I have just had the chance to Vision Mix for the Student Radio Awards 2019. Having been part of student media since I first joined university it holds a very close place to my heart so I loved being able to be a part of the awards despite not attending them as I have in the past.
When I’d arrived at the O2 Academy in London I was shown around the venue by Stephen Clarke. This gave myself and the Camera Operators an opportunity to get used to the venue and see some of the equipment that would be used for the evenings event. When I asked Stephen showed me how the Black Magic camera would be used. Having not used one before I was eager to learn something new.
I then helped the cam ops find their way around the cameras as I’ve used them before. They seemed quite nervous of using the roaming camera however when I’d showed them the way around the focus, zoom and aperture settings they seemed to be a lot more comfortable.
I was able to see the Vision Mixer station I would be working on and Dan Wildman was showed me the software they were using. He talked me through how he would be passing graphics to the vision mixer and how this would all get onto the on stage projector. I greatly appreciated him taking the time to show me this as it made me more confident in knowing what was happening and what to expect when the event begun.
While we waited for the event to begin we were given some time to familiarise ourselves with the equipment we would be using as well as the venue, having familiarised myself with the vision mixer I went round the venue with one of the cam ops, showing her some places I thought she would be able to capture a good variety of shots of the stage from. We also got the chance to speak to some of the presenters back stage, including Riyadh Khalaf. It was a great opportunity to get an insight into how so many successful individuals had made it into the industry.
During the event I had the tricky job of picking the right camera, although Stephen was directing me he did give me creative freedom at times, especially during the band performances. I loved being able to be a little more creative and was pleased that he trusted in my skills. Sometimes hand held camera shots can be a little too shaky but I managed to avoid the really shaky ones and make the sequence flow.
The feedback I received from Stephen was extremely helpful and he gave me a few areas to work on. Specifically my confidence in what I’m doing and to take a little more risk when transitioning between shots, using cross fades more can really enhance a sequence. I believe this experience helped me improve my awareness of the different ways a live event should be presented. I got to see how real life events work, opposed to the internal Demon events and events for DMU I had previously worked.
Léonie Mayer 