How To Shoot A Gig: Best Tips

Concerts of your favorite metal bands are something you want to remember for the rest of your life. Such impressions can be preserved for many years and after years you can watch a recorded concert and once again plunge into the atmosphere of drive and your favorite music.

Concert

The concerts of bands like Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, or Megadeth are iconic. You would want to keep such concerts in your memory forever.

You can shoot a video of the concert to keep it as a souvenir or create a concert video for your band. The shooting process is quite complicated and requires special training and equipment. When filming, you can use professional equipment or film a concert on your smartphone.

In this article, we will show you how to make a music video.

Before the start of the shooting, you need to make sure that you have the right to record. To do this, you need to contact the group managers and find out if they mind. It is also necessary to familiarize yourself with the restrictions of the site where the group will perform. On special occasions, the concert hall will provide you with a shooting location from where the best angle can be seen. You won’t be able to shoot at big concerts unless you are a professional cameraman or photographer. In any case, you need to respect the group and take their opinion into account.

Shooting with professional equipment

Assuming permission has been obtained from the band and the venue, you will need the following technique to shoot the live show.

For video shooting, you will need a professional camcorder with a built-in microphone, as well as a tripod. You can also use a DSLR or mirrorless camera, but in this case, you will need to separately take care of audio processing. In most cases, background noise is very audible on the recording and therefore you should remove background music from the video.

If you will be filming a concert from a long distance, you will need a long lens. Too much focal length will result in degraded video quality.

Concerts take an average of one and a half to 3 hours. You will not be able to hold your camera still throughout this time. This is why you need to purchase a sustainable video stabilizer.

Camera

Particular attention should be paid to video recording. Shooting with any equipment does not guarantee you good sound. Also, after recording sound, you should use programs that will help remove noise from audio online. This is why you need to purchase a quality audio recorder.

If you later want to share your video on the Internet or YouTube, then you will have to face the Copyright Policy issue. This question is serious enough not to run into some problems. That’s why take lessons on how to do it correctly.

After preparing the equipment, you need to choose the location from where you will film the concert. In order not to waste time, try to negotiate with the hall managers, come a few hours before the concert and install your camera or several if you want to make a more dynamic picture from different angles.

You can set up cameras on either side of the stage so that everything is visible and every corner is covered. You can also negotiate with the group’s managers to get permission to shoot video on stage. You only need to make sure that everyone in the group is aware of this.

Guitar Player

After installing the cameras, carefully adjust the camera to know that you will capture a great picture. Also, make sure the camera is firmly installed and the image quality is good.

Smartphone shooting

Many people shoot videos on their phones, but not everyone succeeds in creating a high-quality video that will not be inferior in quality to a professional camcorder.

Here we put together a guide for you to help you capture a live show on your smartphone.

1) Wipe the lens. This is such a simple thing that many users forget about it. Likewise, you can forget to remove the lens cap from the camera. To do this, you will need special alcohol wipes, which can quickly remove all dirt.

Phone Lens

2) Configure the camera. Modern smartphones allow you to shoot more than just one video format. In the camera settings, you can choose the necessary functions or make the settings manually. In a smartphone with the Android operating system, all settings can be found directly in the camera, and for owners of smartphones with the iOS operating system, you need to go to the general settings, find the “Photo and Camera” section and select the appropriate settings there.

For completeness of the image, it is necessary to choose a higher frame rate per second. Typically 24, 30 and 60 frames per second can be found in cameras. On your device, select the maximum number of frames per second and you will be able to provide a smoother image.

3) 4K format. Already today, many premium smartphones support this video format.

If you think that you do not need this format, since not all modern phones support it, then think that in a couple of years all phones will be able to play video of this quality. Choosing this format will provide you with a more accurate detailing of objects.

4) Image stabilization. Many smartphones from Apple and Samsung already support this feature. With this technology, you can get a more stable image transmission even if your hand is shaking or someone pushes you.

Phone concert

Either way, the first time around, you’re unlikely to get the perfect video unless you’re a pro. The following principles will help you achieve great results:

– Be patient. Don’t be discouraged that you can’t capture every shot. This will take time and practice.

– Learn how to work with lighting. Concerts can be held either indoors or during the daytime at various festivals. You need to study the lighting settings to get the right light adjustments.

– Take the time to edit your video. There are a huge number of programs and applications that can help you fix some details.

Conclusion

Surely you have your top artists on Last.fm that you would dream of seeing live and capturing their concert that will forever remain in your memory. If you are going to film a concert, then remember that you must obtain permission to shoot. Also, pay attention to setting up your equipment whether it’s professional equipment or a smartphone.