Streaming for Creatives
This week we’re exploring the fascinating world of live streaming, and its applications in the filmmaking world.
Twitch, the giant of live streaming, has seen a significant boost in users over the last few years. Currently, it boasts 140 million visitors per month, and last year, Nielsen-owned SuperData calculated total annual Twitch revenue at $1.54 billion.
It’s no wonder then that, along with multiple other social networking and media outlets introducing live streaming features over the last few years, that streaming has become a hot button subject — even more so while we’ve all been stuck inside, glued to our screens.
For filmmakers, live streaming has two key purposes. The first, is to simply get your work out to more audience members. The second, is to help in the filmmaking process itself.
Live streaming allows creatives to instantly share what they’re working on, and gives viewers a front-row seat to watch — and watch they will, even the seemingly mundane. The average live stream viewer might spend hours at a time watching a streamer play video games, or do embroidery, or quietly edit their latest film.
The process behind creative work can be somewhat mysterious to those not immediately involved with it, so many will watch just to learn. For others, however, the live nature of streaming offers the opportunity for collaboration. Why not try a technique your viewer suggests, and see the reaction to it in real time?
During the last year, streaming has also become particularly important with on set too. While many a director has been resigned to watching their shoots remotely via zoom on a precariously placed laptop, relying on the camera person more heavily than ever before, state of the art streaming equipment can be employed to make this whole process a little more natural.
In a recent blog, Electric Line Films explored how streaming can be utilised on set, joking about using additional equipment to turn their camera into the ‘most expensive webcam ever’ in order to stream directly to off-site crew members. Within the blog post, creative director Harry Scott gives his overview of streaming on set: ‘I think it’s great to give other members of the team the chance to look on at the shoot, especially if they may not be able to make it. Or just the ability to look through the camera and to see what the DP/Director sees is amazing (just make sure you keep your feedback to yourself!).’
There are a variety of methods for doing this with a huge range of equipment, with one of the most popular being Teradek’s portable live streaming encoder, the Vidiu X. With a system such as this, quality isn’t compromised, and issues around lagging often associated with live relay are minimised.
With streaming now more popular than ever, getting the right tools with which to stream your work has never been more important — regardless of whether you’re streaming to drum up some new fans, or using it as an integral part of your filming process.
Teradek have made this increasingly easy, even putting out a series of tutorials on how to get the best out of their streaming solutions. The advanced tutorial shows you how to broadcast your video to multiple platforms like YouTube and Twitch at the same time through the Sharelink app, as well as how to bond internet connections to provide a more stable stream. Multiple platform streaming also has an important role to play in digital premiers, which may be the norm for a considerable time to come. Using a service like this means not limiting yourself to one outlet for your work, and one target audience.
This means getting your work to even more people than ever before, across all platforms, from one easy place.
