Video Tutorials

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Fashion Show-Single camera

Brief:

You have to film a 2 hour Fashion Show for a school which is repeated over 4 nights.

Pre-Production:

Try and do a 'recce' (pronounced rek-e) whereby you look around the stage and look for likely camera positions. Take note of the stage and lights and the audiance seating arrangements. Check where all the power points are and how many the stage crew are going to use. If possible visit a rehearsal and take notes about any special shots which are needed, such as unexpected entrances. Pay special attention to where the CREW toilets are. When intermission comes everyone will be heading to that little room, so make sure you have a backstage pass to get to the private loo's, otherwise you may end up queueing and end up rushing around.

Production:

Having only one camera can limit you a little but it is still possible to get good results. Try filming from a different position on each of the 4 nights (provided each night is the same, but watch out, sometimes models drop out due to illness or hairstyles have been changed-this has happened to me before!). I would suggest the first night just leave the camera locked off in a wide angle so you have your 'safety' shot and it will allow you to watch the show and see what shots are needed and when, for example when models come out from behind the audiance and so on. Film your main shot from the back centre (see the inset picture) twice (second night and the last night) in case you miss anything on either of those nights.

Take a sound feed from the shows sound desk if possible but also record the show with an external mic as the shows sound will not be recording the audiance clapping and cheering as this makes the video come alive.

One problem you will encounter will be the lighting. If the people in charge are theatre specialists then they will not take into account lighting for video cameras, they will only light it for an audiance (which is fair enough, though annoying for us videographers). What this will mean is during darkly lit scenes the lights will be too dark for cameras (though not for the human eye) and will cause a grainy picture as the camera tries to compensate. Another problem will be uneven lighting. Some parts of the stage will be well lit but others may be darker, again the wonderful human eye can cope with such extremes but cameras cannot. You may have to adjust the iris or only film one side of the stage (the one where the most action is occuring). You could speak to the lighting crew who may be able to alter the lights to try and even things out for you.

Make sure you pick up a programme so you can type the casts names in as well as imitate any styles for the video graphics or case cover, for example old English fonts or a particular logo.

Post-Production:

What I normally do is master the main camera tape (usually the last nights) onto my edit master (Hi8 to S-VHS) and then insert shots from previous nights to cover up any glitches such as out of focus points or where I missed an entrance. Most reasonable edit VCR's ahve an insert edit function which will only insert video but will not affect the audio.One problem though will be syncing the different shots together, more so with shots from differing nights as models will not be identical places, or worse, hairstyles might have changed !

I currently edit using non-linear editing, where I digitise the show scene by scene (depending on your hard disk spce) and add any inserts using the computer which is far more accurate, and then output that scene to tape and work on the next scene. Its slow work but far easier than the hit-and-miss approach of insert editng, especially when you do not have an edit controller.

Misc. Notes:

See if the stage crew are using CCTV cameras to relay images of the stage to the technical or backstage areas. It may be possible to hook up a VCR to record the signal (though they probably won't be sending audio as well).

Internet links:

Index	Fashion Show-Single camera
	Brief: You have to film a 2 hour Fashion Show for a school which is repeated over 4 nights.
	Pre-Production: Try and do a 'recce' (pronounced rek-e) whereby you look around the stage and look for likely camera positions. Take note of the stage and lights and the audiance seating arrangements. Check where all the power points are and how many the stage crew are going to use. If possible visit a rehearsal and take notes about any special shots which are needed, such as unexpected entrances. Pay special attention to where the CREW toilets are. When intermission comes everyone will be heading to that little room, so make sure you have a backstage pass to get to the private loo's, otherwise you may end up queueing and end up rushing around.
	Production: Having only one camera can limit you a little but it is still possible to get good results. Try filming from a different position on each of the 4 nights (provided each night is the same, but watch out, sometimes models drop out due to illness or hairstyles have been changed-this has happened to me before!). I would suggest the first night just leave the camera locked off in a wide angle so you have your 'safety' shot and it will allow you to watch the show and see what shots are needed and when, for example when models come out from behind the audiance and so on. Film your main shot from the back centre (see the inset picture) twice (second night and the last night) in case you miss anything on either of those nights. Take a sound feed from the shows sound desk if possible but also record the show with an external mic as the shows sound will not be recording the audiance clapping and cheering as this makes the video come alive. One problem you will encounter will be the lighting. If the people in charge are theatre specialists then they will not take into account lighting for video cameras, they will only light it for an audiance (which is fair enough, though annoying for us videographers). What this will mean is during darkly lit scenes the lights will be too dark for cameras (though not for the human eye) and will cause a grainy picture as the camera tries to compensate. Another problem will be uneven lighting. Some parts of the stage will be well lit but others may be darker, again the wonderful human eye can cope with such extremes but cameras cannot. You may have to adjust the iris or only film one side of the stage (the one where the most action is occuring). You could speak to the lighting crew who may be able to alter the lights to try and even things out for you. Make sure you pick up a programme so you can type the casts names in as well as imitate any styles for the video graphics or case cover, for example old English fonts or a particular logo.
	Post-Production: What I normally do is master the main camera tape (usually the last nights) onto my edit master (Hi8 to S-VHS) and then insert shots from previous nights to cover up any glitches such as out of focus points or where I missed an entrance. Most reasonable edit VCR's ahve an insert edit function which will only insert video but will not affect the audio.One problem though will be syncing the different shots together, more so with shots from differing nights as models will not be identical places, or worse, hairstyles might have changed ! I currently edit using non-linear editing, where I digitise the show scene by scene (depending on your hard disk spce) and add any inserts using the computer which is far more accurate, and then output that scene to tape and work on the next scene. Its slow work but far easier than the hit-and-miss approach of insert editng, especially when you do not have an edit controller.
	Misc. Notes: See if the stage crew are using CCTV cameras to relay images of the stage to the technical or backstage areas. It may be possible to hook up a VCR to record the signal (though they probably won't be sending audio as well).
	Internet links: