Art Behind the Art: Behind the Scenes of a Webcast

As people tune in to the Live Earth  webcast this weekend to catch such artists as Smashing Pumpkins, The Beastie Boys, and Metallica play at concerts around the world, it's doubtful that many will put much thought into exactly how those webcasts are done. 

Too bad.

Last month I was invited by The Control Room , one of the largest producers of webcasts in the world, to witness the process in action.  What I saw was a precise and intricate dance where the artistry often eclipsed the event they were covering.  The scale of the event was minuscule compared to the massive undertaking of Live Earth.  Mandy Moore was playing at Park West, and the webcast was timed to coincide with the release of her new album.  Inside the venue there was nothing out of the ordinary, save for a large boom camera towards the back of the floor section.  For the record Mandy more was twice as good looking as I thought, and not half as terrible as I expected.  But I digress.....

About half way through the show we moved out to production trailer that was parked out on Armitage.  If the cameras inside were the operations eyes, the trailer was it's brain.  The dark trailer was lined with flatscreen monitors.  Across the top was a monitor for each of the 9 high definition cameras in use for the show.  In the center was a large screen with the "live" feed.  In the center of it all was the director, who danced around like a lunatic scanning all 9 screens and calling out which one should be piped in to the live feed.  In between changes he would call out instructions to his camera operators with an intense authority that somehow always remained calm and often humorous.

To his left was the assistant director, who had the job of researching the set list and studying the songs.  Every few seconds he would feed the director advance information about what to expect from the show.  "Twenty seconds until piano solo"....."Coming up on the chorus in 15 seconds".....the guy apparently did his homeword, because he was always right on the money with the information.

The director had an artists eye for detail, and knew how to recognize a great moment. Towards the end of  Moore's new ballad "Gardenia" he noticed on one of the camera feeds that the singer was tearing up.  "She's going to cry!  Everyone get in tight."  As the cameras all honed in on Moore's face the director was proven right. "Holy shit she's crying!  It's beautiful."  (This, naturally, was a lot more evident on the high-end monitors in the dark production truck than it is on a two inch box on a computer screen, but feel free to check it out for yourself. )

At times the efficiency the crew worked with was poetic.  The professionalism and preparation that went into the production was pretty stunning.  But in the end they made it look easy, and much like watching a great concert, it was pretty moving to watch.

This event involved one production trailer, and Live Earth will have upwards of 80.   How they coordinate the logistics of an event on that scale is beyond me, but I'll definitely be watching closely to see if any of the Beastie Boys start tearing up....

Comments

[Brad Barrish]

Nice write up. Thanks for coming to the show. It was good meeting you.

[rich goldberg]

Great stuff guys...congratulations!