Carol Service: Event day – 04/12/2018

On the day of the carol service, I arrived on site at 11:30 in readiness for the show. Terry from cloudbass arrived at 12:15, I showed him around the venue, pointing out the camera positions and cable route. I also introduced him to the Chaplain, Adam Dickens and the production manager for the event Colin Huthwaite.

The truck and cloudbass crew arrived at 12:40, power was made available to the truck and rigging began immediately. Rigging was fast as this was a small and pretty much straight forward job, except for the little issue we encountered with the university’s security and estates team regarding access to the cable route, which was resolved promptly and amicably.

The camera operators and the rest of the crew production arrived as scheduled. The Director’s FACS check took place at 16:30. The carol service kicked off at 17:13 and streaming of the event on YouTube started immediately by 18:00 the service was rounded off with some wine and mince pie.

It was a good first OB event planned and executed excellently well. I must commend the efforts of the production crew.

Terry and Williams in the directing the event

• Staring with William Jones, a second year BELET student at the university who was the director at the event. He executed his role extremely well and passionately too, I couldn’t have asked for a better director. 
• Taran, another second-year student was in charge of VT, white balancing all the cameras, sorting out the back focus, exposure, etc. Justin was also in VT supporting and overseeing the whole operation. 
• Joel Garner, a member of the Cloudbass crew helped with rigging and was also the dolphin arm operator. 
• Danny Allen, another member of the Cloudbass crew was on the Steadicam, He was supported by Tom Johns a first year BELET student who was cable runner for the Steadicam. 
• Mark Flanagan operated the Close-up and Medium master camera (CAM2) 
• and Ben was on the wide master camera (CAM1). 
• Apart from helping out with rigging and de-rigging Terry also supported the director in his role. 
• Phil Light, a sound engineer from Cloudbas was in charge of the sound and comms system, he also helped out with the last-minute setup of the EVS remotes and operation. 

Joel Garner operating the Dolphin Arm

All the production team members worked hand in hand to produce what I will call the best ever university carol service yet.

There were areas that were overlooked in the planning, which would have made the whole production process even better. They include:

• Holding Graphics: - For an event like this, a holding graphics would be nice, as it gives the director something to cut to, when nothing is going on stage or when acts are clearing off the stage or the next performance is being prepared.
• Proper cable route evaluation: - Even though the cable route was agreed and cleared by the security team, I failed to consider what will happen if access door is left open on a cold winter evening. This was pointed out when the door was opened, and we realised how cold it was. This singular mistake almost cost us the whole event. Although it was resolved promptly (by tying a thick drape across the access door) an advance planning would have prevented slight delay in setup this caused.
• Last minute call to set up the EVS remote: - This was probably a wrong call, although it worked out in the end, but if given a proper consideration, this should have been setup way ahead of time. 

A very good communication was maintained throughout the planning phrase between I and the production manager, this I was say lead to the successful execution of the event.

A good communication was also maintained with the university security team, informing them about the event and obtaining all the relevant permits and authorisations.

I will like to express my sincere appreciation to Cloudbass for providing the OB truck (BOB4) and all the production kit used at this event free of charge. And to my programme leader Ben Sams and module leader Justin Davey, for all their help during the planning and execution of this event. Thank you so much Justin for all your help and guidance.

I am looking forward to the next OB.