I’m going to be recording a musical that my daughter is performing in. It doesn’t need to be amazing quality but I obviously want to do a good job.
I will be using my X-T5 with a Rode on-camera microphone. The setup will be on a tabletop tripod, and I’ll be near the front of the stage. However, I don’t have permission to move my camera or microphone nearer to the stage.
I will be using both card slots with 64GB SD cards in them, so that the recording will move to the 2nd card if the 1st one fills up. I will also be using a PD charger to supply power (although my tests have shown the battery to last long enough).
Other than that, does anyone have any tips for the video and audio settings? I was thinking of just doing it in 1080p 16x9 30fps to keep file sizes reasonable.
As for my microphone, I don’t really know optimal settings. Should I decrease the gain a bit to prevent clipping?
I would record at 4k, this will give you a lot more editing and cropping possibilities if they ever arise, and it just looks great. It’s a lot more future proof too
I have recorded a lot of plays, presentations and performances professionally. Often with three cameras.
If I had one camera, getting close would not be my priority. Move the the camera to the absolute back of the room and use the focal length needed to capture the stage in its entirety (but not more).
Sound is captured from mixer. Sync it to your video using sound. Three loud claps five minutes before the play starts will make it easier to spot in the captured audio (proprietary software can sync automatically, I don’t know about FOSS).
Use the highest possible video resolution for editing headroom and possibly alternate crops.
A couple of years ago i did exactly the same (OK, my son, not my daughter ). Luckily I was able to record in multiple tracks from the headset microphones of the main actors plus a stage audio and an ambiance audio track (eventually I did not use the latter one) using a zoom R8. I cannot recommend having a backup enough, e.g. a little zoom recorder (a H2n in my case) or even a mobile phone, but ensure to decouple it from the floor as you could otherwise pick up the sound of walking people etc.
Regarding video, I recommend to have several perspectives (i had 8: 1 main camera for the whole stage, two hand cameras front of stage, one front of stage wide camera including audience left/right), one hand camera right of stage, one from front of stage but ~5 meters high and ~10 m away, one behind the stage towards audience (for the cheers), and one almost above the front right stage corner (make sure to secure the cameras such that they never ever are able to fall down, plus backup safety) to have spare material if the main camera fails or somebody is walking through the picture or the floor shakes the camera, and also to get a more interesting result by changing perspectives. Mobile phones would be good enough for the additional material, maybe you can get a couple accomplices in the audience to use their phone as a hand camera? But make sure the frame rate is the same on all cameras (phones typically do 30 fps per default) and also that all material has the same orientation. Also make sure that all cameras have an audio track recorded, even if only used as hand camera for short sequences, because editing tools such as kdenlive can align the video material of multiple tracks perfectly based on the audio tracks.
4k on the main camera would give you the opportunity to do different crops for a final 1080 video, but only makes sense if the camera can handle it well.
A floor tripod would be better in case the table is not only used for the camera, because a regularly used table will be extremely shaky and the tripod will exaggerate the shake. No matter which tripod, use sand bags to ensure it does shake as little as possible (e.g. put them over the legs).
Regarding post processing, make sure to remove any gaps and breaks to get a concise result. In my case, the whole play was more than 2 hours, but after cutting all the breaks and some stuff not needed the length was 45 minutes which I would still consider almost too long.
We are only allowed to take video for our own personal use, and therefore I can’t be too “professional” about it. That means I can’t plug into their audio, and I can only stay in my assigned seat. Luckily that seat is at a table at the front of the stage for better audio pickup, but maybe not ideal for video positioning. But that’s essentially the best I can do. I’m not allowed to put a proper tripod at the back or be away from my camera at any time.
I will try recording at 4K and see if I’ve got enough storage.
I’ll also do a backup with a smartphone.
