December 6th through 9th in a little spanish pueblo near Seville.
What I did
I was on camera more or less from when I got there in the afternoon on the sixth until I left Seville on the evening of the ninth. The days at the conference started with breakfast around 8:30 followed by catching a ride to the conference at nine a.m. sharp (Southern Spain first thing in the morning). After arriving at the conference I would need to retrieve all the equipment (camera, tripod, power supply, talk back, etc.) that I put away the night before and ready the camera for a main “plenary” session. Generally by the time the cameras were ready the session would start and the four of us who were on camera during the main sessions would try and get cool shots of the announcements, worship and finally the message. When the message was done I again went and took everything down that I set up for the morning and hauled it all off to a workshop to set it all up again to record that. When the workshop finished I would take only the camera down, take it back to the safe place and head out for some all you can eat lunch. Before lunch was finished I would return back to the conference to setup up the camera and record the after lunch workshop, that would finish up and I would pack up everything, haul back to the main area, set it up and again I would work the main seesion. By the time the main session was done it was generally nine at night and after a little bit of extra duty and then taking the camera’s down, I would return to the hotel to eat and get some sleep.
The Concert Night
The concerts on Friday night were strenuous and started at 8:30 p.m. and continued until nearly eleven with no breaks in between. I did not realize how much effort it is to get a concert on tape and have it look cool and that night we did two.
Concerts are tricky in their very nature, many rapidly changing lights along many rapidly moving people make keeping focus, color, and luminance a real challenge, especially when your trying to do a really long pan zoom and the director just keeps you as the live camera despite the fact that the shot that was planned had indeed finished.
In the end, however, I think that everything turned out really well and rest that night felt very deserved. I am definitely a better camera person for the experience.
Lodging
When I agreed to help out at this conference I was aware that I would not be paying for food or lodging out of my own pocket but I hadn’t the slightest clue as to what level I would be taken care of. I had my very own room in a four star hotel with all you can eat buffet breakfast lunch and dinner and boy did I take advantage of that. Sign me up to help at the one next year, I’m more than willing.
The People
The speakers, organizers, technical help, volunteers, and even all those who attended were really great. Strangely enough there was a lot of people at the conference who I knew not just from Malaga but from other places too. It was great to make new friends and have had some time to catch up with old friends. The evangelicals here in Andalusia are a great bunch.
Some Thoughts
My boss, Paco, was Spanish and Kirsten and I had both volunteered to help out. He thought that certainly Jaime was a girls name and so when Kirsten and I showed up he kept calling Kirsten, Jamie, it really made working hard because he would give direction to “Jamie” meaning Kirsten and every now and again I would follow his orders only to find out that I was the live camera and really shouldn’t have done what I did. Also, I can now work in television in Spain, or at least I can say I know all the relevant terminology, which is more than I can say for working in english production. Come to think of it, I’ve never worked in english production, just Spanish and Arabic.
Final Thoughts
For the first ever conference of it’s kind here it was exceptionally well done and while it wasn’t as highly attended as the organizers had needed or hoped I think what happened was very encouraging. Everything that happened was very professional and I think that as they continue to do the conference they should be able to find ways to cut costs and gather following. It would be a real shame if this conference was both the first and the last.
