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On October 12 2011 10:38 Fkyx wrote:
About the filler content: As you noted, the filler content was great, but it did get repetitive. Have you considered cutting to the LiveU stream, or maybe some recorded content from the LiveU stream for interviews with spectators or staff or players during the down time? I think this would be a great way to promote those IGN Prime streams as well while filling extra time. Granted, there's quite a delay between the main stream and the LiveU stream... maybe there's a way you guys could sync them up? Maybe you can find a way to do "instant replay" like you see in boxing or MMA between rounds!
This is something we wanted to do but unfortunately due to budget/technical aspects were not able to achieve. We had the LiveU units streaming directly to JTV without any filtering or the ability to switch to them on our main stream. This would have been especially useful on Day2.
On October 12 2011 10:38 Fkyx wrote:
The PiP is great. As someone mentioned before, having shots of the crowd added in would be excellent. I love watching people react to super-tense moments in the game. Can we have PiP of the player on the first-person view streams, also? Maybe a stationary camera in the booth?
That's an good call, we did sprinkle in a few crowd reaction shots. Whenever a baneling bomb or huge engagement was imminent I let the director know that the crowd would be going nuts soon. Only issue is we only had 2 roaming cameras so we would have to sacrifice one of the players to get the crowd shots, but that's fine for a couple seconds.
Computers outside the booths is something we will be experimenting with before the next event.
On October 12 2011 10:38 Fkyx wrote:
LO3 Panels were sick. But perhaps it's a good idea to show a brief "questionable content" screen before they start, because we all know those guys are no fluff! Hah. Loved the player panels also. The second one hosted by iNcontroL felt a lot more informal and was more entertaining to watch. I didn't watch the entire first panel, but did you guys take any questions from chat/twitter? I love it when live events interact with the communities on the internet as well.
That's another great idea, we had audience questions but it would be fun to open it up to the online audience as well. Thanks for the input man these are great suggestions and points. Don't be surprised to see some of these worked into the next IPL!
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Nice blog, Ron!
818 represent. You were really clutch during mainstage production, I think you were one of the only dudes on the production mics that was good at foreseeing the outcomes. Was a pleasure to work with you sir.
Matt
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On October 11 2011 10:15 darkrabbi wrote:
Something I'd like to get community opinions on is this - after a big epic battle or a player is surprsied by something how would you guys feel about cutting away from gameplay for a 2-3 second full screen camera shot of the player? I think if this is done correctly and not overused it can add a lot to a broadcast.
I approve this 1000x. Seeing someone drop their jaw when they realise they have made a big mistake etc is just priceless. OGN does it in their production and it's amazing. If you want tips on direction go check out their production. GOMtv has OGN VODs from their WCG qualifiers on their site. Show more crowd reactions too!
On another note, while the bottom right corner PIP camera is cool and all, I don't find it all that functional to be honest. The picture is too tiny to actually see anything. Just cut away from the gameplay for a moment when there's downtime.
The handshakes ended up being kinda awkward. I think they'd be fine if done properly though. Rachel and Anna invited both players to the stage with the same sentence which felt kinda rushed and turned out somewhat awkward. I think the announcers should have invited the players just one at a time and hype them thoroughly. Bruce Buffer does amazing job at this in the UFC and while we don't necessarily have to be that cheesy in e-sports, I think we can learn from him how awesome proper hype can be. A charismatic master of ceremony would be something to consider. Maybe someone like Temp0? Maybe let the players choose an entrance music? Even pyrotechnics? Because, why not? 
That's my thoughts. Anyway, the production was very nice already and I had a great weekend watching SC2. Thanks!
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Amazing photos! Thanks for the blog, and good job!
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On October 11 2011 10:15 darkrabbi wrote:
Our photographers Hugo and XX were everywhere and got some really great reaction shots with a ton of emotion. I'm really enjoyed woking with those two and am looking forward to the pictures they put up from IPL3.
XX was Oliver aka dattebayooooooooooooooooooo
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Thanks for the great show! I was starting to get worried when I couldn't watch anything by day 2, but the last 2 days really made up for it. Stayed up till 4am every day to watch!
Good hostesses!
Love the handshake beforehand and interview with winner after.
Awesome roving camera inset bottom right, best I've seen so far.
Player panels are an excellent idea, and will increase the fanbase of the participants also I'm sure.
On that point, well done to Incontrol/EG in general, think their players added alot to the event in various ways.
Can't really say about the short shots away from gameplay...but I think it should be tried at least once.
Waiting for the next events in anticipation guys, well done!
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Do you guys talk to IGN head honcho's a lot or are you fairly autonomous in how things go? I heard they were initially not totally convinced when IPL first was suggested, how is their response now considering IPL3 was one of the most well received in terms of public opinion (don't know anything about the numbers). Each season it seems like the slab of ad space on the main page of IGN for IPL gets just a little bit bigger. Good Luck in the future!
