Rams on Hard Knocks — previews

‘Hard Knocks’ is best workplace drama on television

Dan Hanzus

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000662343/article/hbo-unveils-2016-la-rams-hard-knocks-trailer

OXNARD, Calif. — Choosing a Hard Knocks team isn’t usually easy. This year proved to be an exception to the rule.

The Rams will make their star turn when the ground-breaking HBO series makes its return for an 11th season on Aug. 9 at 10 p.m. ET. Hard Knocks coordinating producer Ken Rodgers explained how quickly it came together during a news conference at the Rams’ practice facility Thursday.

“As soon as the announcement was made at the March owners meetings that the Rams were returning to Los Angeles, I really think it was a three-way tie between the organizations calling each other — HBO, NFL Films and the Rams — and saying, ‘This makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?'”

The Rams make for compelling Hard Knocks fodder, no doubt. This will mark the first time the series will document what goes on behind the scenes when an entire organization moves from one city to another. It’s also the first time Hard Knocks will have cameras rolling with a No. 1 overall pick in the building.

Just don’t expect the season to be a Jared Goff-fest.

“It’s not going to be The Jared Goff Show,” said Matt Dissinger, director of Hard Knocks since last year’s Texans excursion. “It might seem, and hopefully we do this well, that when you watch the show you’ll think we shot a million times with him, but in reality he wears a wire once during practice, during the game, then get a couple of off-the-field shoots throughout the duration of camp.”

Some other takeaways from the Hard Knocks news conference:

» Rams coach Jeff Fisher was on the makeshift podium, situated on a tennis court at the Residence Inn in Oxnard that doubles as the Rams’ home. I asked Fisher a couple of questions about how he’ll handle Hark Knocks cameras, but ol’ Fish was more slippery than general manager Les Snead at a crew cut convention.

Would Fisher be worried about the robotic cameras (there will be 12 of them on the grounds) catching him saying or doing things he’d rather keep private? “No, I’ll have plenty of towels,” Fisher said. “I’ll just flip a towel over the lens and we’ll be fine.”

In addition to the dozen robotic cameras, NFL Films will have a 32-person crew on site for each day of shooting. And you wonder why some coaches are spooked by the thought …

» Rodgers and Dissinger both offered good insight on what Hard Knocks tries to do and made no apologies for not catering to the Xs and Os crowd. Said Rodgers: “This is a personality-driven show about what it’s like to get a job and keep a job. … This show has always been about people and we’re going to continue to keep it that way.” Dissinger put it another way: “I look at Hard Knocks as a workplace drama.”

» Rams running back Todd Gurley was made available to journos after the news conference and didn’t sound like a guy who would be scheming for air time on premium cable. We asked Gurley if he’d be fine if a Hard Knocks cameraman hopped in his car for a day in the life with Todd: “Nah, I’m not doing all that,” he replied. “Me personally? I don’t need that.”

» Aaron Donald was under the mistaken impression that HBO bleeps out swearing in HK episodes. I let him know that was not the case. Was he worried his mother could come down on him for salty language? “It’s a game. It’s a physical game. There’s a lot of emotions. Just like if you were out with your brother, you fight your brother sometimes, but at the end of day you’re going to squash it and that’s going to be that.”

» There are no shortcuts for the Hard Knocks creative team. No one is asked to repeat a funny line, or walk through a doorway for continuity’s sake. Rodgers said there are 90 different storylines entering camp, which each player representing a story.

“It reminds me of a saying that Steve Sabol had when he described what it was like to produce Hard Knocks,” Rodgers said, referring to the late co-founder of NFL Films. “He said it’s like building an airplane in a flight. Only once it takes off can you figure out what you have to do to keep flying.”

A scary thought, but a process that delivers year after year. Don’t miss our Around The NFL episode recaps in August.

Rams don’t expect ‘Hard Knocks’ HBO series to be a distraction

Sam Farmer

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-rams-hard-knocks-20160513-column.html

The first time NFL Films documented a training camp was 49 years ago, when the legendary storytellers focused their lens on the Green Bay Packers. It was a good news/bad news experience.

The good news: Packers coach Vince Lombardi was enthralled, giving rare access to his players, who seemed energized and especially sharp with the cameras trained on them. The coach, initially skeptical, insisted the filmmakers stay for a second day.

The bad news: The crew ran out of film by the end of Day 1.

That didn’t bother Lombardi, who was entirely comfortable with the crew faking it on Day 2, simply pointing empty cameras at his players to keep them on their toes. He recognized the upside of putting his team in the spotlight.