I’ve never recorded a video, but I can tell you that 90% of my problems taking pictures of my daughter’s plays have to do with light. It’s always less than expected, and the color is always terrible (maybe all is related to being low budget school plays ). So I would recommend you to be at a rehearsal that includes the lighting to check that the camera configuration you’re thinking of using will give you something useful. When taking pictures you can correct on the fly, with the video not so much. If you can’t do it, be prepared to do a short video before the play starts but with the approximate lighting they’ll use and check it before the big recording.
Yes, I’m still uncertain what lens I’ll be using, and I won’t know until I get there. Unfortunately I can’t get to a rehearsal.
My fastest zoom is only F4, and my fastest AF prime is F2.8. I do have a couple of faster manual primes, but the depth of field might be too shallow below F2.8 anyway.
As an outdoor stills photographer, this kind of thing really isn’t my area of expertise, so it will be very less than ideal!
Does anyone have any thoughts on using Aperture priority, SS priority and auto ISO for exposure control?
I want to set up the camera and forget it because my priority is to enjoy the show and watch my daughter. So I don’t want to be constantly adjusting things on the camera.
My initial thought was to stay in Aperture priority, have a min shutter speed of 1/30 (to match frame rate) and just let auto ISO do its thing for changes in lighting.
But I guess the rule is to use a shutter speed double the frame rate, so that might push the ISO up quite a lot.
What about SS priority vs aperture priority vs auto ISO?
Would it be best to fix the ss and aperture and just use auto ISO? Or would fixing ISO and letting aperture change be better (it wouldn’t drop below F2.8, and it’s an APS-C sensor)?
If the players do not move around quickly you may be able to shoot with a shutter slower than 2x the frame rate. But images may blur unnaturally with motion. So in your case you will likely get some noise in the video with best settings.
For video I shoot in full manual mode. But for your case you may want manual with auto-ISO. It may not look “professional,” but you would cover lighting changes without intervention.
If your camera supports a 10-bit log format, and if you know how to grade log footage, that would give you a bit more dynamic range. The H.265 codec will give you some compression to save recording space, but be careful if you use the free version of Resolve for editing. I can give some suggestions for managing that if you need it.
There are conversion LUTS for video preview (and for editing). The camera model/features will determine if you can use preview LUTS.
If all of that is unfamiliar, you may prefer to shoot in Rec709, using your favorite color profile. It’s simpler.
If you use an iPhone for backup footage, I’d suggest Blackmagic Cam, which is both free and very capable. The latest iPhones support Apple log and H.265, and those options are available in the application.
Also, if you want to shoot any outdoor daytime scenes to include in your edit, you will need a variable ND filter to shoot at typical apertures and standard frame rate/shutter speed.
Video can be tricky!
Edit: Here is a photographer who discusses hybrid photo/video shooting with the X-T5. He briefly mentions video settings. The challenge is switching between different settings for photo and video, which he demonstrates. X-T5 for photo/Video
I’ve done some recording using a USB audio interface where you can see clipping straight away. It sounds like you won’t be able to do that even if you had the device, too much kit. So hopefully you’ll have automatic level control in the camera? I think you’ll have to experiment beforehand. Not easy!
I find this strange. Even modern cheap audio interfaces can handle passive microphones next to guitar cabs outputting 110-130db with no clipping. Maybe you were using a very sensitive mic?
I don’t know about the interfaces you mention.
If you take a standard instrument mic like a shure SM57 say, and into a USB interface like a focusrite 2i4 say, then you have to adjust the level on the interface. Too low and you’re “underexposed”. Too high and the audio will clip giving bad sound.
Yeah but you said “Where you can see clipping straight away”. With correct gain staging an sm57 should not clip in a standard interface, it’s what I mean.
). Luckily I was able to record in multiple tracks from the headset microphones of the main actors plus a stage audio and an ambiance audio track (eventually I did not use the latter one) using a zoom R8. I cannot recommend having a backup enough, e.g. a little zoom recorder (a H2n in my case) or even a mobile phone, but ensure to decouple it from the floor as you could otherwise pick up the sound of walking people etc.