John Hunter holds a unique distinction among broadcast audio mixers: he was the A1 for the NBA Raptors vs. Pelicans basketball game in November 2018, one of the very first sports events to be produced in immersive Dolby Atmos sound with 4K HDR picture for live distribution to homes across North America.
Filmmaking is now an artform with a long history, and that means a lot of received knowledge. Things like primes being better than zooms, and characterful primes best of all. The public attitude to that orthodoxy, though, is starting to show some signs of changing, and the dawn of a new year seems like a good time to examine some of the ways that’s starting to show up in production.
Creating an LED light that looks reasonable, both on camera and to the eye, is no longer that difficult.
If 2020 was considered a disruptive one for the television production community, 2021 was a year where trial and error and the lessons learned became real-world REMI deployments to keep live sports and entertainment content on the air. Production studios too learned to adapt with fewer crew allowed inside and social distancing becoming the new normal.
2021 saw the end of a British lighting institution with the demise of Photon Beard. The company has existed since the founding of R. R. Beard Limited, founded in 1882 by a man who reveled in the fantastic name of Robert Royou Beard.
Planning for any kind of live TV broadcasting starts with a ‘what-if?’ list. What if the power source fails? What if a key production person gets sick or hurt? What if broadband internet access becomes unstable? What are the chances for each ‘what-if?’ and what back-up alternatives fit the budget? The list should be as lengthy as it is easy to edit.
A technology might seem to be near maturity when design approaches that were once theoretical, and impractical to build, become easier to make and start to hit the market. LED lighting isn’t necessarily easy to build in 2021, which is why it’s still not as affordable as we’d all like, but some advanced techniques are becoming more everyday.
In some ways, the best DOP and a sadist have a lot in common: We strive to make our viewers suffer and the curious thing is, our audiences love us the more for it. Of course, DOPs, like most civilized people, wouldn’t think to wrench the fingernails from our viewers’ fingers; I’m not talking about that kind of suffering exactly.
