I know from experience how many ways there are to mess up a live video, but this one takes the cake.
WLOS ABC 13's Justin Hinton went live to report on snowfall in Asheville, North Carolina and the routine video ended up getting a lot of attention for the wrong reason.
The app was set to rotate through a bunch of augmented reality filters making him look like a futuristic robot, a flashlight-lit scary storyteller, some sort of furry creature and a few more.
How pure was it hearing Hinton read through the comments all confused at the end. "What is it doing to my face?" he asked quizically.
Such is the nature of the Facebook live. They are innately prone to technical difficulty. This is why news organizations have things like dump buttons, videographers, audio engineers, technical directors, master control operators, etc ...
When you're freezing your butt off on the side of the road and focusing on other things, it's possible to be distracted, but how did the videographer miss this?
My theory is they froze and just rode it out. Frankly, I'm glad they did, because I loved it. When you're in a live segment, it's tough to talk through a problem with your reporter. Imagine with me how that would go.
"Psst! Hey Justin. Um. How do we turn these filters off? What? Yeah, I tried that. Uhhhh. I don't know. Yes, we're live. Should we stop it?"
All is well that ends well. Their Facebook reach is probably through the roof since this has almost 200k views. Also, the duo of reporter and videographer showed they are unshakable. I know I'd be shaking with laughter if that was me behind the camera.