I asked last night by my sister's boyfriend to shoot some of his shows (he's a musician, if haven't guessed by now) down in NYC. He said he would pay a good amount, so I agreed. He hasn't told me any details just yet, but I want to be as prepared as possible. This would be my first time shooting a public event, so I need some help. Whats the best way to go about doing this??

1)where to set up cameras, I'll be working with 2 at MOST

2)I don't know much about shows and such. Is there a master audio recording?

3)Any other useful tips, please come forth with them.

Thank you.

I have never professionally filmed a live show, but I did film a jam session one time, and I tied directly into their audio mixer (they had an xlr output that I ran into my Dv-500. It seemed to work pretty well, but it was a pain in the *** to have the xlr cables running on the ground. As for master recordings of the audio, that I have no clue on...most of the perfomances at the clubs around here don't use them, but then again, this is BFE Kentucky.

i've done one, two, and three camera shoots, and what you've gotta do is shoot the footage, get a sound board recording, synch them up (the 3 vid angles and the sound board recording, you could keep the other sound recordings as well and lower them sort of as ambient noise), and using your NLE (Vegas is easiest) just choose the assorted angles, and you're golden.

If you only have two cameras, put one in the back as a wide angle shot of the band and some of the crowd. The audio mixer is usually towards the back of the place anyway, so run the audio into that camera.

Then with the second one, do handheld where you can walk around and get different shots, and crowd reactions.

and, curious, how is Vegas easier than any other program?

I was looking into the same thing. My cousin's band wanted me to film a couple of there shows... That idea with two cameras, one in the back of the room hooked up to the board is the cheapest smartest way i've heard up to date!Genious!(I never thought of that!) or if you have audio level control on your cam like the gl2... consider buying the AZDEN wireless mic system and patching in the audio off the board instead of a mic.(EBAY) This way you can roam around anywhere you want... but beware of dropouts

Thanks for the help. I'll probably bring this post up again when I'm getting closer to the shoot and need more answers.

Thanks again.