For me, directing livestreams was an outgrowth of directing multicamera TV. Clients figured, “If Mitch can do that, he can certainly do this. The stakes are so much lower.” Well, that’s true, but at the same time, it really isn’t. Audiences may tend to be smaller, but that means budgets get lower. From a production point of view, this means that everyone on the crew is wearing more hats, and you might be losing the reliable comforts of prep time and redundancy. These are not positives in a live-live situation! It must be done right every single time.
For some of these shoots, I have actually been a crew of one. I don’t just mean directing and producing, but I am operating the pan-tilt-zoom cameras, as well as all of the back-end technology. Even in those conditions, there are things we can do to ensure success. I am proud to say that 100 percent of the hundreds of livestreams that I have worked on have come off without a hitch.