I’m a lighting engineer for events (gigs, clubs, etc)
I do some work for an infie film company, and some music videos, and videographers regularly film at my gigs. They all use a wide range of cameras, from Sony fx3s, to REDs, to canon rebel series.
When they film, I need to boost the light on stage. Buuut never to a level I’m uncomfortable with, or to a level that changes the vibe of the night.
When TV folks are filming, despite the huge camera and wide range of abilities on it, we need to wash out the stage and kill the vibe. For instance, in a night club, we have to wash out the performers and the crowd to a level that makes everyone very uncomfortable.
Why is that?
It’s not a difference between YouTube vrs broadcast, because everything I’ve shot with the indie film company has been for our national TV station (a few TVCs, and a full live music series).
If the end result looked good from TV peeps, I wouldn’t be as confused. But it doesn’t. It looks exactly like it does in the room: washed in tungsten, and low contrast.
Also: if TV are filming a live event, where there’s definitely going to be low light- why not use a camera that’s designed for that? If the TV camera can’t do low light, why bring the wrong tool for the job?
(For instance, if I’m speccing a job with film crew on it, I’ll make sure I have some very high cri soft diffuse front wash: right tool for the job)
In: 4
Lots of light will give it a flatter consistent look and is easier to edit with preset color grading presets.
Either that or the cAmera haS a small chip or sensor and they’re being cheap?
Cameras with larger chips require less light to get a clearly defined image. The larger surface area of the chip captures more light. These cameras are also more expensive.
As for bringing the wrong tool for the job, if you’re working in clubs on lower budget shoots, it’s generally because they’re trying to work with what they have available. High end, or even decent quality cameras and lenses can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (or much more for cinema quality stuff).
Pro shoots like you might see at a live rock show in an arena are usually carefully planned and the equipment selection is coordinated with the lighting design.
I suppose it could be a few things including the cameras used and their preferred lighting style.
It’s possible to use cinema cameras with good low light on multicam shoots if they have the budget. The Sony Venice 2 has a second base ISO of 3200 which is on par with what the FX3 boys are sometimes shooting at.
That would only be on high-end productions however and the camera packages and lenses would be extremely expensive. More standard broadcasts will employ traditional 2/3″ cameras which are less sensitive, use high ratio zoom lenses (which often have slower maximum apertures) and will probably be shooting in SDR (Rec709) which has more limited dynamic range than if they are shooting log or raw like on the indie productions.
The indie production will most likely go through a proper colour grade whereas the colour on the broadcast workflow is probably more baked-in during the shoot.
This means that they want a flatter, more consistent lighting so make setting a good exposure easier.
As for it being a vibe kill I think it depends on the nature of the event. If the event is put on for the filming, then the audience’s enjoyment is secondary to the filming. The audience are part of the production and can be thought of as extras basically.
If they are paying customers at an event that is also being filmed then I agree that a compromise needs to be struck so that the filming doesn’t totally change the atmosphere too much.
It’s probably because those cameras are expected to be used in studio conditions, where you’ll always have good lighting, so it’s not something the manufacturers care very much about. While something like a Canon Rebel is expected to be used in most any environment imaginable. Parents want to make their son’s birthday mostly lit by candle light and so push for better low light performance, while in a movie that’d be a staged scene, so they’d light it really carefully and put a humongous chunk of glass on the TV camera.
There have been a bunch of oddball things that don’t work well outside of studio usage. For instance cameras with scanning backs, medium format cameras, weird things like the Sigma Foveon.
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