Best: Jets and 'Hard Knocks': The inside story

CORTLAND, N.Y.

Steve Trout does not drink coffee or soda, which limits his options.

"It's a lot of Red Bull,'' he said Thursday during a rare, brief break from his job as director of "Hard Knocks,'' the HBO series chronicling the Jets' 2010 training camp.

"I don't know if that's good for my body, but you need something.''

This was late in a 15-minute interview during which the 33-year-old director got four voice mails, 11 e-mails, two texts and a stream of walkie-talkie chatter from the 12 people with whom he is in constant communication.

And it was not even a full week into a 40-day stretch during which Trout and his staff of 25 will work 19-hour days compiling 800 to 1,000 hours of footage for the series' five one-hour episodes.

Not that anyone is complaining.

"It is our Super Bowl, and it lasts 40 days,'' Trout said. "It's all adrenaline, because for people in our industry, we love doing this.''

HBO was ecstatic about landing the chatty Jets for the sixth edition of the series, and the team has exceeded expectations.

"It's been great,'' Trout said. "Seriously, from the time we started talking to them, Rex Ryan preached this transparency and said, 'Look, we are not trying to hide a thing,' and he was honest about it.

"You have to love an organization that is so proud of what they do that they couldn't care less what goes out there.''

What exactly will that be? You'll have to wait for the 10 p.m. Wednesday premiere to find out.

The director would not even confirm that there has been a camera with holdout cornerback Darrelle Revis, saying only, "We are covering that story line as it deserves to be covered.''

Bruce Speight, the Jets' media relations head, described the team's approach this way:

"We've taken NFL Films, injected it into the veins of the New York Jets and let it run throughout the organization. They virtually have unfettered access.''

Note that Speight said NFL Films, not HBO. The series is a co-production of the two companies.

Teams tend to be more comfortable with NFL Films cameras than ones from independent outlets, but HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg and Trout insist that does not mean it will sanitize stories.

"We're not shying away,'' Trout said. "We're not going to Mickey Mouse training camp.''

Trout spoke outside the huge production headquarters in the same building as the Jets' offices, upstairs from a smaller room where staffers monitor six robotic cameras in offices and meeting rooms.

This is where the five mobile camera crews bring in their footage, which is assembled and picked up nightly at 10 by a courier who makes the four-hour drive to NFL Films' offices in Mount Laurel, N.J.

There, another staff led by producer Ken Rodgers edits footage into digestible form, often finishing hours before that week's show debuts. Much must be left out.

"This could be twice or three times as long [a show] and still have incredibly interesting stuff,'' Trout said. "Maybe in 20 years we can go to the 'Hard Knocks' vault and do 'The Best of the Rest.' ''

Each morning Trout deploys his crews with a plan based on expected story lines. "Is it going to happen like that?'' he said. "Hell, no.''

The only time every crew comes together is for practice, divvying up eight coaches and players wired for that day. It can be exhilarating for those chronicling it.

"It's not like we're shooting a parade; it's training camp,'' Trout said. "The intensity rubs off on us. These are guys fighting for their careers, fighting for their lives.''

Thursday, the crew got to experiment with a new toy, "Chopper Cam,'' a 25-pound mini-helicopter that hovered over the field carrying an HD camera.

Chopper Cam? It's natural for fans to wonder whether all of this will be a distraction from preparing for the season.

Ryan insists it will not, even though he playfully said he was tempted to throw a football at the mini-helicopter just for the sport of it.

"In the meetings they have these little cameras almost like in a ball and you don't even notice them,'' he said. "I think that's what makes the show so good is you are getting the legitimate experience.

"I don't think it's bothered any of our guys. We're just being ourselves. It's been fine.''

Trout said coaches and players stopped paying attention to his crews after a day or two.

"It gets to a point when they see us in the hallway, they don't even look at the camera,'' Trout said. "That's the joy. It's not about hamming it up for the camera - or waving at it.''