Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Ideas on Preparing for Recording An Event

The Pasadena Chalk Festival is this weekend June 19 and 20 2010. The last time I recorded the festival was back in 2005 with my old trusty and cheap DXG that shot 320x240 .avi videos.

I just watched the older videos again. The good news is I'm ok with what I did with a very cheap camcorder. The bad news is that the audio is jacked. You can hear the motor grinding as it records. I'm going to see if I can recycle the older works into a new piece.

The better news is that I have improved equipment and more skills. This weekend I am going to record not only the Chalk Festival but some of the Make Music Pasadena Festival as well.

Pre-Planning Tips


Before I head out to an event or festival I try to think about what I need and want to record for the event.

I don't need to go all Hitchcock and plan every detail. It is a balance between how much video I can record, the battery life of the camcorders and the story I want to tell about the festivals.

Because I have recorded the event before I know that this time I want to do things differently:

  • More establishing shots and details of the artwork,
  • Interviews with participants or artists,
  • A lot more still images to help provide transitions to videos,
  • Maybe a bit of history about Pasadena Chalk and the prior version known as Absolute Chalk.
Knowing the above helps me to make sure that I bring some of the following:

  • A lightweight tripod that I can anchor in my handbag to steady the shot.
  • Fully charged batteries the night before
  • Checking the storage card on one camcorder and clearing the hard drive off of the other.
    Ok, most people would not bring two camcorders but one is really small. Some people don't mind talking into a small device but get freaked out with a full size camcorder.
Other than that I'd say wear comfortable shoes, maybe a sun hat, water and pacing yourself and your energies will get you through just about anything.

Oh, for those of you driving into Pasadena be aware that Parking Enforcement will be working triple time to make sure you leave with a parking ticket. Go Metro or park secure.

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