As the drivers descend into the streets of Long Beach this weekend for the Grand Prix, when the Sunday race is broadcast live on Fox Sports, the main producer of the network for the Indycar series will already think of Birmingham or Indianapolis or Detroit.
Maybe even Lake Elkhart, Wisconsin.
It’s Pam Miller’s work after all. She, with her team, takes all the mobile parts of the production of what is an increasingly popular sport, presents the competitions, highlights the personalities of the pilots and the stories of the teams, underlines the drama.
Miller brings together the story of Indycar. An engineer, a manufacturer and a team director were all rolled in one.
It’s satisfactory work, she said. Even if it was not the original dream.
‘A stick and a ball’
Miller has been passionate about sport for as long as she can remember.
Fan of Boston Red Sox, Miller grew up in northeast baseball cards and reciting the interior field of each team. She also liked to write, and frequented Ithaca college, where she understood how to merge her love of narration and sport, obtaining a diploma in television and radio in 1986.
She landed in ESPN shortly after obtaining the diploma, where she worked on the coverage of the NFL and the NHL.
Until the National Hockey League decides to do news.
ESPN lost the NHL dissemination rights to Sportschannel America in 1988. At the time, Sportschannel America offered an agreement of $ 51 million for three years, an agreement that has doubled what ESPN had paid the NHL on three seasons, Washington Post reported.
It was an early blow for Miller’s new career, who could have gone to derail.
But Terry Linger, his boss at the time, had an idea.
“I know what your goal is, I know what you like to do, but the reality is, for the moment, it will probably not happen,” recalls Miller. “But if you plan to go to Watkins Glen, New York, this week and see a car race, there may be a chance, there may be a path, if you try.”
As Miller describes, she was more a fan of “stick and ball” type sport.
Of course, his father had tinkered with cars here and there, but the race? Cover the world of car sports?
She didn’t even know where the oil was going in her own car.
But she still got into her car. And led to Glen.
The sport of narration
Miller has covered everything during his long career: Formula 1 and Aryton Senna. Nascar and Dale Earnhardt. Indycar and Mario Andretti.
Miller is producer of stands for NASCAR on Fox, a winner of Emmy Sports Emmy, since 2001. His curriculum vitae has producer credits for various breeds and NASCAR progams, including international events, for special 50th birthday nascar 50th anniversary of FS1 and CBS SPORTS.
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Pam Miller in the middle of a production meeting in June 2018 at the Pocono Raceway for Fox Sports “Drivers Only” Nascar Xfinity Series Race. (Photo gracious Fox Sports)
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Pam Miller in the middle of a production meeting in June 2018 at the Pocono Raceway for Fox Sports “Drivers Only” Nascar Xfinity Series Race. (Photo gracious Fox Sports)
Develop
And since January, Miller has been the main producer of Fox Indycar.
For her, it is the narration.
She likes to learn – about people and places – and travel and produce documentaries.
“It was a source of creative challenge, and I learned so much,” said Miller, who is based in the Charlotte region in North Carolina. “You not only learn production leashes, but you can tell the stories.
“You learn something all the time,” she added, “and that’s how you progress in life.”
The production of a sport – and in particular in the field of motor racing – is delivered with a multitude of challenges.
There is, of course, the living aspect of all this, ensuring that the cameras and the crew can capture all the available angles of the frantic chaos which makes an exciting race to start. There are also decisions: what are viewers? What story does the best party from viewers? And why?
But there is also planning, anticipation. Find various scenarios that could take place at any time during something as unpredictable as a race. A crash. A first podium. A weather time.
What assets should be ready, at some point, so the race – but really, the story – is never lost in front of viewers, to make sure that home fans at thousands of kilometers feel a little more connected to the track?
“Whether from the talent or my team or a researcher or a trend that is very obvious compared to previous weeks or in previous years,” said Miller, “I take everything, I tremble and make it organize it.
“It’s the process.”
If sport uses a sharp skill to compete and entertain at the same time, then what Miller does should certainly qualify.
“It’s a lot of mobile pieces, and you are still working in advance,” she said. “You always think of a few weeks in advance so that you can have the wheels in motion of what you look at on the road.”
This means, even before the engines returned, before a qualification round was taken, before a trophy was hoisted this weekend – Miller is already focusing on the next race. Long Beach is already in the rear view mirror.
The big job
It really didn’t take long for Miller to fall in love with the car race.
After all, she was a sports aficionado. The career pivot was like any business of players in professional sports.
But instead of moving teams, she turned off the skating rink for a track, a locker room for a paddock, a hockey stick for a car.
The first time Miller went to Talladega Superspeedway, in Alabama, about a year to cover car sports, the old driver and broadcaster Nascar Benny Parsons showed him next to the wall to watch the cars.
“It was different from everything I had ever seen in my life,” recalls Miller.
Something has clicked.
Then Miller went to Indianapolis.
Perched on a wall with her camera during qualifications – “You could do it at the time,” said Miller – she took a beat to watch. It was the early 90s, and one of the last years that Andretti and Aj Foyt qualified.
That was it. She was hung.
“I was really young and I started to start and learn, and I achieved a bit of the extent of what was going on,” said Miller. “When I had the privilege of doing these things, I said to myself:” It is a pretty incredible opportunity. “”
No prudence flag, no breaks
Now Miller knows where the oil is going to his own car.
It could also probably dismantle an engine and put it back together.
Like a complex puzzle. Like a story.
“To play motorsport, it must be a passion,” said Miller. “The calendar of each series is so long, it is a complicated show, it is a difficult show every week.
“You never know what adventure is around the corner,” she added. “No matter what form of motorsport is, everything can appear, anything that can happen. There is never really a break except for a caution flag.”
Miller, in a recent episode of the Podcast Pit Pass Indy, said that there was no day that does not look at a race or brainstorming ideas on how to tell the story of Indycar better.
“You, basically, every minute that you are awake, you think of what could have an impact, what could be better, what we could do in a creative way,” she said. “You look at what has been done in the past, you read data, you read books, you talk to people, you are on the phone for hours to choose the brains of drivers and strategists and team owners.
“It is an immersive 24/7 experience until the green flag falls to St. Pete,” added Miller, “and then it’s an immersive experience of more than 60 hours per week.”
It was a lucky thing, said Miller about his career in motorsport – but it happened because she kept her mind open.
“Each week, I’m proud,” said Miller. “I am proud of our crew, I am proud of the show, I am proud of evolution. I am proud of sustainable friendships and friendships.
“It’s more than doing a television show. It’s a passion.”
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