At my town, we have a community theatre. They get professionals to tape the play. But every year it sucks b/c they have never seen it and they either chop off peoples heads, or the audio is messed up..So, they have asked myself and one of my friends to film it. They would be paying us 500 bucks each. So, I need advice on how I should go about lighting it. I don't know what I should do with the cameras focus and the such. And most likely I can't have any lights set up since it will distract the audience. Any help will help.

What, the theatre isn't going to light the stage itself? That seems a wee bit odd. You shouldn't worry about adding too many more lights, most of the plays I've seen televised use the given lights and look fine.

-Elliott

Congrats on the paying gig! I shoot our City Arts plays (for free) in exchange for ads in the program. Since it is a free gig, I don't have to give them the pro treatment, but the quality is still good.

I use the on camera mic which as worked very well. Not optimal, but very functional. We're actually going to experiment with three hanging mics from the ceiling going into a mixer to see how that sounds.

The stage lighting is usually very good, even when they change lights, dim, use gels, etc. I shoot (GL1) on manual mode and constantly adjust the F-stop during the play to keep the picture looking good.

If I were being paid, I'd either shoot two nights or with two cameras, one for long shots (not necessarily full stage) and one for close ups, then edit the two together, using one soundtrack.

Make sure you have enough tapes and ask the director/contact person when the breaks are (scene changes, between acts/scenes, etc.) so that you can plan when to change tapes. If an act/scene goes beyound 63 minutes, then you need to know that!

Make sure you grab a program for titles and credits and list yourself/prod company at the end with web and contact info.

These are just a few things that I look for. Good luck!

just one thing to add to Mark M's response, if you shoot two seperate nights make sure to stress to the director that there can be zero costume are direction changes between those two days. You will, without a doubt, be pissed in post trying to cut unmatching footage. If you can, in anyway, shoot two cams the same night, you will be much better off. Set one on a tripod for long shots and get the close ups with another cam and a monopod or something. If you are going to do this then shooting at a dress rehearsal is preferable, so you can get right up there with the actors and not worry about geting in the way of the audience.

Since they are giving you money to film you should really try to get 2 cameras at once on the same night, trust me. You also need scripts for both cam operators to hightlight who covers what in the tricky parts- the biggest disapointment is to miss a character walk on with both cameras or switch tape at the same time. You can't cover the whole stage with the wide shot or you'll have excessive room above and below it. I zoomed in curtain to apron for the wide shot, panning around only when necessary. Usually the play is focused on one side of the stage at a time, but if an actor runs in from the other side you need to know when so you cover that entrance with the WS. This may only happen a few times but you both need to know when, so the WS reframes to the entrance a few seconds before and the CU operator knows he can stay where he is. If Cam 1 has the shot covered for a while, Cam 2 could maybe do a quick reframe, but this might be risky. What if you both reframed at the same time? This might be overkill but if you had a video monitor for the other angle you'd know for sure that everything is covered. Walkie talkies might be easier, you could have some codeword if your about to reframe your camera so the other guy will know to stay put. A third guy on your crew could have the script and signal right before a walk on.


I can tell you from expreience that filming different nights will turn into hell later on.
One time I made the decision to film over 4 nights so I could have different angles. A wide shot the first day, 2-3 person CU the next day, then some waist above shots sparingly, then from the catwalk for some other cool shots. I thought it would all cut together and that I'd sync the cleanest audio, the 2-3 person camera, over everything. Then comes edit time.. right after I import around 6 hours worth of angles for a 2 hour 15 minute play. I noticed the lighting design changed on some things each night, and the actors faced and walked differently quite often. I only wanted to do a cut if it looked continuous, many times that wasn't up to me, but I made the best of my options. A few months later the video was locked, and I began to sync my good audio track with what I had. Sometimes the actors rearanged their lines or said different things altogether. It took alot of work, it wasn't fun, but I did it anyway for my theatre friends and the money of corse. After more than 100 hours of edit time, and I kid you not, I was done. Then I did the dvd menu and covers for the cases and discs.

Finally it was done! I burned 24 copies for everyone, and even though I worked so much more than I thought I had to sell each one for $15 like I promised. I ended up making $360, but I spent $90 on blank dvds, cases, and labels so for every hour I worked I got like 15 cents.

I've done this before, and, didn't have two camera - it was many, many years before - but I will reiterate one very useful piece of information. Get a copy of the playscript, and take it with you and watch as many rehearsals as you can! Use it to plan in advance of what is happening, where the major action is, and where everybody stands, exits, and enters. Talk to the director about anything that you have questions about, they will apprectiate it! Also, make sure that it's a very up-to-date script, the stage manager should have one with all the latest changes, tweaks and additions.
I've directed theatre before, so I know that having consultations with the person taping the play is very important.

Have fun!