Set your cameras, pick the best angles, deal with the sound and the crowd. All those people in the middle between you and the best shoot are not an obstacle, take them as an added value to your shoot!
Shooting a live concert is pure fun and the stages are all pretty similar. Surely it depends on the music style, the instruments involved and the location. But once you are more experienced, you know any possible angle and you feel just extremely confident in any move. It is kind of a game for me, it wipes off all the boring parts, all the planning, the scripting, and it is about enjoying music and video photography.
I can work at the switcher asking for shoots, I enjoy the team work getting the best from each camera guy. Or I can be in the field, where there is a competition to get the best shoot and be called to be on air as much as possible… usually they put me on stage where you are not just filming the band, but you become a part of them, you are visible and they play with you. You can feel that the band and the crowd really appreciate your energy too.
A few of these clips are not real live switchings, the postproduction combine with a specific shooting style allow a realistic fake multi camera live shoot. You feel like having lot of angles covered, but it is not about cheating, it is just a way to reproduce the live music experience when you can’t hire an entire crew. You cover less songs and generate more editing work, but the result sometimes is even better than a live switching. I totally suggest this way if the video is only about promoting the band.
