Disclaimer: It’s highly unlikely I will include photos (or very many) going forward. Our internet connection is SO close (tied with an older laptop) and it’s a nightmare. I have had trouble even getting on our site (thus, the slow-to-post posts!).
Benjamin Cunningham
Our first lecturer was Benjamin Cunningham. A journalist that worked for multiple papers in the US and Europe. He moved to Prague to study international politics and worked there for several years before coming to the Barcelona area. He also wrote a book, The Liar: How a Double Agent in the CIA Became the Cold War’s Last Honest Man and is working on another.
He provided a good framework for the differences in newspapers, media ownership and media structure across areas of Europe and in the United States. I found the website he mentioned, Reporters Without Borders, really informative. A tool I plan to use in the future.
Mediapro: Virtual Studio
The visit to Mediapro was really interesting. They’re one of the biggest media production companies in Europe. They are the sole team producing LaLiga, Spain football.
We saw two studios and so many control rooms I lost count! The first studio was massive and had recently been changed to be a green screen studio using Unreal Engine. Miguel, our guide, ran a really cool demo standing in front of a church in the snow. The snow was falling around him, including in front of him.
Miguel was then standing in an airport as planes took off out the window behind him. The view/time of day even changed out the windows. They use a ridiculous number of layers to create all the different effects that are going on in the shot, even changing the advertisements that appear within the frame.
Mediapro’s setup includes a real camera (in-studio) with motion sensors mounted on top so the real camera moves in sync with the virtual camera. This means they are not just moving against a static background like most green screen backdrops. The background moves with them as if the camera was on location in a 360-environment.
To create the backgrounds, they do go to the locations with a very small team to shoot content. The team then creates 3D environments using the video shot and then uses Unreal Engine to composite the layers in real-time. I may have missed some elements as I was taking pictures, but the resulting effect is super impressive.
Mediapro: Other Technology
The second studio was more of a traditional studio. However, they still use composting technology to interview players that have just gotten off the field after a game. These are NOT your typical split-screen interviews. In the studio, the host appears to be interviewing the empty space next to them. Yet, on screen, the player appears to be sitting in the studio on a stool right next to the host. Essentially, Mediapro uses the technology to generate a hologram of the player from a green screen space somewhere inside the stadium!
During COVID, when football started up again, the Mediapro team realized how much they were missing without fans. So they created a custom crowd sound bed for EACH stadium (yes, EACH stadium) since the crowd noise, levels, acoustics and ambiance would always be at least slightly different.
Mediapro was a wonderful visit (other than standing in the studio for the entire Power Point presentation!) After the studios, we took a tour of the rest of many of the remaining spaces including work areas and MULTIPLE control rooms. We concluded our visit on the ROOF for a spectacular 180-degree view of the city.