Kill It Kid - The event

I met early with Kieran on the day at Newton park to pick up the equipment. Between us we had to get 4 Cameras, 2 Tripods, and the sound equipment down to the venue on the bus. We arrived and met the others in good time, before the sound checks. So we were able to discuss camera positions and everything else, and try them out during the sound checks.

We wanted to get a varied amount of shots, so we decided to have a fixed camera, at the back of the room in the centre to use as a master. Another on the balcony, to the right. We mainly went for this side rather than the other because this way we could look across the stage at the singers, which created a nice 2 shot. Plus the bassist didn't sing so he wasn't really a priority, and could be covered by other cameras. We then had 2 roaming cameras, the first was in the crowd that myself and Tom operated, to get nice low angles, and close ups of the band members. The other was operated by Kieran and was put at the back of the stage and in the wings, this was to get close ups of the drummer, and to give another angle of the band, but also to get shots of the crowd from the bands POV. I mentioned it was important to have a varied amount of shots, and to not have us all filming the same thing at once, so we would always have cut aways. So each of the different cameras job was to cover a certain part of the band.

During the Sound check we were having problems getting a decent feed from the mixing desk in to the camera. And listening through the headphones it was really hard to tell, but it didn't sound right to me. So we got 2 secondary opinions and decided to leave it as it was even though it didn't sound perfect. Once the sound check was over we had a chance to meet the band, and their manager. This gave us a chance to explain what we were doing, and to also ask for a set list so we knew the big songs to cover. But unfortunately they told us they don't write their set lists until right before the gig, so we'd just have to wait. They were really friendly and also agreed to give a short interview before the gig, which Kieran filmed. This was great as it will make a really nice intro/end to the film, or even the basis of a structure, and I'm looking forward to watching it, and hearing what they have to say.

Whilst the second warm up band was on I double checked all the cameras were on the same settings, and had their internal mic's on to get a recording we could use as a reference when syncing in the edit. I also made sure all the batteries were charged and each had a charged back up. We also planned to all change tapes after the 5th song, therefore making the syncing easier, so we could edit it in 2 parts.

When Kill It Kid came on we all started our cameras recording at the same time. Myself and Tom took it in turns to film with ours, I mainly tried to get close ups of the guitar's, and vocalists, whilst trying to get shots of the crowd as well, although the crowd weren't to lively and didn't really get in to it, and the huge venue didn't really feel very full. I got some nice low angle shots looking up at the band with lights in the background. I also played around with crash zooms and pans to add variety to the edit, as well as some pull focus's. The band were really animated and really got in to their set. I was trying to get close ups of the guitarists hand playing chords, but he kept jumping around so it was hard to get a decent shot. The gig went really quickly and at the end I was really happy with my personal performance. I was mainly trying to get the generic close ups you see in live sets (Below) both of the singers faces, and their hands on their instruments.