Shooting the conference... need ideas and help

PerroneFord

PerroneFord

Deals in Lead
One of the staples of my job is shooting 3-5 conferences per year. Typical setup is a ballroom in a hotel. Typically riser or small stage at the front of the room, invariable set up RIGHT against the wall. Requisite wall plates, AC fixtures, etc. on the stage. Usually one or two people on stage moving around.

My desire is always to get them to stay still so I can light and mic more easily, and of course they want to be more mobile and of course walk out of the lights and the mics unless they are on lavs.

Usually there is a live audience so they want to have as much of an unobstructed view as possible, and since it's a hotel ballroom, there is no truss to work with to provide lights of even place a shotgun overhead.

I've got one of these shoots coming up in December and for the first time, would like to use what I've learned here and elsewhere over the past year or so.

My thoughts are these to try to improve things.

1. Run 2 cameras. One wide (for coverage) and a second to track the walking talent.

2. Ask the hotel to leave room behind the stage for either my backdrops or light wash to erase the normal hard shadows. Not sure how I'd place the lighting yet to do that.

3. Lav the talent, plant a PZM on the on-stage table to get any conversation between the two speakers (should be very little there) and try to use a mic on a stand near the front of the stage to get direct conversation and some "room tone". Should be able to blend that low in the mix.

4. Border the area the talent can walk by placing some plants or other things to remind them NOT to walk outside the light zone. Barring that, some wide blue tape to give them "markers".

5. Try to use some strong lights with diffusion to reduce harsh shadows and get the lighting more even across the entire stage. This is going to be a bit of a challenge as I'll have to find a couple more c-stands.

6. Record the audio off camera so I can have 4 separate channels of audio recorded with high quality. I have an Edirol R-4 to use. I can also record wild sound on the camera for sync purposes later.


I am including a shoot from a couple of years ago. This was not my setup and I didn't film it, but it is representative of what I normally deal with:

http://www.vimeo.com/1906067

Right now, I am waiting for the video to be converted.


If anyone has any examples of this kind of corporate/conference video that looks good, I would LOVE to see it and get some ideas.

Thanks,

-P
 
Dude, this is tough without crew and gear. Forget C-stands, they are not safe enough and don't go high enough for what you need.

I did one of these last year, but I was able to use my 15 foot high steel combo 3 riser stands up near the front. Eyeline was only blocked by the shaft of the combo stands. I used three medium Chimeras with three Mighties (2k tungsten open face) with 40 degree grids to create pools of light all over the stage. Put your sources up high and tilt them way down to keep light off of the BG.

Backlighting is also important. Usually it is a priority to not have any light shining on the screen if they are using PowerPoints or showing videos, hence the egg crates. Back light will not be an issue in the screen if you are careful and don't shine them into the audience's eyes.

It is usually impossible to corral pacing hyperactive speakers who feel that they HAVE to roam but just tell them to stay in the light, what else can you do?

How many cameras are you covering this with, two? Do you have two camera ops or do you have to do two yourself? How many crew? How long it it? I hate these kinds of gigs but they do pay the bills.

Dan
 
I watched that video and I think you did a great job with shooting and audio especially audio. However the shadows were very distracting. I think in a situation like that you should set up 2 1k softboxes raised up high on both sides of them. If you can find a way to back light them that would be great but if they are moving its almost impossible.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I do have a Mombo Combo (20ft) that I usually use for my 2k fresnel, but I've only got one. But that could give me the height I need. Maybe I'll key with that through some diffusion.

There is no screen on this gig, so I don't have to worry about back spill too much.

Yea, trying to herd the speakers is going to be the biggest pain. Just trying to keep them in the light zone since I don't have much will be hard. Maybe I can get them to only make the stage 15ft wide!

I'll doing this with 2 cameras. I might be able to get a second operator but usually I work alone. My thought was to simply lock one off wide with reasonable depth of field. Perhaps about 20-30 degrees off center to the stage to give a perspective change. While I pan with the other to follow the speaker.

Fortunately, expectations on this are VERY low so it's not like I have to make it broadcast ready. We'll probably make a few SD DVDs and put it up on our in-house website as a .wmv file, but that's about it.

I'd just like it not to be crap. Last year, they did this thing over video conference, and chose to only record audio. So I am SURE I can do better than that! :)
 
lairhair said:
I watched that video and I think you did a great job with shooting and audio especially audio. However the shadows were very distracting. I think in a situation like that you should set up 2 1k softboxes raised up high on both sides of them. If you can find a way to back light them that would be great but if they are moving its almost impossible.
Click to expand...

Like I said, I didn't shoot that one. But the setup was reasonable. FAR better than what was done in the past. In fact, the guy who shot it the previous two years came back with NO AUDIO! He literally recorded no audio for 4 hours, two years in a row. In a situation where audio ONLY would have been acceptable because the video was just talking head. I was dumbfounded and had to break the news to the clients who were using me to dump the miniDVs to DVD for them.

Good suggestion on the softlighting, but I don't think I could make it throw far enough to softlight them from the corners. I think I will be able to place some stands on the stage through and backlight that way. I should have access to the setup after the talent is on stage and alone. I won't need a lot of light, just a bit to set them off. But if they are moving around it might all be for nothing. This is one scenario where I really like broads like the Tota. It casts light about 140 degrees. I wish I had 3-4 of them for something like this.
 
In situations like that I put up a podium with an SM-58 on a desk stand gaff taped to it. No lavs.

I also feed the PA from MY mic.

You wander away from the podium, and no one will hear you.

Brutal, but it works.

And as far as lighting goes, it is about 4 1ks blasting the entire stage and a back light for the podium.
 
Thanks Matt,

It's not my gig. If it were, I'd do EXACTLY what you describe here! We have an initial meeting tomorrow so I will see if I can get the speakers locked down to a podium. If I can, we're golden. If not, well then I'm right back here again.

I'd like to give the speaker a bit more range off the podium than an SM58 offers though. What do you think of maybe a cardioid on a stand adjacent to the podium to allow them to move off a couple feet?

I think I'd like to Lav them as well to go to MY recorder, but not to house sound. That way, I'd get EVERYTHING but the disruption in house sound would remind them they are tethered to the podium.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top