candid....

I was on the crew for filming Candid Cabaret on both Sunday and Monday night. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the process of filming the postgraduates on the MT course. I know quite a few of them personally so it was great to watch them perform professionally and see what their job is.

The definition of ‘cabaret’ is quite simple:

1. a floor show of dancing, singing, or other light entertainment at a nightclub or restaurant

2. Chiefly US a nightclub or restaurant providing such entertainment

But I didn’t really know what to expect when I went to Oran Mor and so I was pleasantly surprised. Each and every one of the performances was original and unique to the performer. I hadn’t realised that so much of the acts would be stand up comedy. I usually avoid and resist this type of entertainment because I always say that I won’t be able to hear the jokes properly etc (and I sometimes don’t, which annoys the crap out of me when everyone around me is wetting themselves), I was able to enjoy the humour greatly.

On Sunday I was using the PDX10 for the stage (voted in to use because I am the smallest...yay) which I enjoyed very much as I got the opportunity to use a different piece of equipment. There is much less prep involved for using this camera and it’s a nifty wee thing but the downsides were that it didn’t react well to the low lighting. The lighting caused a lot of chiaroscuro which meant I had to use a lot of different angles in attempt to get a nice image. Perhaps in post it’ll look different ...Only after did I think of using gain but there you go. My back was really aching by the end though, because the strain of carrying that thing is really a lot as you’re only using one hand and over two hours!

I got to try lots of different angles and get up quite close without being intrusive to either the audience or the performers (I hope.) I tried to get an equal balance of footage from both sides of the stage and I managed to get some good shots of the backing singers at the far back of the stage too. I also concentrated on their hands and extreme close ups of their faces that I thought might be useful in post.

Since the crews essentially worked on communication and passing things on I thought Flick and I did well on this aspect. It was so simple but so important that we kept a list of the equipment and made sure everything was secure down to the smallest cables. We were given a lot of responsibility which I liked and everything seemed to go quite smoothly. Both groups I worked with all came together to put on a comprehensive effort. This time I took on the 570 at the back for the ‘MID’ shot. I enjoyed this as well (my back didn’t hurt so much, but this time my feet really suffered!) and everything ran very smoothly. After each act we changed tapes and every two acts we changed batteries and this all worked out well. Though I had a wee scare when one battery looked like it was going to die on me but I just crossed my legs and check it constantly and it didn’t! Phew! Over exposure looked like it might be a problem at one point and so I played about with it for a bit but then decided that it would be annoying for the editor if I kept doing it every 2 minutes so I left it and hopefully it’ll be okay. We helped each other out when setting up and de-rigging and we pulled it off.

Some performances were just hilarious and I got a good insight in how performers can hold an audience is a small environment like Oran Mor and what made them laugh and what didn’t. Also it was interesting to see the performers use thei r everyday lives and personal matters in their work which is something I can relate to hugely, especially when writing.

I’d love to have gone to see the rest of Candid Cabaret but as this week is just so busy for me I haven’t been able to! But I’m so glad I got to enjoy the work of MT and learn more about using DFTV equipment at the same time! Would gladly do it all over again!

For next time:

• Wear proper shoes, ones that actually support my feet

• Buy a black fleece and wear more layers

• Use gain

• Take water and a sandwich and therefore save a copious amount of money