BETTER FILMING TECHNIQUES I've been videotaping live shows since 1997 and trading since 1999. I've watched a lot of privately shot videos but, unfortunately, I've run into only a handful of filmers who do a good job of shooting live shows. I didn't go to any film school or anything, so I'm certainly no expert. But I've learned a lot from my own mistakes, from talking with other filmers and from a few things I've read. When you're using just one camera it's hard to make things look interesting. Here are some tips that will help. 1. GET PERMISSION FROM THE BAND: Over 95% of the punk bands I've videotaped are cool about people filming them. They often like the idea that there will be some document of the show out there. All they ask for is a copy of the show for themselves. Besides, most groups like to shoot the shit with their fans, so they're very approachable. Believe me, you'll feel a lot more relaxed and have a better time knowing the band is behind you 100% on the videotaping. You'll be able to go right up to the stage or sometimes even on the stage without a problem. 2. GET AS CLOSE TO THE STAGE AS YOU CAN: The most exciting videos are definitely the ones shot right up against the stage. You'll get a lot of action shots of band members jumping around, guitars slashing, sweat flying, beer flying, etc. If you can go up on the stage that's even better. The only thing to watch out for are low vocals or distortion. You might be getting some great video footage but if you can't hear the singing it kinda ruins it. What to do? Get maybe 15-20 minutes of video near the stage but then shoot the rest of the show farther back. You might only have to move back 10 or 15 feet to hear the vocals okay. To eliminate distortion, you'll have to figure out by trial and error how far away you'll have to be to prevent the camera from distorting the sound. 3. ZOOM IN AND OUT: The single, most important way of making videos more watchable is to vary the shots by zooming in for closeups. This applies to whether you're at the foot of the stage or 50 feet away. It should be a natural process. When you're watching a band, you're not staring blankly at the stage. You're looking at the singer's face when he's singing, the guitar player when he does a solo, the drummer when he does a roll, etc. The same thing should happen when you're videotaping. You should be going from wide shots to close ups of the different members and their instruments. But don't be zooming in and out like crazy, otherwise you'll give people a headache when they watch your video. Every time you have a shot, whether its a wide angle or a zoom, hold the view for at least 5 to 15 seconds. Then try to flow smoothly from one shot to the next, holding each shot for at least 5 seconds. Also try zooming in an out at different speeds.     For instance, let's say you start with a wide shot that shows the singer, guitarist and drummer. You hold this wide shot for 10 to 15 seconds, then quickly zoom in for a head and shoulder shot of the singer (hold the shot for 5 to 10 seconds); then pan over to the drummer without changing the zoom (hold the shot for 5 to 10 seconds); then zoom back out halfway so you see only the drummer and guitar player (hold the shot for 5 to 10 seconds); and then do a slow zoom all the way back to your original wide angle view with all three members in the shot. Again hold the shot for 10 seconds or so and then start all over again. The more often you shoot like this, the more easier, natural and instinctive it becomes. 4. STAY AWAY FROM THE BASS: Every camera is different. If you're lucky enough to have a high quality camera that never distorts the sound no matter how close you are to the PA speakers, then it doesn't matter where you shoot from. But if you get distortion with your camera, it might help if you film from the opposite side away from the bass. It also depends on how close you are to the stage. 5. USE AN EXTERNAL MICROPHONE: If your camera has a microphone jack, this is the best way to improve the audio quality of your recordings, but you will have to get a good quality mic. I only bought one recently and the difference is dramatic: crisp, clean sound, wide stereo separation and distortion significantly reduced or eliminated in most situations. The drawback is the price. Mine was recommended by another filmer and cost me US $100. It's a Sony ECM-MS908C and for me it was worth every penny. A couple of other recommendations given to me were for Core Sound and Sound Professionals microphones. Core Sound also offers an attenuator cable for $35 that prevents the camera recording levels from being overloaded and so the sound is NEVER distorted on your recording. 