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MUSIC VIDEOS FILM DVDS AND
LONG-FORM PRODUCTION
Rock concerts started out live! If you missed one, your next opportunity to see the band came the next time they toured. Now concerts are now often filmed or videotaped as DVDs to preserve the magic in beautiful high-definition (HD) clarity and 5.1 surround sound so fans can view them at home. Examples include Bon Jovi's Lost Highway: The Concert DVD and the Kenny Chesney Live DVD by one of country music's most honored live artist. The concert film/video, depending on how bright the artist's career is, may end up being broadcast as a cable television special on HBO or Showtime. The Public Broadcast Service (PBS) commissions their own spectacular concert shows, such as Sarah Brightman's performances in Las Vegas. These PBS shows add artist interviews and “B” roll of the backstage setup. Many popular artists appear live on major network television for award shows such as the annual Grammy Awards and American Music Awards. Concert DVDs are sold at video rental stores; online through such Internet retailers as Amazon, Netflix, and Blockbuster; via the band's websites and at the band's concerts as part of their merchandising effort; or through big-box stores such as Wal-Mart or Best Buy.
Another link between video and concerts is the display of live pictures on huge screens while the concert is in progress. The use of large-screen video magnification (I-MAG) projection systems as an integral part of the live performance can be found just about everywhere. Virtually all of the recent summer outdoor stadium tours have used this means of allowing the fans 200 to 400 feet away from the stage to see the star up close. The introduction of LED large screens has made this possible, even in bright sunlight. Several companies specialize in this type of video production. They work along with the tour lighting director to achieve an acceptable balance between what the designer wants to create for the live audience and what the camera needs to reproduce that image. The lesson is simple: to be a successful concert lighting director and qualify for today's big tours, you had better know something about video and film lighting.
FILM VERSUS HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO
Because of the increasing transfer of live performances to other mediums, there is a debate among video and film makers as to which medium most faithfully re-creates the atmosphere of the live performance and what the technical and aesthetic merits of each medium are. Film usually dominates for promotional clips. Video is used more often for full-length performances, although some of the classic rock performances such as The Band's The Last Waltz and Tina Turner's Private Dancer were recorded on film. A Rolling Stones tour was both videotaped live and filmed by famed director Robert Altman for release as a full-length film, Let's Spend the Night Together. Although I count myself among the cinematographers who think a production should be recorded on the medium in which it will ultimately be viewed—on the silver screen or on video media players—technical and financial considerations often influence decisionsfrom a practical perspective. The ease of editing, the ability to capture the performance's ambience, and how much of the concert lighting can be readjusted are some of the considerations in choosing either film or video.
FILM
The logistical problems of filming live concerts often determine the choice of media. Usually, five to nine cameras are set up to cover the action of a live concert. Film cameras must be reloaded frequently, since 16mm and many smaller 35mm cameras can only take 400-foot loads, which translates to a maximum of about 10 minutes at 24 frames per second (fps). Even the most popular major motion picture camera, the Mitchell BNC, can only accommodate magazines up to 1200 feet, and that is while the camera is mounted on a tripod. For hand-held work, the magazine length drops to 400 feet. Some cameras can take 4000-foot magazines, but they are not generally used in this type of photography. A concert does not stop for film reloads; therefore, each camera is down for several minutes during critical performance time. Seldom are retakes possible in live performances, so any missed action is lost forever. Shots that the director counted on may turn out to be out of focus upon development of the film.
VIDEO
Video offers greater flexibility. A video director is in direct communication with each cameraperson and in real time sees the image each camera is getting. Duplication of shots can be avoided. The director sees the big picture, as he is able to view all the cameras at once. True, video assist is now common on motion picture cameras, as is intercom communication to the director, but the picture quality does not give an accurate representation of the final image or focus because the video assist camera does not have the resolution of the film camera lens. But, and possibly more importantly, video allows online editing, electronic cutting of individual cameras directly to a master tape or to large screens on stage during a live concert.
Depending on the budget and capability of the mobile video truck, the program (line cut) is double-recorded with time codes for offline editing use. The program is the real-time mixing of multiple video camera shots or taped feeds onto one master tape or onto a live line transmission. Offline refers to the time when the director can view the tapes without incurring the heavy cost of having an editor and expensive equipment in an editing suite, another cost savings. One or two iso (isolated) tapes are recorded for cutting in the postproduction editing session. Depending on the union situation, either the technical director, who also switches the line cut, or the assistant director will be responsible for switching cameras onto the iso feeds. Iso feeds are switched as straight cuts. No dissolves or fades are done on the iso tapes, but they are possible on the line cut, as are split screens and other electronic effects, which again saves time in editing.
