Video Tutorials

Index
Fashion Show-Multi cameras

Brief:

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

Pre-Production:

Try an 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:

Position your cameras as the inset plan suggests.

Your main camera should be facing the centre of the stage.

Another camera should have a view from above as this will be an interesting shot and should cover the whole stage in a wide shot and will be your 'safety' shot should you miss anything.

If you have a third camera position it either to the right behind the audiance or at the lower corner of the catwalk.

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. You will be able to use the sound taken from any of the cameras providing you sync them all up-see post-production for more details.

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:

Editing is done in a similar way to single camera editing, recording one night as the master shot (usually the last night's) onto my edit master (Hi8 to S-VHS) and then inserting shots from other cameras (rather than other night's) to cover up any glitches such as out of focus points or where I missed an entrance. Most reasonable edit VCR's have 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) from each camera angle, edit, and then output the result to tape and start the next scene.

Using a computer allows me far more accuracy with syncing shots together. Heres how I do it. Normally there are loads of parents who take photos during the show, and whilst the flashes can be annoying they are also very useful to editors as they allow us to join up shots from different cameras. Locate a flash gun going of on a tape, give that shot a marker and then find the same moment in time on the other cameras and give each shot of the flash gun a marker, then just match up each marker on the timeline (see picture). Then all you have to do is select which camera you want to use, and even adding a dissolve or wipe bewteen cameras for that special touch, (try wipes for action scenes and dissolves for slow scenes, such as ballet or romantic scenes). Your shots will remain in sync throughout (except if there are bad dropouts on the tape, then just select extra flash guns throughout the tape, use the 'razor' tool to split the clips and match each flash gun marker up. If you have a lot of dropouts try using new tapes next time and have your equipment checked/cleaned.

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-Multi cameras
	Brief: You have to film a 2 hour Fashion Show for a school which is repeated over 4 nights.
	Pre-Production: Try an 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: Position your cameras as the inset plan suggests. Your main camera should be facing the centre of the stage. Another camera should have a view from above as this will be an interesting shot and should cover the whole stage in a wide shot and will be your 'safety' shot should you miss anything. If you have a third camera position it either to the right behind the audiance or at the lower corner of the catwalk. 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. You will be able to use the sound taken from any of the cameras providing you sync them all up-see post-production for more details. 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: Editing is done in a similar way to single camera editing, recording one night as the master shot (usually the last night's) onto my edit master (Hi8 to S-VHS) and then inserting shots from other cameras (rather than other night's) to cover up any glitches such as out of focus points or where I missed an entrance. Most reasonable edit VCR's have 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) from each camera angle, edit, and then output the result to tape and start the next scene. Using a computer allows me far more accuracy with syncing shots together. Heres how I do it. Normally there are loads of parents who take photos during the show, and whilst the flashes can be annoying they are also very useful to editors as they allow us to join up shots from different cameras. Locate a flash gun going of on a tape, give that shot a marker and then find the same moment in time on the other cameras and give each shot of the flash gun a marker, then just match up each marker on the timeline (see picture). Then all you have to do is select which camera you want to use, and even adding a dissolve or wipe bewteen cameras for that special touch, (try wipes for action scenes and dissolves for slow scenes, such as ballet or romantic scenes). Your shots will remain in sync throughout (except if there are bad dropouts on the tape, then just select extra flash guns throughout the tape, use the 'razor' tool to split the clips and match each flash gun marker up. If you have a lot of dropouts try using new tapes next time and have your equipment checked/cleaned.
	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: