On the day of the Special Olympics opening ceremonies, my class and I had another crew call . Since all of our equipment was at the Fort William Gardens, we met a little later in the morning and left the college at 12:00pm.
We all arrived at the Gardens around the same time and started making sure all of the equipment was working. The olympics people were also putting up the chairs when we arrived and we all thought that it was going to cause a problem for the camera space. Fortunately, everything was going smoothly and we didn’t need to move/remove any of the cameras.
Meanwhile, backstage where the switcher was, we had to make sure a couple more cables were connected properly and we had to make sure that all of the cameras were showing a signal. It took about 3 hours to make sure that the cameras were working and everything was connected and set up properly. By this time, we all took a break and ate some food.
We finally finished setting up all of our equipment and had nothing left to do except wait for the show to start. Although, I was a bit concerned about my position because now that everything was perfect, my job was over. I asked Mike if there was anything else I could do and he told me that the special Olympics people needed help with their audio for their livestream. I was so nervous and excited for this new task given to me.
During the show, I had to keep track of the levels and make sure that they were in the green area and didn’t hit the red or yellow areas. At first, it was a little confusing because I had to find the perfect spot for each voice and I had to follow along with who was talking and when a video was going to play. Eventually, I got the hang of it and I really enjoyed myself.
It was also a very new experience for me to be backstage and still being able to watch the show. There is also a special feeling about knowing that you are controlling what people viewed on their livestream. All in all, it was a magical experience that I will never forget.
When the show ended and everyone had left the building, we all started to pack up our equipment and placed it in the U-haul. We all headed to the school to unpack the truck and we brought all of the equipment to the web station. We all had smiles on our faces and congratulated each other for doing a good job.
The Flash of Light 