Capricorn is delighted to have been commissioned in 2012 for a series of broadcast training seminars and workshops for IMG Media. Director Robin Bailey will be delivering “Writing to Pictures” sessions for staff working for Premier League news and feature programmes and for reporters/camera operators working on the Golfing World magazine programme. The first Premier League seminar was presented before Christmas and this series will continue shortly. A provisional date of March 14th has been drawn up for the first selection of Golfing World staff.
Sports broadcast training in Writing, Presenting or Reporting can be booked via email robin@capricornmediagroup.com while sports broadcasters from around the world are invited to take part in sessions either in London or in their own country. Director Robin Bailey presented sessions on behalf of football’s governing body FIFA and their broadcasting arm HBS prior to the 2010 World Cup in Kenya, Ghana and Botswana.
I am not about to jump on to the bandwagon driven by Sir Alex Ferguson suggesting Luis Suarez should be kicked out of Liverpool Football Club. But I do believe the club that I followed in the Keegan/Toshack days is tarnished. The blind faith that manager Kenny Dalglish showed in support of Suarez after his refusal to shake hands with Patrice Evra was staggering and defies all understanding. Dalglish may be known as King Kenny but he’s emerged like a pauper who is out of touch with the modern world. Even after the Uruguayan returned from an 8-match ban, he said the ban should never have happened, and then he claimed, on national TV, that he didn’t know Suarez hadn’t shaken Evra’s hand. The world saw it…they have monitors on the sidelines and you could see from the reaction that all did NOT go smoothly. Kenny himself needed the Liverpool owners to tell his man to apologise. It seems Dalglish would never have asked! My feeling is that Dalglish has never understood the media, how they work, and why is there is a need to look after a club’s image. As a BBC TV reporter covering the build up to his Newcastle side’s FA Cup Final against Arsenal in 1998, I remember all of us with cameras being consigned to one end of the practice pitch at Newcastle’s training ground in Durham….after Dalglish had taken his players as far away as he could take them. We weren’t interested in pin-prick pictures of the players shaping up for a momentous occasion. Dalglish thought it was amusing but you could not help but be pleased when his team lost to Arsenal. It was a great PR opportunity lost. Dalglish has always been monosyllabic in interviews, one-eyed in his analysis. Fiercely loyal to his players and friends yes… how sad it was that his great friend Alan Hansen on Match of the Day had to tell him and the club how they should be reacting to the Suarez affair. Liverpool may well win two trophies this year but they are unlikely to qualify for the Champions League once again…and those American owners may remember the day their manager refused the chance to show the leadership that great Anfield club deserved.
Since John Terry has been stripped on the England captaincy, there is another
decision to be made … Who is next? Well I thought it may be useful to promote
a view from a media trainer’s point of view. Bear in mind that this man must be
an ambassador for England, a role model for millions. And I see Steven Gerrard
is favourite for the job?
Not for me… he’s now 31 and his injury record is not good. I am not sure he fits into England’s
best line up. and remember he hasn’t been immune from controversy himself back in Liverpool. Also, and even by default, he was party to Liverpool’s disastrous decision to wear tee shirts supporting Luis Suarez, after his 8-match ban for a racist comment aimed at Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.
So who else? Well I would go for Scott Parker, one of the first men on the England
teamsheet on current form, and a man who has helped to turn Tottenham into a title contending force this season. People will have seen yet another man-of-the-match performance for Spurs against Liverpool last night. Parker is a pure team man, a vocal motivator in the dressing room and someone who leads by example, he is in the mould of a Bobby Moore. I have never seen him try to get opponents booked or sent off either.
I remember when I was working for ITV Sport back in the early noughties, I asked
Scott for an interview after a man of the match performance for Charlton in the
premier league. He said yes, but asked for me to wait a few minutes. That is
often a euphemism for “I can’t be bothered really” and I half expected him not to
re-emerge from the dressing room. He actually did come back out 2 minutes later.
