Toad and Wheat Concert Shot with Six AG-DVX100s

by Vinson Watson
Published on Apr 17, 2003 12:00 AM



In a press release from Panasonic it's stated that when director of photography Dan Friedman wanted to show off the capabilities of his new Panasonic's AG-DVX100 Mini-DV 3-CCD camcorder in a concert environment, he approached Aware Records, a Chicago-based recording company that specializes in discovering and promoting new talent. The result was a six-camera AG-DVX100 shoot of the up-and-coming rock 'n 'roll band, Wheat, a Massachusetts-based trio who last month opened for the band Toad the Wet Sprocket at Chicago’s popular music venue, the Vic. Camcorderinfo.com's Vinson Watson interviewed Dan, one of Chicago’s pro DPs, had to say about shooting a concert with six Panasonic AG-DVX100s.

Camcorderinfo reporter Vinson Watson called him up at his studio, DSF Productions, for comment. After a brief examination to assure that we weren’t solicitors we got down to brass tacs. When asked about the camera’s performance Dan had his to say, ''It exceeded my expectations both from a user friendly standpoint as well as image acquisition.''

We asked him whether it compared to shooting with the HD cams he normally uses on big budget shoots. ''You can’t compare the two, one (The DVX100) is considered a prosumer camera.'' he goes on to say ''...because it does have dual XLR in, [it is] a step above the PD150 (Sony) in my opinion. I would still much rather use a 27 vario Panasonic, which I own. [HD is still the superior format].

When asked about moving with the camera Friedman says mobility wasn’t an issue for him. He prefers the stability of some of the heavier shoulder mounted cameras and is able be mobile with those although maybe not as easily. ''When we shot the concert for Toad and Wheat (it was Wheat’s debut actually on tour with Toad) we were basically locked down. There were two hand held cameras, one at the base of the stage and one on the stage. And we were working in a very tight environment so from that standpoint the camera was nice to have.''

Friedman says they could’ve shot with the bigger cameras but they were not around not to mention all in all the budget just didn’t allow for it, plus he wanted to test the capabilities of the 24p Panasonic AG-DVX100. ''We knew what kind of images could be made but no one had done it before so we wanted to present that to the record company so that they could use it down the road for a press kit, press release, maybe a music video for MTV2 or whatever they wanted to do but we knew they’d get a fabulous product.''

But shooting isn’t just about the camera it is also about the editing too and Friedman got editing pro Billy Sheahan, from Chicago post house Swell, whose also vice president of the Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group, to do the rough cut. This was also a test of the camera’s ability to interface with the software, but no one had tested it in that way, where they were shooting six cameras simultaneously, all time code sync to get the project done. ''The camera (the DVX100) doesn’t have an internal timecode generator,'' said Friedman, ''...so we had to use a smart slate on the side of the stage, but all six camera’s locked into that and never shut down during the course of the concert which made it very easy for the editors to work with.''

Even though Friedman considers comparing the DVX100 to HD obviously like comparing apples to oranges he say, ''The camera image, edited with care, is spectacular. And the Lecia lens on the front helps that along with the [in camera pull down] that Panasonic created. It’s a brilliant piece of technology put into a very small affordable package that will allow independents an opportunity to be very creative and from that standpoint it’s viable.''