For our latest podcast I dug through the archives of good songs and performances that didn’t make the final cut of the movie. Many of the performances in “It Came From Detroit” were stitched together from multiple shows, but towards the end of the period of time when we were filming, I was able to borrow a second camera from work to tape with. This song is “Love” by the Hentchmen performed at the Magic Stick in Detroit on March 5, 2005. Anyone will tell you that they are the quintessential “garage rock” band in Detroit, so I won’t bother saying it here. In the movie we ended up using live video performances of “LeSabre Radar” we had shot mixed in with their studio recording and music video footage of the song. I was always bummed that I couldn’t fit in a truly live track of the band because their shows really are amazing in person.

While editing together the two camera angles for this piece, it reminded me of the one thing that I was always looking for while cutting the documentary: COVERAGE.

When you’re up in the front row of a crowd there’s only so many shots that you can get from that angle. Every time you move the camera from one subject to another, the shot is will be blurry and unusable. This is why coverage is so important, so always try and make sure your other camera is shooting something that you can cut too!

James’ Tips and Tricks For a Two-Camera Live Shoot:

Wide Camera:
Have one camera on a tripod behind the audience, and slightly above them if you can. Make sure at your very widest you can see the whole stage. This will be your coverage camera. Make sure the beginning and the end of each song start off wide. Pan in slowly. If the other camera is in between subjects you have to be able to cover their shot, so make sure you’re conservative in your framing. Only zoom in to medium or two shots. Your partner has the close ups covered. You don’t want to cut back and forth between the same shots. Cover the singer at all times. It can be a two shot, or the whole band, but make sure when the singer is singing that you’ve got it on tape. The other camera could be zooming in on the guitar player at the time, and you’ve missed the lyrics of the song! Lastly, cover any blind spots the second camera might have. If they’re stuck on the right hand of the stage, concentrate more on the center and left.

Floor Camera:
The other camera should be as front row and center as you can get. This camera is responsible for getting all the cool close-ups and cut-aways you’ll need to make the footage look really good. Make sure to get some close ups of every single band member, but make sure you’re paying attention to what’s going on in the song. Make sure you get most of the singer’s lyrics as well as the guitarist’s solo. If you’re filming a whole show, but only need a few songs, during the songs you KNOW you’re not going to use, try and get some more artistic shots such as people’s feet on the pedals, the lights on the amps, or an extreme close up of a guitar. This is the time to experiment with slow shutter speeds and in-camera effects. Also try to get shots of the audience and the musician’s heads bobbing up and down while they jam. You can cut these in almost anywhere!

This might all seem very obvious, but as you can see from our footage, we broke almost every rule I just laid out! Make sure you communicate with your other cameraman BEFORE you shoot so that you don’t wind up in the same mess as we did. Is every second of every show you shoot going to be useable for editing? Of course not! But if you have the luxury of using two cameras at a rock show, you might as well use them smartly!

-James

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 9:33 am and is filed under Hentchmen. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.