Livestreaming

• How to livestream
• Get people to watch your livestream
• Material for livestreaming
• Content for livestreaming - What to talk about?
• Content for livestreaming - What to show?
• Interview & Presentating skills
• How long should a livestream be

How to livestream

Start here if you want to learn how to livestream an action!

Get started

Here are a few questions to ask yourself before visiting our other pages on the subject.

🔹 When?

• When is the action?
• When does it need to be livestreamed? (for example: a specific speech or the whole shebang)
• How long will it last?

🔹 Where?

• Where is it happening and where do you need to go?
• Where are you ABLE to go? (if part of the action is inside a building you might not have a connection and you'll have to remain outside, or record the action on your phone instead of live streaming it)
• On what platform(s) will you live stream? Do you have access to these platforms? (admin rights, passwords...). Are the apps installed on your phone?

🔹 Who?

• Is it an XR action? Are other groups involved?
• Who/what is the target?
• Who is willing to speak on camera about the action?

🔹 What?

• What is the action about?
• What material will you need on the day?

but also:

⚠️ What are the risks for you?

• A spicy action is generally less risky for a livestreamer (they don’t want to arrest you while on camera but it doesn't mean it can't happen)
• Will you be able to walk away if you don’t want to be arrested?
• If you’re ok with being arrested, is your phone secure? Can you use a burner phone to livestream instead?

Technicalities

Screenshots coming soon! You can see them here in the meantime (activate slideshow mode on the top right corner)

Checklist

✅ Switch off WiFi

✅ Switch to "do not disturb" or switch off the notifications

✅ Switch on the automatic rotation of your screen

✅ Copy the blurb

✅ Install your phone on a stabiliser if using one

✅ Plug everything you need (headphones, battery pack...)

Get people to watch your livestream

A blurb is a short description of what is happening on your livestream to get people to watch it.

You need to prepare it in advance, save it on your phone (notes app, as a text message...) so when you're ready to go live, you'll only have to copy and paste it.

Templates

Facebook

LIVE from XXX Location

Today we are targeting XXX because XXX What & Why

Support the action: comment, like & share.

Visit this link for more information: XXX or any relevant call to action

#hashtag #hashtag @tagsomeone (example: for Restore Nature Now, use #RestoreNatureNow)

Twitter / X

Say you’re live + use the headline + hashtags as you only have 280 characters available

Instagram

Live from XXX Location for XXX name of the action

Examples

1️⃣

LIVE: Protestors in Milton Keynes douse Boris Johnson in Oil!

Whilst visiting the site of a proposed new oil shaft in Milton Keynes, Extinction Rebellion rebels surprise Boris Johnson and cover him in "oil". Don't worry though, it's vegan and eco-friendly! We are even offering to pay his dry cleaning bills. (He didn't accept).

We're doing this because despite committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (which in itself is too late) the Prime Minister Mr. Johnson just gave the greenlight to four new oil drilling operations on UK soil, with plans to pour it over indigenous communities. Extracting and burning fossil fuels increases greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which directly leads to global overheating and catastrophic climate change.

We're asking Boris Johnson to cancel all fossil fuel extraction operations now. Please sign our petition here: + link.

#SoilNotOil #ActNow

2️⃣

LIVE:

Extinction Rebellion, Stay Grounded and Scientist Rebellion blockade Farnborough Airport in protest against the airport's expansion and the polluting private jet industry.

This action is part of the #MakeThemPay campaign, uniting citizens and scientists from around the globe behind three demands: Ban Private Jets, Tax Frequent Flyers and Make Polluters Pay.

Aviation as a whole is the pinnacle of climate injustice, with 1% of the population being responsible for 50% of its emissions and 80% of the world population never having set foot on a plane.

A report by @‌Oxfam highlighted that the richest 1% grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth- $42 trillion- created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population.

#BanPrivateJets #MakePollutersPay #TaxFrequentFlyers #Farnborough #ExtinctionRebellion

Material for livestreaming

Technically, you only need a phone. But we're going to explain how you can make the whole experience more comfortable, especially if you're planning on livestreaming full days of action.

Phone

Before the action:

• install all the updates
• make sure you're logged into all the apps you'll need on the day
• fully charge your phone
• make sure you have enough data (or upgrade your plan), you'll roughly need 1GB per hour of stream
• charge your battery pack(s) and make sure your cables work

Headphones / Microphones

You don’t have to use headphones or a microphone, but the sound might be better with them.

