PDA Outside Broadcasting Blog

This blog is about my year on the PDA Outside broadcasting course at Edinburgh College.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Gymfest Aberdeen 2018

I was part of a 4 person team that was covering the Gymfest Aberdeen 2018 event. I arrived with 2 others on Friday afternoon to rig the equipment and test it. We had a two camera setup, the first camera was the wide shot covering the whole mat and the second camera was on the corner of the mat which was getting mid to close up shots of the performances. We plugged the cameras into the Livestream which we recorded on to. For the first time we had to output our pictures the a screen in the performers warm up area that they could watch whilst waiting.

On Saturday we started recording at 9:30am and finished filming at 5:40pm. The one major issue we had on the day was that on the Livestream mainly camera one was blacking out for a few frames whilst we were recording. We did not have enough time during recording to figure out what was wrong.

On Sunday morning we checked the connections on the cameras and the Livestream to see if that was the issue but everything was fine. So we started recording and the problem persisted so we had to fix it. Connections were unplugged and plugged back in. The problem was gone and we were able to record the rest of the day without the blacking out occurring again.

The conclusion we came to after we came back was that the settings on the Livestream were different to that on the cameras causing the dropped frames but as of yet has not be confirmed.

[umairaslamkhalil]

SMRC race day 1 - Knockhill (8th April 2018)

We arrived at 7:30am and headed to ur meeting point which was the media centre. There we met everyone, went over the schedule and had a quick team meeting. All teams were given there kit to take to their camera positions after the cameras were all synched by Pawel. Each two person team had a camera, tripod, two SD cards and two batteries. 

They were sent out during qualifying to practice shots, get comfortable filming the races and lastly get cutaways to use in the edits. They were back in after about an hour of filming to get a break and have a look at the footage. Looking at the footage was essential to see if the shots needed to be in tighter or wider.

The first set of races started at 11am till 12:30pm. In this period there 4 races then there would be a lunch break. The safety car was out a lot during these races which caused them to run behind schedule which meant that the lunch break which was supposed to be from 12:30pm till 1:30pm was shorter than expected so we had to curtail the break we had.

The second session of races was from 1:30pm till 5:30pm this included 10 races. Again the safety car was out a few times which again caused delays.

During the first session I was not on a camera. I was at the media centre helping give batteries out to cameras 5 and 1 which were within walking distance of the media centre. I stayed on talkback to communicate with the team.

After lunch I was on camera 4 with Steven. We shared filming duties but Steven filmed more than me. We had an issue with the camera position as we got a great shot of them coming round the corner but were not able to pan the camera sufficiently to get a good shot of them heading up past us.

Three people that were on the call sheet were unable to make it which caused us to be short on cameras which meant at points during the day we had only one person on a camera for stretches which led to them having no relief.

There were issues on the day which included lack of crew, camera positions need altered and we require 3 SD cards per camera.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Camera Training/SMRC race day Pre-production meeting (5th April 2018)

We had a meeting at the college at 10am. We went over rigging the camera and tripod also how to change the settings on the camera. Jim talked us through the shots we wanted to get on Sunday plus who would be on what cameras. After this I finished the call sheet and sent it out via email to everyone who would be part of the crew on Sunday at Knockhill. The call sheet included maps of the circuit, camera locations, crew, our filming schedule and a separate pdf which was the SMRC race day schedule. We also sorted out travel arrangements for those that needed a lift to the location, that was part of a separate email which again was sent out to those in the crew.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Melrose University 7′s (1st April 2018)

This was a three camera shoot with the livestream and livereplayer software. We arrived at 10:30am, got all the kit out, setup what we needed in the press box and then the SDI cables were rigged. Once that was done we went down and setup the cameras and tripods. We ran a couple of tests to make sure everything was working. One of the cameras had to be swapped as the connector on the camera was causing the picture to cut out.

I was on camera 1, Kris on cam 2 and Andy was on cam 3. Jim was switching & Pawel and Marjory were on replays.

We were only supposed to stream the last three games but teams had pulled out so there was no tournament as such. We recorded the games and they will be put up online. Myself, Kris and Pawel all put through replays to help us get through that part of the course. Once we finished, everything was packed away & checked. Loaded into cars & we all left.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Edinburgh College Orchestra performance (29th March 2018)

Myself and Kris went to film the Edinburgh College Orchestra at Epworth Halls. We were not able to recce the venue as it was taken on very short notice amongst other things we were doing. The event went fairly well. If we had more time such as a recce we my had better luck with camera positions. The footage recorded might be used for the GLOW launch i.e projected onto the walls.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Knockhill Recce (28th March 2018)

We got to Knockhill, everyone got their kit and dropped off at their camera positions. They filmed onto SD cards for about an hour. The weather started to get bad so they had to pack up fairy quickly and come back in. The equipment so soaking wet. Whilst the kit was drying and being put away we had a look at some of the footage. After that we headed back. We were able to get some footage but unfortunately due to weather we were unable to get a lot of footage or have another chance to get more.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Knockhill test day pre-production meeting (27th March 2018)

We went through the main points of what we hope to achieve from our recce at Knockhill. They were getting a sequence of being able to follow a car round the track and measure the fence to see if we are able to use the jib. We also went over the kit list, roles and our schedule on the day.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Scottish National Portrait Gallery Recce (13th March 2018)

I was one of 5 people there at 9am for a recce. The recce is for the opening of the GLOW festival. The shoot will be using 3 cameras, one using a terradek and the other cabled to the livestream. We will have a screen downstairs which will have the images on it that are going to be filmed that evening. An audio feed will be coming from the gallery. A projector might used but right now there is not a suitable area for it. There will be a test to see how well the terradek works as there is a lot of bricks and pillars that may interfere with the signal.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Press For Progress (8th March 2018)

