I've officially been back at Melodifestivalen as press!
Semifinal 1 took place last week in Gothenburg and with this post I will update you about what's going on with our work and making sure you know how to stay updated!
First of all to make things clear, I won't be able to go to every semifinal due to school and my actual work. I wish I was able to follow the tour to every city to work with Jenevia but I simply can't. Jenevia in another hand will be doing press coverage of almost every city in the tour except for semifinal 4. She will be doing the work by herself but I will still help out with some of the editing of her photos.
➟ BUT, I will be back on set doing press coverage for Andra Chansen in Linköping and the finale in Stockholm!
To start off the blog post, I will let you know that this will be a quick summary of everything that was going on during semi-final 1 of Melodifestivalen. The photos are a sneak peek of what I will be posting in the upcoming weeks.
This semi-final Jenevia and I was working together with our friend Majo from Mexico. We have been talking a lot online and we became friends through our interests in music. It was so much fun to meet her for the first time!
We are from a smaller outlet and we are just three people working on our coverage of Melfest but yet we manage to get almost everyone for one-on-one interviews. The interviews took place the first two days of the circus and because we had our one-on-one interviews we didn't had to stress as much as last year to try to get interviews during the press conferences. It was great to be able to have a proper chat with people and conduct an interview without any stress or people that will disturb us while working.
The week of the semifinals usually starts already on Wednesday the same week. Loads of press activites goes on for all the accredicated press such as press conferences with the artists and the hosts, welcome party, rehearsals and much more!
Jenevia and I decided to attend the welcome party and it was a nice get together for all the people working with Melfest. They had the well-known seafood buffé and we mingle around. Many of the reporters that were there conducted interviews and taking photographs of the artists and the hosts. Jenevia and I didn't felt like it was the right time to be getting footage because we didn't want to be all in everyone's business. We stood by and enjoyed the party.
During Thursday and Friday we spent most of our time in the arena watching the rehearsals. The rehearsals is my opportunity to get my footage and the photographs of everyone's performances. I really enjoy being in the arena to watch the performances, see the work people put into to get everything right and be able to capture what's going on, on the stage.
Last year, I had troubles getting the footage that I wanted since I wasn't familiar of that kind of enviroment. Also my equipment was not working as well with me as I wanted. This time around, I've upgraded some of my camera equipment and I'm so happy that I've been able to. I still get judging looks from other photographer because of my equipment though. The camera equipment that I have might not be the fanciest and most expensive but the equipment is surely better than the ones I had last year.
This year, I have more photographs that are quality and my editing skills have improved A LOT since last year. I'm very happy that several of the artists and people around have been showing their appreciation of my photos.
Those who have been following my content the last year or Jenevia's coverage, you might be familiar of the unprofessionalism we have been facing during our work at Melfest. To name some, walking in our shot, people being rude towards us, the acts we are interviweing and each other.
Last year, Samir & Viktor recieved a lot of hate/bullying from the press and the public. Same thing is happening with De Vet Du this year. De Vet Du is a humor-group that I think a lot people misunderstand. They are here to show what they got and make people laugh. Their performance is very ambitious and such fun! De Vet Du are such hard working guys that puts a lot of quality music and they deserve a lot more respect and credit than they recieve. We bonded very well with them and I'm so happy we got to have our one-on-one interview with them and seeing them qualify to Andra Chansen!
To sum things up, I'm very happy that I'm able to do this work with Jenevia and Majo. We bond very well and it's our opportunity to show everyone what we are capable of. I think the professional way we do our work, our genuine and polite behaviour towards the people we meet makes a difference. I'm glad that we are on the same level and know the hard work that comes into putting good content out.
So to everyone who wants to keep being updated of everythings that is going on with our content and experiences while working as press at Melodifestivalen, make sure to follow Jenevia and I on our social medias:
Until next time, take care!
/Lizel
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