The worst footage shot by man

Matt Grunau

Matt Grunau

Adobe Demigod
I recently had a job filming a series of choirs in a darkened auditorium setting. Initially, we were able to get a white balance and some light settings based on house lights and on stage elements. I had told them in advance that I would need additional light to basically NOT be shooting in the dark, but as luck would have it, the house lights faded, and what my main (stationary far) camera shot was complete ****. The colors of the main attention in the middle of the screen were blown out (something I think was as much to do with his abject failure to zoom into the stage where the action was and leave the zoom alone entirely), there was almost no contrast to speak of, and the end result was over half of my footage was complete garbage.

I was shooting with two GL2's, and all the close ups (where my guy was up next to the stage) looked ok, if only slightly blown out, but the main stationary cam looks TERRIBLE. Was this mostly because of extreme low light conditions taking up the majority of the frame where only the center was properly lit causing the blowouts, and if so, was there something we could have done on the fly to remedy? The resulting DVD is ok (from and audio point of view), but certainly not up to my standards, and certainly not up to what I even know a GL2 can achieve.

I am very disappointed with this latest work, and I am finding it is damn hard to get quality results in a poorly lit auditorium, or any poorly lit situation for which I am simply told to point and shoot, with no control over lighting, which changes both in intensity and color at the whim of the light guys.

The job overall came out decently, it was a chorus, and the sound was great. The video makes me cringe, and I would love to know any ideas out there on how to adjust for constantly changing light intensity and color, to give me something to work with.

I guess my main question is, how the hell to do properly shoot a low light situation, where the color of the light changes often, and have an end result that looks good??

Thanks to all for any help.
 
I shoot a lot of high school plays in auditoriums that aren't always lit well. Often the light will change dramatically throughout the play. There's not a lot you can do other than keep a finger on the iris and adjust accordingly. I stay away from the gain switch unless it's absolutely necessary.

Most of my results have been good. I tend to use one or two camera's for closeups and one on a wide shot. But since these productions aren't mine I find that I just have to do the best I can do given the situation. I have no control over the stage production or the lighting. I can only make suggestions.

The people who hire you need to understand that you can't shoot a good video in the dark. But generally the people who hire you don't know jack about video production and are of little help. At least that's been my experience.

My problems tend to be more on the audio end actually. Most schools have pretty lame systems. Sorry I don't have a concrete answer for you other than to man your camera's and do the best you can. It's always a challenge when you have no control over these conditions.

BB
 
I dont exaclty see eye to eye with the GL2, I had a job where I had to film an improv show multi-cam, and I had a static GL2 placed in the back as my WS. It perfomed horribly, the quality was terrible(I apologize if I am bad mouthing a camera that you own, this is just my experience). My other cameras rolled oyut incredible footage, where as the static whhich was set to the correct apeture, and color quality, was just very dissapointing. I also learned the hard way that the GL2 is not a great idea for low light conditions. And I suggest that you rarely if ever use the gain, even on the DVX unless it is for a certain effect or not for an important shot, cause I feel it cheapens the picture quality, alot.


As for shooting in low light, you gotta do the best with what settings ur cams got, and what the enviorment will give you, sorry if im not much help
-Matt-
 
I was using 2 Gls because that was what I had to work with. I am thr proud owner of a DVX100_a, hank you very much. :thumbsup:

I from much of what you guys have said I kinda figured as much. I gues most DV cameras are simply not meant to be shot at that low level of light, and by having the iris on auto, it was simply brightening the only spot is could find that was the light source. I think had my man with the read wide shot camera (the God cam I call it) zoomed in to the portions of the stage that were the only ones being used at the time by a certain group (sometimes less that a quarter of the stage was in use and he didn't zoom in to only that small section as I had instructed him beforehand, and rather just baskically left it on full zoom out and changed a tape) then the iris would have corrected itslef a little better because more of the screen would have been filled with the lit choir. Never thought to keep a finger on the iris to compensate though.

ZaniacMedia, luckily we had a direct line out from the main PA board to be captured, so the sound was pretty good. The only part was the kids running the board weren't that good so in a chorus of 50 people and multiplt multiple mics, there were always portions were some mics overpowered the rest and were not balanced, and of course these were directly in front of the people who sang as if they were having an Appendectomy at the time.
 
It could be that you are trying to blame your lack of leadership on the camera man. Maybe you didn't instruct him on anything to do with lighting or zoom. What if all you were focusted on was adjusting the sound ? What if your overall choice of location of (the God cam) you call it was poorly thought out? Maybe less talk, more application, more creativity could produce better results.
 
Maybe the results were as good as they could have been given the location, situation, and uncontrolled lighting.
 
I've worked with the GL2 in similar settings a lot. The DVX is much better, especially as the distant "wide" cam... just out of curiosity, why didn't you use that if you had it?

Anyway, for the GL2, SPOTLIGHT mode, with AE shift as low as it'll possibly go, will give you the best auto highlight control, but it's not great. The image is also a little soft on tele, at a distance... hard to intercut between close and distant GL2s!

Really, the DVX in the same situation is like night and day. There's one church I often record recitals in that had me dragging tons of lights to all the time when I was using the GL2 (which audience and performers often nixed at the last minute), but with the DVX I have no problems using the available light.

Are you interested in tips for using your DVX in these situations, or just the GL2?

-Barry
 
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