Asbury Students Gain Hands-on Live Production Experience Through Mario Kart E-Sports Event
The Asbury University Multicam Production class continued their annual event of the Mario Kart experience in the Miller Center for Communication Arts on March 5 and 6.
This E-Sports television production simulation provides students with the unique opportunity to experience what it is like to produce a live sports event.”
“Our engineering team has been at the forefront of making this technology accessible to students by crews operating from cameras in our news bureau capturing the live commentators, multiple cameras on the race track in the hall, cameras on the drivers and directed in the control room on the second floor. Students have the opportunity to use robotic cameras, a pole camera, and handheld cameras. This unscripted experience pushes student directors and producers to be creative, utilize critical thinking, develop leadership skills and build teamwork.”
“The goal of the project is to help students understand the process of covering a live sporting event,” said Dave Grosz, technical manager for the Asbury University School of Communication Arts. “The outcome of this project is to give students confidence in their skills to produce multicamera live events and to create interest in the field of live television production.”
Asbury students experience different aspects of a complex television production, including working with many different cameras, coordinating commentators and field reporters, as well as covering an unscripted live event (the Mario Kart race) that has unpredictable elements. Replay of multiple camera angles allows AU students to learn how to use this technology to tell a better sports story.
The annual Mario Kart eSports production gives Asbury University students a hands-on, creative learning experience that builds community, strengthens career-ready production skills, and adds an engaging, memorable element to campus life.
“Although we have been doing this project for over five years, this one is unique because we have updated the driver control center to be on permanent display in the Miller building,” Grosz said. “We have new technology and cameras in this new configuration that will be a visible part of the experience of touring the Miller building. We hope to capture live footage from the in-car cameras during this event that will be displayed on the driver screens during tours to help others understand a bit more about the experience.”
The Asbury class is divided into two groups, the first as the entire crew for one evening of production and the second as the crew for the second night.
Both the Asbury Multicamera Production class and the Asbury Mario Kart event are held during the spring and fall semesters with in-person students and during the summer as an online class where students remotely control the equipment to produce a racing show by working together from different geographic locations.
The Asbury University School of Communication Arts offers Traditional Undergraduate programs in Communication, Media Communication, Multimedia Journalism, and Theatre and an Online Multimedia Design degree. Graduate programs include the M.A. in Communication; M.A. in Digital Storytelling; M.A. in Instructional Design, Innovation & Leadership; MFA in Film/TV Production; and MFA in Screenwriting.