Iso feeds are used for three reasons. First, they cover other action in case the online camera has technical problems or the cameraperson loses focus. Second, they allow the director to concentrate on the main action, although the director can ask for a particular shot to be isolated. Having that extra tape avoids forcing the director to make quick judgments on unplanned shots. Third, the iso feeds can also be used to lay in audience shots or other cutaways for the final edit. They can cover a composition error that is not seen until editing or can be used as the second image in a split screen or other effects on the final cut.
Each director has his or her own way of switching iso feeds. Some keep the wide camera on iso throughout the performance and switch only close-ups to the program feed. Others have the assistant director (AD) keep an eye out and switch cameras into iso that are not the same as the on-the-line (program) camera.
THE DEBATABLE “LOOK”
The “film look” is highly regarded as being the equivalent of our concept of fantasy. Video is often talked about as too slick and real life, too 5 o'clock news, for entertainment. You have to decide which image is right for your artistic goals. A cross-media trendis now developing in which performances are shot on film and then transferred to video tape for editing and viewing. One film format has an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 for both 16mm and Academy 35mm, the same that is used for television; however, wide-angle, Cinemascope-type lenses should not be used because too much of the image is lost when viewed on the home television receiver. It is hard for a cameraperson to keep in mind the television “safe area” when shooting, and that is why you see boom mics in pictures on television series shot on film more often than when they were shot on tape. Here, again, with video the director and technical director can see this happening, whereas with film it will not be apparent until screening the next day, when it is too late to go back and reshoot.
The National Television Academy technical specifications state that as little as 35% of the image on standard 35 mm film will actually be received in the home via television. The “safe area” for video represents about 70% of the total aperture area of the 1.33:1 aspect ratio of the film. You can see why it is so easy for critical action to be cut off in film viewed on television.
Sony markets an HD video camera outfitted like a film camera. The F33 is a multiple-frame-rate camera that has a price tag of $150,000. Because the more standard Sony 1500 HD used on the last Bruce Springsteen tour falls within the price range of $79,000,I think it is a good bet that the F33 comes closer to producing a film look than any other video camera.
LIGHTING CONSIDERATIONS
The inevitable conflict between the recorded media's lighting needs and the obligation to the live audience, who paid good money to see the concert, is always a tough fight. The concert lighting look has to be broadened for these other media. A compromise must be reached or the recorded product will suffer. Your job as lighting designer is to enhance the artist's image. If the tape or film is bad because you would not compromise your concert lighting, the artist is the loser.
When I first started doing rock video in 1972 as the lighting director for Don Kirshner's Rock Concert series, I had already logged 6 years of concert tour lighting. The concert lighting director is, in fact, the concert director. We direct the audience where to look; we produce the visual picture. In video or film, the concert lighting director becomes subservient to the director, who chooses the image, framing, and other shots to be recorded; therefore, the concert lighting must be broadened to facilitate these needs, something the live show usually avoids. The video lighting director has to use a broader brushstroke when lighting.
How can we best handle the live show so video or film and live audiences are equally happy? I feel there is no need for the concert to be completely relit. Rather, balance is the key. The best video cameras have a contrast ratio of 32:1, while film has greater latitude (from 64:1 to 128:1). Video gives you five f-stops, as opposed to film, which gives you eight or more. As a result, video lighting ratios should not exceed 3:1 in the overall picture balance. The 2:1 ratio is used to teach video lighting, but concert lighting can exceed this to help give the lighting that raw-edge quality.
WHAT THE CAMERA SEES
The best way to check how the camera will see the stage is to purchase a contrast filter for about $20. The Tiffen Company's model, which is widely used in fi lm production, works well in video if you get it with a 2.0 neutral-density filter. Hold the glass to your eye and watch a live concert to see how much of the detail will be missed by the video camera's reproduction system. This same procedure can be used with film once the film stock and its properties are determined. A different filter, with the appropriate higher contrast, will accomplish the same thing for film.
Another factor of balance is color. The contrast filter will also show you how some color combinations are lost when recorded by the camera. Remember that the video camera has definite limitations. What the limitations are depends on the camera. The current king is the high-definition camera used for sports,most news broadcasts, game shows, and variety shows. Reality shows do not spend the extra money, mostly because they operate in low-light situations with smaller hand-held cameras or remotely operated surveillance cameras.
Also, if you have film or slides in the live show, they probably will not be bright enough to be recorded on the tape. Slides and film are best added electronically during postproduction through a variety of effects processes. Remember, you are lighting for a broader view of the show and what the eye sees is not what the camera sees with its very limited contrast ratio. Lighting on scenic pieces generally must be increased in intensity if they are to read properly. LED screens have pretty much eliminated this problem; even if the tour is using slides or film, it would be logical to switch to LED screens for the actual shoot so this issue of level is eliminated.
