Dear all
I’m new to this forum and I hope I’m posting in the right section. Thank you for your help on my questions!
I work for in the field of classical music (acting as a promoter of concerts, as agency, managing orchestras and ensembles, etc.) within a small company. In the past, we have done many broadcasting productions with external firms, however, recently we started doing some film productions on our own because we want to be in full possession of the rights. With a small team we’ve done some concert films with Blackmagics and Canon C100. The most recent one we also included an intercom and a director giving instructions to the 4 camera people. The filming will usually happen during the live performance.
Equipment rental has of course always been a big cost factor and because we are thinking to shoot around 20-30 concerts over the next 2-3 years, we think it would make sense to make an investment. We see ourselves as an addition to the already existing companies and public TV stations that offer broadcasting services. Therefore, we want to differentiate in fours aspects:
- Compact setup (no disturbance of live audience)
- Cameras with good low light performance (many concerts happen in churches, setting up additional lighting should be avoided as much as possible. As long as the musicians see and can be seen by the audience, it should be enough for the cameras)
- Quick setup, not many cables (therefore, preferably everything running on external batteries)
- 4K ready for the future
Based on this we would consider the following equipment:
3x Sony A7s Mark i
1x Sony A7s Mark ii
4x Metabones EF auf E-Mount
3x Canon 70-200 f/2.8
1x Canon 27-70 f/2.8
4x Atomos Ninja Shogun Externer Recorder
4x Video tripod with fluid head
4x External portable battery
4x Sandisk SSD Drive 960GB (concerts are usually around 2h)
Some comments on the setup:
- The initial investment consists of four cameras. This should allow for filming of smaller chamber music concerts. However, for larger productions, more equipment could be rented.
- The idea with the Atomos Shogun is that the SDI out could be used in larger productions to set up screens backstage for the director
- The one A7s mark ii is included to do some run and gun shooting before the concert, for example audience entering the hall.
- Audio is irrelevant at this point, as we will continue to work with external sound recording engineers
Now to my questions:
- General feedback on the setup?
- Recommendations for a good tripod and fluid head? It should be able to set up the tripod in a way that it doesn’t use a lot of space on the ground. Very often, spaces in churches and concert halls are limited. Budget per tripod+fluid head is around $1000.
- Recommendations on external battery pack? It should be able to power the A7s plus the Atomos for around 2-3 hours of 4k shooting.
- Could you recommend a basic intercom wireless system? With basic I mean that it should really only be used for one way communication from director to camera people. Any experiences if wireless could interfere with the audio recording?
- Does anyone have experiences how the S-Log from A7s mixes with the C-Log of Canon C100? Is it a lot of work in post to make the images work together?
Many thanks for your help on all of this! Please let me know if I need to clarify anything further.
Best wishes
Thomas
I’m new to this forum and I hope I’m posting in the right section. Thank you for your help on my questions!
I work for in the field of classical music (acting as a promoter of concerts, as agency, managing orchestras and ensembles, etc.) within a small company. In the past, we have done many broadcasting productions with external firms, however, recently we started doing some film productions on our own because we want to be in full possession of the rights. With a small team we’ve done some concert films with Blackmagics and Canon C100. The most recent one we also included an intercom and a director giving instructions to the 4 camera people. The filming will usually happen during the live performance.
Equipment rental has of course always been a big cost factor and because we are thinking to shoot around 20-30 concerts over the next 2-3 years, we think it would make sense to make an investment. We see ourselves as an addition to the already existing companies and public TV stations that offer broadcasting services. Therefore, we want to differentiate in fours aspects:
- Compact setup (no disturbance of live audience)
- Cameras with good low light performance (many concerts happen in churches, setting up additional lighting should be avoided as much as possible. As long as the musicians see and can be seen by the audience, it should be enough for the cameras)
- Quick setup, not many cables (therefore, preferably everything running on external batteries)
- 4K ready for the future
Based on this we would consider the following equipment:
3x Sony A7s Mark i
1x Sony A7s Mark ii
4x Metabones EF auf E-Mount
3x Canon 70-200 f/2.8
1x Canon 27-70 f/2.8
4x Atomos Ninja Shogun Externer Recorder
4x Video tripod with fluid head
4x External portable battery
4x Sandisk SSD Drive 960GB (concerts are usually around 2h)
Some comments on the setup:
- The initial investment consists of four cameras. This should allow for filming of smaller chamber music concerts. However, for larger productions, more equipment could be rented.
- The idea with the Atomos Shogun is that the SDI out could be used in larger productions to set up screens backstage for the director
- The one A7s mark ii is included to do some run and gun shooting before the concert, for example audience entering the hall.
- Audio is irrelevant at this point, as we will continue to work with external sound recording engineers
Now to my questions:
- General feedback on the setup?
- Recommendations for a good tripod and fluid head? It should be able to set up the tripod in a way that it doesn’t use a lot of space on the ground. Very often, spaces in churches and concert halls are limited. Budget per tripod+fluid head is around $1000.
- Recommendations on external battery pack? It should be able to power the A7s plus the Atomos for around 2-3 hours of 4k shooting.
- Could you recommend a basic intercom wireless system? With basic I mean that it should really only be used for one way communication from director to camera people. Any experiences if wireless could interfere with the audio recording?
- Does anyone have experiences how the S-Log from A7s mixes with the C-Log of Canon C100? Is it a lot of work in post to make the images work together?
Many thanks for your help on all of this! Please let me know if I need to clarify anything further.
Best wishes
Thomas