Use earphones with built in mic (when doing interview you can pass on the bit with the mic to the person you interview).

You can also use a microphone:

• A long cable one is a good option for interviews so you can be farer away from the person you’re interviewing and still frame bits of the action
• Make sure to have a “windsock” to put on top and have a better sound (especially if it's windy where you are!)
• Test it at home before you go!

Gimbal / Stabiliser / Monopod

Not essential but can make the experience more comfortable and the image more stable.

Always try your material and train with it before the action (also make sure it’s properly charged and that you have a spare battery pack for it if you’re planning a long livestream)

Comfort

Having trousers or a jacket with pockets is super helpful to store your battery packs, cables, headphones… so they are easily accessible.

Check the weather in case you need a rain jacket or even an umbrella (not the most convenient but you don’t want your phone to drown).

Bring some snacks and drinks.

On the photo above, you can see that the livestreamers have different levels of equipment, from a simple phone plugged into a battery pack, to a more professional setting with both a phone and a GoPro! What's important is having working order gears you know how to operate to show the world what XR is up to!

Content for livestreaming - What to talk about?

Before the action

Take some notes on a very small piece of paper (you don’t want to read from it, just write a few bullet points):

• What do you want to talk about?
• Have a few facts ready

During the action

🔹 Introduce yourself

You can start in ‘selfie mode’ (if you’re comfortable showing your face) then switch to your front camera (practice beforehand so you’ll know where the options are)

🔹 Facts

Share your facts sporadically (nobody will remember anything if you dump facts on them, have 2-3 facts ready that you can repeat & comment regularly during the livestream)

🔹 Describe the action

• What’s happening? Where? Why?
• What happened before (if you didn’t start the livestream at the start of the action, and also to let people who just joined the livestream know).
• Comment, use humour, but don’t go off topic.

🔹 Interview

Interview people taking part. See this page to learn about interviews technics.

🔁 And repeat the whole process (for the viewers who missed the start of the livestream).

Etiquette

No swearing No jargon (or explain it) Non XR people will watch so try to have a ‘neutral approach’ Remind the watchers to share, comment, like

Content for livestreaming - What to show?

Capture the action: banners, show number of people, try different points of view of the action if possible (but move slowly to avoid having a shaky image).

If you are filming speeches, go to the front to film.

Avoid filming the public faces (go behind them if possible).

Watch out for the drummers (if they are here): they are loud! So stay clear of them if possible. It's almost impossible to live stream (or at least record an interview) while they're playing because the sound is going to be awful (unless they are far away).

Make sure you know in advance if they are going to be here and what time. You can coordinate your livestream with the band so they start once you're done (eg if you're planning a 30 minutes live stream, tell them, and maybe you can conclude your livestream by "That's all from us here for now, we will end this livestream by listening to a bit of music" and film the drummers for a few minutes before ending the livestream).

Interview & Presentating skills

Get ready to present a livestream and interview participants with these slides.

How long should a livestream be

Minimum 30 minutes

Go live for 30 minutes minimum. It will give people time to connect and follow the action.

Most social media platforms will send out a notification to tell your followers you’re going live. But the platforms don’t like lots of consecutive streams as they think you’re trying to spam people with notifications, so they stop sending out notifications…

No maximum time, apart from your own endurance (you can also plan to have someone to relay you: in that case, use a burner you can hand over to the person instead of your personal smartphone!)

XRUK Livestream Team record was a 9 hours live during the April Rebellion in 2022, which was made possible thanks to multiple experienced livestreamers. No one expect such a long live from a local group action 😉

Engage with your audience

Your audience will have more time to figure that you are live and click on the video to watch it. Especially if you wrote a cool blurb!

That will give you more time to tell the whole story (and repeat it once in a while for late viewers).

If you do a short livestream (less than 10 minutes), then another one just a few minutes later, your audience might think that the livestream has ended and won’t watch the next bit.

So make sure to plan your livestream when something exciting is happening, take your time to show the whole action, talk about it and interview people.

Thirty minutes is actually no much time to do all that!

Share the link of your livestream

Doing one big livestream instead of multiple ones means you’ll have a unique livestream link to share around to encourage people to watch.

If you have someone at home, this person can send this link via email to your local group’s mailing list and ask people to watch, engage with the live or even join you in the streets.

You can also share the link on Twitter/X, in Instagram Stories, on various Facebook pages and groups, in chats etc.