Myself, Pawel & Kris were filming a panel of women in the creative industries. Kris and I were camera operators and Pawel was operating the livestream. The event lasted for two hours. I was the wide shot & Kris was the close up shot. I had an issue with my Lilliput monitor as it was not staying on. The problem was the power cable for the monitor. I was running the camera on batteries which was a slight issue as we had no talkback and had to change battery. We should have run both cameras off of power to negate that issue. A Rode NTG2 was used as an audience mic & radio mics were used to hear the panellists talking.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Scottish Artistic Championships (24th February 2018)

I was part of a team of 7 that went up to Perth to help film the Scottish Artistic Championships. Myself and Pawel were together in a pair. We had a camera which was using a battery & had an SD card in it. Throughout the day we were filming events such as the pummel horse, uneven bars, etc. We swapped the camera during the day as well so neither of us were doing too much. The event went well. The interviews at the end were a bit rushed due to time constraints but over all went fairly smooth. 

[umairaslamkhalil]

Chris Patterson - Mock Press Conference (26th January 2018)

Myself, Kris & Pawel helped setup a mock press conference the would be part of the HND AVT 2′s class. They had to setup cameras and decide on the best position, how they would get audio, questions they would ask. We were there in case the needed help or to ask our advice.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Church Hill Theatre (13th, 20th & 21st January 2018)

I went to a recce for the theatre on the 13th of January. There were not a lot of complications with the recce apart from a minor snag of power sockets that we found out weren’t working on the day during the dress rehearsal.

The 20th and 21st were the dates of the play. It was a 3 camera shoot, one safe camera in the middle which was a wide shot, myself on the left doing a close up shots and then another camera on the right which was more of an extreme close up shot. Everything went well, we had no major issue. The only thing that changed was the time of the show on the 21st which was scheduled to be later on in the day but was moved forward to the afternoon.

[umairaslamkhalil]

PDA OB Course Board Presentation (12th December 2017)

Myself, Pawel and Kris were at Edinburgh College’s Milton Road campus to be part of a presentation to the board about the PDA course. Jim put together a short video of some of the events we have done already. Marjory was the main person doing the presentation, we were there to answer any questions the board had about our experiences on the course.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Grigor Stirling Talk (8th December 2017)

A BBC producer called Girgor Stirlng came in to talk to us. He has worked on football, rugby, T in the park & charity events. We recorded the talk. Two camera setup: Pawel on cam one wide shot & Kris on cam two close up on Jim & Grigor. He also got shots of the audience. I was in charge of sound, Jim & Grigor were radio mic’d up. Both receivers were put into cam two. A gun mic was plugged into cam one and used to get noise/questions from the audience. It was put on a mic stand and aimed at the crowd. The fire alarm was being tested and nobody in the talk knew so we all left every time it went off.

[umairaslamkhalil]

SMRC Awards Dinner (2nd December 2017)

We had two cameras. I was on cam 1 which was a safe cam or wide shot of the event. Cam 2 was a roaming cam which was shared between Tom & Kris. We were able to get and audio feed for the team that were there but we were getting no sound through the camera. Eventually I was able to get the camera to get sound but I could not hear anything through the headphones which. Kris used the radio mic. He plugged it into the cam and left the transmitter and the podium. There was no SD cards brought or given to us so we had to rely on Kris and his SD cards. Micheal came with a camera and he used his to get the same kinds of shots as the other camera. The event went long and we almost ran out of space on the SD card that was in cam 1 before the awards had finished. Kris and Marjory took shots of the cocktail before the event and did interviews after it as well. The event was scheduled to finish for us at 9:30pm looking to leave by 10pm-10:30pm. We never left the Sheraton Hotel until 12:15am. A monopod for the second camera may be a good idea for this kind of event in the future due to lack of space.

No recce

No call sheet or schedule

No SD cards (for this event we needed at least 2 64gb SD cards for each camera)

[umairaslamkhalil]

The Creative Bash (30th November 2017)

I was asked to come along and help out. There was two cameras, I was on camera 1 the main camera. Getting establishing shots and wide shots when needed. HND 2 AVT students were there using DSLR’s to capture the event. Jim was switching using the livestream and it was being outputted to a projector which was aimed at the wall opposite to where we were. Camera 1 was attached to power. We started the rig at roundabout 4pm and we de-rigged at about 10pm. We only really had one issue which was the handheld camera which was using a Teradek kept losing the signal was was frustrating as we had no talk back to chat to camera operators. Talk back would not have worked as the music was far too loud to hear anything else.

[umairaslamkhalil]

Gymfest 2017 Perth (17th,18th & 19th November 2017)

Pawel, Jim and I arrived on Friday evening (17th) at the Bells Live Active Sports Centre to rig for the shoot. We had two cameras, cam 1 was in the stands and cam 2 was on the floor near the corner of the mat. We both rigged and cabled the cameras then they were checked by Jim using the livestream. Settings were not set as that would be done on the Saturday morning (18th). We were able to get a sound feed from Scottish Gymnastics sound team which feeds into the livestream. It was decided on Friday the I would be on camera 2 on Saturday and camera 1 on Sunday. Pawel would be cam 1 on Saturday and cam 2 on Sunday. Jim was switching throughout the weekend. Micheal came to observe but ended out helping us due lack of numbers. I had many problems with this shoot and they are as follows:-

1. No call sheet/kit list/crew list

2. Not knowing who will actually be going/confirmed. This for me went up till I was waiting for everyone else to arrive on the Friday evening.

3  Crew arriving 1 hour and 15 minutes later than when we were told to arrive

4. There was a net in the way of Camera 1 which we asked to be moved but told it was fine.