Shooting Theatrical Productions: Choosing a recording style

In many cases, a video camera is used to archive a production for historical or legal purposes. In this case your best bet is to set it up with a wide shot, set the focus and exposure, and not touch it until the performance is over. It will be boring, but the point of an archive is not an artistic one.

Creative recording: single camera

If you want to get more technical, then you can try to zoom in to various points of the action for closeups, and follow people as they move. If you want to go with this approach, try to see a dress rehearsal or another production night if possible, so you can be aware of the major movements within a scene. If you just show up and tape, you may miss major things on stage because you are taping something else. Seeing a performance ahead of time will also give you an idea of how to present it later (close ups versus wide angles, etc.).

However, every time you zoom out or move the camera represents a moment where you are missing some action on the stage. To rectify this, you can either record on multiple nights, or use multiple cameras.

Recording over multiple sessions

If you can't get more than one camcorder to record on a single performance session, and the performance has more than one opportunity to be taped, then you can successfully stretch out your taping over multiple sessions. A technique I've successfully used in the past is to record the first session as a wide shot from the center, the second session from the left where I do wide shots and close-ups, and the third session from the right where I also do wide shots and close-ups. If necessary I go back for a fourth to do any shots I missed.

There are some obvious problems with this strategy, the most difficult of which is simply that you have to go back multiple times before you can work on your end-product. Also, there's no guarantee that the talent will do the exact same performance from one night to the next! Lastly, this technique is murder for musical performances - editing where the cut has to match a certain beat is especially difficult, and even more so when the talent is changing tempo from night to night.

Recording with multiple cameras

The ideal situation I have found is to go with two or three camcorders in a single session. By putting one center, one left and one right, you can get all the coverage you need and editing is a snap.

If you are using multiple cameras and operators, confirm ahead of time with the operators what you want them to tape. You may want the left and right operators to do wide shots while you will do closeups. If everyone does a closeup, then when it comes time to edit, you won’t have any wide shots!

If you only have yourself as an operator, it is possible just to operate one of the cameras and set up the others to just record the entire production. Obviously in this situation, you are going to want to make sure that it has enough battery life (or AC power) and available tape to record until you can get back to it; also, unmanned cameras have to be placed in such a way as to guarantee that they won't be unintentionally blocked, or damaged.

Lastly, if you do use multiple cameras, ensure ahead of time that you can get a similar image among each camera. Nothing is worse than getting all your footage back after the event, and seeing red in one camera and pink in another.

In the next article in the series, we'll look at some final considerations and how to contend with them: audio, the audience, and you.