Good morning all,

I have been approached to do a multi-angle classical concert, which is held annually at a large church. A small clip of the last one (which I've also done) is included here:

Hampstead Adventist Choral Society (London) presents "Christ our redeemer" - sample on Vimeo

My setup for this concert included the following:


Cameras:

Sony NEX VG20 x 2 (Wide shot from balcony (with 18-55mm F3.5-6.3 lens), semi-wide from left of pulpit (with 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 lens).
Sony AX100 (conductor & audience shot,shot wide from the back of pulpit)
Sony A57 ("action" shots of various musicians, camera was placed on a shoulder-rig (with 35mm, F1.8 lens)

Audio:

Zoom H2n placed on light stand beside conductor (for ambient sound).
(The musicians and vocalists were mic'd up, so I was also given a stereo WAV file from the audio engineers to blend with the audio from the H2n).

Lighting:

Aperture LED lights (500W) x 2, placed on either side of the orchestra, used to supplement the lights already at the venue (tungsten / sodium type - the white balances on all cameras were set to "outdoor" as the sodium lights added a weird green hue to what the cameras were seeing).

I also have 3 small POV cameras for extra wide-angle shots if needed. (Sony ActionCam AX100 x 2, X1000V x 1).
(These were not used for the clip above as I didn't have them then).

All comments welcome, particularly those specifying how this set-up would've been done differently.
You could also comment about the editing / pacing of shots too, and how that could be improved or done differently.


P.S. I am a one-person crew :)


Thanks in advance,

Bryan

Update:

The recent concert I've shot went down very well ☺. The event was packed with about 500 people, which also had some dignitaries present such as the Lord Mayoress of Camden (London UK), and a retired renown music professor etc.

With my current camera setup I did the following at that event:

Main manned cam (1 x sony vg20 + 18-200 lens) shot from the middle of the front pew (there's no centre aisle - only just at the sides of the hall). This enabled me to capture shots of the main stage (choir) as well as from the string and woodwinds (right aisle), and brass/timpani (left aisle). The conductor (standing) was located in the middle of the audience so I got important shots of her too;

Unmanned cam (1 x vg20 with 18-55 lens), positioned on the balcony facing the main stage/front pew. This provided a wide angle shot of the overall action from the stage;

Unmanned cam (1 x ax100) positioned at back of stage facing the audience and conductor;

4 x unmanned pov cams (2 × as100v, 2 × x1000v), positioned at the front of the strings/woodwinds and brass/timpani sections, organ and piano. I would then correct the lens distortion in post so we have wide angles of all sections. The result was surprisingly usable footage which can be cropped/zoomed in post.

I placed a Zoom H2N beside the conductor as usual to capture ambient sound as well as getting a sound file from the PA area, and blending the two sound sources in post.

Finally, the general lighting in the hall was of the tungsten variety, so I bought one of my LED lights to add extra colour to the lighting (aperture light with daylight gel), mainly to bring out the highlights on the soloists etc.

I'll post a sample of the results soon ☺.