Broadcasting from home during Coronavirus

J

jredmond108

Member
Hi, These days a lot of the networks are having their hosts broadcast from home. How are they doing that in the hosts home? Are they using a crew? If not what equipment? I have several clients that would like to start broadcasting from home with a professional look.

Thanks for any insights! James
 
Most that I have seen appear to be “FaceTime” level. At least for “news”. I haven’t seen Conan or Ellen, who both are supposed to be doing the same, now.
 
Liam Hall said:
Facetime, Skype, Zoom etc. A long way from professional-looking or sounding.
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So a quick story; My wife is an LPC and is now forced to do tele-medicine using one of the HIPPA certified streaming services. I went to great effort last week to put together a "set" for her to "broadcast" from, with a good camera, nice professional lighting, a boom mike and all the trimmings for her to use. As I went to get her, I discovered she had locked away in a back bedroom and had already started a session using NOTHING I had arranged. After the session finished, I rushed in to see what she had done... of course, worse case! Laptop on the bed, the camera looking up her nose into a corner of the room, blinding bright window filling half the frame and reducing her face to a dark smear. "Why didn't you use my stuff?" I asked. "Too hard to use, and what I did looks okay... good as the Tonight Show."

I'm somewhat concerned that this webcam "look" will survive long after the current crisis passes and be yet another tool to reduce crew and lower the general skill set on a production. Now who knows how many sacrificial techs are standing behind Jimmy on the Tonight Show to make the "casual webcam" look happen, but I see it as a way for future producers to cut all sorts of corners. How quickly the rules are changing... a month ago the 15fps standard def webcam was reserved for a battlefield remote, or extreme conditions, now every talking head is from their home, the major shows are using it either for real or faking the look to drive home that they care and are trying to be socially responsible.
 
My local news people use earbuds with an integrated mic for audio, and a laptop webcam angled up at their nose hair for video. I'm not sure what service they're using, but I would assume Skype or Zoom.

Networks should be issuing home studio kits to improve home broadcasts. It doesn't need to be any super fancy or expensive, just a few key pieces of gear and instruction would make a world of difference.
 
mothmachine said:
I saw Bill Maher’s show the other night, shot by an iPhone. It looked even worse than you think.
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I saw the same thing. But what I don't get is why it was as bad as it was - I've seen similar stuff done on the iPhone that was leagues better (heck, Soderbergh shot full on features on iPhones years ago!). I can only conclude that somehow it was Bill Maher himself that operated the iPhone and he's just abysmal at it - either there was nobody to help him, or if someone technical was helping him remotely, it didn't work out too well. I don't get it.
 
When he was outdoors, someone was holding the phone, which was clear when at one point that person started walking away from him for a wider shot. But even more so when he was using the teleconferencing software indoors, it was about as bad as it gets, with half his face blown out and the light changing -- everyone he interviewed was shot in a much better fashion. You would have thought someone at HBO could've given him some basics beforehand. And yet the audio was fine, that's one place where poor quality would have been unacceptable. Whoever shot it was probably also a (relatively qualified) sound person.
 
OldCorpse said:
I saw the same thing. But what I don't get is why it was as bad as it was
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It's now a cultural "thing" that a big budget studio production should like like the worse case consumer webcam shooting under the worse case conditions and techniques... whether it needs to be or not... Whether there's a dozen floor/booth techs or not... It's signaling to the audience that the production/star/celeb is being as socially responsive as their audience.

In this new, twisted, upside down world, the only "high quality" 4K content you will see for months to come is from lone wolf low budget YouTube bloggers. :)
 
I agree with Jim, that I think it's being done completely on-purpose to prove a point/look "socially responsible" and the more "amateur/consumer" it looks, the better. There is absolutely NO reason otherwise for a planned shoot with a broadcast profession(reporter, anchor, etc.) to be using a hardwired earpiece with in-line mic dangling by their face while on-air.

As I said in another thread about this, most stations have studios that are large enough to safely accommodate a typical crew at the necessary distances. One of the local news stations that I watch here typically has two anchors, weather, sports and at least one reporter in the field or fronting from the news room. A week or two ago, they were just spacing people out in the studio(one at the desk, one at the secondary location where they do the next show, etc.), but now... This weekend it was one anchor in studio, second anchor from the field with a cityscape BG, weatherman from his house(FT/Skype) and sports anchor from outside the station with the building as the BG. Lotsa 4-box action... The weather guy had the earpiece/mic dangling the whole time and the sports anchor had the earpiece/mic dangling during the tease, but had it hidden during the actual shot. Not sure why she had it at all, because hers was a real live shot.
 
On the country music special last night on CBS, everything looked like it was edited with a combination in some cases with either a webcam or iphone and then a more professionally looking camera. On 60 minutes looks like they were using DSLR for their 2nd and 3rd camera while still using an iphone. When they did an interview with someone on 60 minutes it looked like it was through Skype. In a few cases they had an over the shoulder of the host looking at his laptop talking to the guest.
Erik piece looked great (at least from the photos). I wondered how it looked on air if he was using the iphone.
Hopefully there is an opportunity for us here.... James
 
Whether or not they're making their broadcasts look bad intentionally, these shows are proving the value of trained lighting/camera professionals. I can barely stand to watch some of it.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver started broadcasting from a smaller separate studio because someone working in their original studio tested positive for coronavirus. (Could this be why so many shows are going remote? They had to quarantine/disinfect their space or the possibility of doing that repeatedly was too costly?)

They properly lit Oliver's new shot (albeit with a plain white background), but the style of the scene and the beauty effect on the host are a FAR cry from their normal set-up...

(Though what's really weird for me with this and all the other late-night shows is the lack of a laughing audience. It feels so empty by comparison, and the host has no energy to play off of.)
 
Jim Arthurs said:
I'm somewhat concerned that this webcam "look" will survive long after the current crisis passes and be yet another tool to reduce crew and lower the general skill set on a production.
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Too likely. And too scary.

I haven't seen many of the shows, but Colbert looks pretty good (much better and sharper on air and online than the grab) and great connection. Shot by his (college age?) son, with his younger son on the phone with the director. And I'm sure lit by his crew.

Colbert.jpg


Naso, FTW!!!
 
I thought this was an interesting watch, the second half with the Hamilton surprise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oilZ1hNZPRM&t=113s

I'd assume that the 4x4 grid of participants was not a live Zoom meeting as it is suggested to be--more likely, I would think, that it was individual clips synced later and built into the grid in post. Feels like the song was a pre-record, then went live right after it ended (keep an eye on Lin transitioning from full frame to the grid at 15:28). A little sneaky there.
 
groveChuck said:
Too likely. And too scary.

I haven't seen many of the shows, but Colbert looks pretty good (much better and sharper on air and online than the grab) and great connection. Shot by his (college age?) son, with his younger son on the phone with the director. And I'm sure lit by his crew.

View attachment 138822


Naso, FTW!!!
Click to expand...

That's a weird framing on Colbert. And it looks like they may have tried to perfectly center his head. Could be worse though.
 
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