Josiah 'Jazza' Brook launches his Tabletop Time channel with Blackmagic equipment

Tabletop Time, Josiah 'Jazza' Brook's new YouTube channel, has been created using Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and an ATEM Mini Extreme mixer.

Jazza, an Australian artist, content creator and animator, is internationally known for his art tutorials and creative challenges on YouTube. Jazza started with a single YouTube channel, which now has over 5.4 million subscribers and a total of 1 billion views, and together with his media company is creating new videos and online channels.

One of the first new channels is the one focused on board games, called Tabletop Time, which features a miniature creation of a live game between Jazza, her brother, Shad Brooks, and other well-known players. Although it started a few years ago, the channel resurfaced in early 2021 and has since grown incredibly fast, surpassing one hundred thousand subscribers in less than a month.

In order to broadcast live, Jazza uses a combination of eight cameras, including units Pocket Cinema Camera 4K y 6K. Also, use a mixer ATEM Mini Extreme ISO, both for switching between multiple signals and inserting graphics and for recording the program. In addition, it has Blackmagic Design devices Video Assist for monitoring, and with different models Mini Converter.

Jazza says, “The ATEM Mini Extreme and some of the cameras arrived the day before we started filming, and there's no doubt that without them we wouldn't have achieved what we did. Without Blackmagic devices, editing, storage drives, syncing and managing footage would have been a nightmare, or we wouldn't have been able to be as creative.”

Careful planning

“The Battle of the Hundred Thousand was a lot of fun, but it also took a lot of planning to get the viewers to feel the same energy. We had figures of angels and demons, on one side floating buildings, as if they were in the sky, and on the other a volcano. Unfortunately, I lost dramatically and the entire audience saw the game unfold thanks to the eight Blackmagic cameras,” he continues.

To broadcast to his one hundred thousand subscribers, Jazza created a game based on the theme of Cielo vs. Hell, according to the audience's requests. The program included a camera directly in front of the game table, another from above on the ceiling, two on the sides to capture shots of the players, another two on the sides of the table and a last one on a slider in order to obtain shots general. The eighth unit focused on the technical director controlling the ATEM Mini Extreme mixer, so that viewers could watch the broadcast being created.

“The ATEM Mini Extreme ISO mixer has completely surprised me, even though I have only had the opportunity to use it a few times yet. Furthermore, the additional cameras and monitors allowed me to fully control everything that happened in the game,” Jazza acknowledges.

“In the past, if we had wanted to shoot with eight cameras, we would not only have had to store the images on eight cards separately, but also go through all the material, convert it to MP3 and sync it manually. And then do all the editing! We would have done it, but what the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO mixer did automatically while we recorded would have taken days. I think it is accurate to say that ATEM Mini devices have revolutionized what we are able to achieve in our studio,” he concludes.

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