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Bach Prelude for Solo Cello
  • I just shot this with 3 cameras and would love to get some feedback on the edit, pacing, and overall look.

    Cam A (straight shot): gh3 with sigma 18-35 + SB Cam B (low angled):gh2 with slrMagic 25mm Cam C (high angled) GH3 with panny 35-100mm

    Unfortunately, the Cam C operator didn't nail focus so that angle looks a bit soft compared to the others.

    Password: bach

  • 6 Replies sorted by
  • Thing that worry me here.

    First. Glasses. I am serious. Glasses and his gaze kills video.

    Second. Items in frame.

    Third. Top camera plan with lighting on the floor and more items in frame that must not be in it.

    Last. Lighting seems too hard.

  • Thanks Vitaliy.

    Regarding glasses: No control there. I won't be asking a performer to take them off since he is reading music for the rest of the concert.

    Items in frame: totally agree. The space was very limited/limiting and they had to move the audience in closer right before we started. Ugh!

    Lighting was 4 source fours that were brought in to the space for the performance.

    Keep in mind that it was a concert, not a video shoot. Well, sort of. I guess it was both, but I didn't have freedom and control over some of these aspects.

    In any case, thanks for the feedback. It all makes total sense to me.

  • i enjoyed the music, so congrats on the audio recording and the multicam syncing,

    but i dont think you took the full advantage of shooting in multiple cams, i´m mean the framing was always the same and on two cams it was just too similar, perhaps a better option could of have been to use one cam for the wide angle, static, so you can go back to this one as the safe choice. Another for details, like the bow, the left hand, the head movement, even tele-macro shots, (maybe the gh2 that was on top that way you could of also hide thge non desired elements ), and the other using a framing that is not so similar to the wide shot, changing from first plane to bow.... just, if you have more than one camera use the three to get diferent feelings, different framings

  • @lolo

    Thanks for taking the time to check it out and comment!

    Yeah, I'm actually primarily a musician so the audio is much easier for me to capture just right vs the video, which is still very much a new skill set.

    I agree that the two close cameras are too similar. You learn much from each shoot!

    O

  • Nice video, nice sound. When recording cello, there are always the twin problems of stair stepping in the strings and shine from the varnish--I thought you handled those very well.

    I'll make a few suggestions. I would have patched the few out of tune notes as well as the slide at 1:42, and some of the bass notes are not held long enough, again, very easy to patch. The "sky cam" is fun but it doesn't tell me much about the music of Bach, I would have preferred some detail of both the left hand and the bow, but without the lunar lighting. I like a little blurring on some shots at a moderate tempo to convey the feeling of musical motion.

    I can understand why the musician wore the suit, but I always advise the musicians to wear color and texture. A white shirt is always distracting, color and texture draw you in. However, now that you have the suit, setting the grey point lower or adjusting your black point will make the suit look more real in the lighting setup you have. Under lights, formal wear looks too light and need to be color corrected.

    And, lastly, Bach is an 85/15 market. That is, 85 percent of audience is an "original instrument" audience: the performance is very good, but very modern; it does not tell the story of Bach. Better to use a baroque cello: when Ma recorded the suites he went to Holland and studied the baroque cello, then made his legendary recording. It adds a dimension and texture to the visual and audio impression. There are a million versions of this piece, you don't want to be in the 85 percent bracket, you want to be in the 15 percent bracket.

    Also, I don't get the feeling that it is a live performance, it looks more like a series of clips. If you want it to look live (whether it is or is not), we need to feel more in the space and more in the moment. So for example no one would clap after the first movement of a suite, they would wait until the piece is over, unless it is an encore.

  • For me, I thought the editing got a bit better later in the performance but it felt like the edit points earlier could really benefit from being massaged slightly (maybe just a few frames) to better accentuate the forward movement of the music.

    The front shot stood out to me as looking a bit harsher than the other two (which felt moodier in a nice way) so I would consider handling the grading/correction a little differently.

    I agree about the angles being too similar but most of the other things people mentioned (while they certainly seem to make sense and be constructive) honestly simply did not grab much of my attention or seem easily corrected. The clutter issue with the piano could be easily handled by darkening it in the grade, for instance.