My first shoot with BW Productions was at A-core. They’re a construction company that hosts an awards ceremony for their employees to start off the year. It was a live stream setup shot in a warehouse-sized garage with tons of space.

This was the first time I had worked on a live stream shoot in a professional setting. The only other live stream experience I had up until that point was streaming myself playing video games, or watching YouTube streamers, but the live stream setup for the A-core shoot was different. 

This was also the first time I worked with the brands of equipment used on the shoot. More specifically, my first time using Aputure brand lights, a projector and projector screen. I’m used to working with Arri brand lights, which are pretty simple plug and power lights with barn doors. The Aputure lights had more optimization options, like a brightness/intensity/color temp adjuster (as well as barn doors and a fresnel).

I was quite impressed by both the intricate process of setting up the projector, and the speed at which the rest of the crew were able to set it up. I could tell they had set this up many times. There were steel legs we had to set up to hold the projector screen, then the screen itself had to be tightly tethered to a steel frame that was supported by said legs. It took four people, including myself, to set up the projector screen because of how large it was. It took some time setting up the projector because we had to configure the settings to fit the screen.

The C-stands we had featured a locking mechanism towards the base that I hadn’t seen before. Until that point, I had only used C-stands with the twisting locking knobs that most everyone is familiar with within the filmmaking sphere. We ended up using only combo stands which I’m more familiar with. They allowed the lights to be raised higher to light the stage more appropriately and provided the best stability in doing so.

As for the audio equipment, which I believe was Blackmagic brand, looked much more intricate than the standard Zoom recorder I’m used to seeing.

They used JBL speakers and connected them to the audio system. While I’ve seen the speakers in passing, it was the first time I set them up. It wasn’t too difficult, the most difficult part was making sure all the cords and cables were wrapped properly afterwards. Proper cord/cable wrapping is a skill I still struggle to fully nail, which is an important skill to have for organization and cable-life preservation.

I also learned about the difference between SDI and HDMI cables and how distance affects the signal for those outputs. HDMI cables are one of the most common cables used to hook up a device to display on a TV or monitor. An SDI is more often used in professional settings, for when a reliable signal is needed. There's also a locking mechanism that doesn't unplug the cable from the device in the event that someone walks or trips over the cable.

In our case for this shoot, the SDI was used to send information from the camera, to the streaming laptop, to the internet, while keeping a high quality.

Thankfully, I did not have to operate the audio systems once they were set up. I say, “thankfully,” because sound engineering is what I have the least experience in (as of now), and I did not want my minimal experience to negatively affect the ceremony. 

After everything was set up, the ceremony commenced and time flew by. Before we knew it, it was time to strike the set. It was fairly quick deconstructing everything after the award ceremony and live stream ended. The client seemed familiar and comfortable with BW Productions and I could tell they have been a client for a while.

Despite learning a lot that was new to me at that point, I still had tons of fun just being in the video-making environment again. I look forward to more opportunities for both growth and fun!

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