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5/5, thanks for sharing your experience! This kind of transparency makes all the hiccups so understandable. I had a great time watching (mostly Saturday/Sunday), and good luck with future events!
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About the player shots-
You guys literally just need to watch OGN broadcasts of SC1 (or even their recent broadcasts of SC2) and study how they use the player reaction shots; if done correctly they really enhance the emotions around the match and it's totally awesome to see that level of production in a broadcast. I could see that that was what you guys were going for and it could potentially be really great, and the way you did it just needs some work. Jaedong's face when he sees Firebathero's battlecruisers comes to mind.
I didn't mind the explosion transitions.
Why were your IPs blacklisted from Battle.net? That part I never understood.
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On October 11 2011 10:15 darkrabbi wrote:
Something I'd like to get community opinions on is this - after a big epic battle or a player is surprsied by something how would you guys feel about cutting away from gameplay for a 2-3 second full screen camera shot of the player?
Yes, absolutely. As others have said, when it's done right it really enhances the viewing experience. It's done all the time with Brood War broadcasts. The best example of this is probably from GGaemo vs Upmagic
+ Show Spoiler [vod] + (watch from 21m30s to 21m45s)
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On October 11 2011 10:15 darkrabbi wrote:
Something I'd like to get community opinions on is this - after a big epic battle or a player is surprsied by something how would you guys feel about cutting away from gameplay for a 2-3 second full screen camera shot of the player?
Here's how I feel -- GSL does this occasionally, and a sudden full-screen on a player is usually very sudden and surprising -- it doesn't feel right. Here's what I suggest -- shots of each player simultaneously on screen with the game still present.
If you're going for prominent shots, maybe some sort of split-screen would be in order -- think of how you play Halo 3 on a widescreen TV with 3 players -- The game view on top, centered, but with the correct aspect ratio (so I guess this would have some black bars on the sides) and side-by-side player shots lining the bottom.
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I took the liberty of sending a thank you letter address to Caesars' CEO and got a response from them:
Thank you for taking the time to write.
We appreciate your positive comments regarding the IPL3 event and have taken the liberty of sharing your email with the appropriate members of our management team. Your kind words will encourage all of us to continue to strive to ensure that every guest visit is a memorable one.
We appreciate your loyalty and look forward to having the pleasure of welcoming you back in the near future.
Yvonne Aviles
Customer Service Coordinator
Atlantic City Operations
Your Question 10/10/2011 09:48 PM
Dear Mr. Gary W. Loveman, Chairman and CEO of Caesars Entertainment Group, INC
Thank you for sponsoring the IPL3 event on October 6~9 in Caesars & Bally's Atlantic City. Thank you for supporting E-Sports.
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Thanks for writing this! I really love these behind the scenes stories (:
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On October 12 2011 14:34 beamingrobot wrote:
Thanks for writing this! I really love these behind the scenes stories (:
I echo this. Love the pictures too
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That's absolutely awesome. I really wish i could take part in something like this.
Perhaps, in another blog, you can talk about how you came to work in production, and what got you to take part in working for IPL.
Amazing pictures, and I hope that this is only the beginning of more awesome Starcraft events.
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On October 11 2011 10:15 darkrabbi wrote:
Something I'd like to get community opinions on is this - after a big epic battle or a player is surprsied by something how would you guys feel about cutting away from gameplay for a 2-3 second full screen camera shot of the player?
I'll play devils advocate on this, OGN and GSL have years of experience doing this and nobody is going to remember a bad cut from them because they play and film daily. IPL just doesn't get to do that. When you cut from the game you're always going to risk missing something, if you cut early you miss out on part of the battle and if you cut late you miss the player's reaction. I would suggest instead that the next few events you just try and get things locked down like clockwork before worrying about the small embellishments.
You did a damn good job and it was people like you that made the event so much fun to work.
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So, would you say IPL3 was run better than Fragmart? Catch any cheaters on LAN?
Sortofrelevant
Seriously though, awesome job with the whole production. I really enjoyed the player panels, and the 4 player booths were awesome! Never much downtime between games. Coming from someone who wasn't there live, it was run really well. It's great to see the improvements with every live event and I can't wait to see what IPL4 has in store for us fans!
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It was a great tournament, happy to see you've identified all those little mistakes that made things a bit awkward. For me there would still be the "problem" of the "funny" moment with that guy with glasses. Please, please, please... never again. It went from lame to extremely lame to almost insulting.
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The production of this event just blew me away, very skilled and sharp especially considering how much had to be done on the fly due to internet issues. Really impressed!
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I love the photos. Please keep up the good work. For IPL 4 maybe hire some pro-photographers who runs around and make photos. I looked at all the photos from all the blogs about ipl3 and i still want to see more :-)
Greate event, the things you had planned for the event were amazing, but even moreso were the things you came up with on the fly.
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EPT
