So Far So Good

As my graduation approaches, I will always think to myself, “have I got enough experience for my future jobs or the master degree.” I should practice more skills instead of limiting myself to audio production, hence, why I applied for the SARC video team as my work experience.

Before the SARC  video team, I did lots of audio broadcasting and hosting during my past 10 years in China. All my previous work is related to live performance. Apart from languages, the biggest difference from what I did and what I am going to do is, in the SARC video team, I need to capture the performance by using the camera or the video mixing console which I am not familiar with. It is not only a technical challenge to me, but will also test me on how to deal with a possible emergency as a staff that has no control over the stage, but rather only has control over how people see the performance.

To reflect on the experience, I am going to use the method of ‘Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle’, which is able to make me look into my work experience rather than just write down what I did without any analysis.

Description

SARC video team is for the live streaming of the music and sonic arts performance in the music building as well as SARC on YouTube. Two people are needed for the camera operating off the stage and one for the video mixing console in the control room. For the camera operating, we will check the lighting, white balance and the focus in advance. During the performance, we use the app ‘Unity’ to communicate with the control room. When video mixing, I use Unity to direct my team on what camera shots to get. These mainly include, close-up, mid-shot, wide-shot or panning to another performer. For the video mixing, it is very important to communicate with the people who control the cameras and

capture the rhythm of the performance.

Since I never done the live streaming before, I decided to do the camera operating at the first time. I found out the problem very soon which was not related to any technical thing. There was a guide dog just right front of the camera stand. Ignoring my fear of  dogs, I used both of my hands to keep the stand straight because it tried to go through the stand.

Feelings

Although the first day of work made me really nervous, I was very happy doing the camera operating since I enjoyed watching the performance. I felt much more confident to do both the camera operating and video mixing after I had experienced several emergency moments.

Evaluation

Live streaming work is such a significant experience to me that I can widen my skills not only on the live streaming, but  on the video editing since the editing and the mixing of a video are very closely related to each other. I also got inspired through the work that whenever I am watching the Overwatch match live streaming, which is my favourite game, I always imagine how can I do better on some parts if it is me doing the video mixing. The only thing that need to be mentioned is wearing the dark clothes can be more suitable for the work rather than the nice clothes that makes me too outstanding as a staff during the performance.

Analysis

All the work was done very well under the cooperation with my team. Looking back, it is very important that someone in my team has practiced the camera operating and the video mixing before while the other people almost know nothing about it. They can lead the team by using their knowledge and experience, which provides us with reliable decisions. asking question is the fastest way to learn. I asked one of my team-mates who is doing the Film course about the camera settings, and being more and more familiar with the camera. However, in my point of view, we did the whole work successfully but sometimes lacked of interest. It will probably get better and full of fun if we can design few transitions between the scenes.

Conclusion

Youtube is the platform for our live streaming, but the viewing during the performance is always quite low. To solve this problem, we should try to do the live streaming on more platforms such as Twitch and Bilibili. Twitch is a live streaming platform mainly towards young people, and Bilibili is for the Chinese audience since QUB has certain Chinese students foundation.

Action Plan

In the next time of the work, if there is a dog beside the camera stand again, I would definitely communicate with the dog owner to ask if they can move away from the stand. Double check and make sure the connection between my phone and my headphone is not getting loose. Otherwise,  counting the beat of the music would be helpful to capture the rhythm of the performance during the video mixing.

SARC video team enhances my skills on media. I am able to have a clearer thought when I try to edit a video after this work, although I felt a bit under pressure at the beginning of it. However, I am going to take my confidence and ideas to my next live streaming.