OXNARD, Calif. - An NFL training camp is three weeks of grueling work, and what's accomplished in two-a-days now becomes the foundation for what happens in the 119 days of the season.
This will be the fourth time since 2001 HBO's Hard Knocks, produced by NFL Films, has provided the public with an all-access pass into the world of training camp, and this will be the second reality-TV peek into the Dallas Cowboys, who were captured on film during the 2002 training camp in San Antonio when current secondary coach Dave Campo was the head coach.
But what many don't know is that the making of Hard Knocks is just as gargantuan, if not more so, as preparing an 80-player roster for the upcoming 17-week NFL season.
Hard Knocks may only span from the team's three-or-so-week training camp to final cuts the beginning of September, but NFL Films starts working on the show months before the airing the first of five weekly episodes, kicking off this summer at 9 p.m. (CDT) Wednesday on HBO (10 p.m. on both coasts).
Planning began in April, and NFL Films was present at every OTA and mini-camp the Cowboys held back home at Valley Ranch. Their crews even spent time with starting quarterback Tony Romo in Wisconsin and starting tight end Jason Witten in Dallas.
While footage is shot during this pre-camp period, the crews' presence is mainly intended to let the players get acclimated with the cameras, although associate producer Alicia Zubikowski said that to the Dallas Cowboys, dealing with media attention is second nature.
"The media is always around them, so I think they get used to it," Zubikowski said.
The Hard Knocks crew arrived here about a week before the team to get the site ready to film, and from the second the team descended the steps from its charter flight at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, the cameras were rolling, and those cameras are everywhere.
There are four cameras rolling at every practice, and after practice, they follow players everywhere around the River Ridge facility, from meeting rooms to training rooms. There are even four rooms - owner and general manager Jerry Jones' office, his son and right hand man, Stephen Jones' office and two meeting rooms for players and coaches - equipped with robotic cameras to capture every activity going on inside.
Capturing everything is impossible, so the producers and directors at NFL Films map out potential storylines to pursue. At every practice, and even before and after, every camera crew has an assignment for what or who to shoot. These assignments usually coincide with the six Cowboys - players and coaches - who are mic-ed up at every practice with wireless microphones.
Zubikowski and other directors listen in to the wires during practice to find the good stuff, and a lot of the time it's the audio that's the most interesting.
"We like to say, even though the pictures are always great, it's an audio-driven show," said Mark Ricci, sound man for one of the camera crews.
With the cameras rolling from 7 in the morning to midnight, Hard Knocks ends up with tons of footage to sift through, a task that takes place back at NFL Films headquarters in Mount Laurel, N.J. The Oxnard crew sends upwards of 25 hour-long tapes, along with four to five rolls of film, back to headquarters via two daily courier shipments.
When the packages arrive at NFL Films, supervising producer Ken Rodgers, along with his staff of 12 other producers, begin the process of turning the footage into an hour-long show. Rodgers said for every 200 minutes of footage, one minute will make the show.
"The editorial process is really one of constant filtering, getting all that material down to the best, and then the very best, and then the extraordinary material," Rodgers said.
Even once that "extraordinary material" is identified, Rodgers must make more tough decisions about what makes the show. As of this past Wednesday, he said he has 40 solid storylines in the works, but at most only half will actually make the final cut. Those storylines are allowed to develop until a few days before each episode airs, although if something important happens a day before each episode premieres, Rodgers will bend over backwards to adjust.
As a result, each episode is finalized at literally the last minute.
"The process, technically, to get this out the door and to HBO is absolutely frightening," Rodgers said. "We actually drive our final tape, when it's done, to HBO, and it gets to HBO in New York about an hour before it airs."
With all the unprecedented access to the team's daily activities, it's easy to think the Cowboys would be wary of what they say and do.
Not so.
That's because NFL Films and the Cowboys have developed a mutual trust Zubikowski and Rodgers said is unlike any relationship they've had with any other team involved in the show, which includes the Baltimore Ravens (2001) and the Kansas City Chiefs (2007), along with the Jacksonville Jaguars (2004) featured on NFL Network.
"The great thing about the Cowboys in particular is their trust and belief in us to do right by them, and our trust in them in knowing what their concerns would be," Rodgers said.
Because of that trust, NFL Films doesn't have to worry about hurdling any obstacles to get the footage and access it needs, something Zubikowski said is a result of dealing with Cowboys PR director Rich Dalrymple.
"You can definitely tell Rich is a professional at his job," Zubikowski said. "I've been to a lot of teams and there are very few PR guys like him. He knows what he's doing and he's very good at his job, and that helps."
While the team does trust Hard Knocks not to air anything that could compromise a competitive advantage, there are moments when camera crews are asked to avert their eyes and ears. Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said he's asked the camera crews to turn a deaf ear once already so he could speak privately with his team, and the camera crew was more than obliging.
"We're not out to be National Inquirer and scoop the dirty details of camp," Rodgers said, stressing Hard Knocks is about telling the compelling stories making up training camp, not out-reporting sports pages across the nation.
But that doesn't mean they'll sacrifice a story to protect the Cowboys' image either.
"We are not out to glamorize the Cowboys and make this a PR film," Rodgers said. "This is reality, and sometimes reality, such as the release of (wide receiver) Terry Glenn, can be painful. That's a tough situation that you can't hide from. That's someone's livelihood and a player who's well liked within the organization, and the fallout of that has to be addressed. There's no getting around that."
Even Phillips said he'd be watching when the first episode airs Wednesday night, despite what might be exposed.
"I'd like to watch it just to see our guys," Phillips said. "I've said it before, I think we have a lot of characters with character, and I think it'll show."
Stay tuned.
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