Need advice shooting rock show

A

aramikvideo

Active member
My brother-in-law is singer in a Rob Zombie cover band and has put together quite a gig for Halloween night. All tapped out on cash, he's asked me to tape this event. He's not expecting miracles, but as an event/ wedding videographer with some experience, I'd like to come through for him and think I can.
Here's the deal: I have a DVX100B as my main camera and will probably use my little GS320 3-chipper as a second camera. I would like to set up the 320 on a tripod in a safe spot for the long range, full stage shots and possibly put the DVX on a shoulder brace and stand in front of the stage. I have a wireless mic system I use for weddings but don't know what good it can do me here. i do not have a shotgun mic for the DVX because I use the wireless.
Given my limitations, what's the best way I would have of getting good audio? I'm going to see if my bro's got his own sound guy and maybe get with him but I'm still looking for ideas here.
As far as what i actually do have to work with, what settings should I use for my DVX as far as exposure, frame rate, etc. And, would standing in front of the stage be a good idea?
 
I would normally try to get a feed from the house sound board and plug it in to your fixed cam, as well as a separate audio recorder (as a backup). That would give you the best audio. If you were to use a shotgun mic, i think things would get blown out, or even worse, you'd only hear muffled audio because you're pointing the mic behind the speakers. See if you can talk with the house managers before the show and ask if they'll allow you a feed from the board. You might even be able to get away with plugging your wireless transmitter into the board and send at least one channel of audio to your DVX.

Good luck.
 
Thank you. Getting a feed from the house board was my initial thought as well. I'm going to talk to my brother-in-law and see if I can't get hooked up, literally and figuratively.
Does anyove have any feedback as far as camera placement and DVX settings? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
I might be able to help. First off, tapping the board for this is essential. It's the only way you'll get a good mix (assuming all instruments including separate drums are mic'd as well) I'd recommend a separate recorder for audio it you can swing it.
As far as placement, a shot from the back would work (assuming there's a big crowd up front) and I'd frame it so you get the bottom of the stage, the outside members and not much more if you can. The audience presence will seem like more if you're zoomed in a bit more... backwards sounding i know. You just don't want any clips of empty crowd space.
If your shoulder mounting another camera, try and get on stage with them too, that gives very good shots. All in all, have fun with it, the crowd will dig the cameras and react to them. Flow with it all. And best of luck!
 
Thanks Random. I appreciate it. I'm 40 but still rockin' so i should have fun with this.
I imagine I should just shoot at 30p. What do you think? It's better looking to me than 60fps but the focus issues with 24p might be a bit much considering the subject.
 
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Any advice on camera settings for my DVX100B? I'm used to taping people saying "I do" not "What we have here are 500 heavy metal mother..." (well, you know).
I'm concerned about the huge contrast in light, not the least of which is a pyro display.
 
There are numerous variables that would determine your camera settings, such as wether or not it's outdoors or indoors, time of day (if outdoors), size of stage, quality of house lighting, etc.

Most places don't have good lighting for video so the biggest problem is usually getting a good white balance as all the lights will be of different quality. For example, the main spot light on the singer will be one temperature, while the drums will be under a completely different one. Same goes to light brightness, etc. This will be a problem for both the main and the back camera.

My advice is to set your settings to focus on the most important subject(s), such as the lead singer and hope the rest of the band falls within reasonable exposure. Since you're planning on cutting between your main and the back camera I wouldn't recommend riding your exposure and white balance too much (if possible, not at all), otherwise it could require a lot of work to match the cameras in post (not to mention matching the DVX to the 320).

Keep your image as "flat" and low contrast as possible so you get the most dynamic range. You can then add contrast back in post if needed. Run your exposure as hot as possible because if you underexpose too much, brining up the gain in post will also bring up a lot of noise.

Also, are you going to have someone at the back controlling the 320? Stage lightening and therefor exposure can change a lot during the show and having someone just to ride the gain between songs can help a lot.

Going back to sound. Like others have mentioned getting a soundboard connection is key, but unless it's a small place, I wouldn't recommend wireless. You never known what kind of wireless systems the place uses and you can get signal drop outs, interference, or worse, your own system can in return interfere with the house! Also, if possible, run audio to BOTH cameras.