There are ways of compensating for light issues through the efforts of the video controller. The controller watches and controls, among other things, the iris of the video camera. However, you should not count solely on this ability to boost the level electronically to make the light intensity acceptable.
THE CUTAWAY
An example of why cutaways are important is a 5-minute guitar solo that goes over great with the live audience but is dull when transposed to film or tape. Television viewers have very short attention spans and must be kept interested with visual images that add to the enjoyment of the music. Extensive studies have been made on how often to change images if you want to keep the television viewer's attention. The director must use cutaways such as the live audience's reaction to the solo or other band members' reactions to insert during the solo.
MONITORS
You should request that a monitor be placed at your lighting console; ideally, it will come with a router that allows you to switch from one camera to another so you can see what options the director has. Ideally, you should have a separate monitor with the line feed so you can see what shot the director is using. Oh, and also demand an intercom that allows you to hear the director and even communicate with him. It will eliminate a lot of confusion. This will be a big help, and, depending on your console setup, you can stay one step ahead of the director by altering the balance of the cue. I suggest you make some “safe cues.” Those are specials on each musician, the audience light, some broad set light, and anything else that might be able to fill in a hole when you see that the camera is looking into a black hole and you can't alter your active cue sequence.
BALANCING FOREGROUND WITH BACKGROUND
Camera sensitivity to light has greatly improved over the years, especially with HD. The benefit for live performance filming is that light levels don't need to be so high that white light ambience wipes out all of your great stage looks and graphics. Do not be alarmed that the follow spot levels may be reduced significantly, as low as 30 to 40 fc. That is not much more than normal room lighting. The lower that the foreground level can be, the better for your background, especially for stage sets that are lit with more saturated colors or that are farther upstage. For brighter stage sets and backgrounds with bright LED screens, an intensity level will be determined to balance the performer with those types of special surroundings.
KEY LIGHT
Key light is generally thought of as a film term. The key light is the primary source of illumination from the direction that the camera views the scene most of the time. It is this source that very often has the lowest foot-candle (note that most film people now use lux to defi ne light output) reading on the concert set. In television, it will often be the brightest.In concert lighting, the backlight is usually the brightest. Because follow spots are usually the concert designer's only front light and because they cannot be trained on all of the musicians all of the time, it is unlikely that the camera will have enough illumination for other shots, or cutaways, on the drummer, keyboard player, or other individual band members. The lighting problem on cutaways can be solved in three ways. First, add follow spots. Not always an artistically justified solution, I know, but it will do when no additional fixed lighting can be added. Second, adding an even bank of front white light producing 125 fc will help. The video controller will be thrilled, but it takes away from the audience's interest in what is happening on stage. Third, try placing white light specials from the front on the drummer and keyboards and backup singers that can be dimmed up only as required. This will cause the least change in the live look while satisfying the video controller and the director's needs.
THE CLOSE-UP
At least one or two cameras will be fixed on the long shots to capture full stage looks, which are referred to as safety shots. If the director has the technical ability, he or she will keep a running record of this shot so that if at any time a close-up or the start of a guitar solo is missed they can cut to the wide shot and crossfade into the shot they wanted when it is available. Given that most concerts are shot with a minimum of 5 cameras but more generally 8 to 10, you will quickly see the disparity of cameras on or near the stage. The chances are that some of your most proud moments of concert lighting drama will end up on the edit bay floor in the final DVD product because the director wants close-ups of the lead singer's looks of angst or a close-up of the guitarist's fingers.
Close-up shots will feature predominately in any long-form concert film, and a constant level of white balanced light for the performers is paramount for the overall presentation of the film. Follow spots and conventional luminaires or a moving luminaire with a fixed position for key light will normally suffice for long-form concert film shoots, just as long as the angle is not too extreme. Saturated color on a performer for too long causes the viewer to get tired or can lead to eye strain. So, you may need to back off of the primary red on Alice Cooper some of the time.
CREATING BACKGROUND
There has to be some reference created for the filmmaker to demonstrate distances that will give the viewer a sense of being there, too. Is the concert being filmed in a venue that is as vast as a stadium or in an intimate club? Between the stage and reverse shots into the audience, camera angles cover 360 degrees of wherever you are. Creating backgrounds with light or adding more scenery to light in addition to your normal road concert lighting rig may be a consideration for avoiding black and empty backgrounds, particularly to the off-stage right and left. Concert designers, both set and lighting, normally conceive the show as being viewed from a nice, neat 90 degrees from the front.
As an example, for an Elton John concert in Verona, Italy, at the 2000-year old coliseum, the stage set was dwarfed in comparison to the immense place. The seating was not sold behind the stage, so we built 4 60-foot-long trusses and laid them down on the seating, following the naturally steep incline of the stadium, and lit the neutral-colored bench seating as if it were a huge cyc. At each exit in the coliseum, we mounted a quartz light (45 of them total) above the portal, and the ruined architectural remains, high above the top rows, was dramatically uplit. No matter where the camera pointed—panning the audience and the historical monument or pulling back to a full stage shot—all bases were covered.
