1st Live Band Shoot- Looking for Feedback

C

croninjack21

New member
Hello, this is my first live shoot of two live bands.
I used a single Panasonic DVX100 and a little DIY pocket light.

I filmed the two bands sets all the way through and edited them down to two songs each
Since I only used one camera the B-shots were used from the remaining footage and matched up.

The sound isn't the best because all I had available was the on board mic.

I was just looking for some feedback and maybe some help for improvements.

Thanks-

Jack

http://vimeo.com/12164942

http://vimeo.com/12164942
 
Dude, first, please tell me you had hearing protection! Wow, band in a basement at a house party, tough gig. Ok, as a technical filmmaking music video, I believe we can agree that it is not that, however, I do have to give you props for capturing the essence of what appears to have been a hot sweaty, loud, beer fueled good time.

My biggest piece of criticism would be that there is just too many out of focus shots and too many shots where you are looking for a frame. I have done quit a bit of event work, including single camera band shoots. I have come to realize that while I am shooting, I am also doing most of the editing also. You have to develop a confidence of style in shooting this kind of stuff with one camera, and be smooth as you execute the changes in shots. With a shoot like this, since you shot several songs and edited them down to two, what I would have worked out, preferably during a rehersal, but if not, on the first song, is my "Meat and potato" shots, and stuck with shooting them for the rest of the songs. Now by "Meat and Potato" shots, with your gig, what you would need, is a full shot of the band (which may not have been possible in that basement), the two shot of the drummer and singer/guitarist, the medium shot single of the bassist, then close ups of each of the band members, then a few extreme close ups of the guitar, druming, and bass guitar. What you do is then shoot, moving smoothly between your "Meat and Potato" shots for each song. This means smooth pans and smooth zooms. Learn to finesse the zoom rocker on your camera so that you can make smooth zooms. Also,of course, when you are shooting, you need to be in manual focus, but when making smooth zoom ins, ride the "Push auto-focus" button and when you get in close the focus should be fine. If you find that you are shooting a sh*tty frame, adjust it, but do it smoothly. Don't snap zoom out, or wipe pan to change the frame. Now getting the most dramatic parts of songs can be tricky, especially if you don't know the music. What I do is stay a little wider, get my two shots or full shots of the band during the first verse of a song. After the first verse, you can usually, see where the drama of the song is, then you can smoothly go in for your closer shots to shoot that.

As for lighting, I understand that in that venue you may not have had control over that, but if it was possible, maybe adjusting the position of that work light might have helped. What I would have liked to have seen was what that lighting would have looked like if it was placed lower, maybe at knee height, shooting up at the band. That would have changed the look for sure. I have a general rule of thumb, that when shooting in ordinary looking places, the only way to get a cool look is through extraordinary, and sometimes highly stylized lighting. In your gig, maybe something as radical as putting that bright work light on the floor behind them, shooting up, with what ever that blue fill light you had hitting the band from the front would have made a world of difference in the look. That is something to experiment with.

The audio was tough. I am not sure what your options could have been on a gig like that. It did not seem like the band was working through a board, so that option is out. Maybe placing a digital audio recorder in the back of the space, with a stereo mic, would have given you a better sound track. If you are going to be doing this kind of gig in the future, I would look into that.

Hey for a first effort, I think you did the best you could. It was great learning experience I bet. Keep at it.

Here is a link to a video I did where we break almost all the rules that I just said. This was a multi-camera shoot, on film through. I hope you like it. There are more by this band on my YouTube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ujocRqAsZ4

Here is a video I did, single camera, camera audio for a local band. I am friends with the lead singer, so it was done for for fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5jeOQHJAWE
 
I shot a band's farewell concert recently in a small live house, 2 cameras, and put a Zoom H2 up high in the center of the room, with the intention of using that audio to sync the two cameras with the final mix from the board (sound guy was handling the multitrack recording). Surprisingly, the band liked the audio from that the Zoom so much that they decided to use that for the DVD. Good thing, since the sound "artiste" is dragging his feet on the audio mixing. Skip ahead 30 seconds to get to the music.
Vimeo link
 
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