Just another night at the office...

HOW NOT TO USE THE STAGE!!

I spent some weary, non-stop hours last night filming an event (or at least trying to) with 15 speakers and a singing act. The lighting was theatrical (dramatic!) ie loads of light next to complete darkness. I emphasized that all speakers remain in the light during their speech, but many either walked in and out of the dark or chose to remain there 80% of the time...

Can things be worse for a filmer? Yes! Our friendly but inexperienced speakers either didn't use or walked away from the microphone half of the time, leaving me pumping the volume up and down. And to make things a complete disaster: the host of the evening had his own mic and screamed like a chicken, making the contrast with the other speakers even more noticeable.

HIDING FROM THE AUDIENCE IN THE DARK

I was about to leave after midnight when my client asks for 'the tapes'. Well, I don't shoot tape anymore, for more than 6 months now and I told her a few times before. She forgot! Big problem because she had to edit the material overnight. That didn't happen, obviously, since she has never worked with XDCam EX footage. And now I'm here transcoding 4 hours of footage to quicktime so a courier can pick it up at 9 AM. Just another sleep-deprived night at the office...