Van Morrison
Multi-camera capture of a live studio performance from the legendary Van Morrisons and his fantastic band.
Van Morrison @ Real World
Project roles and responsibilities:
Full end to end project delivery including;
pre-production
multi-camera live production,
post-production inc. editing 2D graphics, colour grading
Delivery in multiple formats including; short promos for social media as well as isolated tracks for TV broadcast and full 4K concert for web based PPV.
Multi-camera capture of a live studio performance from the legendary Van Morrisons and his fantastic band. Commissioned by Vans company, Exile Productions and streamed on a PPV platform for fans worldwide. This was Vans 1st ever live stream captured performance and a new way to connect with his global fanbase.
Recorded at the renowned Real World Studios at Box, near Bath, where Van was recording one of his new albums. We captured a full live performance featuring Van and an ensemble of 8 other wonderful musicians (a lot to cover!), who performed a mix of tracks form his latest album and extensive catalogue, to create a live streamed concert running nearly 100 minutes!
A track from this show (below) was also broadcast on BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland.
The feedback from our client and fans has been fantastic, so much so that we were invited back to capture another 2 studio sessions and more recently coverage of a live concert at one of the tour venues.
The Challenge
When we were approached by Exile Productions and asked if we can support capturing a live performance of the legendary Van Morrison who was about to record his new album in Peter Gabriel’s infamous Real World Studios, we jumped at the chance.
After an initial discovery call with the team at Exile Productions to discuss the scope of work we developed a brief together and arranged a site visit to see how best to cover the performance which was to be recorded in the famous ‘Big Room’ of Real World Studios
This wonderful studio space has been used by many artists from A-ha to Jay-Z and everyone in between. So, hot on the heels of Tom Jones, we went in to have a look. With such an ensemble of 9 musicians with various instruments in a relatively tight space, we knew it would be challenging to cover everything visually and would need multiple cameras, (perhaps 6 at first guess).
Unfortunately with covid not long behind us we were still restricted on crew numbers, and could only have 3 video technicians in the room with the band which didn’t really align with our need for 6 cameras, a lighting technician and vision mixer!
The Solution
We decided based on our limitations we would need 7 cameras, 3 manually operated, 2 locked off static and 2 automated moving robotic cameras to cover all the action, and would edit after the fact in place of a live vision mix. This was still a big challenge for only 3 technicians as we were responsible for at least 2 cameras each, with our director also running the lighting desk (and no option to stop and start as we were covering a live performance!)
Our client wanted to change the lighting for each track for a different look and feel throughout the show and also so any individual track deliverables would have its own unique aesthetic. We captured using the latest 4K Sony cameras giving us the best quality and flexibility in post production to cut and follow the action and also create a specific look, in the colour grade. We light the studio with the latest RGB LED lights changing the background colours through the show to achieve the desired look.
After a wonderful recording session we left with about 5TB of video data to begin the edit. We cut a promo with multiple formats for different social media outlets. Individual stand alone tracks in various resolutions as well as the high quality 4K master file used for the web stream via a PPV platform that his global fanbase were able to buy tickets for. All delivered on time, on spec and on budget.
The feedback from our client and fans has been fantastic, so much so that we were invited back to capture another 2 studio sessions and more recently coverage of a live concert at one of the tour venues.
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