At my soccer game recently there was a middle-aged man recording the game from the sidelines with a camera mounted on a tall tripod. Turns out he films local Seattle soccer matches as a hobby and uploads them to his YouTube channel. When I emailed him, he told me he uses a Sony camcorder, a set of Arduino micro-processors, and Play Station 2 controller to control the pan, tilt, and zoom.

My goal is to film soccer matches so the play makes sense and the camera doesn’t distract, I enjoy both the technical and artistic challenges. I’ve used the pole camera to film other stuff such as high school band performances, or migrating birds outside my office window, but soccer has been my main focus. Over the last year I branched out from filming my old team and started doing matches in other [Greater Seattle Soccer League] divisions. It’s a bit strange to just show up and film, but mostly the response has been positive.

In the recording of my game, you can hear a player telling him “we appreciate you.”