Camera Work: On with the Show!

If you're a parent or a teacher or a church or club member, chances are you've wanted to tape some sort of auditorium program--a play, a musical, a lecture, perhaps a concert. It may have been as elaborate as a full- length Handel's Messiah, or as simple as the Food Groups pageant in which your eight-year-old played a complex carbohydrate.

And if you've actually recorded an event like this, you know that the results are often disappointing, with grubby color, muddy sound, and an overall feeling of distance from the subject.

We can't help you produce tapes as good as Live from the Met on PBS (unless you're sitting on a million bucks worth of hardware) but we can supply all kinds of tips for better auditorium videos. (For a fuller treatment of the subject, see Ken Benedict's "Shooting Plays and Recitals" in the May, 1995 issue of Videomaker.)

But before we start, we need to acknowledge one problem with performance taping that you can't completely solve without studio-grade equipment: color quality.

Programs taped in auditoriums, churches and meeting halls often deliver poor color because they're shot under theatrical lighting. Theater lighting intensifies dramatic effects through low light levels and extreme contrast between bright and dark areas. On video, however, low light produces grainy, poorly- saturated images. High contrast, on the other hand, makes faces bloom and smear and greatly hampers camcorder autofocus systems.

To make things worse, theatrical lights almost always gels of different colors attached to increase dimensionality and enhance mood. In fact, the classic "warm/cool" approach to stage lighting involves pinkish lights from one side and amber ones from the other. Confronted with this color spread, the camcorder's white balance system may become dazed and confused. The resulting color often runs all over the map.

What can you do to correct these conditions? Not much. You can fix contrast and color problems only by relighting the show specifically for video. The idea here is to raise light levels, lower contrast ratios and confine most colored lighting to sets or backdrops. Production people are rarely willing to do this--not only because it's a lot of work, but because they may not understand video lighting techniques.

Sometimes, for the taped performance only, you can get them to raise at least the lowest light levels to the point where you can record a decent image. Be aware that even this modest accommodation may require a separate tech rehearsal for video.

But if you can't do too much about color problems, you can go a long way toward solving the other big hassles of auditorium shooting: uninvolving subjects, unstable focus and uneven audio quality.

Actually, all these glitches are results of the root problem: the distance from you to the action. You can't get close to the stage without blocking the view of the audience, so you find yourself stuck at the side, the back, or up in the balcony, if there is one.

If you want to ensure that you cover all the action, you have to stick with wide shots, which lack interesting detail and keep the viewers at an uninvolving distance from the performance.

Or, if you're brave enough to punch in for closer angles (and risk missing action elsewhere on stage), you have to use extreme telephoto lens settings to get even loose closeups. This makes for a shallow depth of field that requires almost constant refocusing.

Trouble is, at long distances most autofocus systems work slowly and inaccurately; even manual focus will result in shots that are soft at least part of the time.

Distance also degrades audio quality. Miking from 30 feet or more results in a hollow sound and an excess of audience noises. Dialogue, especially when spoken by amateur actors, can be mushy and incomprehensible.

Moreover, consumer and prosumer camcorders adjust audio record levels automatically. Because the circuitry strives to record a strong signal, it will crank up the gain during quiet passages until the background noise becomes a roar. If Hamlet pauses too long in mid-soliloquy, the effect can sound something like this:

"To be...
@#$%$#& %*(+& ^%$#
...#O$r not to be."

You can fix most audio problems by closer miking, and we'll cover that topic shortly. But first, let's deal with the video side.

The key to improving performance videos lies with cutaways: alternate shots that, at best, add variety and punch to your program. At the least, cutaways let you cover your--er--mistakes.

Here's how cutaway shots work. While editing the show, you use the video insert function on your record VCR or camcorder to replace footage spoiled by soft focus or shaky panning, while leaving the audio intact. In a way, you bury your mistakes under cutaway footage.

What can you use for cutaways? The simplest method is to tape a wide shot of the whole performance area. Such a shot won't require critical synchronization when you insert it into your master tape. For concerts and similar shows, audience reaction shots also make great cutaways, and you can insert them anywhere, without the bother of matching action. Even if you have a full-blown multi-camera production setup, you still want to get cutaways as goof insurance.

As you can see from these examples, how you obtain those magic cutaways depends on your production scheme, of which you have several to choose from.

If there is simply no way to lay hands on a second camcorder and tripod, you can get cutaways even with a single camera, by taping a second performance. In this case, plan to shoot a simple wide shot during the earlier show and closer shots during the later one. That way, you can study the action during both the performance itself and a later tape playback of it. When you return to shoot the closer shots, you'll have a better idea of where to point your camcorder and when.

Incidentally, even if there's only one performance, you can still use this system, by getting your cutaway shot during the dress rehearsal. In a very wide shot, performance mistakes and the lack of an audience will not be noticed.

But the chances are that you can borrow a camcorder or rent one, in most areas, for a reasonable fee. With two outfits you can get cutaways and closeups at the same time.

To set up for taping, match the better camcorder with the smoother tripod and make this combination your main camera. Then, set up the other unit to record the wide cutaway shot of the entire program. Since it will run unattended, it's convenient (though not essential) if you can operate the cutaway camera with a remote control.

As you tape the show, get the closest shots you can. Frame and focus on the conductor, say, then shift to the solo singer, to sections of the orchestra, to the soloist again, and so-forth. Try for smooth moves and continuous focus; but if you goof (and you will) don't worry: you know you can pave over your mistakes later with footage from the wide shot.

If you can assemble three or more cameras and a switcher, (plus the personnel to work them) you can create an edited tape in real time. We'll cover procedures for doing this later.

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