At the start of term Steve Dawkins offered us a opportunity to work for Coventry Blaze tv, which is a program set up by last years 3rd years. at first i was sceptical of doing it as i live nearer Leicestershire so travel was my main issue. But i decided to go along to see it first before i made any judgement. we were invited down on 17th October to meet Ian who would run everything we need to know by us. At this time myself and Andrew were the only ones that could make it but Sid would be able to make it from now on.
This is an example of what the past team have produced during working for Coventry blaze tv
As you can see from the video we need to meet these standards if we want to be succesful during this project/experience. We then went to meet Ian at the skydome at 5pm. when we met we were given the initial guide through of exactly what we need to do, from meeting people to the set up which is as follows:
1. Collect 2 dvd’s, 2 microphones and 2 cameras from either Mike or Diane
2. Set up camera 1 and the tripod within the stadium and ensure that all of the dvd’s are in the dvd recorders. Then make sure Camera 1 is connected to the dvd recorders. We then needed to make sure that the BNC cable is connected to the back of the TV monitor so the live stream can be linked to the TV’s in the bar.
3. Then ensure that the feed from the cameras works in the bar and set up the two microphones, one to the Dj booth for the interview in bar and a wireless microphone to be used with the interview on the ice.
4. Set up camera 2 and tripod in the bar for live interview before the match. Camera 2 and BNC to monitors in bar must be connected for this.
5. After the interview we packed away camera 2, and switched back the bnc cable from the wall to ensure the camera within the stadium is live streaming to the bar.
6. After this was done we heading back up to the filming point within the stadium. we checked once more that everything was working correctly, and we were now ready to record the first game of Coventry Blaze vs Hull Stingrays.
After going through the set up i was confident about what we had to do and all we had to do now was film the game. i got asked to film the first period of the game, which i thought would be easy, but the difficulty i faced was trying to follow a small puck on the small camera screen. after about 5 minutes i was more relaxed and got more of a flow with the camera which kept me focused on the game. We then took turns during the three periods, that way we would all get a turn and used to the camera.
The game itself was a great experience as i have never watch a ice hockey match before, so for me this was very new. i loved the atmosphere it brought to the stadium. it is a very fast paced game, and even though im not a Coventry Blaze fan i found myself cheering on for them to win. The final result of the game was 5-4 to the Blaze.
After filming the game we packed away all the equipment and handed over the dvd’s to the club. Overall the whole experience we had was a success and i am feeling more and more confident, everyone was helpful and after hearing the detailed information that Ian gave us for great which allowed myself and Andrew to take on board all we need to know. The next game is against Sheffield and Ian and the rest of the team will be there incase we get into any trouble.
25/10/09 Coventry Blaze v Sheffield Steelers
Today was our first proper day of working for Coventry Blaze. this was a chance for the previous team to see how we would perform with no help. Andrew and Sid arrived first as i had to work until 5pm on Sundays, so they got everything set up, but they did it with ease so this was a plus. When i arrived there i met Ian and he said to just go straight into it, which i did, i met Andrew and Sid and asked what we needed to do next. my first job was to go make sure that the cameras were set up correctly and decide what shots we need to get.
We ended up deciding having the main camera from the top of the stadium and one camera on the ground. this way we could capture full coverage of the game and also get close up shots to use for action replays. During the game i felt comfortable which each camera as we rotated after each period to make sure everyone gets a try. We didnt have any problems with filming which is always a plus and this made our team more confident.
after the game finished we packed everything away and set up for another interview after the game. this involved using the wireless mic and using the live feed again from the camera. again everything went smoothly. Also this time we got our first pay packet from the team which made it feel more of a job then a project which was a good feeling. the money isn’t much but it helps with petrol which is good as i travel from Leicestershire to Coventry most days.
When we got home we started editing straight away. the first thing we did was to start capturing the footage. from both cameras we had at least 4 hours worth of footage as we used 4 tapes. so this was going to be a long process of capturing.
After Capturing i started to edit period one as the others started to edit the other periods. it started off fine but even though we logged we still had to scroll through footage to find the best parts in which we wanted to use. After doing this we then need to add certain graphics. we did this using Photoshop which allows us to modify logos and create scores ourselves. this was helpful as we were able to create the graphics quick, however to make them interact the way we wanted we needed to use a program called After effects. unfortunately we only had this program on one computer, and what was time-consuming was that we had to keep going back and forth to copy the footage to memory stick to then transfer it to laptop.
We didn’t end up finishing until 6:30 am the next morning, this was due to the fact that we weren’t ready for the editing part as we didnt have the graphics ready, but we have now made a plan in which we get the graphics ready the day before and this should speed up our process for next time.
below is our first video we created for Coventry blaze which reached 400+ views in the first day so i was happy with the result and hoping to get more views by the end of the week.
