Me. I'm at the part where the sugar plum fairy staggers out of Starbucks looking for the true meaning of tax shelters. Still trying to colour-correct the outfit. Best of the season to all.

Brian
www.JazzHouseBlues.com

You get extra credit if the producers also include The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Me for one. Two performances at the high school Thanksgiving weekend. Working to cram the entire Nutcracker and half an hour of "Christmas Dances" onto two DVDs (talked the ballet teacher up from the single disk she made last year with her son).

Naturally there were different lead ballerinas for the two performances, so she wants the whole thing done twice. Two sets of menus, two sets of credits, two edits....It is so easy to get confused...

I did a very good "Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" a few years back with identical casts except for a few key actors. Production was labor-intensive--HD, 7 channels of audio, surround sound, two cameras. And then double that.

Never done the Nutcracker but the music is wonderful.

I am officially "off" for the holidays. Not producing, directing, performing, or shooting this time around. After so many years of doing "all of the above," I am happy to let some of my mature students take over the reins, and they're amazing.

For me, that is an amazingly interesting question. This year will be the first year since 1981 that I won't be filming a Nutcracker: thirty-two consecutive years including, in some years, filming dress and multiple performances.

One reason I have stuck with Vegas despite all the problems from Vegas 10 onwards is the amazing automation and workflow speed. In recent years I have been able to edit a multi-cam shoot, including separate audio track from the soundboard, and produce the DVD and online highlights from an 8:00 p.m. performance, all before I went to bed (at 2:00 a.m.).

This year's performance was cancelled because the ballet mistress is now 102 years old and didn't quite feel up to it this year.

Here are the highlights from last year:

I have a seven year old grand daughter who is taking ballet and tap along with every other sport, endeavor and/or undertaking known to mankind. The jury is still out on whether she will be a ballerina, gymnast or swimmer when she grows up. This year, she is part of the production put on by the dance studio that she attends. The thought occurred to me that this scenario must be playing out all over the country and probably the world. It is a great family event since the audience is tolerant of and usually excited about performers of all ages, talent and skill levels. What could be better than that?

I'm not part of the video crew, though I did chat it up with them while they were preparing and will buy their Blu-ray when it comes out. The proud grandfather shot some stealth shots with the G15 both nights.

I would love to see a "mashup" video of performances from around the world - pro, amateur, kids, etc.

This thread also got me thinking that since the demise of classic Warner Bros. cartoons, Nutcracker may be the only exposure to classical music a lot of kids get. Even though I too found the ballet creepy as a kid (and still do, kind of) I can't think of another symphony, ballet or opera that contains such marvelous and diverse musical composition throughout.

@ Nutcracker may be the only exposure to classical music a lot of kids get.



You can say that again. Rock on, bro.




Brian

[I]I would love to see a "mashup" video of performances from around the world - pro, amateur, kids, etc. [/I]If you ever really wanted to get into that idea, check out this amazing Wikipedia list of Nutcracker performances:

List of Productions of the Nutcracker

If you simply want to get someone who has been raised on Miley Cyrus to actually listen to classical music, you could have them watch the Matthew Bourne contemporary take which completely throws out Petipa and substitutes, well, Miley Cyrus:



And if that isn't enough put your teeth on edge, you can tune into the Ovation channels annual "Battle of the Nutcrackers" where they broadcast 4-5 different performances from different companies, and then have viewers vote on their favorites. The performance that often wins is the totally strange (to me) version called "the Hard Nut." I'll leave it as an exercise for the interested reader to find this on Youtube.

@johnmeyer

I really liked your highlight video. Did you shoot this at a live performance? Were you right on stage?

I got stuck about 30 rows back and my prosumer cameras were not quite up to the task. And there were no pauses between scenes, so I had to adjust to the lighting on the fly. My result looked nothing like yours. :(

Just got back home after shooting a very competent Christmas choir performance. Two HD cameras, wild audio with a different rig this time--I jury-rigged my stands so that the stereo microphone was suspended about four feet directly above the conductor, quite close to the choir compared to my typical setup. Looking forward to hearing the results.

Regarding classical music, I agree that it's a pretty small percentage of a young person's playlist. But orchestras are still cranking out fantastic stuff--for films. I am, for example, very fond of the music for "The Dark Knight" and with Vegas (and permission from the composer, Hans Zimmer) I could turn it into a pretty decent four-movement symphony. Great sound quality, great performances, and some very creative stuff.

Anyway, young people are definitely getting a lot of symphonic music. Perhaps it will lead them to the classics as time passes.

[I]Did you shoot this at a live performance? Were you right on stage?[/I]Yes, this was a live performance, with no chance to stop and do a re-take. Like many people on this forum, I mostly do live events (sports, drama, dance, lectures, weddings) where you have to take things as they are, and roll with the punch.

In the case of the Nutcracker, it helps to be totally familiar with the performance. I could film it in my sleep and, on more than one occasion, have done exactly that.

The camera was definitely not on the stage (or even at stage level), as you can probably tell if you look again. You'll notice that the camera is well above the stage. I was actually all the way in the back of the auditorium, behind the entire audience. My Sony FX-1 (the main camera) only has a 10x zoom, but that is enough to get a dancer to fill the frame. I then have a second camera, on a second tripod mounted right next to me, that is set to capture the entire stage. I use that to cover zooms, mistakes, and to just break up the tedium of having a single camera. I have sometimes used a third camera on the side at stage level, but I have not found that to add much to the quality of the final result.

[I]...I had to adjust to the lighting on the fly. My result looked nothing like yours.[/I]As all the pros in this forum will tell you (my talents are strictly amateur), the key to exposure is to get a camera that has zebras which will show you if you are overexposing. You then adjust the exposure as you go in order to eliminate the zebras (with the zebra value set to 100). It gets pretty hairy adjusting exposure, focus ([I]never[/I] use autofocus when filming a stage performance!!), sound (always use manual sound control), and of course zoom and pan/tilt.

One trick I have found that works pretty well is to use the "Spotlight" feature available in most consumer and prosumer camcorders. This tends to reduce (although not eliminate) the tendency to get blown-out highlights. I then use the "AE Adjust" setting which takes the EV value determined by the autoexposure and Spotlight feature and subtracts from that, but only when I see zebras. Doing exposure this way I get the freedom of not having to react instantly to every exposure change, but with 5-10 seconds, when I get around to it, I can manually correct the exposure to the exact, proper level.

You are almost always better off under-exposing slightly and then, if necessary, using the Color Curves fX in Vegas to bring up the midtones and shadows slightly. This technique produces a color saturation and richness that is probably what you are reacting to in my video.

Also, use the indoor color preset rather than relying on the "auto" white balance. In general, the fewer "auto" settings, the better.

Here's 34 seconds of what I saw two nights this weekend. Non paid, non-professional grandfather of the acrobat at 16 seconds.

Great costumes and acrobatics. Can you do that?

To continue with the Christmas meme, here is "Deck the Halls" as performed by young singers (aged 14-18) during a concert I recorded yesterday. Added a bit of compression and a bit of reverb. Stereo mic (AT822) was directly over the conductor about nine feet off the stage, so fairly close to the performers..

"Can you do that?"

I'm expending all my effort remaining upright.

Your recording makes excellent holiday music for those of us in the office this week. Good job!

hey great job, John M on that; my daughter performs in Nutcracker ballets each year. Good job on the edits, nice to know you can do a fast turnaround time on multicams.

-k