Empty cameras won’t be an issue for NFL Films this summer when it chronicles Rams training camp for “Hard Knocks,” the critically acclaimed, all-access HBO series. Five camera crews and 12 robotic cameras shoot roughly 350 hours of footage for a single one-hour episode.

“Just to get through the footage is a challenge, let alone crafting the story and editing it,” said Ken Rodgers, who oversees the show as NFL Films coordinating producer.

When Rodgers began working on the series in 2007, when the Kansas City Chiefs were the focus, NFL Films would send footage back to its New Jersey headquarters on two flights per day. Now, with everything shot digitally and uploaded over the Internet, the process is virtually instantaneous.

“Before practice is over, on any given day, the team back at NFL Films can start working on the footage that was shot at the beginning of practice,” Rodgers said. “That’s how quick the turnaround is now.”

Rodgers participated in a “Hard Knocks” news conference Thursday at the Rams’ temporary home in Oxnard, along with Peter Nelson, executive vice president of HBO Sports; Matt Dissinger, the show’s director; and Rams Coach Jeff Fisher.

“We pride ourselves in making as small a footprint as we can, relative to other productions,” said Dissinger, whose crews have already been gathering footage on the club’s move back to Los Angeles. “We try as best we can to blend into the background, and hope Coach Fisher and his staff will have the same reaction that we’ve had in past camps where people don’t even notice we’re around.”

Fisher said he talked to several coaches, assistant coaches and players from previous “Hard Knocks” teams to make sure it wouldn’t put the Rams at a competitive disadvantage to participate. The recent numbers weigh in his favor. The last six “Hard Knocks” teams have matched or improved their win-loss record from the previous season, and the Cincinnati Bengals (2009, 2013), New York Jets (2010) and Houston Texans (2015) all made the playoffs in the season they were featured.

The show kicks off its five-episode season Aug. 9 at 10 p.m., airing each subsequent Tuesday and culminating with a Sept. 6 finale.

“We want this to be the best show to date,” Fisher said. “We want to pave the way for the member clubs to line up for the opportunity to do this … The players are familiar, they understand what’s ahead, we’ve talked to the coaches and they’re excited.”

Fisher was quick to add, though, that “we want them to be football players, not actors.”

Running back Todd Gurley said he expects training camp to be business as usual, and defensive tackle Aaron Donald likewise shrugged off the notion of “Hard Knocks” potentially being a distraction.

“It’s just a camera in your face,” Donald said. “The game we play, there’s always a camera in your face.”

As for punter Johnny Hekker, he will be especially mindful of his word choice.

“I’ve got to make sure,” he said, “that my grandmother doesn’t have to hear me bleeped out.”

Rams ready for their close-up as subject of ‘Hard Knocks’

Joe Curley / Ventura County Star

http://www.vcstar.com/sports/rams-ready-for-their-close-up-as-subject-of-hard-knocks-329830a5-3211-06b3-e053-0100007fdcc8-379279651.html

An admitted fan of “Hard Knocks,” Aaron Donald isn’t concerned about being a subject — rather than a consumer — of the long-running HBO NFL training camp series this summer.

“It’s just a camera in your face,” the star defensive lineman said Thursday. “With the game that we play, there’s always a camera in your face. So just go out there and do what you’ve been doing.”

As if the Los Angeles Rams didn’t have enough going on this offseason as they transition from St. Louis to Southern California, the franchise will be the first NFL West team to be the subject of the annual HBO and NFL Films collaboration.

“I’m not worried,” Rams running back Todd Gurley said. “I’m already an outgoing person. If the cameras come around, that’s cool. But we’re going to do our job.”

The Rams welcomed HBO Sports executive vice president Peter Nelson, NFL Films coordinating producer Ken Rodgers and Hard Knocks director Matt Dissinger to River Ridge fields in Oxnard on Thursday to discuss how the Rams “made sense” for the five-part, behind-the-scene reality show’s 11th season.

“As soon as the announcement was made at the (January) owners meetings that the Rams were returning to Los Angeles,” Rodgers said, “I really think it was a three-way tie between the organizations calling each other … HBO, NFL Films and the Rams saying, ‘This makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?’ ”

After all, what is more Los Angeles than reality TV? Of course, the Rams will be the first team to have their move captured by the show, which means the filming has already begun.

“It really is a dream as a filmmaker to have a situation like that with a team that is intent of taking the next step and doing so in a new market,” Rodgers said. “It’s not only great for HBO and the viewers, it’s great for NFL Films historically to record this.”

Rams head coach Jeff Fisher was sold once he was satisfied the show wouldn’t put the team at a competitive disadvantage.

