i had a lot of fun shooting and editing this video. telekinesis! reminds me a bit of both deathcab for cutie and older nada surf.
shooting bands is easy. the biggest mistake you can make is thinking too much. just point the camera and have a good time. use the opportunity to play around a bit. here, i stuck to wide angles too much and i think i botched it. don't do that. just have fun.
the name of this band is well deserved. i hid away on stage and you can tell my shots apart because i focus on the drummer and the bassist from the side of the stage while zeek and jim filmed the stage more head on.
i volunteer with kexp once a week. most of the time i log tapes or catalog the archives but once in a while, online content cordinator jim beckman will invite me along to watch some live performances and shoot some video. i am grateful for this opportunity because it is a fun learning experience to record live performances.
raphael saadiq's old school rhythm and blues band was a surprise for me because i had never heard of them prior to the show. if you read his wikipedia page or allmusic profile, you will see that he's been around for a while.
for those shoots when a tripod is too much, it might be wise to invest in a monopod. no man can hold a camera that steady. i don't care how strong your arm is. you can never hold a shot for too long.
if you have the full final cut pro studio, you might be able to fix shaky clips in post. at kexp, we use the express copy so we don't have this luxury. but if you do have the full version, you can apply a 'smooth cam' filter. you can plan ahead for using the 'smooth cam' filter by keeping your shot a little loose. this way, when the filter enlarges your image for processing, you won't loose any information off the edge of the frame.
for a long time, i was obsessed with keeping one camera wide. here i will publicly denounce that initial philosophy. i learned my lesson. for live performances, wide shots are overrated. unless a performer is using the space in an interesting way, it is best to use tight shots. most performers do not move around too much and if you show them in a wide angle, you will only highlight the boring aspect of their performance. rather you should do the opposite and focus in on the little movements.
it might be wise to decide which camera is going to get which shots before you start. camera one focus on performer a and b. camera two focus on performer c and d. if two cameras agree to share a single subject, it might be wise to decide upon different focal lengths. this way, you keep your options open. you don't want to set yourself up for jump cuts in the edit studio.
try to minimize the noise in the shot. this is another reason to keep away from wide angle shots. the depth of field in video is too deep and if you throw in too much motion, you will only draw attention to the faults of the medium. keep it tight and try to keep the background bland and boring. black is good.
i love shooting video and i don't think i could ever grow bored with it. my biggest challenge is acquiring experience. every time i shoot video i make new mistakes. and with every mistake comes a lesson. and with every lesson, i am only more excited to go out and shoot more video.
thinking back to my work on the tommy dean movies, i would love to have a chance at that kind of project again. a subject like raphael saadiq would be a dream come true because his scene is neck deep in nostalgia. the question i would ask through a documentary about him would be, how does he capture the spirit of the original scene and how does he make it is own? pretentious stuff like that! anybody out there have any ideas?
this was the highlight of my week. chatting with jesy fortino before her set at kexp. i have a lot of respect for musicans who manage to fold time and space with mere sound waves. communicating these feelings are hard enough but also to get into that headspace where you are capable of accessing them. amazing. tiny vipers is not just another girl with acoustic guitar singer songwriter shindig.
i had no part of this shoot. i think i might have handed someone an extention cord but i was a happy bystander of a professional set up.
some things i might have done differently? maybe fewer cuts. i like the static shots, sometimes inconventionally framed. my only biggest complaint is silly but, i don't like the camera on the other side of the microphone. i know most people don't think it looks wrong but to me its jarring.
i like the wide shot that is kind of washed out while the other shots don't really match. i believe the wide shot was captured with a different camera. these mixed media shoots are tricky. more tricky than you'd think unless you've tried it before.
more dust than digital is a seattle based video production company in the university district. they volunteer their expertise to kexp and i would love to work for them!
i volunteer with jim beckman once a week at kexp. its a great opportunity to practice shooting video because he's happy to get any help, open to new ideas and quite patient when those ideas don't work.
he and i shot this video together on canon xha1 cameras.
i had problems with the manual setting here and i am embarassed by the results.
using manual settings can be tricky but it is not hard if you think strategicly about what each of the settings does and how you might adjust them to best serve your situation. to take the weight off the thinking, make a system for yourself and stick to it.
first i set the shutter. this setting limits the durration of time that any frame is exposed to light. too long, and the frame appears smudged and overexposed. too short, and the frame is dark. for most situations, i find the 1/60 or 1/90 to be good enough.
then i set the gain. this is how the camera works in low light situations and it works kind of like selecting an iso for film. more gain is like a higher iso. the picture looks exposed but it will also look grainy. best to stick with the lowest iso you can.
finally, the f stop. smaller the number, bigger the appature. a big appature (f2.8) will let in more light while a small appature (f16) will have a much more open depth of field.
my mistake in making this video is, i did not think about ballancing all of the zones of the scene. i set the exposure not thinking that the scene was unevenly lit. so there are parts that are very dark. nothing looks overly exposed so this tells me i set the exposure for the most lit part of the scene. big mistake!
complains about the camera: not sure if the lense can hold a focus. also, too heavy for hand held but center of gravity won't allow shoulder mount.
