In our penultimate Final Major Project showcase, we’re going to the land of quizzes and questions. Yes, that’s right. If you love your Countdown or you’re a big fan of Catchphrase then you’re in luck! This student group produced their very own game show; Mock the Load In! 

Ever the ambitious bunch, our students have absolutely gone all out in their final university projects. So far, we’ve seen some incredibly diverse, unique live events and we’ve no intention of stopping now! 

For this group of students, they decided to take on the challenge of creating and producing a live-streamed game show. This included every aspect of the event. From the visual design and content creation, the complex technical build and organisation of a live-streamed event, down to the quiz creation itself! 

We excitedly made our way over to Studio A to catch the second episode of Mock the Load In; Technical Turbulence. Designed to test the live events knowledge of students and staff at Backstage Academy, the student group had already live-streamed their first episode titled Fun at the Festival that saw two teams of students go head to head! 

Before going live on YouTube, we managed to grab third-year BA (Hons) Live Events Production student, Robert O’Brian, for a quick run down before the show started. 

"Our Final Major Project is a comedy quiz game show called Mock the Load In. The whole idea for this game show was to do something different than a typical music show that we would normally have done. With all the specialist equipment available to use at Backstage, we were really able to be ambitious in what we wanted to achieve whilst still being able to play around with new kit!” 

Ready and raring to go, the glamorous panellist for this episode was made up of Backstage’s very own staff members. The hostess, with most certainly the most-est, was the one and only Tizzy Von Tassel from Good Time Gals who kicked off the show entering the studio with live-stream camera in tow. This immediately achieved the wacky comedic style that the students intended to create. 

The backdrop to the set hung plush creative draping, from ceiling to floor. Expertly constructed trussing provided by the industry-leading SIXTY82 was utilised not only to perfect the technical requirements of the event but cleverly added to the style and decor of the set. Where simple truss structures framed the camera angles to reinforce the live event theme of the game show. The students even used flight cases as the panellist tables! 

A wide range of performance lighting from A.C Entertainment Technologies completed a compact but impactful visual, controlled via Avolites TigerTouch II Titan console. To achieve an exceptional quality of sound, the students made full use of FOH systems and monitors from industry innovators KV2 Audio, operated by Midas’s high-performance M32 sound desk. 

What’s a great game show without the memorable video content and on-screen graphics? The students created a fantastic range of motion graphics and visuals that provided the all-important quiz content, seamlessly displayed on a large configuration of ROE video wall.

And finally, a live-streamed event was made possible with the use of Blackmagic vision mixers and cameras that allowed for those all-important range of angles and shots. 

With the very best in industry equipment at their disposal, the students were able to achieve a fantastically professional - and incredibly fun - original game show. After a cracking quiz and a whole load of laughs, we caught up with Robert to debrief. 

“I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved in this project, working over the past couple of months - it’s been a long process - but the way it turned out was excellent!”

We couldn’t agree more! So when’s the next episode airing? 

Mock the Load In was a project by;

George Dawson, BA (Hons) Live Visual Design & Production 

Joel Pendelton, BA (Hons) Live Events Production 

Jordan Thomas, BA (Hons) Stage & Production Management

Rhianna Burns, BA (Hons) Live Events Production 

Robert O'Brian, BA (Hons) Live Events Production 

Thomas Shepley, BA (Hons) Live Events Production

Want a little more behind the scenes from Mock the Load In? Take a look at the showcase film!