Assistant Professor Max Negin served as a video operator during a Dec. 10 Showtime boxing doubleheader, featuring a featherweight championship fight between Jesus Cuellar and Abner Mares.
On Dec. 10, Negin served as a video operator during a Showtime boxing doubleheader in Los Angeles, headlined by the featherweight championship bout featuring Jesus Cuellar and Abner Mares.
It was a whirlwind weekend for the communications professor, flying to the West Coast the night before the fight – the same day he hosted the final “Sports Broadcasting” class of the semester – working a 16-hour day in Los Angeles, and then returning to the Triad a day later. He arrived back in time to proctor the Dec. 12 final for the class and share a few notes from the national broadcast event.
“For me, it was an interesting leap,” Negin said. “The class just wrapped up a semester’s worth of producing live events on campus, then I jumped right back in it, working in the industry.”
During the boxing broadcast, Negin was one of four individuals in the tape room handling video replay and editing duties. The four-time Emmy Award winner downplayed his role – noting he wasn’t in charge – but he enjoyed watching the broadcast team, especially the producer, coordinate the live action. The entire time he said he gleaned information, detailing how the producer laid out the show and the strategy behind the production.
“And then on Monday, I was back in class, giving the final exam, talking with students about the experience,” Negin said. “While I wasn’t running the show out there, I got to be a fly on the wall – like I do when I work the Olympics. I got real-world experience to add to my tool belt so when I teach ‘Sports Broadcasting’ again, I can tell the students what I saw and learned.”
During the fall semester, the communications students broadcasted five Elon volleyball games, worked on eight episodes of “Elon Phoenix Weekly,” and created their own video blogs and short sports shows.
Negin admitted that initially the class was an inexperienced group, with “few, if any, who had any live event experience.” Yet the students grew more comfortable and capable as the semester moved forward.
“I find it fascinating that it’s the same thing we did this semester, only on a larger scale,” said Negin, drawing parallels between the Showtime production and his students’ broadcasts. “This is exactly what we did covering an Elon volleyball game — it’s just primetime boxing on a national network. It’s not much different — just bigger, fancier and more expensive — but the same rules apply.”
With the semester drawing to an end, Negin plans to work a handful of upcoming professional and collegiate events, including several Carolina Hurricanes hockey games.