WHITE PAPER: Full Multicamera Video Production
The band
Dark Side of The Wall are a Midlands based Pink Floyd tribute band that have been touring for over twenty five years. Known for their accurate live renditions of Pink Floyd from throughout the Floyd back catalogue, they also pay great attention to the production values of their shows, so it was with no small amount of excitement that we worked with the band to create a full concert film for them.
Check them out here: www.pinkfloydtribute.co.uk
The client: “After a couple of line up changes in recent years a new promo video was a priority project for Dark Side Of The Wall. We’ve worked with Ampro Media for a couple of years now for marketing and promoting our shows, so we knew we could put our trust in them to produce exactly what we needed at an affordable cost.”
The solution
The band initially wanted a promo video that they could use to promote their 2023 tour dates. That was the brief and we discussed several different ways that we could create such a film with minimal disruption to the band or having to take them into an expensive studio or recording location. After much discussion, it was decided that the solution that would give the most bang for their buck was to film an entire show on multiple cameras. Furthermore, to capture great audio would require a full multitrack recording of not just the band but the audience and general atmosphere of the show.
Tamworth Assemby Rooms was the venue and was chosen by the band because it would have a great crowd, great facilities and there was room back stage to position the equipment necessary for a full video and audio production system.
On the night, we live switched our programme video feed between five cameras and we could have live streamed the resulting output to a worldwide audience if required. The live video switched edit (the buttons we push on the night) was also recorded to our hard drives. And finally, we had a split running from the bands front of house console to our own console so that we could record a full 32 tracks of audio alongside several stereo atmosphere recordings that we also had running.
The entire production would be shot in full HD and in the case of some of our cameras, 4K video.
Planning costs = several hours X £0.00
The client: “When Ampro Media first spoke of filming but also editing ‘live’ as the show took place, we totally bought into the idea. To switch between the cameras live meant the saving on post production time was obvious, with only tweaks to refine the footage required as opposed to a full edit created via the hours of footage from 5 cameras.”
The benfits
The client: “The process on the night was so easy for us. We hardly knew they were there, which is what any band would want. This allowed us to concentrate on the audience and not a video crew. Having now seen what they captured and have put together for us we’re beyond thrilled.”
Recording both the live programme output from the live switch edit that we performed on the night alongside each individual camera feed (or ISO) allowed us to load the entire show into our edit facilities to make any changes to the edit that we or the band felt were required. So whilst the majority of the edit was already done, in post production we made several tweaks and changed the edit around to improve the choice of shots and generally make the edit better than it was when we recorded it on the night of the show.
Filming and recording costs = 8 hours X £50.00
The full multitrack audio recording would become crucial during the creation of the final video because it allowed us to remix the entire show specifically for video and correct any mix issues that may have occurred on the night. This method produces far better audio results for the finished film. The band had two options here, to save money:
- The first was for the band themselves to take our multitrack audio, remix it to sound just as they wanted it and then supply us with mastered stereo audio that we could drop into the film. This option would save the band money because we wouldn’t have had to charge for our time mixing the audio.
- The second option however was for us to remix the audio directly on the edit timeline and this is what the band opted for. They liked the sound we produced during post production and opted to send us notes on any minor changes that were required. We duly built those changes into the final mix.
The final touches involved us adding titles where appropriate and grading every shot in the production to correct any colour anomilies, sharpen a few shots and generally bring the image quality to where it should be. This is a complex task made even harder by the ever changing lighting at a concert. We graded a total of 1,577 shots, some of them over multiple passes. This was no small project!
Audio mix post production = 9 hours X £50.00
Grading post production = 15 hours X £50.00
The client: “Post show all we’ve contributed was suggestions regarding the audio mix and that process was also very easy with Ampro Media doing everything we asked, creating an audio mix that makes the video footage and subsequently the band, sound amazing.”
The end result
With this powerful workflow, there are many options now available to the band. First, there is the full concert film. This can be rendered out to a single YouTube video, DVD (in standard definition) and Blu-ray Disc (in high definition). As we used a professional based workflow, the quality of the final product could be packaged for sale by the band on their merchandise stall at future shows. Sales would in effect pay for the entire video production we did.
The band also requested that we split every track of the entire show into specific files so that they could upload them to their YouTube channel. This is a great idea for a number of reasons:
- It allows the band to share specific moments of the show with their audience on social channels and their website, which in turn drives continued engagement with their audience. This is great for future marketing and promotion in general.
- The band kept some of these individual tracks back from their audience, so they could drip feed content to them on their social channels over the next year or two. In short, they’d always have some great quality website and social content to share, for no additional cost.
- They could refer specific questions from prospective ticket buyers on social channels, to the exact track they were asking about, thereby greatly increasing the focus of their promotion with laserlike targeting of content.
The band decided that they wanted to have a go at producing their own edit of a short promo video for future use. They have access to all our media that we captured on the night including cameras and multitrack audio stems, plus the mixes we’ve created for use in the full length film we created. We estimate that this decision would save the band around 5 hours at £50.00 per hour.
Another option for the band was to create a double CD recording of the entire show, using our multitrack audio, that they could again sell to their audience to generate additional revenue streams to pay for the video production and also make a profit to offset the costs of future shows.
The client: “Without hesitation, all of us in our band would recommend this process to other bands at our level as a brilliant, affordable way of producing not just a promo video but a film of your whole concert.”
Total production costs
As you can see from the notes above, all our services are charged at £50.00 per hour. It’s that simple.
The client can choose to go with a simple package that allows them to generate a substantial amount of recorded media such as audio multitrack stems, programme video (the live switch we do during the show) and the individual camera media that we also record. Finally, there are several stereo atmosphere tracks that we record.
When it comes to the post production process, again we charge at the same rate for our services. We can do as much or as little as the client wants. A quick tidy up of the programme edit is perfectly possible with around 4 or 5 hours work. A full re-edit could just as easily be done. And the audio can be mixed by the band from our multitrack stems or alternatively left to us. Finally, grading the whole film is not absolutely necessary. We just like to grade our projects because we can get just a little more quality from the video images and make those images pop.
The bottom line is, you tell us how many hours you want us to spend working on the post production and we’ll invoice accordingly. Ultimately, our services can suit almost any budget. We’re providing broadcast quality, full video / film making services with professional quality audio, for a mere £50.00 per hour.
If you would like to know more or talk to us about your band / show and what we can do for you, simply drop us an email or contact us.
Filming, editing & post production = 32 hours X £50.00
Expenses (mostly fuel) = £68.00
Promo edit by the band
The band created a couple of promo films using the media we generated on the night and their own title sequences. These were not available when we published this white paper, but they are now, so we’d love to share them with you here!