allmost fell asleep....<G>
 

had a opera performance yesterday, 2:24 hr, and allmost fell a sleep. there was no actor movement, props etc, just singing.......

has that happens to anybody? what can be done about that?

greetings

Seminars are the worst. I did one last week, 2 days, talking about something I had no idea what, the most boring speakers I've ever heard and to top it off, it was warm in the room and by the middle of the day I caught my self dozing a bit. Fortunately the peakers were all at the podium and didn't move, so I basically set it and forgot it. I had another guy covering from a differnt position and I looked back once in a while and saw he was reading a book. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! 18 hours of tape and its more boring the 2nd time around. (.)|(.)
\_/

Don

As long as we're on the subject...

A bit more than a year ago (when I was just starting to seriously consider full-time videography) I went to a technical conference. Since I arrived late, and the room was full, I ended up sitting behind the cameraman. Like I said, I was considering changing professions, so I ended up watching the camera operator more than the presenter.

It appeared that he was using Beta SP equipment. The tapes seemed large, and he had to replace them every thirty minutes. There was only one camera, and he sure didn't seem to be in much of a hurry to get the tape switched.

Which made me wonder - what was he going to use to fill the "tape swap" time? Was he going to shoot audience members later and add them in post? Was he going to fill that time with full-screen graphics from the presenter's PowerPoint slides? I'm assuming he went with the power point option. That would make the most sense.

And why shoot Beta SP? That seems kind of old-school. Or is it still popular?

Anyway, he seemed just as excited about the subject matter as you guys were!

Well it sounds like he was a pretty sloppy operator if he took that much time to swap tapes. Not the video I worry about its the audio- A lot of AV companies also supply video production and use BetaSP for the same reason most TV stations still use it. Solid robust cameras and product. Industry standard and all of that jazz.
when I do a single camera shoot like that I make sure the presenter knows when I have to swap tapes and most are considerate and will hold off the few seconds it takes to swap. Some use it as a signal to give everyone a standup break some don't care and keep gong. Oh well, NEXT!!!!
Don

Get a chair with one leg.

Bright Eyed and Bushey Tailed
 

I have run into this scenario more than a couple of times..

It's 3pm, I have been working setting up and recording since 6:00 am, the speaker is 90 minutes into his discussion of the finer points of 'The Williamson Act' and I start to feel my eyes getting heavy. That's when I dig into my bag and pop a 'Penguin Caffeinated Mint' or two. That gets me wide awake for the rest of the day.

A friend of mine once filmed his sister's ballet recidal. Not a videographer, but he was bored out of his mind none the less. He begins zooming in and zooming out and pointing at things like a lightbulb while saying "LIIIIIGHHHTTT BUUULLLBB" into the mic. It was quite funny to see.

I've got a good one for you guys. 2 weeks ago I filmed an all day seminar-type event that was geared for American Hispanics. Yep, the ENTIRE thing was all in spanish, I don't speak ANY spanish. Try staying awake all day in a hot, stuffy conference room when you literally can't understand a word that is being said. It was rough!

I believe Boyd is our resident Opera/Event Shooter.

Mike, I laughed out loud when I read your post... I can just imagine an operator getting bored and doing goofy things like, "LLLIIIGGGHHHHTTTT BBBUULLLLBBB" and panning across the room.

I was editing a wedding last year that I didn't shoot, and there were some shots at the reception that were of nice looking legs of girls wearing skirts dancing, as well as some tight bust shots! What a mess! Obviously I edited around them, but when I handed the tapes over to the photographer, I forgot to tell him those were in the raw footage. Well, about a week later, he thanked me for editing and told me that he gave brides mom a copy of the raw footage... AAHHHHH! He was pretty upset when I told him about the bust and leg shots, and that the mom was going to see what the cameraman did.

Thinking fast and saving the day, he went to the moms house and asked if she watched it yet, and she hadn't yet. He told her that he gave her the wrong dvd and handed her a new one with the stuff edited out. Whew!

Later,
Dan

HAHA! Now that is the most ingenious solution I have ever heard. Brilliant!

Aaron