Live Video at Boston Japanese Festival

Filming at Events

On Sunday, Skillman Video Group was called upon to document one of the musical acts at the Boston Japanese Festival at Boston Common. We were tasked with creating more of a promotional video rather than a straightforward document of the performance, so we had a two – camera setup to ensure we captured all the different shots we needed as well as a consistent stream of the performance both visually and audibly. The performance didn’t start when we got there, so we took the time to scope out a good location for the main camera and figure out a workable solution for the sound.

Handling Live AudioVisual Content

Live sound is always somewhat of a challenge, even when just trying to ensure a live performance sounds good to just the people listening. Capturing live audio onto video is another matter entirely. At the festival they had a medium sized Mackie mixing board, but that was the only stage of gain adjustment available. For more complex setups there are usually multiple stages of gain (ie, volume) reduction  and boosting, because each sound is different and requires different treatment. We considered plugging into the board directly, but quickly realized the sound would have been entirely too loud coming in, which greatly reduces the workability of the content when it comes to post production, so we decided to use the mics on our cameras so we could capture a static audio source from our main camera, and ambient and directional audio from our secondary camera, then mix between the two to get a satisfactory end result.

Getting the Right Shot

In order to capture as much of the performance from as many different viewpoints as possible, we had one camera set up by the sound board aimed directly at the stage for the main, head-on shot, then we had our other cameraman out in the audience and around the stage to get some more personal shots of the band and the audience. As they had requested material for promotion, it was important to not only get the entirety of the performance, but also to highlight the audience’s reaction and showcase the huge turnout. All the different angles will give us some great options when it comes to editing the video to create compelling and effective promotional content for the band.

Skillman Video Group LLC is a Boston video production company. Call us anytime at 1-800-784-0140.