I can remember when the time used to be when doing a multicamera recording used to involve a large truck which drove to the venue.
The director, technical manager and engineers sat inside in air-conditioned comfort. The camera took several crew to lift them onto the tripods. Now not only have the cameras shrunk in size, but the OB truck can be replaced by a small rackbox and laptop.
All can be carried in a small van, but now you have to find a place to put the vision mixing equipment. …and it’s often in a cramped small store room or even a corridor. (Haven’t done one from a toilet yet)
It’s often not very comfortable. Either too hot or too cold. The recent “En Masse” Rock choir concert at the Point in Eastleigh was of the “too cold” variety.
Here is Ruth (as PA) and I swathed in overcoats. …and we’re still cold despite having a radiant heater under the table.
Supper was multiple pizzas.
..and I discovered a good use for the fact that Macbook Pros run hot. I could use it for keeping my pizza warm! But luckily I had eaten the pizza before I needed to use the Macbook again.
The filming went well…with the ATEM mixer and Balck Magic Intensity Pro running into the MacBook via thunderbolt. Seems very stable
First time I’ve used my new jib, with the underslung head. It worked well.
…..but unfortunately we had to clear the theatre quickly and didn’t have time to properly coil the cables, so I ended up next day with over a half kilometre of tangled cables in our kitchen …and hall ..and sitting room.
Untangling cables is best done in a large space. So you can pull them all out and coil them separately. Once they are tangled it’s a bit of a nightmare in a small space. So extracting the first 50 metre length took an hour and a half! ..but as you clear more and more it gets a bit faster.
