ISO/white balance settings for shooting bands in a dark club?

[GHKAM]

I recently used a GH2 to shoot bands, all in dark clubs using either a Lumix 14-42 or 1.7/20mm pancake.

When setting up, I noticed, even having the pancake at 1.7 aperture - there was still not enough light. With both lens, used in different gigs, I used ISO 3200. It actually worked a couple of times for both lenses - but the last two times I did this, there was just too much blotchy and/or pastiness in the image.

The recent settings were (pancake): 24p, 1.7 ap, 1/50 shutter, ISO 3200 and white balance I set to 2800k. (near the image of the candle icon). Although the other times, I used a preset white balance from when I was indoors (a different location) where I set it to a well-lit white piece of paper. (Should I be setting the white balance in the club with something white, even though there is colored lighting?)

Is this about ISO, white balance, both? Should I be using a lower ISO and then bringing up the brightness in post to compensate? What number ISO? Honestly, the last couple of times it came out looking like a crappy camcorder, nowhere near the impressive image of the GH2. I should mention that I always add color, bright/contrast etc. in post.

 

[VidE]

You must shoot in some really dark clubs. I shoot theatrical productions, and granted they're decently lit, still some action takes place in areas where the light falls off and I shoot with the 14-42 f3.5 lens and never go above iso 1600, usually shooting at iso 800. Maybe some cheap clip on work lights or some other additional light support if it is really that dark. Me, I'm lusting after the pancake lens, just can't afford it right now and based on tests with an f 2 lens, I could be shooting at iso 400 for most of the productions, and really, that's with a lighting director who likes dark, moody scenes.

As to grading/CC in post, the AVCHD codec doesn't get pushed well without breaking down a lot. You might want to check the new PTools hack and see if the higher bit rates it allows you to record in will help with post manipulation.

 

[GHKAM]

You must shoot in some really dark clubs. I shoot theatrical productions, and granted they're decently lit, still some action takes place in areas where the light falls off and I shoot with the 14-42 f3.5 lens and never go above iso 1600, usually shooting at iso 800. Maybe some cheap clip on work lights or some other additional light support if it is really that dark. Me, I'm lusting after the pancake lens, just can't afford it right now and based on tests with an f 2 lens, I could be shooting at iso 400 for most of the productions, and really, that's with a lighting director who likes dark, moody scenes.

As to grading/CC in post, the AVCHD codec doesn't get pushed well without breaking down a lot. You might want to check the new PTools hack and see if the higher bit rates it allows you to record in will help with post manipulation.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, one club in particular is very dark with red lighting. I actually used the pancake lens and was still struggling to get a bright enough image. I am apprehensive to use a lower ISO in the event I won't be able to get it back and would rather have the noise.
Yes, I saw the low light 100mbps patch here. I should check it out.