This week I take a deep dive in the specifics of Dreamhack Summer. I look at their stages, lighting, booths and camera shots. I also discuss how the setups and use of awesome music and the GD Studio couch to set the casual tone of the weekend.
Dreamhack has been known for their use of a 'caster couch' in there tournaments. Traditionally this couch is placed on stage and is used as an analysis-style desk. However, Dreamhack Summer did not really have a mainstage until the finals so there wasn't really much room for a couch. There solution was to set the couch out in the commons, give it it's own stream and turn the personalities of the GD Studio crew loose upon the world
Traditionally a Starcraft tournament has mainstage games throughout the weekend. Dreamhack, because of the space needed for Dota and LoL opted to only use the mainstage for SC2 during the finals. IMO this was a great idea. This dramatically cut down on their technological and mental overhead allowing them to produce an A and B stream that was smooth well paced. When it came time for the finals, though, well we'll get to that.
Dreamhack has a solid production team. They proved they could do a big-time, whizbang, blow-your-hair-back event in April's DH. Their finals this week allowed them to remind us of that fact; that they can turn teh dial to 11.
I encourage everyone to go back and watch the finals and just pay attention to the cameras editing. Notice how smooth the shots are. The steady motion. The fast paced but never sloppy shot calling. Well done!
In the episode I go into further detail about the mainstage, the setups, the caster areas and more. Hope you dig the episode and let me know if you have any feedback.
GG!
Jason
edits
Oh, and GD Studio wants to be sure everyone knows that the player couch was their idea ;0
Meh, I wasn't too thrilled about DH's production this time around. After all, it is advertised as a LAN event, but the only real time we see the players interact is as you said the GD couch, which is fine.
If you're trying to build something it's really important to get the crowd's reaction and the player's reactions at the same time.
The only "issue" I had with Dreamhack is the schedule. As europeans, some of us couldn't actually watch the 3rd and most important day because it took place on a monday. Not to mention the time of the finals, afaik it took place at 1 am. Not really a good time for European spectators. Besides that, great event overall.
The commons wasn't really a commons. It was the Twitch player lounge on the second floor above the main entrance. You needed either a press pass, crew pass or a pro gamer pass to get into it (you could walk into I guess, but risk getting thrown out). It was nice with a decent amount of computers for people to play at to warm up in case they didn't bring their own. Could watch Swedish TV, they also had two TVs with streams from the event on. Oh and free Coca Cola (which I never got since I drank water :p).
Mind doing an analysis of the Dota 2 stream for the weekend? I prefer that game over SC2, yet I feel like the SC2 streaming was ~5 times as good.
More info if people want it, the SC2 players had a set area they played in with a separator in the middle. Above each computer was a TV showing the same content as the player's monitor and on both sides there was a small stand for people to sit and watch the players play. So on location the player reactions were easy to watch if one wanted to. Yet if you did you couldn't watch the stream at the same time unless you had a portable device along. So was a bit of either or deal.
On June 21 2012 01:20 Yurie wrote: The commons wasn't really a commons. It was the Twitch player lounge on the second floor above the main entrance. You needed either a press pass, crew pass or a pro gamer pass to get into it (you could walk into I guess, but risk getting thrown out). It was nice with a decent amount of computers for people to play at to warm up in case they didn't bring their own. Could watch Swedish TV, they also had two TVs with streams from the event on. Oh and free Coca Cola (which I never got since I drank water :p).
Mind doing an analysis of the Dota 2 stream for the weekend? I prefer that game over SC2, yet I feel like the SC2 streaming was ~5 times as good.
More info if people want it, the SC2 players had a set area they played in with a separator in the middle. Above each computer was a TV showing the same content as the player's monitor and on both sides there was a small stand for people to sit and watch the players play. So on location the player reactions were easy to watch if one wanted to. Yet if you did you couldn't watch the stream at the same time unless you had a portable device along. So was a bit of either or deal.
Hm interesting. Thanks for sharing the informations You said that sc2 streaming was much better than the Dota 2 one, Why is that? To be honest I only caught the last game of the finals so I can't really tell. Could you elaborate? Thanks.
On June 21 2012 01:20 Yurie wrote: The commons wasn't really a commons. It was the Twitch player lounge on the second floor above the main entrance. You needed either a press pass, crew pass or a pro gamer pass to get into it (you could walk into I guess, but risk getting thrown out). It was nice with a decent amount of computers for people to play at to warm up in case they didn't bring their own. Could watch Swedish TV, they also had two TVs with streams from the event on. Oh and free Coca Cola (which I never got since I drank water :p).
Mind doing an analysis of the Dota 2 stream for the weekend? I prefer that game over SC2, yet I feel like the SC2 streaming was ~5 times as good.
