Six Mistakes That Sink Festival Coverage, and How to Avoid Them

NewsLive Coverage

Multi-camera event coverage fails in predictable ways. Helen Marsden walks through the mistakes she sees most often on concerts and public events, and the habits that prevent them.

Helen Marsden6 October 20266 min read

Arriving without a clear picture of the running order

The most common mistake is also the least dramatic: a crew turns up with a general idea of the event and no firm grasp of when things actually happen. A festival schedule is a living document. Headline sets slip, speeches overrun and a short ceremony can be the one moment the newsroom wants. If the crew learns this on site, the best shots have already gone.

We ask for the running order, the site plan and a named contact at the organiser before anyone packs a case. Then we mark the three or four moments the segment depends on and plan camera positions around them. Everything else is background coverage, shot to support those moments rather than compete with them.

It also helps to ask what the segment is for. A two-minute item in a regional bulletin needs a different spread of material from a longer package, and knowing that early saves hours of unnecessary shooting and sorting afterwards.

Get the running order and site plan in writing
Name the two or three moments the story depends on
Agree one contact at the organiser who will answer on the day

Placing cameras for the stage and forgetting the audience

Crews often cluster every camera facing the stage because that is where the action is announced. The result is a tidy record of a performance and very little of the event. News segments need the crowd, the weather, the queue at the gate and the reaction in the faces, and those are rarely visible from the front of house position.

On a multi-camera job we deliberately keep at least one operator mobile and away from the main platform. That person gathers wide establishing shots, close reactions and cutaways, which the editor will thank us for later. A locked-off wide on a tripod covers the safe angle, while the roaming camera finds what makes the story specific.

Placement also has to respect the organiser's rules and public safety. Walk the ground early, agree positions, and keep cables and tripods clear of walkways and emergency routes.

Treating sound as something to sort out afterwards

Picture gets the attention, but a festival item with unusable audio is difficult to rescue. Stage sound is loud and distorted at the camera position, wind rides over every outdoor microphone, and a reporter's piece to camera can vanish under a nearby generator. Fixing any of this in the edit costs time that a daily bulletin does not have.

We try to take a feed from the event's own sound desk when the organiser allows it, and record a clean ambient track separately for the crowd. Interviews are done away from the speakers, with a windshield on every microphone, and we check levels with headphones before the person starts speaking rather than after.

A short wild track of the crowd and the venue, recorded for thirty seconds at each location, gives the editor something real to lay under cutaways and smooths every join.

Skipping permissions, accreditation and release details

Public events are not always as open as they look. Some festivals restrict where cameras may stand, some ask for accreditation, and performers' sets may carry limits on what can be broadcast. Finding this out when a steward asks the crew to stop filming costs both time and goodwill, and it can leave the newsroom without the material it was promised.

Before the day we confirm in writing what we may film, where, and for which outlet. We note any restrictions on music use, children or private areas, and pass them to the editor along with the footage. Interviewees are told what the item is for, and the details are logged straight after each conversation.

None of this is glamorous, but it is the difference between footage a newsroom can run confidently and footage that sits in a queue waiting for someone to check it.

Confirm filming areas and accreditation in advance
Record any limits on music or performer material
Log each interviewee's details straight after the conversation

Leaving the media management until the end of the night

After a long shoot everyone is tired, and the temptation is to throw the cards in a bag and sort it all out later. That is when files get overwritten, cards go missing and nobody can say which camera shot the important moment. On a busy day with several operators, a loose approach to media can undo hours of good work.

We number cards, swap them at set points and copy to two drives before anyone formats anything. Each operator keeps a short note of what is on each card, including the moments they know were strong. One person, usually the producer, owns the copy process and signs off that nothing is wiped until the material has reached the edit suite.

For same-day delivery we start a rough selection from the first copied cards while the event is still going, so the editor is not meeting all of the footage at once.

Planning delivery as an afterthought

The last mistake is assuming the footage will somehow reach the newsroom on time. Upload speeds at festival sites are often poor, mobile signal drops when the crowd arrives, and a hard deadline does not move because the field was muddy. A crew that has shot superbly but cannot send anything has delivered nothing.

We settle the delivery route before the day: which format the newsroom wants, how the files will travel, and what the fallback is if the connection fails. That might mean a second route, a dispatched drive, or sending a short selects package first and the full material later. The newsroom hears from us at agreed points, so nobody is guessing.

A calm, rehearsed handover matters more than a clever one. If the editor and the producer both know the plan, the final hour of a long day stays quiet.

None of these mistakes needs special equipment to avoid. They need preparation, a few firm habits and someone on the crew who owns the details while everyone else concentrates on the shot. Festival and event coverage rewards the team that has thought about the running order, the sound, the permissions and the delivery before the first camera is switched on. If your newsroom has an event coming up, the contact page is the place to start the conversation.