1/11/09 Coventry Blaze v Cardiff Devils
This was our second time filming the game. We set up everything perfectly again which was a plus. but we had one technical hitch which was when we did the second interview. As we are using a wireless mic the base station receiver is located in the bar ad the interview is set inside the stadium, so sometime we dont have a strong signal and therefore the sound cut out now and again so we weren’t getting a clear interview. After the interview we suggested that it would work better if the base station was mounted within the stadium and therefore guarantee a strong signal every time. After we sorted that out we continued to film the game. we took turns rotating from cameras to give everyone a different camera for each period. Ian and Scott gave us a hand by writing down time codes for each shot or goal. this helped with editing.
At the end of the game we ran into some trouble as some of the dvds didnt work as they stopped recording halfway through the 3rd period and when we went to finalize the video it only did 2, so this was frustrating as everything else ran smoothly. For editing the piece we managed to do it alot quicker than last time as we got all the graphics ready before hand on the badges, player names and other animations we wish to add on. we had a bit of struggle adding some graphics as the settings on my timeline where set to 29fps instead of 25fps which made the footage appear to lag. However we managed to finish all of the editing and created a much better piece than last time.
8/11/09 Coventry Blaze v Hull Stingrays
This was our third time filming but this time Ian and the rest of the previous team wern’t there, so this was our proper test to see if we could manage the whole night by ourselves. As i have work on sunday until 4:30 i can only get there at 5:15 but when i got there i saw that Andrew and Sid had already done the interviews pre match and set up the equipment. this was good as it made me feel confident that although there is two of there we are still able to get everything in order and ready to film. Once i got there we got the camera set up on the ground of the stadium to make sure we could get close up shots of goals and any other action. After this we decided to rotate after every period to make sure people wernt stuck in one place for the whole night. i found this a good routine as it keeps you fresh on each camera.
As last time there was trouble with the dvd we had to make sure that all connections were in, and that all of them were ready to record to save any problems later. We were now set up and ready to film our first game by ourselves. overall the filming went well. there were lots of action and goals which made the game more interesting to watch and the stadium was filled with a great atmosphere we created great audio.
we tried something different with the editing, with the goals graphics. in the previous video we showed the actual player appear on screen with his name score and time. this looked good and worked well but we found out that it was difficult to get hold of the players image. so with this in mind myself, andrew and sid decided that it would be easier and wll still hold that look if we just used the badge of cov blaze, and this way it will counter balance with the oppositions badge when we use it for their goals.
this is the final edit of the game we filmed and overall i feel we have done a very good job and we manage to get it up on youtube within the next day so its good to have experience in fast editing and still producing quality work.
14/11/09 Coventry Blaze v Newcastle Vipers
This week the game was on a saturday so this time i was able to be there from the start . when we arrived we got set up straight away as usual. we then went down into crosby’s to film the pre match interview. we set this up and the filing went well. audio was fine and the visuals were good. once this was done we heard that there was going to be a 15 minute delay for the match, which was good for us as we were now able to set up and rest before we started filming. as the game started at 7:15 now at 7:00 we got down to our assigned cameras. at first i was down at first period and nothing really happened which was disapointing and the period ended at 0-0.
Within the second period we saw a massive difference in the game as blaze were more into the game and we saw goals from both teams, which made it more enjoyable to watch and more enjoyable to film. also during the second period the game was further delayed as a check against the glass forced it to fall out and sadly injured a spectator. we didn’t film it as we felt that it was wrong to exploit it. however the saint john ambulance team were able to help the spectator and the glass was replaced so the game could continue.
overall the game was a good one and this is the second time we have filmed by ourselves and it has gone well, all the dvd’s got finalised and everything went well and i am proud of our team as a whole as i feel we are working well.
here is the edit of the game hope you enjoy.
21/11/09 Coventry Blaze v Edinburgh Capitals
This weeks game saw myself ans Si by ourselves as Andrew had other commitments. When we got there we got told that the pre match interview will be at 6:15, as we got there at 5:00 this gave us plenty of time to set up. when it got to the time myself and sid were able to change over the BNC cable in order for the interview to be shown on screen. After the interview was done we then went up to our position at the top of the stadium and set up everything and made sure that we would were recording. As there was only two of us we just had the ive feed camera and one of our z5 cameras as we needed to log, film and stream the ice hockey.
The overall filming went well and all of the dvds recorded which was a plus as we have had some difficulties with one of the dvd players recently, but we are hoping to get that changed soon. Blaze played well and won the game. we did some good filming but on one goal we had some technical difficulties and we missed a goal. However we explained it to Mike and he seemed ok with it.
We decided not to lose sleep over editing and said that we will edit on monday rather than the same night. this way all of us are there and we could rely on each other for editing.
Here is the final video for this weeks game. enjoy.
21/11/09 Interview with Paul Thompson
Just as we were packing away we were asked by Andrew to film a interview with Paul Thompson the head coach of Coventry Blaze. This would work well as it will be a new addition to our youtube page. unfortuanly as we were unprepared we didn’t capture good quality audio. However the interview was filmed well and i think that it was a succesful shoot.
