Television cameraman earns Emmy for coverage of Olympics in Athens

[Fiona]

Two weeks ago Brian Caporale was packing for an assignment in Hawaii when an unexpected package arrived at his front door.

Inside the heavy white box stuffed with boards of Styrofoam wasn’t something the cameraman could fit neatly in his suitcase, but it was something most people in the television industry would die to take to work with them, even if it’s only a footnote on their resumes.

Caporale was awarded the 2004 Sports Emmy for outstanding technical team by the Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences for his work on the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens, Greece.

It was quite a shock to the former Cumberland resident, who had previously associated the Emmys with awards for high profile stars.

“When you’re sitting at home watching the Emmys on TV, you see the big stars, the anchors; people at home don’t see what goes on behind the scenes. It’s very rewarding to be recognized for something like that,” said the Towson resident, whose Emmy (which is much larger and heavier than it looks on screen) will be displayed at Caporale’s Bakery, owned by his parents, Gus and Cindy Caporale.

“To go to Greece is rewarding enough. This was icing on the cake.”

Caporale, who had previously majored in communication studies, said the television industry just sort of “found him” in the spring of 1999, when he was persuaded by the late Craig Monahan to take an internship with Home Team Sports, now Comcast Sports Net. HTS director and Cumberland native Tim Walbert offered him the position and quickly set him out on baseball, hockey and basketball assignments.

He’s since engaged in steady work for ESPN’s X Games and other sporting events throughout the country.

“I’m living every American man’s dream — at least a sports fan. I’m getting paid good money to go to football games, hockey games and baseball games. I got lucky I fell into sports. I’m really happy.”

In the six years he’s worked in the television field, Caporale’s learned a lot about the ropes of the business, including how crucial networking is to one’s career. The business, he said, is “95 percent who you know and 5 percent what you know.”

Caporale’s invitation to Athens came by surprise, when his TV football director, a Greek man named George Veras, asked him to be his personal cameraman at the Olympic games.

Jumping at the idea to travel overseas for the fourth time (he flew to Italy in 1996, 2000 and 2004) Caporale set off for his first trip to Greece in August 2004, where he’d work 10- to 13-hour days for almost four weeks.

While most of the cameramen in Greece were confined to filming boxing or other sporting events, Caporale said he got lucky by shooting scenic or beauty shots of the European country. Most of his video coverage captured images of the Parthenon or interviews with athletes.

But the Bishop Walsh graduate, who wrote several first-person articles for the Times-News during his stay, said his favorite part of the trip had nothing to do with the games or the country’s famous landmarks.

“There’s lots of history in Greece and it’s nice to see the historical buildings, but my favorite thing was the solitude. I’d get on a little ferry boat that would take me to an island. It was real secluded, real pristine. You really have an appreciation for life. You get some thinking done.”

Up next on Caporale’s plate is the Arizona State vs. UCLA game at Rose Bowl Stadium for ABC that he leaves for Thursday. He’ll round out the year shooting basketball and hockey games in Washington, D.C., and film the Winter X Games in January.

He said being on the front lines of a football or baseball game isn’t as exciting as cheering for the teams from the stands, but the opportunity isn’t something he’d trade for anything. His dream job, in fact, is filming for a Super Bowl or World Series game.

“I can never see myself leaving. I may not be a cameraman for the rest of my life but I’ll stay involved with television forever,” he said. “I’m in love with it.”

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Image: Standing outside Caporale's Bakery, owned by his parents, Gus and Cindy Caporale, Brian Caporale holds his Emmy award for his work on the games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens, Greece. Steve Bittner/Times-News