Our client, Asset TV, came to us earlier this year, to run back the same job we did for them a year ago at the FIN Forum in Frisco, TX. So I think we did something right last time. Watch the video below to see how we did it:
This job had two main components:
Session Capture — every single session in both rooms needed multi-cam capture with clean audio.
Floor Interviews — attendees at the conference left with a short interview showcasing their expertise, for them to share with their network and grow their careers.
For the Session Captures, it mattered that Asset TV’s editors in New York City were able to get our footage from Texas next-day, and turn around finished videos as quickly as possible. To speed up their workflow, we recorded every camera’s feed into a Blackmagic ATEM, which does a few super-convenient things for us:
The ATEM records in small file sizes, making upload/download speeds lightning fast. It’s the difference between one and ten terabytes of footage.
The ATEM syncs all camera angles and stream data into a single DaVinci Resolve project file, saving their editors hours of time they’d otherwise spend manually syncing footage.
It also gives side-by-side feedback on exposure, white balance, and audio, ensuring every camera is consistent.
Once the system is set up, all we did was hit record. Once we stopped, the files were already ready to upload — no more configuration needed.
For the Floor Interviews, we shifted our workflow slightly from last year:
Three cameras instead of two.
The main camera recorded in 4K to allow for cropping room (our client delivers in 1080p).
Everything else was calibrated to Asset TV’s standard look: two softbox lights, f/2.8 or wider for background blur, clean baked-in audio, and thoughtful questions from their host, Jenna Dagenhart.
Now, if you’re a competing videographer reading this, I’m well aware that we are neutering what these cameras are truly capable of. Yes, there is a slight visual quality loss — but it’s a quality loss only we film nerds would appreciate. For our client, it was more important that this content got turned around next-day, which simply wouldn’t be possible if we recorded everything in ProRes or BRAW, or even high-bitrate H.265.
The part of our content that matters the most is the information shared — industry insider knowledge from the sessions, anecdotes from professionals who live and breathe the finance world — and we preserved these things in video and our client will have them forever, to share with others and to help the finance world grow. It is still a form of storytelling and what is shared is genuinely meaningful to Asset TV’s audience.