6. MOVE & SHOOT FROM DIFFERENT SPOTS: Like a majority of filmers, I used to stay in one spot when I was filming. Sometimes you have no choice if the place is packed and everyone is stuck like sardines. But this gives the viewers only one perspective of the show. If you can change your viewing angle by going to a different spot, it'll make a big difference. I always try to get at least three different angles. I might shoot 15 minutes from stage left, then 15 minutes from stage right and then 15 minutes from farther back and in the centre. Then I might come back to the stage for the encore. Just keep in mind that the sound will vary from spot to spot. 7. FILM THE CROWD: It's a good idea to film the crowd every now and then. It just makes things more interesting and exciting, especially if the crowd is getting into it. I know you can't see everything that's going around you when you're filming, but you gotta try to get shots of people moshing, surfing, spitting or whatever, preferably with the crowd and band framed in the same shot. If you can move around you should also shoot behind the band for one or two songs so we can see both band and crowd spazzing out at the same time. 8. MANUAL EXPOSURE ADJUSTMENT: This one also depends on the type of camera you have. It's good to have as much control as possible on the amount of light entering the camera lens. Many cameras control the exposure or light levels automatically, which is perfectly fine in the daytime or in a club that's well lit. But if the club lighting isn't perfect, you might want to override the automatic exposure control and switch to manual control if your camera has it. For instance if it's too dark, you can make the adjustment manually to let more light into the camera. Similarly if the stage is too bright, you can reduce the amount of light manually. The manual exposure control helps a lot, especially when the lighting is uneven across the stage.     For example, the stage might have normal type lighting throughout but with one extra bright spotlight on the singer. When you shoot the other band members it might look okay, but when you zoom in on the singer the brighter light overpowers everything, whitening out or overexposing the image. With manual exposure, you just adjust the exposure downward as you begin to zoom in on the singer to bring down the exposure to a less bright, more normal level. If you maintain this new exposure level and zoom out from singer, you would see that singer looks okay but the lighting on the other members looks too dark in the camera view screen. So to brighten up the other members you just increase the exposure manually. You can adjust the exposure halfway so that lighting looks more balanced between the singer and the rest of the stage. It's not as complicated as it may sound. Read you instruction manuals. 9. MANUAL FOCUS: This is used only in special situations. Sometimes the camera's automatic focusing system gets "confused" and the camera just can't focus properly, say, if there's a lot of smoke or the stage lighting is flashing rapidly from bright to dark. The farther away you are from the stage, the worse it gets. To get around this problem, switch the focus control to manual. Zoom in on whoever is nearest the back of the stage and focus on that person, usually the drummer. Once that person's face is in perfect focus, you will be able to zoom in and out through the smoke without any problems. When the smoke clears (or the lighting goes back to normal), you can switch the automatic focus back on and it should be okay. You might also need to use manual focus if you're trying to add certain digital video effects. 10. VIDEO EFFECTS: It's a matter of personal choice whether or not you want to add video effects to your tapes. Some effects can be pretty cheesy and totally useless. Some can add a lot of energy and texture. Fortunately a lot of cameras these days will let you add digital effects on playback which means your master tape remains unaltered. If you add a digital effect while you're recording, you're stuck with it. I came to regret that a couple times. The best advice I can give is to use the effects sparingly. The only effect I used when recording was SLOW SHUTTER/GAIN (gives a cool smearing effect) and on playback STROBE/FLASH (gives a jerky motion, strobe light type of effect). I try to use them only when there's a lot of motion, like when someone is jumping around, or when the crowd is moshing, or when zooming in on the drummer or zooming in for a closeup on the guitar or bass as the fingers thrash the strings. I try to keep the effects brief, 30 to 60 seconds at a time. But sometimes I might have it on for an entire song, especially if it's an intense, high energy moment. Another drawback is that you lose a bit in picture clarity with some of the digital effects. Well, that's all I can think of for now. In the future I hope to get a digital editing system so I can start to combine 2 or even 3 camera shots into one semi-professional looking production. If anyone out there can give me advice on different computer editing systems and software, please drop me a line. And don't hesitate to pass me any additional filming tips.