Grease Live Control Room

The latest live television broadcast of a Broadway musical-turned-movie was Grease Live last weekend. You can marvel at how well the performers pulled it off in real time onstage, but backstage was just as impressive. In this video, we get to see a split-screen recording of what went on in the control room under director Carrie Havel. The choreography of camera shot changes is like housework, in that you never notice it until it’s done badly. If the shots changed somewhere besides the beginning of a musical measure, the viewer would be thrown off. You’d enjoy the sequence less, even if you couldn’t put your finger on why. 

Quite a long time ago, I spent a year as a TV switcher, which entailed following the director’s orders during live broadcasts. I have all the respect in the world for directors who do the job well. (via Uproxx)