Texans for 'Hard Knocks'

On Tuesday night, HBO will premiere the first episode of B.J. RajiJersey"Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Houston Texans." The show is produced by NFL Films, and many members of the 32-person crew will stay in Houston for all six grueling weeks of shooting. The first show comes from months of planning and weeks of constant filming. The crew will shoot 350 hours for every one hour that airs. For the past few seasons, the Texans have been exempt from the show -- last year with a new head coach and prior to that because they were coming off playoff seasons. On Tuesday morning, O'Brien sat down with director Matt Dissinger to review the show and make sure nothing in it affected the Texans' competitive advantage. Even hours before the show airs, scenes can be removed. Most of the time, five camera crews -- one without sound -- shoot the action. A sixth crew helps shoot practice. http://www.packersshopnfl.com/WOMENS_YOUTH_BART_STARR_JERSEY.htmlFourteen robotic cameras are dispersed through O'Brien's office, general manager Rick Smith's office, the staff meeting room and four different position group rooms. "I think in the beginning you really do notice them," O'Brien said. "They're there and it's hard not to notice them. But as time goes on, they definitely blend in. The director, Matt Dissinger, has been a really good guy to work with. It hasn't been an issue at all. Well, we'll see when the first show comes out. But to this point, it hasn't been an issue at all." If O'Brien was apprehensive about the descent of Dissinger's crew into his facility, Dissinger says he hasn't seen it. "The perception of what 'Hard Knocks' is, is always worse than the reality," Dissinger said. On Monday, Aug. 3, eight days before http://www.packersshopnfl.com/WOMENS_YOUTH_BRETT_FAVRE_JERSEY.html the first episode, not even "Hard Knocks" was spared from the clandestine way the Texans handle injuries. When star running back Arian Foster left the field during the Texans' first fully padded practice, the "Hard Knocks" crew noticed. But just like everybody else who saw it -- including teammates and coaches with him on the field -- the crew dismissed it quickly. "If we follow every tweaked muscle, you can't shoot practice," Dissinger said. But this wasn't like most of the bumps and bruises players suffer during training camp.Archie Manning Jersey This was a severe groin injury that required surgery and decommissioned Foster for what might be months. Dissinger admitted to being "kind of bummed about" missing some of that footage, but the crew adapted and told the story in other ways. The crew shot the meeting when Foster's teammates learned of his injury, a scene that is expected to be in Tuesday night's episode, and made second-year running back Alfred Blue one of the eight to 10 players wired with a microphone each day of filming. The crew also filmed a Wednesday workout with free-agent running backs Pierre Thomas, Joe McKnight and Ben Malena. It would have been the introduction to "Hard Knocks" for one of the players if he had signed. Hand-held cameras film any scenes in http://www.saintsonlineofficialshop.com/WOMENS_YOUTH_AUSTIN_JOHNSON_JERSEY.htmlthe running backs room. The robotic cameras are only in the receivers room, the quarterbacks room, the defensive line room and the defensive backs room. The robotic camera in the receivers room was moved there from the linebackers room while the team was in Richmond, Virginia, where the Texans held joint training camp practices with the Washington Redskins. Initially, NFL Films had wired the linebackers room, but since there were too many linebackers they met in the main defensive meeting room instead. While 29 members of the crew traveled to shoot the Texans' joint training camp practices with Washington, Matyas and two others stayed behind. In Houston, a room generally used for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has been turned into a production room. Around the corner is a station behind rows of wires and cables that houses a contraption which sends the footage to the NFL Films offices in New Jersey. The crew will travel in golf carts across Kirby Drive, over a bridge that will feature prominently on the show. The group will travel down a windy sidewalk built into a hill, across a parking lot and down a path behind the Texans' practice bubble. Three white trailers make up a "Hard Knocks" compound: one for cameras, one for audio and one for production, each filled mostly with equipment, but also with food, drinks and sunscreen.