In Liam’s studio, vision complements audio with music videos, marketing and social media content with the Micro Studio Camera 4K G2, ATEM and Video Assist HDR monitor/recorder
Liam Hopkins is a 19 year old Canadian alternative rock musician, songwriter, multi instrumentalist, producer and engineer. Having played drums and guitar since age four, Liam was inspired to pursue music after experiencing his first concert at age 11, subsequently attending and graduating from Berklee College of Music conservatory’s Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive on a scholarship at just 15 years old.
“At the end of that program, they recommended that Liam simply start making music, which led us to building our own studio attached to our house,” said his father, Richard Hopkins.
“I had come across Blackmagic Design unexpectedly, by doing drum covers in my basement,” Liam said. “I was borrowing several different cameras from my high school, and I was wondering if there were any way to control them all at once. That led me directly to Blackmagic Design to fit out the studio.”
One Man Show
Not only does Liam record every instrument on his own releases, but he is a videographer, editor and filmmaker who creates all his own visuals for his music videos, social media and release campaigns.
“Musicians have always been pretty DIY, but I feel like I don’t see a lot of musicians taking advantage of the digital side of things. Lots of musicians feel like social media and the internet are the enemy of music, and I couldn’t disagree more. There’s never been a better time for independent artists to be sharing their music than right now,” said Liam.
“I was in the media program at my high school and did freelance work after that. I’ve been interested in cameras for a long time. I think music today is such a visual medium, using video as an important factor in releasing your own music. As such, it was necessary to have that video component when we built the studio.”
Specialising in transforming spaces through expert acoustical consulting, testing and design, Haverstick Designs based in Indiana handled the studio design, while Liam implemented the video workflow himself.
Live Configuration
Four Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2s are situated around the studio’s live room and feed into an ATEM SDI Extreme ISO live production switcher. A Blackmagic Video Assist 7” 12G HDR monitor/recorder is used for monitoring. Liam talked through how this set-up works. “The whole studio has SDI cables running through the floor from the live room to the control room, so I can set up a camera wherever I want in the live room, and they all get routed back to the control room where the ATEM lives.”
“I think every studio should be running video systems alongside its audio systems,” he commented. “Again, visuals are so important nowadays. I love the idea of having the cameras running constantly with large hard drives and power supplies. It is now easy to shoot multicam music videos or get behind the scenes content that looks really good because you have a professional camera.”
About his decision to buy the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2, Liam commented, “I had never seen anything like it, and its size and portability made it the perfect fit. I didn’t see the need to splurge on something bigger. I knew if I had the Micro Studio Cameras connected to the ATEM and one Video Assist monitor, it would be more uniform and a bit faster for me as a one man operation.”
No Guessing
Liam remarked on the ATEM SDI Extreme ISO’s reliability and ISO recording functionality, seeing it as essential to his workflow. “Because I can record a HD copy of all the ATEM’s inputs, as well as keep a DaVinci Resolve project file, I can then edit the performance in HD in DaVinci Resolve Studio – and since everything is timecode aligned, I can drop in its 4K counterpart later on,” he said.
“Also, it just works. Nowadays, I feel like that is a standout feature in itself. I never have to guess with the ATEM. I also love all the different ways I can monitor the video coming through the ATEM – picture-in-picture, a grid showing me everything or individual monitoring per camera.”
Looking at the World of Audio
So far, Liam has shot two music videos in the live room of his studio using the Blackmagic Design workflow, including ‘Start Again’ and ‘Kiss Their Feet’, both available on his YouTube channel @liamhopkinsmusic. With plans to use the system for more videos and live stream events from the studio, Liam is moving forward at full speed.
“Having a video component in the studio means you could even make a full studio documentary for every project if you wanted to. Being an audio engineer isn’t that different from being a videographer and video editor. It produces extra video for clients and is a good way to make additional money for the studio and engineers,” Liam noted.
“Working in the world of video has made me look at the world differently. Whenever I see something interesting, I wonder how I could film it and turn it into something engaging. A Blackmagic Design video workflow fully integrated into my audio space makes that possible.” www.blackmagicdesign.com/
