, the stage doesn’t get any bigger than this. The Bulldogs are taking part in their first Final Four in program history, and the WCC has a team here for the first time in 60 years. So, when some staffing changes left the Gonzaga athletic department without a video director heading into the postseason, the conference’s digital network, TheW.tv, swooped in to save the day.

The West Coast Conference’s Ezra Broder (left) and Sarah Kezele are producing video content for both the Gonzaga athletic department and the conference’s digital network, TheW.tv.

WCC Director, Video Services, Ezra Broder and host/reporter Sarah Kezele would have made the trip to Glendale, AZ, to chronicle Gonzaga’s run through Final Four weekend for TheW.tv but are now doubling up as the videographers for Gonzaga as well.

Broder and Kezele have essentially been given free rein to create the type of content they feel best tells the story of Gonzaga’s trip to Arizona. He forwards completed content to the school’s marketing and social media director and the sports information department to do with as they wish on their website and on various social channels.

The efforts are more than just a favor and formality, though. By serving in the official role of “Gonzaga’s videographer,” Broder receives rights to create and post content that he normally would not have working with simply TheW.tv.

“It also gives access that we normally wouldn’t have gotten,” he explains. “I’ll be able to go into the locker room pregame and postgame. That’s access we wouldn’t have if we were just here representing the conference office.”

Broder is shooting with a Panasonic P2 HD camera, and a vast majority of the content created is of the behind-the-scenes nature; press-conference video is acquired, packaged, and delivered to schools and media outlets by the NCAA.

As Gonzaga’s videographer, Broder is allowed to shoot highlights from beneath the basket. The Bulldogs brought with them a technology that they use to wirelessly take in the audio from radio announcer Tom Hudson. That eliminates having to mix that audio when editing highlight packages in Adobe Premiere.

Broder and Kezele are still committed to feeding content to TheW.tv’s various distribution channels. He is shooting and editing content for the channel while she handles much of the social-media work, shooting almost exclusively with a smartphone.