Capturing great quality video at a concert is more difficult than setting up a camera wherever you can find space and shooting. You have to navigate around the sea of people, find safe spots to setup your cameras and keep the drunk guy without his shirt on from spilling his beer on you after telling you how nice your camera is.

As has been our mantra thus far, Part 3 of this guide on How to Film Concerts will be about planning the video portion of your shoot. I will be going over how to decide where to place your cameras, which cameras I recommend you use and general tips for making the video portion of your shoot go smoothly.

If you have missed a part in this series, or need to know more about another aspect of concert taping, please see the other parts of this guide as they become available.

Part 1, Overview & Preparing for the show
Part 2, Audio Production
Part 3, Video Production (you are here already)
Part 4, Shooting the show
Part 5, Post Production
Part 6, Exporting & Delivery

Where to place your cameras

As I have said before, the venue shape (and sometimes security) will control where you can setup. Some venues have 50ft vaulted ceilings and balcony seating, while others are a flat room with 12 foot ceilings and a stage at one end. No matter the shape of the venue, there is one principal that if you follow, will give your video a more-balanced look when cutting between angles.

Coverage from equal but opposite angles: Cross-coverage

Cross-coverage is being able to cover one part of the stage with two cameras that are the same distance from the stage, but on opposite sides of the venue. This is so different angles won’t look out of place when cut together. It also gives you the chance to film something like a guitar solo from varying angles and closeness. While one person is in for a close-up of the guitarist’s fingers on the neck of the guitar, another could be filming his facial reaction as he is shredding away.

For your primary coverage, you want to have cameras both close and far from the stage. A great rule for establishing good cross-coverage is to split the venue down the middle of the stage all the way to the back wall. If you put a camera on each side of this middle line at varying distances from the stage, you will often end up with a good starting point for primary coverage.

Closer cameras will focus on close-ups on their side of the stage. Sometimes these cameras should be hand-held instead of on a tripod, to allow greater flexibility in the angles they can get. Both cameras should also shoot band members in the middle of the stage, which is often where the singer and drummer are set up.

If going hand-held, try not to shoot at full zoom, like to the opposite side of the stage. Not because the shot won’t look good, but because being hand-held and zoomed in a lot makes the image more prone to an unsteady hand resulting in shaky footage. An unsteady shot can often make your footage look amateur and out of place compared to footage from the cameras on tripods.

Try to find spots with little chance of obstructing your view. This means above the heads of the audience for the back angles, or in front of them against the stage for closer angles.

Safety coverage

After your primary coverage, you need “safety” coverage. The safety angle has two main purposes: to show a majority of the stage in the shot and to have a usable shot 100% of the time. This means keeping the camera wide and not zooming in and out very often, if at all. The camera can often stay fully stationary on a tripod for the entire show as long as a crew member stands with it to make sure nothing drastic happens.

Look for a spot that is elevated and as close to the middle of the stage as possible. You might team-up with your crew member running audience mics and setup near them, as you both need a central location.

Example coverage

Below are images that show how a basic 5-camera shoot might be setup when following the above suggestions. This setup gives us cross-coverage for both the close-up and wider angles and a safety angle dead-center.

Two cameras for close-ups

Two cameras for wider shots

One cameras for “safety”

Best camera settings for a live concert?

I get asked this a lot. Everyone seems to want a magic bullet for camera settings that will work for any scenario, but unfortunately, there just isn’t one group of settings that are right for every venue, band or type of music. I will, however, go over a few of the major camera settings available on the majority of the cameras I am recommending below.

Manual Focus, Manual Exposure

These two are the exception for settings you should use for EVERY concert you shoot: setting focus to manual and exposure to manual (see Shutter Speed below.)

Light changes are sometimes a big problem. During one song, the lights may be very low and subdued, while the next has tons of moving lights and strobe lights going off everywhere. These types of changes would throw any camera’s auto-exposure and auto-focus into a frenzy. Stay in manual and you can change exposure to suit the lighting setup.

Manual focus also helps as in low-light or very bright shots. A camera in auto-focus mode will quickly jump in and out of focus if lighting changes occur. Often times the band members will be moving around a lot and your focal distance will not be constant. Even if they are not moving much, stick to manual focus.

White Balance

Many concert venues will be using colored lights, and often times the lighting engineer will be changing colors all over the place. Trying to manually white-balance will not benefit you at all in this case. We are wanting to preserve those light colors, not cancel them out. Lights are part of the energy and mood of the show.

For indoor venues, the majority of lights will use 3200K bulbs. The lights are colored by gels in front of the lights, which change the intensity and hue of the light. But because the lights are 3200K before passing through the gel, you can usually stick to a 3200K / tungsten preset white balance when indoors.

If the band is playing in broad daylight and the sun is hitting the stage, go for a 5600K / daylight preset. The time of day will slightly shift the color temperature, so if it ends up way off, you can adjust it with color-correction in post production.