More info if people want it, the SC2 players had a set area they played in with a separator in the middle. Above each computer was a TV showing the same content as the player's monitor and on both sides there was a small stand for people to sit and watch the players play. So on location the player reactions were easy to watch if one wanted to. Yet if you did you couldn't watch the stream at the same time unless you had a portable device along. So was a bit of either or deal.
Hm interesting. Thanks for sharing the informations You said that sc2 streaming was much better than the Dota 2 one, Why is that? To be honest I only caught the last game of the finals so I can't really tell. Could you elaborate? Thanks.
While I did not watch the DotA2 stream (did watch the finals though), I watched some of the League of Legends stuff. My general impression was that DreamHack focused significantly more on SC2 than on other games. I cannot put my finger on it, but I just got the impression over the course of the event that SC2 was the only thing that they actually seemed to care about. The biggest complaint is the lack of sound booths for the finals (both DotA2 and LoL) which meant that the players could hear the commentators.
On June 21 2012 01:20 Yurie wrote: The commons wasn't really a commons. It was the Twitch player lounge on the second floor above the main entrance. You needed either a press pass, crew pass or a pro gamer pass to get into it (you could walk into I guess, but risk getting thrown out). It was nice with a decent amount of computers for people to play at to warm up in case they didn't bring their own. Could watch Swedish TV, they also had two TVs with streams from the event on. Oh and free Coca Cola (which I never got since I drank water :p).
Mind doing an analysis of the Dota 2 stream for the weekend? I prefer that game over SC2, yet I feel like the SC2 streaming was ~5 times as good.
More info if people want it, the SC2 players had a set area they played in with a separator in the middle. Above each computer was a TV showing the same content as the player's monitor and on both sides there was a small stand for people to sit and watch the players play. So on location the player reactions were easy to watch if one wanted to. Yet if you did you couldn't watch the stream at the same time unless you had a portable device along. So was a bit of either or deal.
Hm interesting. Thanks for sharing the informations You said that sc2 streaming was much better than the Dota 2 one, Why is that? To be honest I only caught the last game of the finals so I can't really tell. Could you elaborate? Thanks.
The Dota 2 stream was dead between games with the exception of the wonderful crew doing the music. (I liked the Disney Marathon that turned into the theme song for Pokemon.)
It was basically short intro with Tobi and whoever (if anybody) co-casting, game, short tune off, music. Repeat until last game of the day was over. Between games there was no content, Tobi went around interviewing people and talking to the teams to get some interesting stuff for the casts. Yet nobody else was handling video content for the stream so it got nothing in-between.
As I judged the main streams it was SC2 and LoL. LoL had a huge screen in the C hall they casted on. I could watch the LoL games from the other side of the hall (and hear them loudly, which was annoying when our team tried to play or get some practice in). Some other games didn't even have a scene per say, though you could watch the players play since pretty much all games got a play area. The fighting game one was interesting due to the smatter of the controllers when you walked by, something I am not used to.
ARTS games is also hard to know when you can pan crowds in, there are no real pauses, sometimes resulting in missing good content if you switch the view. The games are also long with some times being slow if you aren't playing at a high level and am interested in the small stuff.
Awesome job, I'm so glad there's someone that makes these videos so even the clueless (such as myself) can learn even 1 or 2 things about production value.
Ok I see. That's rather unfortunate. Thanks guys Considering the fact that Dota and similar games have a lot more fans, we can only hope that Dreamhack will step their game up for Valencia.
On June 21 2012 01:20 Yurie wrote: The commons wasn't really a commons. It was the Twitch player lounge on the second floor above the main entrance. You needed either a press pass, crew pass or a pro gamer pass to get into it (you could walk into I guess, but risk getting thrown out). It was nice with a decent amount of computers for people to play at to warm up in case they didn't bring their own. Could watch Swedish TV, they also had two TVs with streams from the event on. Oh and free Coca Cola (which I never got since I drank water :p).
Mind doing an analysis of the Dota 2 stream for the weekend? I prefer that game over SC2, yet I feel like the SC2 streaming was ~5 times as good.
More info if people want it, the SC2 players had a set area they played in with a separator in the middle. Above each computer was a TV showing the same content as the player's monitor and on both sides there was a small stand for people to sit and watch the players play. So on location the player reactions were easy to watch if one wanted to. Yet if you did you couldn't watch the stream at the same time unless you had a portable device along. So was a bit of either or deal.
Hm interesting. Thanks for sharing the informations You said that sc2 streaming was much better than the Dota 2 one, Why is that? To be honest I only caught the last game of the finals so I can't really tell. Could you elaborate? Thanks.
The Dota 2 stream was dead between games with the exception of the wonderful crew doing the music. (I liked the Disney Marathon that turned into the theme song for Pokemon.)
It was basically short intro with Tobi and whoever (if anybody) co-casting, game, short tune off, music. Repeat until last game of the day was over. Between games there was no content, Tobi went around interviewing people and talking to the teams to get some interesting stuff for the casts. Yet nobody else was handling video content for the stream so it got nothing in-between.
