Since getting the new gear last weekend I’ve been aching to push what it can do with video. I got really lucky today. The first time I’ve taken it out for work was this morning to capture video of child auditions for The 5th Avenue Theatre’s upcoming production of The Sound of Music.

I can’t show any of the video or photos from this morning, but it was so much fun. It was a great reminder of why it was so important to me to have a life in the theatre, even if it’s not in acting or directing. It was easy to feel all of the feels watching kids march up one by one to introduce themselves and sing. Every year helping with auditions is one of my favorite things, because it draws me back to the excitement of first auditioning for shows when I was in High School and reminds me about the awesome opportunities that the theatre offers to these kids.

To shoot the 106 kids that auditioned, I used my new 5d mkIII with a 50mm prime lens on a tripod for a continuous static shot throughout the day. Since this is meant to be the main video used for some upcoming projects, I rented a shotgun microphone from Glazers and attached it to the top for better sound quality. It captured the voices really well, without being overwhelmed by the accompanist’s piano. Since there were so many kids, between each few batches of 20, I moved the camera to the opposite side of the stage. This switched up the angle of the wide shot for variety.

To fill in with more details of the performances, I shot handheld with my good old 60d. Since the 5d was on a tripod and doing its own thing, I used the other camera to find interesting close-ups that can be cut together with the full shot later. It was a nice way for me (selfishly) to get closer to the action by cropping in close. It also let me sneak in still photos here and there as the day went.

So now I’m feeling pumped up and have tons of footage to show for it. Most will wind up on the cutting room floor, but that’s cool too. Have a great weekend out there; the next post will be from a guided shoot of the Woodland Park Zoo!