As Live Production | In the Studio with Del

We were down in the studio for a masterclass with Del as he went through the basics of using cameras in a studio environment.  This included things such as panning and changing the focus and exposure.  The cameras were all linked up to equipment in the gallery so each camera display appeared in the preview monitors in the gallery.  The cameras were numbered which allows the gallery team to distinguish between which shots to cut to in a live show.

We looked at the industry standard for colour correction and white balancing which involved using a greyscale so that the cameras could each adjust the white balance as well as achieving 'true white' and 'true black'.  This was also important to test each of the cameras against each other so that they all matched in the gallery.

We also looked at focusing the camera and, in groups, we tested focusing with movement by using a coin.  This was not something I found overly difficult, but doing it quickly was more of a challenge.  In a studio environment is important to frame up and focus as quickly as possible to ensure that the vision mixer can cut to your camera in the gallery.  This gave me a new understanding of operating a camera, where I am used to on-location shooting which can usually allow for a lot more time to set up a shot.

We then moved into the gallery and I was very excited to get a hands-on experience with the vision mixing desk, which would be my job in the live show itself.  This was my first time using the desk so I was not expecting to be an expert but I found the whole process of cutting and mixing between shots very natural.  Del said that we were supposed to keep one finger on each of the camera input buttons, i.e. pinky finger on camera 1, ring finger on camera 2 etc.  I struggled with this initially as I was tempted to use the same finger to cut to each camera.  I got the hang of it in time though and I was able to cut between the correct cameras without looking at the desk.