As I judged the main streams it was SC2 and LoL. LoL had a huge screen in the C hall they casted on. I could watch the LoL games from the other side of the hall (and hear them loudly, which was annoying when our team tried to play or get some practice in). Some other games didn't even have a scene per say, though you could watch the players play since pretty much all games got a play area. The fighting game one was interesting due to the smatter of the controllers when you walked by, something I am not used to.
ARTS games is also hard to know when you can pan crowds in, there are no real pauses, sometimes resulting in missing good content if you switch the view. The games are also long with some times being slow if you aren't playing at a high level and am interested in the small stuff.
I can relate to this, SC2 seemed to be the main focus. It was the only game to have 2 scenes(tho the main scene which wasent in the middle area was sorta hard to find, i only found it on the last day :p). I never really saw the LoL scene since i was in sitting in the main hall and when i walked into hall C from there it seemed kinda isolated into a corner(Quite a large scene tho) away from everything, as oppose to the Dota2 scene which was really close to the SC2/team games area
The schedule problems really seemed to come from the fact that they had to go though so many tournements at dream arena on the last day(They started around 12.00 and continued onwards with alot of different games, it was also really anoying that they had the ARTS games split up so game 1 was played on the small scenes with no players, they were really fucking packed for the finals)
I just finished watching the second half of the video. moge, I loved your analysis of the finals, especially the part about lighting effects. Well done, thanks for sharing.
I liked DHS as well this year but there was one thing I thought was missing from the finals, the player cams. I think only GSL is really doing this well at the moment with going to a face shot at a really intense moment to see the tension in the player's face. And building on that there were no "WINNER" overlay with a shot of the player either from a camera guy or a lip cam, after each game. Instead the stream got a blank overlay screen and then casters most of the time. Again this is something GSL does very well.
On June 21 2012 04:16 salle wrote: I liked DHS as well this year but there was one thing I thought was missing from the finals, the player cams. I think only GSL is really doing this well at the moment with going to a face shot at a really intense moment to see the tension in the player's face. And building on that there were no "WINNER" overlay with a shot of the player either from a camera guy or a lip cam, after each game. Instead the stream got a blank overlay screen and then casters most of the time. Again this is something GSL does very well.
I was disappointed by this aswell, but DHS was a LAN with many other games rather than main focus on starcraft. For a qualifier it was pretty good, 2gd couch was very entertaining.
I just meant for the finals actually. SC2 was the last one, all other events were finished at the time, it was on main stage in the eizo open booths...
On June 21 2012 04:16 salle wrote: I liked DHS as well this year but there was one thing I thought was missing from the finals, the player cams. I think only GSL is really doing this well at the moment with going to a face shot at a really intense moment to see the tension in the player's face. And building on that there were no "WINNER" overlay with a shot of the player either from a camera guy or a lip cam, after each game. Instead the stream got a blank overlay screen and then casters most of the time. Again this is something GSL does very well.
The face shots after intense moments really do so much for watching a game and really connecting to the players to get invested in the game. Its too bad it seems only the Korean leagues are capable of doing it well.
I wish there were player booths and some talk before and after the fights, more interaction between players. Legendary stuff like MC dancing on stage or Idra refusing to handshake is what makes e-sports entertaining :D
On June 21 2012 02:55 Denzil wrote: Awesome job, I'm so glad there's someone that makes these videos so even the clueless (such as myself) can learn even 1 or 2 things about production value.
Yeah I'd like to parrot this. I was really impressed by the set-up and overall appearance of DH, but understanding the subtle nuances is really really cool.
On June 20 2012 23:10 Al Bundy wrote: The only "issue" I had with Dreamhack is the schedule. As europeans, some of us couldn't actually watch the 3rd and most important day because it took place on a monday. Not to mention the time of the finals, afaik it took place at 1 am. Not really a good time for European spectators. Besides that, great event overall.
Ye Dreamhack is just as bad for Europeans as it is for Americans ;p I can recall the Ro8 for one of the days starting at 11:00AM CEST T.T
On June 20 2012 23:10 Al Bundy wrote: The only "issue" I had with Dreamhack is the schedule. As europeans, some of us couldn't actually watch the 3rd and most important day because it took place on a monday. Not to mention the time of the finals, afaik it took place at 1 am. Not really a good time for European spectators. Besides that, great event overall.
Ye Dreamhack is just as bad for Europeans as it is for Americans ;p I can recall the Ro8 for one of the days starting at 11:00AM CEST T.T
I agree that makes the games too late into the day. Something like 09 would lead to less late games. Unless it was the Monday, then Europe is screwed due to work.
Good video , got alot of points, I was at dreamhack myself the only thing I can complain about the horrible chairs and for the final we had to wait almost 3 hours for it to start and too many commercials
EPT
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