Portable small stage

J

jptmedia

Member
Hey guys, I've been hired by a local church to film their Christmas production. I'll be shooting it with an HV20 and an HV30 combo. Both of the camera's will have mics on camera and be on fluid head tripods. I'll be recording the live sound coming out of the sound board using a Zoom H1.

So now to my first question. I need to be above the heads of the crowd and make sure I'm high up enough so that if anyone stands up and leaves during the performance they're heads don't show up in the shot. So my idea is to have a small portable "stage" in the back to boost me up a foot or two more then I already am. I was thinking about using four milk crates and then putting a small piece of plywood on top of that. Do you guys think that would be stable enough to shoot on?

My second question is, I'm not sure if it'd be a better idea to use a stool to sit on or stand behind the camera. The performance is only be about an hour so I think I could easily be able to stand for that long. My second camera will be manned by a friend of mine. So I won't need to be running back and forth between the cameras. What is yours guys experience and advice about it?

Thanks in advance for all your help!
 
if you do the milkcrate stage make sure you give it a dry run through so you know it will support all the weight you plan on subjecting it to. we have a 3'x3'x2' (WxLxH) portable stage platform thing at work, but I believe it was $800ish, which is probably far out of budget - that thing holds our 40+ lbs of camera/tripod gear, my fat ass and then some, and is high enough to shoot over any sort of crowd. but for a quick solution your idea sounds pretty good, just make sure it's safe :)
 
Build 2 stages: One for the camera; the other for the operator.

If the operator is on the same stage as the camera and they so much as breath (Ok, exaggeration; move), the camera shot will shake. Especially on a long-lens shot that's likely from the stage at the back of a room.

And yes; make sure it's strong enough!

- Mikko
 
It must be nice to be in the US without the UK's draconian health and safety rules. You'd never get away with that (even though it would probably work fine) in the UK. I'm not sure how it is over there, but here, many schools especially those for younger children have small modular rostra systems - often 3ft square and about 1'6" high (although ours are metric, of course) They are designed to link together to make any size stage - maybe you could borrow one from a friendly school? Much safer and stronger than crates and a sheet of ply!
 
@j: I've never heard of the spider pod before. Looks like an awesome tool though. Unfortunately with the little I'm being paid for the job I couldn't afford to rent one. But I might be able to have a friend of mine fabricate me something similar for future jobs.

@paulears: Well, since this is a privately owned venue, its not a worry of safety. If I or my equipment gets hurt, thats all my fault.

And yes I will definitely do a dry run to check and make sure everything is stable enough. I'll be going next Tuesday and attending the dress rehearsal to scope out the venue more and get an idea of the performance.
 
tell the church they must provide a riser. Call up your local theater/staging company and rent 2 stage decks. you can probably get 2 delivered for under 500 bucks.
 
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