brainstorm: best way to shoot play

J

justin518

Active member
Hello everyone, I recently got a gig at my school for shooting all the theater events and what not. My question to you is the best way to go about doing it.

List of supplies that i own as of right now:
DVX 100b
Rode mic
a laptop with only a 4 pin fire wire input and Premier pro installed
and a tripod


I would really like to stay away from shooting onto tape for these seeing how they will all mostly be long and it would just be a hassle.

Any suggestions how i should go about this? I know i can record right into premier when i hook up my computer via fire wire, but will going from 4 pin out of my camera to another 4 pin into the computer have the same capabilities as the normal 4 pin out to 8 pin into computer?

Other that that as well any tips?
 
Are you shooting actual performances (live)?

Can you (or, do you want to) cut the pieces by directing the action for the camera?
Scenes in plays are spread out on a stage, and - unless you are shooting from a stationary position somewhere in the audience- you probably can't get it ALL in at one time.

Dumping straight to the laptop (via On Location) is not a problem.
You might have a better work flow for that.

Avoid the 'what not' phrase- it's just filler and serves no purpose.
 
NoNoob said:
Are you shooting actual performances (live)?

Can you (or, do you want to) cut the pieces by directing the action for the camera?
Scenes in plays are spread out on a stage, and - unless you are shooting from a stationary position somewhere in the audience- you probably can't get it ALL in at one time.

Dumping straight to the laptop (via On Location) is not a problem.
You might have a better work flow for that.

Avoid the 'what not' phrase- it's just filler and serves no purpose.
Click to expand...
The what not phrase simply infers that there are more things to come, possibly a talent show or a public gathering.

Anyways, i definitely can't direct for the camera that is not a possibility unfortunately. So i can't cut the pieces up either other than possibly in between scenes or something.

Other than that I'm definitely going to record onto an external hard drive using the laptop as an interface, however on my laptop i only have the 4 pin fire wire in, if i get a 4 pin to 4 pin wire and go out of the dvx and into the 4 pin on my computer will it still work the same as the 4 pin to the normal 8 pin?
 
Then you'll just have to put the camera in a POV from the seats- set it and probably forget it.
The idea is to get good coverage- so maybe you'll pan left and right, according to where the action is.
Try to get a look at the play beforehand- maybe a run through or something- and make notes of where the action is.
See if the Director can give you a blocking diagram, scene by scene.
That'll help.
 
NoNoob said:
Then you'll just have to put the camera in a POV from the seats- set it and probably forget it.
The idea is to get good coverage- so maybe you'll pan left and right, according to where the action is.
Try to get a look at the play beforehand- maybe a run through or something- and make notes of where the action is.
See if the Director can give you a blocking diagram, scene by scene.
That'll help.
Click to expand...
Sounds great! Good advice, I've helped film a professional play once before with a friend of mine, we had my camera and two others so capturing the action was very easily done, he does one camera shoots for smaller plays too though and said to do kinda the same advice you gave.

This helped a lot thanks guys, if anyone else has some more advice i would gladly take it.
 
just a thought-

just a thought-

if you can...

shoot the dress rehearsal handheld at the foot of the stage to get some close up and then you can match it to the POV shots from the audience to get a good mix of angles that will work with the one cam.

OH...and make sure to get a tape that's long enough to cover the whole show! LOL usually a 60m tape will leave you with a 3 min hole half way through the show.

cheers.
 
If you decide, for one reason or another, to use tape, use a cheap camcorder as a slave unit, set the DVX to CHAIN mode, the slave camera to VCR and put tapes in both cameras. The DVX will use the tape in its own drive first, then automatically switch over to the slave to continue recording without losing a single frame. Once the DVX has switched over to the slave, you can replace the full tape (in the DVX) with a fresh one. When the slave's tape is full, it will switch back to the DVX, etc. You can record continuously as long as you need to with no break in your video.

Here's how:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=142362
 
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