“From a competitive standpoint, they’re not going to capture walkthrough and installations and football and all those things,” Fisher said. “It’s more about the storylines. Once we got past that, it really made total sense to do this.”

The Rams are the eighth franchise to do the show, joining Baltimore, Dallas (twice), Kansas City, Cincinnati (twice), New York Jets, Atlanta and Houston.

Rodgers mentioned the last six teams on the show “have had as good as or better record than the year before they appeared on ‘Hard Knocks.’ ” Four of those six teams have made the playoffs.

Quarterback Jared Goff will be the first No. 1 overall draft pick to have his rookie season chronicled by the show.

Although Dissinger was quick to point out that this season “will not be the Jared Goff show.”

“I’m not concerned about Jared being able to handle it,” Fisher said. “He’s not going to be the only story. That’s the key with what we’re doing. He’ll be a story. I’ll be great to follow him, to follow his progress. But it’s not going to take away from his ability to compete and potentially become a starter as soon as he can.”

Although much of the show will be filmed at UC Irvine, where the Rams will hold training camp in August, Ventura County should have more than a cameo, considering the Rams are currently based in Oxnard and will be gradually be moving into their in-season home at Cal Lutheran during the show.

Donald, who is featured playing cards in the trailer released by HBO, said he’s already been filmed “relaxing” at teammate Robert Quinn’s house.

Quinn said last month that he’s currently renting near River Ridge.

Punter Johnny Hekker said he had already been filmed, along with several fellow special teamers, during a go-karting trip at MR2 Raceway in Thousand Oaks.

“It was a fun little afternoon,” Hekker said. “You try not to get too hyped up with camera around. But when you’re on the track getting competitive, the juices just flow.”

Hekker said he reached out to Texans long snapper Jonathan Weeks, who experienced the show last season.

Weeks’ most memorable advice? Know who is mic’ed up.

“A lot of guys are mic’ed up during practice, so you can’t crack the same jokes always that you want to,” Hekker said. “HBO is uncensored, too, so we’ll see. I’ve got to make sure my grandma doesn’t have to hear me bleeped out or anything like that.”

“Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Los Angeles Rams” will be filmed by a crew of 32 people with 12 robotic cameras. Actor Liv Schreiber returns as narrator.

Fisher seems committed to putting on a memorable show.

“We want this to be the best show to date,” Fisher said. “We want this to be the No. 1. We want to be the best. … We want to pave the way for our member clubs that will line up for the opportunity to do this during camp.”

Jeff Fisher hopes Rams are the next ‘Hard Knocks’ team to make playoffs

Ryan Wilson

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/jeff-fisher-hopes-la-rams-are-the-next-hard-knocks-team-to-make-the-playoffs/

There will be no shortage of storylines when the Rams are featured on Hard Knocks this August; this offseason the team relocated to Los Angeles, and traded up to the No. 1 spot to draft franchise quarterback Jared Goff.

So interest will be keen and expectations will be high — but the hope is that neither will be a distraction for an outfit that hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2004, when Mike Martz was the coach, Marc Bulger was the quarterback, and the Greatest Show on Turf was still a thing.

“We want this to be the best show to date,” coach Jeff Fisher said, via the Los Angeles Times’ Sam Farmer. “We want to pave the way for the member clubs to line up for the opportunity to do this … The players are familiar, they understand what’s ahead, we’ve talked to the coaches and they’re excited.”

But, Fisher added, “we want them to be football players, not actors.”

On its surface, there would appears to be little upside in taking part in Hard Knocks. But Fisher talked with several coaches from teams previously on the show to make sure it wouldn’t put the Rams at a competitive disadvantage.

As Farmer writes, “The last six Hard Knocks teams have matched or improved their win-loss record from the previous season, and the Cincinnati Bengals (2009, 2013), New York Jets (2010) and Houston Texans (2015) all made the playoffs in the season they were featured.”
Who knows, maybe this turns out to be one of the best decisions in Fisher’s coaching career, though defensive lineman Aaron Donald seems unconcerned about it all.

“It’s just a camera in your face,” he said. “The game we play, there’s always a camera in your face.”

Meanwhile, punter Johnny Hekker sounds less worried about the video than the audio.

“I’ve got to make sure that my grandmother doesn’t have to hear me bleeped out,” he told Farmer.[

wv wrote:

So is the show just shown on HBO? Or is it on espn, or the NFL channel or some other channel?

w
v

Personally I have no idea. I think it’s worth finding out. I replied because maybe someone does know, and so I want to keep the question “out there.”