(MANCHESTER) Middle Tennessee State University students and faculty are hard at work at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, handling live television production duties for 30 performances that will be featured on the popular streaming service Hulu.
The assignment, the centerpiece of MTSU’s long-time partnership with the iconic four-day music event, means students will capture images and sound from more than 35% of the concerts at this year’s Bonnaroo, said Bob Gordon, an associate professor of media arts and the college’s live production degree coordinator.
“Our students are handling video production for Hulu on two stages, with some of those performances occurring at the same time,” Gordon said Saturday (June 17). “Paid professionals are handling the other three. But we’re all doing the same thing.”
Over the first two days of Bonnaroo, Hulu has streamed 14 of the Bonnaroo stage performances that MTSU live production students produced, Gordon said. That two-day total is more than the 11 MTSU produced for Bonnaroo and Hulu last year.
Students directed 11 of the 14 that have aired Thursday and Friday. And students will direct all of the 16 performances that will air on Hulu Saturday and Sunday.
If all goes as expected, students will produce a total of 30 performances on Hulu over all four days of the festival.
“Our production efforts at Bonnaroo are as ‘real world’ as it can get,” Gordon said.
Meanwhile, students from MTSU’s School of Journalism and Strategic Media will file daily stories and photos for Sidelines, the university’s student news operation; Seigenthaler News Service; and the MTSU Student Voice. Also, photography students will roam the festival grounds, known as “The Farm,” for visual stories.
“We are doing more with Bonnaroo this year than ever,” Keel said. “The work they create will be the highlight of their collegiate portfolios and the memories they create will last a lifetime.”
The MTSU-Bonnaroo partnership began in 2014 with student journalists given special access to cover the festival. It expanded in 2015 to also include video and audio work with the college’s almost $2 million Mobile Production Lab, known affectionally as “The Truck.”
It’s a 40-foot rolling TV studio/classroom used by the departments of Media Arts and Recording Industry to teach multi-camera production at about 30 live events each semester, including sports, concerts and award shows. The Truck includes a complete, professional quality HD video and audio production control room, which was adapted this year to capture performances on Bonnaroo’s “This” and “Other” stages.
You can read Hulu’s streaming schedule for Bonnaroo at www.hulu.com/bonnaroo.
