Road Side Poppies' first gig
Road Side Poppies had their first gig last week, at Churchill College in Cambridge. Some video evidence filmed by myself is now available for your enjoyment. Expect a Beatles-esque indie pop sound, with lots of vocal harmonies :-)
The event was held in the Churchill College MCR, a sort of grad student bar / lounge. They have a regular open mike night, and the band wanted a low-stakes, low-key first gig venue as they were all pretty nervous - with the exception of M., who's an experienced gigger from his time with Colonel Bastard. I used a borrowed camera, and filmed both sets by the band. The aim was to double the footage by filming two versions of each song, so I could edit it down later into a more visually interesting package. In the end that's not what's happened, since the band wanted to get the footage up straight away, but I might have a go later at doing a better video clip or two for them.
This was my first experience of filming a live performance event. The camera itself was decent, the problem was that the lighting was not. T'was already dim in the first set, and dimmed further during the second set, when a bunch of post-dinner revellers arrived and crowded into the space. To compensate, I experimented with the night-mode switch, which adds a flash fill and a sort of arty slo-mo, which I'm sure gets pretty darn tedious to watch after a minute or two. I rapidly realised that tripods are essential. Trying to keep the cam steady, even while seated and improvising with my knees / hands / elbows, was not easy. I tried to achieve some slow pans, not too jerky, and had a go with the zoom, although I'm still not quite sure if it was optical or lens zoom... Great fun, and I'm now keen to get more experience. I'm also tempted now to check out camera prices in Singapore when I pass through.
The event was held in the Churchill College MCR, a sort of grad student bar / lounge. They have a regular open mike night, and the band wanted a low-stakes, low-key first gig venue as they were all pretty nervous - with the exception of M., who's an experienced gigger from his time with Colonel Bastard. I used a borrowed camera, and filmed both sets by the band. The aim was to double the footage by filming two versions of each song, so I could edit it down later into a more visually interesting package. In the end that's not what's happened, since the band wanted to get the footage up straight away, but I might have a go later at doing a better video clip or two for them.
This was my first experience of filming a live performance event. The camera itself was decent, the problem was that the lighting was not. T'was already dim in the first set, and dimmed further during the second set, when a bunch of post-dinner revellers arrived and crowded into the space. To compensate, I experimented with the night-mode switch, which adds a flash fill and a sort of arty slo-mo, which I'm sure gets pretty darn tedious to watch after a minute or two. I rapidly realised that tripods are essential. Trying to keep the cam steady, even while seated and improvising with my knees / hands / elbows, was not easy. I tried to achieve some slow pans, not too jerky, and had a go with the zoom, although I'm still not quite sure if it was optical or lens zoom... Great fun, and I'm now keen to get more experience. I'm also tempted now to check out camera prices in Singapore when I pass through.