Suketu Mehta – Video Producer, ESPN shared his expertise

Suketu Mehta is a video producer at ESPN, who successfully managed the FIFA 2018 World Cup project in Russia.

He joined ESPN in 2012 and have seen it blossom from being a one person team to a 15-member team.

Read on to know more about Suketu Mehta and his learning, life journey, and successful projects he executed. 

1. Can you share the story behind your most successful/ Interesting video project?

One of the most challenging projects in my stint at ESPN was at the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia. ESPN’s India partner ‘Sony Sports Programming Network’ was the rights-holders for the event in India.

ESPN was covering the event for their international offerings from the venue itself in Russia. We had to hence manage the collaboration of Sony’s programming of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in India along with ESPN’s coverage from the venue and I was at the heart of this project.

I had the responsibility of traveling to Russia, covering the World Cup from there for Sony India as a one-man ENG (electronic news gathering) crew and collaborate with ESPN’s production to ensure there was the timely delivery of all content which Sony could use in the live coverage for viewers in India.

There was a lot of collaboration involved between the Sony team in India, ESPN’s on-ground team in Russia and ESPN’s production team in the United States of America. Since I was designated a link between all three, there was non-stop work around the clock to ensure everything is in order. Live coverage has minimal margins of error, so timelines had to be met, content had to be shot or sourced and stakeholders had to be kept pleased.

Along with all this, I had to function as a one-man ENG crew in Russia as well. It was a lot of hard work, 14-16 hour days for about a month. In the end, it was also the most satisfying project as I managed to help Sony deliver a world-class coverage of arguably the biggest sporting event in the world without any major hiccups. And, I also got to watch the final match of the FIFA 2018 World Cup from one of the best seats in the ground.

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2. Tell us about your life journey? Suketu Mehta

I was born in Muscat, Oman and moved to Pune, India when I was eight years old. I completed my schooling and junior college in Pune before I moved to Mumbai for my graduation in management studies. While I was doing my graduation, I got an opportunity to intern at Channel [V] with the content integration and alliance (marketing) team.

This turned out to be a big learning curve for me. I was supposed to be with them for three months initially, but partially due to my good work and mostly due to the fact that I enjoyed my self so much, I carried on working there as a management trainee for two years. It was the most fun one could have with clothes on is what I thought at that time.

I met some great people, worked hard and learned a lot through my stint there. More than the marketing side of the video, I was keen on the creative aspect of video production which prompted me to pursue a post-graduation degree in Mass Communications from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communications, Pune.

I started working as a video producer for a digital marketing agency for about six months until the opportunity to work with ESPN came about. Always had a soft corner for sports, so I joined ESPN in 2012 and have seen it blossom from being a one-person (only myself) team to a 15-member team that produces a tremendous amount of quality television and digital content for ESPN across platforms.  

3. What prompted you to take up video production?

As a kid, I was extremely interested in watching a lot of movies. Almost every Friday I used to end up queuing up at a movie theatre ticket counter to watch the release of the week. Had to drag a friend along, or sometimes my younger brother and if no one was willing, I used to end up watching movies alone in cinema halls from a very young age. I believe watching movies somewhere left an undying impression on my sub-conscious which manifested this urge in me to learn more about the process of creation of videos.

This drew me towards learning and understanding the process of video production and once I got deeper into it, I was hooked on. So from a very young age, I was very much inclined towards creating videos. The other interesting plot point in my life which shaped my career path came when I was staying in a hostel in Mumbai for my graduation.

I met a bunch of guys there who were into watching a lot of international cinema and good movies/TV shows in general. In those times access to video content wasn’t how it is now. So one had to pool-in resources – friends, money, accessibility to the internet – to source a lot of good films and TV shows. I was lucky to get exposed to good-quality films at a young age (between age 18 and 20) and this further propelled my desire and drive to chart out a career path in video production.

Working in sports production came about largely due to my love for the sport and working with ESPN, one of the best places to work for. If I come to the office and get paid to watch sport, there can be nothing better is what I think. This is one of the key reasons I have stuck around working in sports for so long.  

4. What are the latest trend in entertainment and sports industry video production? 

Technological advancements and innovations have been a key part of the evolution in the manner in which sport is covered. By this I mean the kind of cameras that are available these days, the amount of AR/VR graphics that can be produced and used during a live game, and the way users consume content has all undergone a massive shift over the last decade or so.

All this has ensured that fans are given an experience that is as close and as involved with the action as possible. This is what sport production companies are working towards today. All efforts, be it in the way cameras are used (spider cam), the way augmented reality has merged with the sport (creating virtual replication of real action), micing up on-field players (in cricket especially), have been directed towards making watching sport an immersive experience. The way content is consumed is also making a big difference when it comes to live sports production.

Television is no longer the be-all and end-all platform. More and more consumers are moving towards smaller screens all thanks to the digital revolution.

This has helped sports producers to diversify their offerings based on language, the depth of the coverage and the tone of the coverage so that it can cater to as varied a consumer base as possible. Empowering the consumer by providing multiple feeds of the same live event is a huge development in sports production. 

5.  What advice you would like to give someone who wants to take up Video Production? 

The only advice I would like to give is to be a good listener. Video production involves a lot of coordination between various teams to achieve a common goal. Communication, thus,  becomes the most vital aspect of video production.

And unless one doesn’t listen and understand things well, there are always going to be issues with the execution part. So be attentive, take notes wherever required and possible, and clear doubts so that there is abundant clarity on what is expected out of an individual as well as the entire team. Listening well, understanding extremely well what is expected out of you and others, and maintaining clear and proper channels of communication are what will hold anybody in good stead.

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