The summer's biggest festivals through a Solent lens

This summer, students from Southampton Solent University's award-winning in-house media centre, Solent Productions, worked across two of the UK's flagship summer music festivals, Boardmasters and Camp Bestival, filming, directing and producing live outside broadcast (OB) content for audiences of tens of thousands.

From operating and directing cameras on the main stage for the screens either side of stage (IMAGs) to producing content for the festival clients’ social media channels, the placements gave students the opportunity to work in demanding live production environments.

Students took on roles within festival production teams, gaining experience of the pace and pressures involved in delivering live event production alongside industry professionals.

Craig Lees, production manager at Solent Productions said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity for our students. We teach them the theory and the practical production elements that industry wants. They don’t just need students who understand the theory, employers need students with the technical knowledge and practical production experience that reside in working on a real production, not just knowing what they’re doing but also demonstrating the confidence to do it because they’ve done it live here themselves each year every year for three years during their degree.”

At Boardmasters, students spent the week working across the whole scope of the event, shooting content around the surf and skate competitions, filming the silent disco, yoga sessions and run club, and interviewing both surfers and festival-goers for content that ran alongside the main stage OB content.

Over at Camp Bestival, students took on camera operating, vision mixing, live directing and production coordinating roles across the weekend.

Luke Lucas, a BA (Hons) Film Production student going into their third year, worked as an OB camera operator, rotating across various camera positions including tracking dolly, front of house box lens camera, side-stage static camera wireless roaming camera and slow-motion camera positions.

"I've had the opportunity to work on many different cameras over the course of this weekend. I've really enjoyed being backstage, being able to work for the bands. Solent gives you the skills to be able to do it. I'd definitely recommend working with Solent Productions at festivals, it's such a good opportunity for real world work experience, and having festival work on your CV and showreel opens up so many more opportunities."

Jake Foster, a third-year BA (Hons) Film Production student, took on the director role for the festival, coordinating a slate of content across the site, from camp-life videos to nightlife coverage.

"As director, I've coordinated all of the different projects we've wanted to do at Camp Bestival, like videos on the campsite and the nightlife. I've learned that a festival is very fast paced. It's been quite nice to be treated like you're really doing the job, but it's also quite eye-opening finding out the little rules and the do's and don'ts. The team have been really communicative about what they want us to do and have given us the means to carry it out."

Elizabeth Walker, a BA (Hons) Television Production third year who has now completed her degree, directed a run of acts across the weekend. She also shadowed the guest director for Bastille's headline set, watching how camera choices were made from moment to moment on one of the festival's biggest shows:

" It's been really interesting to shadow the guest director for Bastille last night, watching which cameras he goes for and what he's looking for with each one... It gives you such a different perspective to what you learn in class. You learn so much more about cameras when you're live and doing it quickly, than you ever do in a module."

With both festivals adding another cohort of camera operators, directors and production coordinators to Solent Productions' network, both partnerships are continuing to provide employment opportunities for Solent students and graduates.

All imagery from Boardmasters supplied by student Matthew Tunnell.