Geraldton creatives reach more people with the help of Kalgoorlie-Boulder livestream producer

Geraldton comics, musicians and other creatives have been honing their live streaming and broadcasting skills as part of a project to bring learning opportunities to the regions.

Local arts group Funtavia has received funding through Regional Arts WA to host a series of creative workshops presented by Kalgoorlie-Boulder based cameraman JT Taylor.

Taylor has spent the past week in Geraldton helping the Euphorium Youth Academy introduce their skits and antics to an online audience, with local musicians also learning how to create high-quality content for their portfolios.

Euphorium sound analyst Joel Pearson said many in the arts industry had turned to live streaming their performances during the COVID-19 pandemic, but few had the skills to produce content to a professional standard.

“Unfortunately, the live streaming just wasn’t executed well all the time, so it has a bit of a bad reputation,” he said.

“To be able to allow local artists to produce their own high-quality content is important.”

Mr Pearson said he had enjoyed the opportunity to develop his production skill set.

“I have learnt a lot of stuff I didn’t know to do with framing and cameras, and to be able to take that and put it with my existing knowledge of sound and lighting has been really good,” he said.

“We are so much more powerful as a group and as an industry if we all collectively help each other out and share resources and skills.”

More than 5000 people tuned in to the online shows Euphorium produced under the guidance of Mr Taylor, who said livestreaming was a way to help regional communities create local content.