HE POINTS 'EM IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH The Media

Doug Freeman studies the wall of TV monitors in the second-floor control room adjacent to Staples Center. The Fox Sports Net telecast of the Lakers-Nuggets game Tuesday is about to come out of a commercial break.

Adjusting his headset, Freeman leans forward in his chair and goes over the mental checklist of what needs to be done as coverage of the second quarter begins with the Lakers comfortably ahead.

``Five, four, three,'' he begins the count.

``Wide shot ... Give me a pan ... Take 7 ... Insert and pan ... Dissolve 3 ... Ready, Billy ... Dissolve 3 ... Give me Phil Jackson on 7 ... Lose H ... Ready dissolve 2 ... Dissolve 2 ... Give me faces on 7 and 4 ... Ready 4 ... Take 6 ... Ready 4 ... Take 4 ... Ready 1 ... Red insert ... Ready 4 ... Take 4 ... Ready 2 ... Take 2 ... Ready 1 ... Take 1 ... Kobe is still in the game? ... Ready 2 ... Ready 7 ... Ready yellow ... Fly yellow ... Dissolve B ... How do you say his name? Like it sounds? Skiddish Veelie? Really? ... Ready X ... Dissolve X ... Take 3 insert ... Take 1 clean ... Stay wide ... Insert coming up ... Now lose it ... Ready 1 ... Take 1 ... C'mon, that's not a foul?''

Not more than a minute of game time has elapsed, and Freeman has made more than three-dozen quick decisions - aside from some personal commentary - about what you've just seen on your TV screen.

In the course of a 2 1/2-hour telecast, the number of decisions he makes must be ...

``I have no idea,'' Freeman admits. ``Hundreds. Maybe a 1,000? I couldn't even figure it out.''

Split-second decision-making has been the most important, most stressful and most rewarding part of Freeman's job for the past 20 years as a live-game director, including the end of his 13th season doing the Lakers and starting his 11th season on the Angels.

The director is the traffic cop planted between the producer (who oversees the entire show) and technical director (who follows the director's orders punching the right buttons), literally calling the shots for the cameramen, listening to the broadcasters to follow their leads and piecing together a story with pictures, graphics and replays as it evolves on the TV screen.

If not for a life-altering decision Freeman made coming out of Cal State Northridge many games ago, he'd probably be just another viewer at home watching the games.

A San Fernando Valley resident since his family moved West from New York when he was 12, Freeman graduated from Van Nuys High and made it through CSUN with a business degree. He went straight to a 9-to-5 job as a warehouse manager.

That lasted five months.

``I hated it,'' Freeman said. ``I just wasn't going to last.''

Following what was more his passion - sports - he circled back to CSUN to try radio, TV and film production classes. Just as important as the schooling were the people he began to network with along the way.

Freeman landed a job with a mobile production company, loading trucks and driving them to game sites along the West Coast. Before long, he was operating cameras, learning everything on the fly. That led to assignments as the technical director, where he could watch the game from inside the production truck and assist the game directors.

Everyone needs a break in the business, and Freeman's was probably the 1984 Summer Olympics, when he did baseball for ABC's coverage and ended up winning a national Emmy. But the real day-to-day opportunities came in that period as cable television continued to evolve and expand. More sports meant more chances for Freeman to travel and work with different crews, gain experience and move into more important roles.

In 1985, he directed the first event for then-Prime Ticket - a Lazers indoor soccer game - and drew many Forum assignments. As Prime Ticket morphed into Fox Sports, and Freeman settled into his Tarzana home and started a family, the comfort of sticking with a year-round season of NBA and college basketball followed by baseball - and sticking with much of the same technical crew year after year - has helped him become a valuable director for the company.

``Doug has an instinctive feel for sports television,'' said Mark Shah, the executive producer of FSN and FSN2. ``He listens to the announcers as well as any director in the business. In addition, he anticipates the right shots to give viewers the best pictures to make it a high-quality, entertaining telecast.''

Freeman is the first to admit a top-notch crew makes his job easier and, in turn, makes the game coverage more seamless. He said the key is to balance the role of boss and friend with them to get the best out of everyone. It also gives him a better chance to be more creative within the format boundaries of the telecast that will normally have up to nine camera angles with which to work.

``A technically sound crew makes me and everyone look good, my crews are as good as it gets, and I think we have a great relationship,'' said the 50-year-old Freeman, who last year had nearly 130 assignments that included a Dodgers game for KCOP, a Taft-Chatsworth high school football game for FSN2 (his 15-year-old daughter attends Taft) and victory parades for the Lakers and Angels.

``We joke a lot that this job isn't brain surgery. We'll make mistakes, miss an angle. ... It just happens. It's a high-stress job, and we're dealing with the unknown a lot. Burning out can be easy, but you don't have to yell and scream to do this. You just have to keep a perspective on things, and that comes with experience.

``Everyone I know says I have a great job. My dad was a CPA, and I have two older brothers who are lawyers and I know they'd like my job. No, it's not easy and not everyone can do it. But there's nothing better than covering sports for a living like this. How many people can say they really love their job?''

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

As a live-game director, Doug Freeman makes hundreds of decisions on coverage in one telecast.

Courtesy Photo