especially considering that gaming is amongst the planet ’ s most bustling industries these days . And while the production design and execution are obviously paramount , I was also curious to hear about what the day-to-day grind is like for the Waveform team on one of these productions .
Sciortino explains :
ONE OF GENTILHOMME ’ S RENDERS OF THE STAGE LIGHTING
on the method of delivery , but also changes heavily based on the featured game in a given tournament . “ It ’ s very different from DJ shows or rock shows , in that you could swap out the talent at most concerts or productions , and the [ production design ] will still work . For gaming , it ’ s very , very title-specific ; even in terms of stage layout . For example , where the main program feed is located , where you actually watch the gameplay [ in a live audience situation ]. Some games , you ’ re getting the same view that the gamers are getting [ and that ’ s fine ], but if it ’ s a game like DOTA or Counter-Strike , that ’ s really bad if [ other players ] can see the main screen . There ’ s all those intricacies that are very title-specific , and that ’ s why people like working with us , because at Waveform we ’ re gamers and understand these crucial points .”
Coincidentally , he goes on to mention one of those specific intricacies that had to do with colour selection . I ’ d made a passing joke about how Halo developers 343 Industries probably wouldn ’ t
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be too happy if the Waveform crew used a shade of green non-congruent with that of the Master Chief ’ s ( the protagonist of Halo ’ s campaigns and one of the most renowned video characters of all time ) iconic sage armour .
“ We literally had that exact conversation come up at HCS ,” Sciortino laughs . “ That ’ s how specific a lot of these things are – you ’ re dealing with their brand , and multiple brands – so it ’ s not like a single-talent show where it ’ s like , Yup , looks good ! Thumbs up ! You know , you ’ re dealing with the PMs , but you ’ re also dealing with the 16 teams and how their logos and colour are portrayed .”
These fine details ultimately speak to the standards of quality that these types of shows are held to , as they are ultimately more than just gamers competing – these are events officially sanctioned by game developers and publishers . In this case , 343 Industries is an internal studio owned by Microsoft ( Xbox Game Studios , specifically ), who also publishes Halo . These events are a big deal for the brands that take part in them ,
Michael Sciortino : So , usually how it goes down is , we ’ ll arrive at the venue on the Sunday , we ’ ll go in when there ’ s no one around , and we ’ ll spike the floors and get a lay of the land a little bit . What usually ends up happening is , on these larger shows , I ’ ll go down well in advance and coordinate with the venue and do a walkthrough and all that good stuff . So , kind of already have bearings set up .
But we ’ ll go in on the Sunday , and we ’ ll spike the floor so that the following day , when crew shows up or are unloading trucks , we know exactly where everything is going ; that ’ s usually done with the engineer and the technical director , Matthew Lebrun and Jesse Léveille , two guys on our team , usually . Then on Monday morning , we ’ ll go in nice and early with our main crew – not the general workforce , but their main crew – for an hour or two before , and make sure trucks arrive and heavy machinery is onsite already . So , forklifts , scissor-lifts , whatever is needed there .
And then after that , usually a couple hours later , we ’ ll have our general crew come in to start unloading trucks , laying everything out ; power and rigging are very much the first two things that we do . We use that power for all the motors and all the rigging , and as well , we start divvying off the production area for the broadcast team so they can take their time to install cables and all that . We try to get the production team as much time as possible to do the setups , so usually one of the first things we do is all the power division .
Next , we ’ ll start floating all our trussing , then