Getting Good Live Video
posted September 26, 2008, 4:48 pm | Log In To Post Comments | 
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Tags: neverset, overscene, seven story drop, lucasmartin, jewel, live music video, rock, blues, metal
Take the time to get to the club early and adjust the lights to actually shine on the band. Let the band know the light is good to them and it will help make them look like rock stars. (The light is good, the light is good). Always bring at least two good-sized lights (500-750 watts) with stands, scrims, screens and barn doors and dimmers if you can afford them too.
Set the "white balance" of your camera if it has this feature. Find anything that's in the same light and is as white as you can get, white balance to that and you should be good to go. If you have multiple camera operators, set your white balance together and on the same object and make sure your temperatures are all the same.
Set your IRIS function to a manual mode and adjust, as lighting requires. This is a bit tricky especially if you are working a manual lens at the same time. It just takes time to develop a feel for it.
If your going to use single chip (tiny hand held) camcorder, use a tri-pod or if you have to go hand held then use a mono-pod and get pretty close to your subjects. If you don't have a mono-pod or tri-pod use both hands. Steady shots look good, herky jerky shots look bad. (un-less that's what you going for of course...)
Learn about framing and composing a shot. Just like you compose a lyric for your songs, we compose shots for our video. Frame by frame at 24,30 and 60 frames a second. Watch a lot of music videos and TV commercials and observe their production values. Read a lot about photography. More practice.
Learn to use the manual zoom & focus functions and try to stay away from auto focus. A sudden change in lighting and your all out of focus. This is where working the IRIS comes into play. By working the IRIS and letting the focus remain you can adjust the amount of light entering the lens and re-adjust your image (no zebra stripes) with out affecting your focus.
If your shooting with multiple camera operators take some time and discuss who is going to shoot what, when and where the heck are they going to be. (Stake out camera positions early!) Stay aware of what and or who is in your lens. If you see another camera operator then re-frame your subject and cut the other camera operator out of your frame. Simple to do, but so many forget. Know who is going for close ups, mediums and wide shots.
If your going to plug into the venue's sound board, tip the board operator enough to make it worth them worrying about your audio and you should come out on the plus side with great live audio from the board's mix. Many times if the sound guy experiences any major problems, your audio feed is the first to go in his frantic scramble to fix the problem. Reasoning being, everything was working fine before that video guy asked to be plugged in. If they have a CD burner to burn the mix, tip the sound guy and treat them with respect and you should get a great recording.
Have each camera operator adjust their sound for their respective locations. If they are near the speakers, turn the capture volume down so your sound won't be all distorted. You can do some interesting things just like you can in a recording studio.
Lets say you have 3 camera operators. One operator on the left, one on the right and the last one in the center. Camera left records panned left and camera right records panned right and the center camera centered. When you get into post you can combine all 3 and if you tipped the sound guy have 4 audio sources to build a killer live audio track for your video.
Always try to visit the venue before the shoot to determine where the sweat spots are for capturing both live video and audio. (Otherwise known as a tech scout).
Contact the venue and let them know your coming or at least have the band put you and your crew on their guest list. You might show up early and shoot a little of the venue and surrounding area, maybe the band's name in lights on the marquee, or as the band arrives to the venue in their tattered van. (B-Roll)
Always a good idea to have parking arranged for your crew. You really don't want them walking with all that expensive gear a few blocks. They may not capture what you asked them too at worst or may not work for you again at the least, especially considering what your paying them (wink, wink).
Label your tapes properly, your editor will love you for it.
Well, take what you like and compost the rest.
Happy Shooting!
Comments:
Good insight. Thanks for the tips.
Can you help me out on how to get good shots with my point and shoot camera at a gig? Anything that I'm missing? My shots completely suck.
posted on September 26, 2008, 5:35 pm