I said: “thanks for coming out Scott, what happened in there?” to which he
said:”my girlfriend would kill me if I didn’t do my hair before I went on
telly!”
It was a tremendously disarming comment from a really nice guy who has all the
right credentials. It’s unthinkable he would become involved in some of the
scandals other captains of England have. At 30 time is not on his side, but give
him the job for the Euros now, and the FA can at least sleep easily in their
beds.
Capricorn recently conducted media training sessions with most of the Super League’s up-and-coming young players ahead of the 2012 season. The training was commissioned by the Rugby Football League…. see who you can spot with these few screen shots of our sessions at Huddersfield University.
As the interim manager of England’s rugby union team, Stuart Lancaster has made an excellent start. He comes from a teaching background and I think the lesson that if you step out of line, you lose your place in my squad is a powerful one. I doubt whether it would have been any different even without the World Cup debacle of Mike Tindall and company. Lancaster was a man I met in 2004 when he was running the joint Union/League academy at Leeds. He commissioned Capricorn to run media training sessions with a number of players from both codes…most memorable was Kevin Sinfield, the Leeds, GB and England captain. He knew how important it was to educate players in the right way, give them practical training, encourage them to give opinions, show their personality, while being an ambassador for themselves, their club, their country. These are all powerful messages we delivered in that session, and I’m delighted that Stuart has come through the pack to get his chance. This week Delon Armitage got himself arrested and lost his place in the England A set up. It was the right message to send out from a man who is setting the right example for all England players for now and the future. Good luck to him.
If you are not a member of the FSB you should be…the benefits are wide and varied and membership could save you hundreds of pounds.
But for those who are members in Essex, Capricorn Director Robin Bailey is running two Media Training courses in February and June alongside the regional organiser Keith Brown. You can register at: www.essexfsb.org.uk/events
The dates are Wednesday 29th February and Wednesday 20th June. Robin hopes to meet you there.
It’s not so long ago that snooker was being dragged through the gutter. Dismissed in the tabloids – and by the now closed News of the World – as a sport rife with corruption, we all started to doubt the credibility of the game which gave us Davis v Taylor in 1985 and captured the imagination of millions.
But the British Masters Final on Sunday showed how far the game has come under the guidance of Barry Hearn, formerly Steve Davis’s manager and mentor. Two clean cut guys slugged it out Neil Robertson the Aussie seeing off Englishman Shaun Murphy. After some outstanding snooker of the highest quality, what struck me was the positivity of the loser Murphy. Ok he was about to receive a sizeable cheque anyway, but his interview at the end was exemplary. He was full of praise for his opponent and because of his magnanimous comments in the face of defeat, the game, the governing body, and most of all HE benefited enormously. Robertson was equally good by the way. Praise is such a powerful commodity I always tell my media training clients. And Sunday was a sign that snooker, with it’s increasingly shorter formats to suit shorter attention spans, and more professional approach, is getting results. The sponsors will be queuing up to back the game at this rate.
Exciting developments at Capricorn as we help put together a pilot programme on fishing which appeals to a broad audience and reflects the passion for this sport. If you are interested in either product placement for your fishing products or clothing or would like to sponsor the whole programme please get in touch.
Capricorn has had considerable success in winning contracts for media training since the turn of the year. We always enjoy preparing people for on-air appearances and recently we have been working with European Tour golfers, male and female, and the Rugby Football League’s Super League players, ahead of the new season starting next month. Our latest clients will be Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, up and coming darts players and golfers from the Ladies European Tour. Image is so important to sportspeople and businesses alike and TV interviews – apart from being free PR – are excellent opportunities to appeal to sponsors, fans and investors alike.
I am pleased to say that we will soon have available a feature film investment brochure. It is aimed at potential investors with – ideally – £100k to £250k to put into our international thriller. We cannot say too much at this stage, but if you wish to receive all the details via email and you are a serious investor please get in touch. Remember all investors become executive producers with their name in “lights”, they also get to attend the promotional events, meet some of the cast and appear as extras. It is a fun way of spreading your portfolio!
