25) Preparing for a Concert Shoot

One of my favorite types of work is concert live recordings. COVID put a nice halt on them, but I’ve just booked my first major one in over a year for next week, and with such a tight deadline I figured I’d write about the logistics behind planning a concert recording and the process I go through.

First getting the call, it's important to understand what all will be required of the shoot. The biggest thing for me is understanding initially the camera plot and what the technical expectations are of the client. We have to evaluate everything from stage design to lighting to the schedule and wage everything will be built and compare that with the technical requirements provide. Then we have to establish a budget and select cameras and operators. If it's an out-of-town show, we must account for hotels extra transportation and catering. The budget is one of the hardest parts for it to get required by the client you must outlined everything carefully and let them understand all the benefits to each line item you are proposing. Following budget approval, it is time to lock in rental equipment as well as camera operators and provide a final camera plot that technical director can base show off of. On the technical side it is important to consider all of the lenses, cables and lighting that will be required in order for all of the shots to look consistent. It is important also to make sure that every camera is in sync with each other so that the editors will not have a headache, and that the color matches on every camera. Since it is usually a two hour long show, we also cannot stop recording on any cameras and so we must have proper hard drive space and memory cards in order to make it the entire show without stopping. Usually, all in it is about a 20 hour shoot day but the hard work will always pay off when you see the edit. I’m super excited to be producing Kari Jobe, The Blessing Tour, Live, next week.