On January 30th, the American Movie Company worked with Bernstein Private Wealth to WebCast an hour-long financial Webinar to their clients. LiveStreaming can be stressful, as it is a one-time deal with no room for mistakes. However, with experience and meticulous planning, it is likely to be successful.
The American Movie Company provided a multitude of services including studio space, crew and equipment. Parm Girn acted as production manager and displayed questions from the audience, to the host via a large monitor. Arié Ohayon was DP, while Lou Blackmon, Patrick Mauler and Romain (Loni) Gest operated Sony FS7 cameras. Three of the four cameras were mounted on tripods, while the other was rigged to a dolly. Otabius Williams had command of the TriCaster, the technology that allows for LiveStreaming to various online platforms. RJ Yenesel was the sound engineer. James Chi and Jordan Tang provided gaffer and grip services, respectively.
The shoot consisted of a setup/rehearsal day, and the event day itself. The first half of the set up day was spent building the set. The talent arrived in the second half of the day. After talent were mic’d, we were ready to rehearse. ClearComms allowed for clear, smooth, communication between the camera operators, stage manager and director while shooting. We connected to the ON24 LiveStream platform and communicated with Bernstein Private Wealth staff members working on the project remotely to ensure that the WebCast was working properly. After a successful rehearsal, we left the four camera setup over the weekend, and returned on the following Monday for the big shoot.
Once the big day arrived, everyone came on set with their game face on. Two PAs provided various forms of production support throughout the day. One worked with the stage manager to create a seamless transition when seating a guest on the panel midway into the WebCast. Another PA remained on the phone with ON24 technical support, just in case we ran into issues while live.
Upon talent’s arrival, they were sent to HMU and later mic’d, while the crew got into position. It was go-time. The director joined Otabius in the control room and began counting down from 10. The Webinar began and was a great success! The camera operators kept tight communication with the director and stage manager over the ClearComms, Matthew regulated the slides and pushed questions from the audience to Parm to display to the host. Thanks to the extensive planning and rehearsal involved, there were no hiccups!
Parm Girn, Writer|Producer at the American Movie Company
