Filming in Da Club
 

Hi.
Late this year i'll be filming some crazy dancing in a huge old dance hall. It will be very dark with the odd little white light shining down. The dj, up on stage, will be using a red glowing light so he can see what hes putting on the decks. Any tips on how to film this so people can actually see what the hells going on?
Ive tried before and its very grainy on the dancing and when ive tried to interview the dj, it looks as if hes from Mars.
Whats the best way to go about it?
cheers.

Add light. Even the Sony cannot shoot a black cat in a coal bin without some light.

With red light on the DJ, that's the way he will look. No option unless you light him too. Of course, if you light him, the video will no longer represent the reality of the dance hall.

Without additional light, you are going to get a grainly and dark video without much color.

cheers for the response
 

I wasnt sure if it was that obvious!
I thought someone might say to adjust some settings on the vx2000 - for which i know very little.

If the camera on full-auto won't get you an acceptable picture, then nothing you can adjust will probably help. Then it's time to reach for at least a candle.

yeah, don't use a Canon XL1-S

Keep in mind that red usually doesn't go well with DV. Shoot some
tests with red lights first and make sure you are looking at full
DV resolution with the results.

get a cam light
 

i'd recommend you get some sort of camera light. i know a lot of people don't like the look of a camera mounted light, but i just used one on a club shoot this past saturday. i have the SONY HVL-20DW 10/20 watt switchable camera light. i like it cuz it uses the same batteries as my PD150. i taped some diffusion in front, and i was very pleased with the results. i used the 10 watt setting, and the light was nice and soft...it wasn't blinding the people inside the club.

i posted some stills from the shoot in the photos section of the Yahoo VX2K Group. if you're a member you can check them out, or just join and look in the photos section in the album called:

SONY HVL-20DW - SAMPLE STILLS

or if that's too much trouble, let me know and i can email you some of the frame grabs from the shoot. i do a lot of shooting in clubs, and there's almost always not enough light to just start shooting.

hope this helps,

Kris Carrillo
WCTV 56