Skip to main content

Investigation 9/20: Live Streaming (and Football)

 This week marked the beginning of my time working with the football team for my internship. My internship involves me both recording practices and live streaming games, the latter of the two I will be focusing on today.

 Live streaming In Summary

Live streaming describes the process of streaming video content live over the internet for viewers to watch along in real time. Live streaming is similar to live television recordings, but is largely used to describe smaller, lower quality video streams to a smaller number of people. Typically, livestreams have an intended audience whom the content is being broadcasted to. Common forms of content viewed on livestream are video games, event coverage, performances, conferences, and in the case of my internship, sports.

Live Streaming Football Games

My primary duty so far for live streaming the football team's scrimmages and games has been working with a camera. The camera feed from my camera is what is livestreamed to everyone viewing the game from their device. All of the camera basics that are used in filmmaking I also use while live streaming. I make sure to frame the feed wide enough for viewers to see the play but not so wide that the players look too small on their screens. Once a play begins, I have to make sure to pay attention to where the ball is so that I can make sure it is in frame, zoom in when necessary, and track the ball when thrown. As points are scored, I also change the scoreboard which is visible on the stream. Lastly, I have to keep in mind how fast I move the camera as I want to give viewers a pleasant and easy to follow viewing experience.

Differences Between Live Streaming And Filmmaking

While most people might think that live streaming and filmmaking are very similar to each other, in my experience, they seem quite different. Filmmaking relies entirely on you creating a plan, preparing to carry out your plan, and redoing your plan until you are satisfied with the result. In the case of live streaming, you have no exact set plan, have to adapt to whatever comes up, and there are no attempts to try again. Another difference between the two is the way that they are experienced. Livestreams are intended to be experienced live as they happen in real time. While it is definitely possible to watch a livestream after it has occurred, it lessens the experience in comparison to experiencing it as it happened. On the other side of the coin, films can be viewed again and again and again, as they're intended to be watched whenever the viewer would like to do so. Theoretically, a viewer could view a film as it is being filmed, however, the experience would be lessened due to missing context, continuity, and effects that would be present in the final cut. Overall, the differences between the two can be described by saying that filmmaking allows for creative expression while live streaming allows for live, truthful coverage.

Final Thoughts

While I have so far enjoyed live streaming some of the football games the team has played, I don't know if doing any other sort of livestream would interest me. I have previously tried live streaming on Twitch but didn't enjoy it very much as it lacked much of a way to express my creativity, which would be a reason why I'd prefer to make a film. If I were to ever have a unique idea that would benefit from/involve live streaming, I would definitely give it a try and see if it would change my opinion. However, I am still grateful for being able to gain experience through this internship opportunity and I hope I can use my newfound knowledge in the future.

Work Log

  • 9/14 - Football Practice #1 (Recorded plays and took misc. B-Roll)
  • 9/15 - Football Practice #2 (Recorded plays and first used live streaming equipment)
  • 9/16 - No Work
  • 9/17 - Football Scrimmage (First test livestream)
  • 9/18 - No Work
  • 9/19 - Football Scrimmage #2 (Second test Livestream) and Mini-THON registration tutorial (Edited provided footage together and recorded voiceover explaining footage)
  • 9/20 - No Work

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

O Brother, Where Art Though?/Homer's Odyssey

Throughout O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Coen brothers included various elements in the film that drew inspiration from Homer's The Odyssey . The following are a few of these elements and characters from O Brother, Where Art Thou?  that are meant to reference Homer's The Odyssey . The Sirens In The Odyssey , Sirens are seductive creatures who try to tempt the main character of Odysseus into coming with them. To counteract this, Odysseus fills his ears with beeswax and is bound to the mast of his ship as instructed to him by Circe. In O Brother, Where Art Thou? , the Sirens act like they do in Homer's poem. They're used in the plot as a way to tempt our main characters. However unlike Odysseus in The Odyssey , Elmer, Delmar, and Pete do nothing to protect themselves from the Siren's temptations and allow themselves to be thrown off their path. Big Dan Teague In The Odyssey , The creature of the Cyclops is known as Polyphemus, son of Poseidon. In...

End of MP 1 Blog Post

After now reaching the end of the first marking period of the 2019-2020 school year, I am able to reflect back upon the work that I have completed so far. Intention Definition & Exploration Of Ideas Having no prior experience in any particular area of film, I set out to choose a topic to focus on that would allow me to help narrow down my focus. The area I chose to focus on was documentary and mockumentary styled film making. I made this choice with the intention to be able to explore both formal and less formal ideas while also not relying on having to create an entire original idea by myself. The topic of my film (The Game) was chosen because of my familiarity and pre-existing personal opinions about it. Planning Planning an entire production entirely by myself was a change of pace in comparison to how I worked in previous years. I began the planning process by typing out all of my thoughts in order to help establish what I am trying to do. Once I developed an idea for th...

Investigation 4/25: Scott Pilgrim Takeaways

Typically, I only really watch movies in a social setting or if there's one particular film that I really want to see. Over the past few days I've tried to change this habit by watching a film each night in the evening. The first of these films is one that I always wanted to watch but never had until now. Scott Pilgrim VS. The World  was originally released in 2010 and is based upon the 2005 graphic novel of the same name. The film follows Scott Pilgrim who has to fight the seven evil exes of his new girlfriend Ramona Flowers in order to be able to date her. The film is great and instantly became one of my favorites. However, the purpose of this blogpost isn't to gush about how good the film is. The purpose of this blogpost is to talk about a few takeaways that I got from the film. Editing Since the film is based upon a graphic novel that is heavily inspired by video games, it took a large amount of creativity to bring those influences to life on the big screen. One of the ...