The only time a white balance might be a good idea is if you are filming an outside concert the stage is entirely in the shade or inside under fluorescent lighting. In this case you would want to white-balance your cameras to a white card on stage. Being in the shade on a sunny day will reflect a higher color-temperature than the 5600K of daylight and even if you set it to 5600K, your subjects will have a hint of blue. Being under fluorescent lights can bring any range of tints from a pale orange to a sharp green.

Frame-rate

Frame-rate is mostly an aesthetic choice. In most cases, you will either want to shoot 60i or 24p. The nitty-gritty technical differences between the two are beyond the scope of this guide. In short, 60i is what most consumer camcorders shoot in. Unless you explicitly know you’re shooting 24p, you are shooting 60i.

To shoot 24p and maintain a proper exposure, you need more light than if you were to shoot 60i. Many smaller concerts are very low in light, making it a challenge to see the performers on video without boosting the gain (which you should never do, anyway.) Not to mention, most bands seem to like playing in the dark.

If you find yourself having a hard time getting a proper exposure when shooting 24p, revert back to shooting 60i. You don’t have to shoot in 24p to end up with 24p footage after you edit it. Using tools like Magic Bullet Frames or DVFilm Maker can convert your 60i footage to 24p.

Whatever frame-rate you decide to go with, remember to relay this info to your audio recodists crew. If they are using a field recorder capable of recording at a specific frame-rate, be sure they dial it into the recorder. This will allow your soundboard or mic source to perfectly sync to your video without time stretching.

Shutter Speed

This is another subject that is highly technical, but I will forgo the tech talk and suggest the following:

• If shooting 60i, use 1/60
• If shooting 24p under normal lighting, use 1/48
• If shooting 24p under fluorescent lighting, use 1/60

Some people try to get away with 1/24 when shooting 24p or 1/30 when shooting 60i. While this can make the image appear brighter, you will also see more video noise and the any motion in the image will appear more blurry. Avoid lower shutter speeds and don’t stray from those listed above unless you are really sure you know what you’re doing.

Camera recommendations

The video industry is in a stage of transition. Video acquisition and transmission is moving towards HD in both broadcast television and home video. At the time this guide is being written (late 2007) a lot of standard-definition (SD) work is still being done for DVD and web delivery.

I will outline below a set of SD and HD cameras currently available that will fit the needs of shooting a concert. Keep in mind that the format you shoot in should be determined by (1) how you will be displaying the finished product (broadcast TV, DVD, web) and (2) budget.

All the HD cameras listed below are capable of shooting in SD as well as HD. You can also shoot in HD and down-scale to SD after editing.

SD camera recommendations

Panasonic DVX100b (~$2600)

The Panasonic DVX100b has been a work-horse for the low-budget video industry for a few years now, and it is the first camera I look to when doing live concert work. It is lightweight, fairly sensitive to low-light conditions and I really love the look of the image it produces. It has come down in price by quite a bit, making it an even better choice for the money.

The major pluses to the camera are its ability to shoot both 24p and 60i at the flip of a switch, XLR mic inputs, full manual controls and easily tweakable image style via menu options.

The biggest downside is its 10x zoom lens. The image is great, don’t get me wrong, but I wish the zoom were a bit longer. If you are shooting a very large venue like an arena, you will need a camera with more zoom than the DVX has to offer. But for most small to medium-sized venues, it will work wonders for you.

Sony PD170 (~$2500)

The Sony PD170 is probably the best camera for shooting low-light. If you will be shooting very dark shows you will be better off with this camera.

If you want the 24p look, shoot 60i with this camera and process it to 24p in post-production using one of the previous tools I mentioned.

This camera doesn’t allow nearly as much image-tweaking options as the DVX100b, and is more intended to shoot great looking 60i footage, which it does very well.

Panasonic GS300 (~$450)

For those on a shoestring budget but still wanting a decent-quality camera to film concerts, I recommend the Panasonic GS300. It offers manual controls for everything I mentioned above (except for frame-rate, it shoots 60i only) although they aren’t as user-friendly as the DVX100b or PD170.

The camera also has a 10x zoom, but no XLR inputs, so you won’t be able to easily use it to record any usable audio. But for the price, it is hard to beat.

HD camera recommendations

HD (or HDV if you’re being picky) is currently a mish-mash of different codecs and recording mediums. It seems every manufacturer is using different compromises to record HDV footage either to tape or solid-state memory.

CamcorderInfo.com did a great round-up tech comparison of 6 of the most popular HDV camcorders, including the 3 I recommend below. I would recommend checking it out.

I personally think the following 3 are worth considering to film concerts:

Canon XH-A1 ($3350)

The Canon XH-A1 records a 1440×1080 image to MiniDV tape, which is still the lowest-priced recording medium and easily archivable. The camera also boasts an excellent 20x zoom lens—double that of the DVX100b and the HVX200 below–and a small form-factor for easy handling.

