One way to make your livestreams more appealing? You could try being more like director Alfonso Cuarón. His 2006 film Children of Men featured many of what movie people call a long shot (or long take). In the compilation I’ve shared here, although none of the scenes has any edits, not a single frame gets wasted.
Livestreams often go long, sometimes for many hours in a row, and it can be a challenge to keep them interesting. Sure there’s more to a successful livestream than just the visual composition, but it’s important that it look good. So, I try to be more like Cuarón, go for the long shot and make every frame count.
Yesterday I streamed from Lakeview Elementary school in Oakland, on the fourth day of the sit-in. I was mostly happy with how the video turned out, and I was especially pleased with the part where the cops did a walk-through of the school building, along with the scenes just before and after. More and more I’ve been thinking about a livestream as a single, long shot, and so I hope I was able to express that idea to some extent in yesterday’s stream.
Side note: In Children of Men, Michael Caine plays a political cartoonist! (Sadly, his character gets murdered.)
-Justin
Update: Thanks to Richard for recommending Alexander Sokurov. Check out Russian Ark from 2002 (one very long shot that’s cut into several pieces on YouTube, unfortunately).