AUDIENCE LIGHTING
Audience lighting for taping or filming a live show is a must. Without it, the show might as well be shot on a sound stage where camera placement and lighting are optimal. What makes the performance live is the audience's reaction to the band. The producer or director needs that reaction on tape. A talk with the director will yield definite ideas on how to handle audiencelighting. Generally, the discussion will focus on four questions:
- Should the light be colored or white?
- Is the audience light to be on all the time or just betweens ongs?
- Does the director want front, side, backlight, or a combination on the audience?
- How much time and money can be spent to mount additional lighting for the audience?
I do not like to light an audience from the onstage angle as it puts constant light in their eyes and makes it difficult for them to concentrate on the stage performance; however, there are the wow moments or sing-along moments that any concert designer will take advantage of with “audience blasters.” Backlight is great for showing the size of the audience on a wide shot, and sidelight will pick up enough faces to satisfy most directors without annoying the whole crowd. You see many audiences lit with colored pools of front light, especially in the back of the auditorium or arena. It looks great on camera, but it can be very distracting if you are the one sitting looking into those luminaires.
Just accept the fact that whatever you do is a nowin situation and make the best of it. The audience will hate being distracted no matter what you do, so you might as well give the video or film what it needs with as much consideration to the audience as possible. I recommend sidelight as being the best alternative, and it should only be brought on between songs and during a few fast numbers. Remember that the reactions can be cut in anywhere so the specific song being performed at that moment makes no difference as long as there is no reference to the stage in the shot.
ACCOMMODATION
Whatever the lighting director does to accommodate video or film on a live concert will have adverse effects on the artist and the road crew's normal operation of the tour, so try to understand the crew's problems and the pressures they are getting from the artist. If you go into this with an open mind and a willingness to cooperate, much can be accomplished and an exciting show can be recorded that satisfies everyone.
LONG-FORM CONCERT VIDEOS
So you screamed you head off for 2-1/2 hours for your all-time favorite performer. You sang along with every song, probably out of key, but you didn't care. The weird and wonderful part about concerts is that when they are over, all you have is your memory of the experience. But, did you notice all those film or video cameras around, maybe a jib boom on a track running back and forth in front of the stage? Your experience may have been captured in a longform concert DVD, including the “B” roll of the events before and after the concert. Every artist and manager wants to make a DVD of the concert, not only for archival reasons but also for commercial reasons. It is lucrative and could make it to cable television or a major network broadcast.
For most concert-goers, there is no substitute for the thrill of being a part of a live show. But, if the long-form concert video is as close as we can get, the concert lighting designer has a chance to move into another facet of the business without really trying. All it takes is to go on the road with a band and inevitably a camera crew is going to show up. The problem is, how can a concert lighting designer be prepared for involvement with a film crew and director?
The day of the concert, film people that you have never met before are going to come in and invade your world. Typically, the film company will bring a qualified film (or video HD) lighting designer as tangible insurance that all things in the basic film lighting areas are covered. Recognize that the visiting lighting designer is now the boss; you have been demoted. It is a bitter pill for some lighting director to swallow, particularly if the visiting lighting director is condescending or shows little patience. It makes the day far more difficult, but it happens. Accommodating the situation with the film director of photography (DP) or gaffer, whether you like the person or not, will be far easier if you understand some basic Film 101. Learn some filmparlance.1 There can be few experiences that will match the thrill of working on a film or video/DVD, more so because you will also enjoy some ownership of the finished product.
LIVE VIDEO
Changes made to the background lighting and color changes are usually not requested. The director normally wants to keep the live feel. Many times that may be created by the haze showing the air light on the wide shots, which gives this live look in the minds of directors I have worked with. However, the musicians need to be treated with some white light that is balanced for the camera levels. Balancing the intensity of the follow spots may require adding a neutral-density filter that reduces the output without altering the color. In some cases, the film lighting designer may demand that the follow spots be balanced for 3200 Kelvin, which is the standard for indoor video and most films. This can be accomplished if the gaffer or lighting designer has brought along a color meter that shows what the color temperature is. They should also have brought the appropriate correction filters with them, and you certainly should not be expected to have them.
If your show is using LED screens, then balance may be an issue here, also. Because most LED screens were designed for use outdoors, their color temperature range and lumen output are high even for a rock concert. Many are run at as little as 30% intensity. if the concert is being shot on video, the video controller will probably have a say as to what the balance should be between the follow spots, the stage lighting, and the screens.
1 Blain Brown, Motion Picture and Video Lighting, Sećond ed. (Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 2008).