I agree with Jay.
I've been shooting theatre performances for almost as long and always set my camera to the 3200 preset.
This way, you're not at the mercy of trying to get a white balance with other colours thrown into the mix.

Mike

Here's how we do it.

After the lighting cues are fully set, there are one or two scenes that are essentially "full up." Depending on how the lights are gelled, and which lights are being used (remember, fresnels and pars can run warmer than Source Fours and Altmans, esp. when dimmed), the actual color temperature at "full up" may vary quite a bit from 3200K.

So, before final dress, the light guy lowers the big projection screen that hangs at the proscenium, throws a couple of bright cues, and the camera person does an initial white balance on that. Then, through the course of the rehearsal, he may manually tweak slightly to accommodate other scenes, but without trying to compensate for scenes which are deliberately color-washed. The result is a very pleasing balance that holds from the brightest to the moodiest scenes.

That all being said, the most pleasing color balance is one that is slightly to the warm side, I would never allow the camera person to set the "true" whites into the cyan/blue spectrum. Without all the advantages we have, the 3200K preset is a warm, fairly safe starting point. Many nonprofessional lighting designers tend to gel on the warm side, anyway. However, there is also a tendency for pro designers to use color correction gels and high wattage to simulate daylight, throwing the balance close to 5000K. This case would look terrible with a 3200K preset! It's best to get it right in the shoot however, because trying to tip the curves in post can be incredibly frustrating, even for someone with years of experience.

Two more tips for stage filming:

Manual iris always, auto-iris never.
Manual focus always, auto-focus never.

BTW, your post is definitely not off-topic.

musicvid, I used to do my white balance the way you're suggesting but found out that, for my particular camera, 3200 preset works just as well and I don't have to worry about "bothering" the lighting person.
I always bring a 9" colour monitor with me and check it during rehearsal just to confirm proper white balance.

p.s. your tips re manual focus & iris should be a rule - no exceptions allowed.

Mike

Mike, I agree with you completely. 95% of the time the tungsten preset works perfectly. See the one exception I added above while you were posting.

The light designer we use is so conscientious he requires the videographer to be there and set up for white balance 30 minutes before sound check. It's nice for me, as a producer, to have this peace of mind.

"p.s. your tips re manual focus & iris should be a rule - no exceptions allowed."

I could fill a web site with good and bad clips illustrating all the rules stage videographers should follow -- level your camera, clean your lens, don't laugh, plan your tape change, bring an extension cord, and my personal fav, frame the scene and not the actor. (Who wants to see 20 ft of the orchestra pit and the first three rows of audience downstage from the actors' feet?).

Come to think of it, I may just start working on that site . . .

musicvid, the only time I've had any issues is with follow spots as they can sometimes be way up there in colour temp (i.e. too blue).
It quite often looks that way to the audience too so I don't worry about it.

I periodically shoot in an IATSE house but I've gotten to know most of the guys there so I don't have any problems asking for favours.

Mike

"the only time I've had any issues is with follow spots as they can sometimes be way up there in colour temp (i.e. too blue)."

Commercial follow spots are often in the 5500-6000K range if I recall, IOW bluer than average daylight. They all have 3200K dichroics you can throw in the beam to approximate the color of stage lighting. But then, 93.7% of all follow spot operators are teenagers, who already know more than the videographer.

I'm glad we very rarely use follow spots in our productions. Need I say more?

The light designer we use...

Those of us who are shooting freelance rarely, if ever, have that luxury. Hence, the preset at 3200K.

OK - good advice. For those of us shooting with less professional cameras (VX2000 and A1U) how do we approximate the 3200K setting?

Thanks,
Ralph

Ralph, odds are that those cameras have a manual indoor/outdoor colour temperature setting/switch/dial.
Indoor = 3200K (aka tungsten) and outdoor = 5600K (aka daylight).

Mike

Red Face Alert !!!!,

Mike, I've owned the VX2000 since they first came out and never realized there was a preset for daylight or tungsten. Took me a little while to find it after reading your post. I also saw it on the A1U but did not realize they were specific to a certain color temp. May have to RT_M.

Thanks,
Ralph

"Those of us who are shooting freelance rarely, if ever, have that luxury. Hence, the preset at 3200K."
Anyone freelancing for me would not have that luxury either -- it would be a requirement instead. You would be amazed at the number of videographers who balk at or want to charge double to come to final dress because they think they don't need to familiarize themselves with the venue, lighting, tech setup, anticipate scene changes and blocking, or who are even able to read a script markup. Just wanted to add a different perspective.

Where you don't have the somewhat dubious privilege of a producer like me to deal with, I agree, the tungsten preset usually works just fine.