Personally, I always run cables to all my cameras. You'll need to ask the house for details on wether that's possible, come early to run your lines and use best possible cables, etc.

Anyway, there are too many things to consider, but that'd be my two cents. So far, I've worked on 3 large full day concerts, both filming and editing, and it can be a real challenge getting good material so I wish you the best!
 
Thanks for the feedback! i will definitely refer to your advice as I take on what looks to be a challenging task. Thanks again!
 
I'd say more important that even those settings is getting familiar with the music and knowing how they act live. If you know the bass player likes to jump off the drum riser when the chorus hits on song 'x', make sure you're following. Get in close to the vocalist when you can, because a good focus on him close up will throw the rest out of focus and give you a nice film look. Same with guitar solos. Shooting the drummer can be harder than it seems, for you're focusing on the whole kit plus lots of movement, so I'd say keep yourself at 30p while shooting, and if you want to try the 24p look in post, go for it. But most live events like this aren't shot that way (to my knowledge, if i'm wrong someone correct me).
Lighting, lighting, lighting. Stage lights are nice, but unless your camera has great low light capabilities (3ccd) then you're going to want to have an on-camera light (5600k for outdoors) and any extra stage lights you can talk them into.
 
I'm going to drive out early to get as familiar with the band and circumstances as possible. My brother-in-law is the lead vocalist and we have a good open line of communication. Random, I was thinking the same things that you said about getting a feel for what the band members tendencies are on stage. I'm hoping that my experience i have as an event videographer where things aren't too rehearsed will prove beneficial. Like a wedding, I only get the one shot at this. There are no retakes or pickup shots.
i just shot a wedding reception with my DVX100B and used the Litepanels led light. It turned out pretty good, considering how dark receptions can be, with very little noise. I brightened up the footage a bit using the 3-way color corrector in FCP and didn't create much if any visible noise in doing so. That will be my main camera at the show with a smaller 3-CCD Panasonic as a second cam. In the old days of NASCAR, they "raced what they brung". That's my situation here. There's really no money to buy anything else so off I go.
 
Not a worry there, I was just giving you some best case scenarios. A band playing live can be like a wedding in a lot of ways, with a few exceptions. People tend to focus on the singer, but the more interesting videos you'll see will have basically equal coverage of other members as well. The singer ties it all together, but unless he/she is put into the context of the others, it's a bit much. That's where knowing the music really comes into play... know when you need to be set for a solo, know when there's a thumping bass line, or some amazing drums fills, and since you will have one camera set on the whole band, you have a little time in between shots to set up. You do only get one shot, but with music instead of weddings...the feeling and performance is about everyone, not just the people in the middle :0) Best of luck
 
You could also try to create an audio submix. I am not an audio guru per se, but we have done this on large shows I have worked on that went out to live broadcast and live audience. the house mix will be optimized for the space and a live audience, and the speaker sound..., not for your audience. if you can get mic level pass through feeds from the house mix to a second mix you provide, you have the chance to remix cleaner than the single line level that is easy. might be more work than it is worth, depending on the board they have in house, it may not be possible, but if you can get your hands on a mixer, it might be worth exploring the cabling etc......
 
Thanks for the response. As it turns out, the audio may not even be a serious concern for me. Their sound guy is already planning on making a high quality recording of the audio. I don't see any reason why I won't be able to synch that up with my video in Final Cut.
 
Two pieces of advice, whether you can afford to or not, this will help you in the future with this kind of gig-
1) NEVER, EVER, LEAVE YOUR CAMERA UNSUPERVISED! If nothing else, offer somebody you know some drinks to stand by and watch it. Aside from scumbags walking off with it, you also have to worry about drunks tripping over it. I'm not sure which would be worse, coming back to where your camera used to be, or to come back and find it laying on the ground with bits of it scattered across the floor. Why take the chance?

2) If this is something you might want to continue doing, or even any other type of event that will have multiple audio sources/mics, get a multi track mixer/recorder. I have a 12 track Roland I bought for $300, which allows me to run separate feeds such as instruments, lead mic, back up mics, even drum kits, and mix the levels later at my convenience. For smaller music venues, you can run the mics/instruments into the mixer. For larger venues, you can run the separate channels into it from the house mixer.
 
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