Hello there tech friends!
I wanted to add this to the blog, even though TECHnically it is a producer note and not a tech item. But it's on my mind, and I'll talk a little tech at the end to make me feel better. :-)
So last night we did our one performance for Charlotte's Web - Live from Home! About 25 minutes into the show the feed on the live stream was killed for "violations". Something flagged our show and after review it was determined we were violating copy write policy and the feed was stopped. Knowing that we had paid the people who hold the rights to the show $105 (plus another $120 for their scripts), and worked closely with their rep to be sure our broadcast method was good (thank you Ivy at Dramatic Publishing), we re-spooled the feed and finished the show. After the show we filled out a form protesting the violation, and this morning they put the feed back up. Which we immediately deleted as part of our agreement with Dramatic Publishing.
So our show was stopped, our audience and artists alarmed, and our reputation took a bit of a hit because it appeared that we didn't "pay the light bill" as it was. Even though we did. As we've looked into this, it is noted that this happens a decent amount to people on YouTube. We'll have to think twice about live stream on YouTube. It is a fine platform for videos, but for live theatre, might need to use our own website. Lessons learned.
So on the tech side, doing a show via zoom and then live streamed over YouTube is really challenging. The way the internet transfers packets of information and the way Zoom filters out background noise to focus on the active speaker make for a lot of lost nuance in a show. Don't get me wrong, these are amazing developments and without them none of video streaming would be possible at all, I do like the technology. For theatre though, we need to figure out a way to meld what we offer - a live presentation that has the life and spontaneity you can't get from a recording - with the platforms that exist to move our message out to a large number of people.
Gotta think on that one. We'll figure it out, one thing the theatre isn't short on is creative people!
Until next time, stay techy my friends!
Brian
AKA: The Man in the Pit
I wanted to add this to the blog, even though TECHnically it is a producer note and not a tech item. But it's on my mind, and I'll talk a little tech at the end to make me feel better. :-)
So last night we did our one performance for Charlotte's Web - Live from Home! About 25 minutes into the show the feed on the live stream was killed for "violations". Something flagged our show and after review it was determined we were violating copy write policy and the feed was stopped. Knowing that we had paid the people who hold the rights to the show $105 (plus another $120 for their scripts), and worked closely with their rep to be sure our broadcast method was good (thank you Ivy at Dramatic Publishing), we re-spooled the feed and finished the show. After the show we filled out a form protesting the violation, and this morning they put the feed back up. Which we immediately deleted as part of our agreement with Dramatic Publishing.
So our show was stopped, our audience and artists alarmed, and our reputation took a bit of a hit because it appeared that we didn't "pay the light bill" as it was. Even though we did. As we've looked into this, it is noted that this happens a decent amount to people on YouTube. We'll have to think twice about live stream on YouTube. It is a fine platform for videos, but for live theatre, might need to use our own website. Lessons learned.
So on the tech side, doing a show via zoom and then live streamed over YouTube is really challenging. The way the internet transfers packets of information and the way Zoom filters out background noise to focus on the active speaker make for a lot of lost nuance in a show. Don't get me wrong, these are amazing developments and without them none of video streaming would be possible at all, I do like the technology. For theatre though, we need to figure out a way to meld what we offer - a live presentation that has the life and spontaneity you can't get from a recording - with the platforms that exist to move our message out to a large number of people.
Gotta think on that one. We'll figure it out, one thing the theatre isn't short on is creative people!
Until next time, stay techy my friends!
Brian
AKA: The Man in the Pit
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