Viva La Dirt League, the international hit sketch comedy and table top gaming YouTube channel, is using a full Blackmagic Design multicam set up to shoot, complete post and stream their hit weekly Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) game. This workflow includes ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO live production switchers, Studio Camera 6K Pro and Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro digital cameras and DaVinci Resolve editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX) and audio post production software.
Viva La Dirt League is a hit global sketch comedy channel with almost 6 million subscribers and more than 2.9 billion views on YouTube alone. The group’s second channel, Viva La Direct League D&D, is a weekly stream of the group’s founding members, Rowan Bettjeman, Alan Morrison and Adam King, as well as current Viva La Dirt League cast members, playing D&D. This new channel already has more than 390,000 YouTube subscribers and 40 million views since its introduction.
The stream is a multicamera production taking place in a new tavern themed studio built around a Blackmagic Design streaming and post production workflow. This includes an ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO, switching two Studio Camera 6K Pros and three Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pros. A combination of brilliant comedy and gameplay using characters watched and followed by millions of Viva La Dirt League subscribers, mixed with a multicamera shoot that captures every part of play and amazing new tavern set, the stream has gained millions of views in only a few months. Bettjeman, who along with the other founders first tried the idea of a live game stream in 2019, explained the differences between their first attempt and their new set up: “We first dipped our toes into live D&D streaming about four years ago with the introduction of the Dungeons and Dragons: Descent into Avernusworld. Right from the very first one we tried in 2019, we knew we had to deal with a multicam set up. We cobbled together whatever cameras we could find. But the new set up with Blackmagic is so much better.”
“The first time I saw our very game filmed right here with all of our Blackmagic cameras set up on an ATEM, my mind was blown. So a big thanks to Blackmagic for making our whole workflow for our D&D series so much better,” he said. Each week, viewers get to watch a mix of live D&D play mixed in with high quality short videos showing the characters in action and including a mix of green screen and high end VFX work. The characters are the same ones that millions of viewers have grown to love from Viva La Dirt League, including lonely garlic farmer Greg, Bodger the Blacksmith and Baradun the sorcerer. The Studio Camera 6K Pros are used for wide shots of the entire cast playing. Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pros are used for a variety tight and unique angles, as well as for shooting videos showing the characters in game.
Director Tom West explained: “For me, the greatest thing about the Blackmagic set up is how everything is connected. Everything matches. You can control it all from the one ATEM switcher. And the color science of the cameras lets us set the feel and color schemes we have really been wanting for this kind of set for quite some time.” Footage from each of the cameras, as well as a line cut of the game, are saved as DaVinci Resolve files directly on the ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO. West continued: “You can livestream in 1080, but at the same time we are also recording the cameras at 4K in the ATEM. We get a Resolve timeline so that we can livestream straight away and put all of that footage straight into our system because we already run DaVinci Resolve and cut all of that footage together and create our high end high resolution YouTube series.”
Adam King, part of the 2019 D&D stream, quickly saw the difference with the new Blackmagic Design workflow. “With the first time we tried, we initially had to hire a lot of crew and actors. It was a real hassle. But now having the Blackmagic cameras in house, it is so easy. We can do it all with such a small crew and the whole process is significantly easier. I literally lost my mind when we saw all of the Blackmagic cameras pointed at the set at the same time. It looked so good. And to be able to switch on the ATEM and see all of the different shots and then even just playing in this space. It just felt so good.”
