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Keeping the Cameras Rolling
Professor’s know-how shows TV students how to deal with the unpredictable—even in a pandemic
by Gina Fann
Media Arts Professor Robert “Bob” Gordon Jr. has always encouraged his multi-camera TV production students to be ready to change course when the unexpected happens, because it always seems to in television.
He didn’t quite expect “changing course” to become so literal.
Producing livestream for campus concert
Quiet on Set
Gordon and his Video and Film Production students, who produce live and scripted shows in several multi-camera courses, watched the COVID-19 pandemic erase the live entertainment, sports, special events, and in-house series productions from much of the 2020 calendar. Their in-class time, connected by video, was all that remained for spring, summer, and part of fall.
Months later, on the other side of a reinvigorated event schedule and a slightly revamped way of teaching and learning, Gordon says he challenges “any other video and film program, anywhere, to say they do as much television as we do.”
Gordon, who coordinates the live production and multicamera area of the program, additionally serves as executive producer for Media Arts Productions, MTSU’s live TV production company, and as faculty advisor for MT10, the student-run TV station. He also has led the department’s annual coverage of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival since 2015.
“In our field, doing live television, you have to have your Plan A and a Plan B and a Plan C and a Plan D, because all sorts of things aren’t going to work right,” Gordon said. “You can’t just freeze because it’s not the way you planned it. You have to be very flexible and very variable.”
Bob Gordon with $1.7 million production truck
A lifelong TV producer and a founder of the Nashville chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Gordon uses his career ties to help his students make connections. He brought top professionals into his virtual classroom via Zoom during the pandemic.
The guests included the producer and director of the Oscars and the Tony Awards, the director of The Voice, the director of Jeopardy, the script supervisor for ABC’s Nashville series, and the producer of the Academy of Country Music Awards. Walker Oakes (l), Ryan Tyler, and Jordyn Lee (r) help produce the Don’t @ Me game show in Bragg Studio 1.
Sound, Camera, Action
As MTSU eased back into in-person operations during the Fall 2020 semester, opportunities returned to get Gordon’s students back behind the cameras.
Their once-empty fall calendar ballooned to 41 in-person, hands-on TV shoots, including high-definition coverage of football and basketball games, multiple Department of Theatre and Dance productions, and 2020 election night returns, as well as working outdoors at MTSU’s fall 2020 in-person graduation ceremonies. They also shot talk and game shows, with all events following pandemic protocols.
Dawn Nieman (r) operating camera in studio
During spring 2021, the advanced multi-camera TV production course collaborated with students from two other departments to add the sound, sights, and streaming for MTSU’s first in-person, large-scale Signature Event since 2019. American Idol semifinalist Briston Maroney and fellow Knoxvillian Cece Coakley, a Music Business major at MTSU, performed for a limited audience of students March 24 in the Student Union Ballroom.
Outside the Student Union, Gordon’s students worked inside the University’s $1.7 million Mobile Production Lab, aka “The Truck,” to capture the concert for livestreaming. Other Media Arts students set up the video wall; Recording Industry students from the Sound Reinforcement course took care of audio; and the Department of Theatre and Dance worked with lighting.
“This kind of hands-on collaboration helps students launch professional careers after graduation,” said Billy Pittard, department chair of Media Arts. “We should also recognize that the live broadcast also made it possible for a much wider audience to enjoy this event.”
Producing livestream for campus concert
That’s a Wrap
The TV production schedule for the Spring 2021 semester also involved women’s basketball, volleyball, and soccer games, along with the College of Media and Entertainment’s Wall of Fame ceremony.
“Sometimes when I talk to people, they’re impressed with our students’ responsiveness and flexibility to change and with the sheer amount of production they do in a semester,” Gordon said. “Though we normally do a lot, COVID-19, surprisingly, allowed us to do even more and different productions in completely different ways.”
Producing shows again has meant some arduous 16-hour days for Gordon and his students. He has reminded them, though, that once they’re in the field, especially if they’re freelancing, those days mean more experience, more reputation-building, and, ideally, higher pay.
“In addition to producing many types of television programs, the students learned to be nimble, think outside of the box, and perform very well in ways they never imagined. As a teacher, I find all of that, and their smiles, to be both rewarding and worthwhile . . . and fun.”
