Filming a concert - tips ?

Carrington Benz

Carrington Benz

Well-known member
Hi' ya dvxers

I am about to film a band who are on for about an hour at a festival similar to woodstock but not quite as big ;D - have to put something together for future gig's on the worldwide circuit ie: this is more an advert for the band to get a tour together etc from promoters all over the globe.

End product would be a dvd with a little background on the band plus the festival gig in question.

Ok - so - this is will be my first time trying to get footage in a live situation - what are the pitfalls & what are the tips & tricks you could share ?

It will be in mid afternoon & I would have access all areas with my dvx & trust vinten pro 5 tripod - I hope I can do with lighting to keep cost's down etc & the only thing I am more or less worried about is the sound & trying to get the crowd but also the band with the right balance ? ???

Cheers any tips - would be much appreciated ;)
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

tip:

dont just stand offstage, or in the audience. get right on stage with them, and get the closeups, and all the flair that comes from being on stage.. if the band doesnt want you to, the vid will not be nearly as engaging or entertaining as it could be.. regardless of how well you do shooting it. but whatever its their vid.. if they want it to be mediocre or plain bad.. then its their choice. all you can do is get 5th grade graduation type shots if your not up close and personal where the action is. getting all the good angles and really taking in their energy.

all IMHO, but ive never watched a good engaging music vid that was made by tripoding the cam somewhere offstage the whole time.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

Nice one Iamloser - am takin notes as I read.

What does the "5 grade grad shots" mean - Im a bit slow on the uptake today - forgive me. ::)

How about the sound dilema - i mentioned - whats your take on this ?
I am think to just record from the normal built in mic - then maybe get the band to give me a copy of the actual performance - then sync up in post - fading between the outside crowd noise & the actual bands clean recorded track ?

Cheers
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

If it's a reasonably large festival, the feed from the sound board will probably be good because the sound reinforcement will take into account the fact that most people at the concert will not be hearing the direct sound from the instruments. This is opposed to the generally bad feed in a small club where the drums may not be miked and the vocals will be too predominant. Do yourself a favor and record the board feed with a DAT recorder or a MiniDisc--this will give you a nice clean audio track to work with. You can then use the audio from your DVX to mix in crowd noise.

If at all humanly possible--shoot with 2 (or 3) cameras. When you sit down to cut this thing, you'll be thankful. With more than one camera, you can be getting B-roll and multiple angles that will make the finished piece 100% better looking. Surely, you can find at least one other DVX owner to shoot with you. Match the camera settings for each camera, but A/B them on a monitor to make sure they match correctly. Slate at the beginning and set both cameras to free run time code. I'm sure the existing lighting will be fine for you.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

the refferall to the 5th grade shots is like watching someones home video of a school play, or recital. or something, from 5th grade. where the camera sits on a tripod in the audience usually on wide angle getting the whole stage at once, and occasionally pans ans zooms in , but is really all from 1 POV and seems very distant to the performace even zoomed in becuase of the stale fixed angle. very amature in nature... and definitely boring.


i would see if you could plug into the mixing board for he stage..just run it into a minidisc, or DAT or something, and synch it up in post. get there early during any setup time, and make freinds with the soundpeople :) make sure to check the levels too before their gig is up . then use the onboard as a backup .. its going to be all messed up cause youll never have the right levels for all the band unless you have them all mic'ed though..(ala plug into the mixer)
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

Thanks guy's

I was going to get a copy of the master dat they were going to record on anyways maybe - I should take my casio portable along for a backup just incase - i guess.

I totally understand the 5 grade look :o - yeah you are 100% right iamloser - gotta get up close & get the energy like you said & maybe be get the audience pov shots as least as possible to avoid the home video look.

Cheers for the tips - more welcomed - will keep you updated as I progress - this weekend ;)
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

I have filmed about 5 concerts, and I used two cameras. I had one camera in one place with a cameraman operating it, and with the other camera I went around getting different angles. The sound I recorded it onto mini-disc and then it was just a question to put the footage together.

The only pain in the arse I had was syncing the sound with the image. Syncing with the camera that was active all the time was quite quick. It was the small shots captured with the other camera that took me loads of time, but I made it look as if I had used about 10 cameras.

Nobody believed that I used only two cameras, which made me happy because I hadn't got tired for nothing.

I had to give the final product to a guy to colour correct it, as I shot everything in auto-mode, and was using a DV camera and a Digital-8. The footage matched perfectly.

Just get as many shots as you can. Audience shots, close ups of everything, etc... That will help you a lot and will make it look more professional.

All the best

Fidel.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

For the audio you want to be well covered. I have had experiences with board audio being great but sometimes #$%
happens. If you are going to use your camera mic, the sound will waver in and out with your panning and movement. If you could get a butt plug wireless mic reciever you could use a shotgun or another mic as a third sound track. The more options you have audio wise, the better your mix options will be.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

But - hey , if the band record the performance on dat thru the console - surely thats the ultimate way of getting the best sound you can - of the performance ?