As for downsides, again, stay away from the 24f/30f modes that attempt to mimic 24p. They do not use a proper method for handling 24p-like material, and not to mention it decreases the vertical resolution of the image. Instead, use one of the tools listed above to go from 60i to 24p. The image quality from the camera is excellent, although a bit flat, lending itself to be fine-tuned in post production.

Barry Green did a side-by-side comparison (with pictures) of the Canon XH-A1 and Panasonic HVX200 that is worth reading.

Sony Z1U (~$4000)

The Sony Z1U is a bit heavier and bulkier than the other cameras listed so far, but still delivers a 1440×1080 image to MiniDV tape. Like the PD170, the Z1U has a 12x zoom. The LCD flips out from the handle, rather than the body, giving it a different feel in hand-held mode.

The footage from the Z1U has a bit of a contrasty feel to it, and the colors tend to shift slightly to the cool side. If that fits the style you are going for, this is the camera for you.

Stay away from 24CF mode and process it in post!

Panasonic HVX200 (~$5000 + P2 cards)

The Panasonic HVX200 is the big brother of the DVX100-series camera. Most of the controls are identical, but the HVX200 shoots in 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 720pN, 480p and 480i. The different video qualities will take up different amounts of space on the Panasonic P2 solid-state memory cards. All the shooting options/frame-rates are a big appeal to most indie filmmakers, but don’t mean so much to concert filmers.

You can also use the HVX200 to shoot SD to MiniDV tape at 24p and 60i, but the camera itself is less sensitive to light than the DVX100b (about 1 1/2 stops difference) when using identical frame-rate and shutter speeds. When cut with DVX100b footage, HVX200 footage looks a bit darker and shifted more toward red/orange, but matches in dynamic range and overall look.

The major downside to the HVX200 is the additional cost of P2 cards to even shoot HDV footage. Even with one 16GB card (which cost ~$900 at this time, and still not widely available) you can only record 40 minutes of footage at 720/24pN without putting in another card. This isn’t really an ideal solution for an extended live event like a concert. The extra cards up the total cost of the initial investment, so unless you use the cameras a lot, it will be hard to eclipse the savings you would have with buying an HDV camera that shoots to tape.

Depending on what I have available, I usually send out DVX100b and HVX200’s (shooting SD to tape) to shoot most concerts we do.

Overall, if you were buying a fleet of cameras to do HDV work for just concerts, I would recommend the Canon XH-A1 over the others listed here.

There is a lot of specific information to this camera, so be sure to read-up on it before buying it.

Tripods

The tripod head for doing live events is nothing to skimp on. Your footage will look amateur if it is not smooth and consistent. A fluid-head tripod is a bare minimum recommendation for filming concerts, as you can adjust the resistance to panning and tilting to fine-tune how smooth your moves need to be.

Most of all, practice using your camera and tripod to learn how it reacts to force and what you need to do to make smooth camera movements. Practice following birds as they move in the sky, or cars as they go down the road.

Crew

You can have all the best equipment out there, but if you don’t have good camera operators, your footage could end up looking inconsistent and sloppy in the editing room. Find people with steady hands, finesse and an eye for composition, or pay to hire professionals.

As a director you should instruct the operators on the style you want them to use. Whether its all slow camera moves and slow zoom, or crash zooms and fast moves, find people who can operate well and as instructed.

If you are only doing this as a hobby and can’t afford to hire operators, I wish you the best of luck… Often you will be at the mercy of the owner of the camera equipment, as they will want to operate their own equipment–especially if you are not paying them. Just because they own the equipment does not make them the perfect person to operate it.

Regardless of anything, always feed your crew. Even if you can’t pay them in cash. Nobody likes working on an empty stomach. And if you let them go hungry, you won’t have a crew for long.

Conclusion

The style of your show will be found in the style of music you are recording and your own personal quality benchmarks. Pulling off good shows and knowing what to film takes practice. Watch a few concert films and see how others have done it, and try to bring some of that quality to your work.

After reading through the first three parts of this guide, you should now have a full plan on how to document the show. Part 4 of the guide will walk you through the day of filming the show and all the steps and precautions you should take before arriving to the venue, to filming the show, to last checks before packing up and leaving.

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John Kary is Creative Director at Titus Films. Having directed and produced over 100 concert films, John is well-traveled in capturing the energy of live music. Having been responsible for all aspects of producing a concert film at varying times in his career, he has emerged as one of the premiere concert filmmakers in the U.S. When not shooting live shows he can be found shooting independent films around his home town of Lawrence, Kansas. For more info visit www.titusfilms.com.

Categories: Concert Films, New Media, Software, Tech Corner, Titus Films, Tutorials