Picking the location was fairly easy. We decided on shooting at Coronado High School. This is where the Youth Orchestra rehearses, so we would have access to nearly all of the students, parents, and conductors. The only need we would have would be getting graduates.

Rather than picking a Sunday and loading in, we brought up the importance of needing to do a proper location scout. 

We would be limited on where we could film in the school. So, on a Sunday afternoon, during rehearsals, we met up with Molly and Lee to figure it out.

Personal rehearsal spaces were entirely too small and often filled with instruments. Some of the rooms were being used for large item storage and also were not suitable for the amount of real estate our lighting and cameras would take up. 

Finally, we found one of the smaller band rooms. There was plenty of space, a grand piano, and a drum kit. 

This room was also the room that all of the chairs would be taken from for the main band hall so, the room would be cleared out. 

To top it all off, the room was fairly sound proof so we would have the isolation we would need for audio.

It was perfect. 

The location was settled on and a shoot date was agreed upon.

Cameras, Lenses, and Support

He set up the main camera, the Blackmagic Pyxis with one of our Tokina Vista Prime lenses, powered by a Blueshape 140wh Granite Mini Battery, and mounted on one of our Teris tripods. For camera monitoring, he used the Osee G7 Pro field monitor and using BNC cable, he routed that to the Blackmagic multiview which feeds multiple camera feeds into our 21” Osee director’s field monitor.

For our secondary camera, Ross built our Blackmagic Cinema 6k Full Frame camera with another Tokina Vista Prime. This camera assembly was matched up with our Dana Dolly combined with the eMotimo St4 Dana Dolly Motorized kit. We were able to use the demo unit of the eMotimo Beltless kit that we were testing in beta.

To top this B cam setup, we connected our Vaxis Storm wireless video rig to send the second camera feed to the Osee monitor. 

Finally, the eMotimo rig was powered with a Blueshape Granite 290wh Battery (these things are extremely heavy…)

Both cameras and audio were synchronized via our Tentacle Sync E units.

Lighting

The lighting set up was fairly simple, but it was still time consuming. 

For the keylight, we used the Aputure 600c Pro Storm RGBWW COB point light with the Aputure 150 Light dome, complete with silk and honeycomb. The light was set to a warm tungsten color and placed fairly close to the interview chair to help diffuse the light even further. 

This light was mounted on one of our Matthews Studio Equipment Hollywood Combo Stands, complete with wheels.

For the fill light, we used the Amaran 300C with the Aputure Light Dome, again, with a honeycomb. This light was also set to tungsten and was mounted on one of our Norm’s Baby Stands and flown high enough to avoid glasses reflections.

Our back light was an Amaran 150C light that was set to a more daylight color to give a blueish hint of color. Using one of our Amaran barndoor kits this light was controlled with a small honeycomb as well. This light was also flown on a Norm’s Baby Stand

For our texture lights, we rigged a couple more Amaran 150C lights on two more Norm’s Baby Stands and these were set behind the drum kit and the piano to give us some specular texture. 

Audio

To top everything off, the audio was last to be set up. 

We mounted our Slate ML-2 microphone to our Saramonic 4-stage boom pole, which was then mounted to a C-Stand.

Routing the microphone with a PigHog microphone cable, we connected the microphone to our trusty Zoom F8n professional 32-bit audio recorder, which was monitored through one of our sets of Direct Sound EX-29 isolating headphones.

Conducting the Interviews

As is often the case, Jacob conducted the interview while Ross monitored the audio and cameras.

Our first interview was with Sarah and she did a fantastic job. The only problem was that we had an issue with audio. We missed the first 75% of what she had to say. 

A nightmare that no one ever wants to deal with. A quick reset with the audio and a quick reset with Sarah and we were off to the races again. Her second time was as good as the first, but there were some things she mentioned the first time that we would not be able to get again. However, such is the case with such a small crew. 

We interview parents and children of all ages. They all did a fantastic job and made our edit much easier.

3-4 hours of interview later and we were ready to wrap.

We were exhausted.

Post Production

With the interviews and pretty much all of the b-roll captured, it was time to get into the edit.

The first thing we did was drop everything into the Tentacle Sync Studio and have it create a timeline of synchronized footage and audio before bringing that into Davinci Resolve for the edit. 

Saving Lost audio

With all of the footage brought into Resolve, Ross was not going to be satisfied with losing the first part of Sarah’s interview (remember that from earlier?). 

With that, he dropped the audio from the Blackmagic Cinema 6k into the timeline and went to work. 

Using several plugins and ultimately utilizing some AI recovery tools, he was able to COMPLETELY recover all of her audio and get it to sound as good as her direct microphone audio.

What a relief. We did not, ultimately lose anything. From there it was smooth sailing. 

The Edit

Again, dividing and conquering, Jacob took on the edit while Ross did the color grading.

Combining the interviews and b-roll, we were able to craft an incredibly compelling story that would give the audience a comprehensive sense of the immense value that the Lubbock Youth Orchestra provides while calling donors to action with a simple message: LYO cannot operate on tuition alone, it would make the prospect completely unaffordable for most students and their families, so, in order to make all of this possible, generosity is necessary. 

Once the story was assembled, music was selected and added. Ross took the audio elements and brought them together into a mix that would translate well in a large room atmosphere for the Gala.

The color grading was then finalized and the video was delivered.

Only one thing remained.