My guess would be that - I convert the dat to aiff file & sync it up with the footage & mix in the sound of the crowd here & there in post on fcp.

Funny - they always seem to get a really good balance of the crowd & the band on televised performances.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

Yes, getting a copy of the DAT from the engineer is perfect--just convert the sampling rate from 44.1 to 48 kHz in a good audio editing program. For concert broadcasts, there is usually a separate mic on the crowd, so the crowd walla can be mixed in as needed.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

Connecting musicians/band in your frame.
Avoiding to film musicians from too low and thus having the ceiling as background.
;)
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

As everyone has mentioned so far, sound, sound, and back-up sound. VERY, VERY, IMPORTANT !

Make sure you get some interesting shots, such as blocking the band from the stage wing, overhead drumming, people climbing speaker towers, facepainting, band pranks, etc.

Cutaways of the audience are always interesting and extremely useful not only for this project but for future projects as well.
 
such as blocking the band from the stage wing

such as blocking the band from the stage wing

such as blocking the band from the stage wing

Hi reg59

Cheers for the tips but - could you explain "blocking the band from the stage wing a bit further" - not sure ?
Overhead drumming is an excellent tip - I guess I put the tripod on a couple of hard boxes & stretch out to max to get a overhead pov - nice one 8)

Please explain the stage wing tip tho ???

Cheers
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

Get some tight shots of hands picking the guitars, drums ect.. Maybe pull some rack focus from the main guys upfront singing to another. If you can, find someone with a Steadicam that can pull off some stage movement. Try to stay at a distance so in editing on your cuts, you don't pick up your camera guys.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

If you can, find someone with a Steadicam that can pull off some stage movement. Try to stay at a distance so in editing on your cuts, you don't pick up your camera guys.


Hey - its just me doing this - a freind of mine is comming along but - I am giving him the smaller handheld sony pc120 cam just to have for a different look.
I am gonna hire a steadicam also - but I have to admit - it will be the first time I get to use one - so I just got to throw myself in at the deep end - you have to start somewhere right ? ;)
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

The odds are very slim that there will be a mic on the crowd at this festival. The big thing you want is a really healthy crowd-cheer at the end of each song. If, on your final MiniDisc of the sound, you don't have the crowd sound you like, you might try this:

rent a condensor mic and aim it at the crowd during the show, plug this into another recording device and record it as another, mono, audio track. OR you can record using your on-camera mic later on while another band is performing. record the crowd between songs, while the band isn't playing, and use that crowd noise to "pump up" the noise of the crowd cheering at the end of YOUR band's songs. As long as you aren't recording another band's music it should sound fine. You don't have to worry about exact sync here since this is just a supplemental audio track going over the one you have from the board.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

I wasn't implying in my earlier post a DAT from the board isn't the way to go. I meant it as at least you'll have something else as a back up in case theres a problem with the DAT. I have had a few cases where something was wrong with the DAT ( levels to high, the mix sucked, RF and other noise from bad cables etc...) . With extra audio tracks you'll have something to work with and use in the mix if there is audio hits or problems, and you can use it to fatten up the final aduio mix if you wanted to.
Its like coming home and watching what you shot only to see some scenes ruined by drop out or some other unforseen forces of nature.
At least with the audio you'll have more options, but do get a DAT copy, and talk to the sound guy before the gig. Get a feel of him , be nice to him, and ask him what you need to know.
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

That steadycam is going to take a little practice ! What I meant by blocking from the wings was getting as many bandmembers in some group shots from the " wings "  ( stage side entrace ) or the side. This way you will have another perspective of the group than just the straight front and back. You don't necessarily have to use a tripod on some above shots, use your LCD and because of the musicians movement, your movement will be less noticeable
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

If you haven't used a steadicam before, SKIP IT!
You are not going to get good footage with it just like that, either find a friend with one (and experience) or just go for as steady handheld shots as possible.

You definetely wont have time to carry around your tripod during the concert. My tip is to tripod the other cam with a wide to medium shot following the singer and band members.
Then with your dvx you run around and shoot close ups at everything cool you find. A crazy crowd is a good suggestion, but stick close to the stage so you always can reach the close ups on the band members. Get on the stage if possible, behind the drums, from the side of the stage, from the back of the stage on the band looking out on the croud etc.

Just think creative, and make sure the other cam is always taking acceptable pictures so it can be used between your shots.

Good luck!
 
Re: Filming a concert - tips ?

If I can make one suggestion about the content of what you shoot it's this: get a view of the things the audience doesn't normally see. I shot a commercial for a local, live-music club. Besides the CUs of the band members playing and crowd shots, I got a lot of shots of things like amps, effects pedals, keyboard stands, speakers, microphones, LED readouts, etc. Shot from "behind the scenes" angles with the great lighting colors and band members jumping around these "mechanical" items can make for some compelling cut-away footage. A foot stomping on a pedal isn't something every music fan realizes happens, but it looks cool when the impact comes on the downbeat of the music.

I'll try and upload the commerical for you to see what I mean later.

good luck
 
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