Pro Motion Hire provided a multitude of camera models to capture an amazing performance of Florence and the Machine at The Hackney Empire. The event was scheduled to celebrate the release of Florence and The Machine’s recent album. LoveLive produced a live-stream of the show direct to Florence’s and the Guardian newspaper’s website (who were media partners in the live stream). The show was edited with interviews and acoustic sessions from the day to create a Channel 4 documentary.

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A performance of this nature required a large amount of crew and cameras to capture such a visually stunning show.  To do the project justice and to ensure the smooth running of the shoot, LoveLive utilised the technical knowledge of Pro Motion Hire’s technical manager, Alain Lolliot, for system design advice before the shoot.  A decision was made to shoot with Sony PMW-EX3s, as these fell within budget, were versatile enough to use with broadcast lenses if needed and the uncompressed 10bit 4:2:2 feed from the HD-SDI output fed to the Tricaster vision mixer provided the broadcast HD spec record compression of 50Mb/s.  A total of ten Sony PMW-EX3s were used, predominantly for the live streaming, with two Sony PMW-350 camera’s being used on a jib and a wide shot.  In addition two PMW-EX1 cameras were used for the non-live angles and a Canon 7D was hired for low-impact on stage filming and slo-mo.  “Although I initially recommended going with the PMW-350s, the EX3s were versatile enough to use with a variety of lenses (in the end they went with 3 x Canon HJ-14s and 3 x Canon HJ-22s!!) whilst remaining familiar to the camera ops who were very experienced using these cameras”  Kevin Molloy, head of LoveLive TV, was particularly keen to use the EX range of cameras.  “The Sony PMW-EX1 and EX3 were excellent choice of cameras because they respond well in low light conditions and are very operator friendly.  The cameras are also relatively compact, allowing the production to maintain a low profile, not hindering the artist or the audience.  In addition, we only had one week to turn around the footage in the edit for the Channel 4 documentary and the tapeless based workflow was a fast and cost effective way of achieving that,” commented Molloy.

A project of this nature came with a number of challenges.  There was a large crew consisting of twelve operators, camera assistants, dolly and jib operators, live streaming technicians, directors, producers and runners.  In addition to this, there were tight turnaround times between each set up.  LoveLive were not only capturing the show, but also two sit down interviews and three acoustic sessions.  A challenge for the most efficient of crews but LoveLive eased this by employing Pro Motion Hire’s camera assistant, Chris Acton.  Chris is highly experienced and knows the Pro Motion kit extensively.  He was able to make the kit practical for use, taking into consideration the time restraints the crew were under and the different set ups required.  Having Chris on set advising on minute to minute technical decisions eliminated a great deal of stress for the crew and production team.  Chris says, “It was really important that the cameras and surrounding kit were working to make each set up as practical as possible. I was able to advise LoveLive as to what extra kit they would need to make each set up run as smoothly as possible. In particular, when it came to the cameras on dollies, it was essential that the camera crew were able to operate the cameras from behind, so I selected and implemented Canon HJ lenses with full remotes to go on these EX3’s via ACM-21’s; this presented a cost effective and practical solution to this challenge.”

Technically it was challenging to meet the broadcasters specs of recording at 50Mb/s as none of the formats adopted recorded to a spec higher than 35Mb/s.  The use of a third party low compression recorder bolted to each camera was an option but the additional cost and the extra bulk on the cameras wasn’t appealing.  Instead, a feed was taken from each camera remotely into the gallery and taken into the vision switcher for the live-stream.  This was then recorded at the higher bit rate of 50Mb/s, meeting Channel 4’s HD requirement.  Recording to the SxS cards in each camera was also a benefit to have the security of cost effective back up.

The adopted workflow was an interesting one because there were different facets to the production brief.  The live-stream went out simultaneously with the performance, through the PPV players on Florence’s and the Guardian’s IPTV site. Following the gig the footage was ingested from both the SxS cards and the remotely recorded video channels to the LoveLive edit servers, and converted all to ProRes Proxy files, for use in FCP.  The line-edit was then cut in with the interview to create the structure of the show, following which re-edited song inclusions from the stem multiclips were introduced to bring up the production value of the Channel 4 piece.

In summary, Molloy’s experience of using the PMW range of cameras is that despite the 35Mb/s bit rate the camera produces some beautiful images.  “The EX1 and EX3 cameras are pretty much our favourite to work with: they're dependable, lightweight, good in low light situations and integrate well into our NL workflow. Working with Pro Motion Hire on this project was an obvious choice.  They always get the very simple things right: they have great customer service, knowledgeable staff, a wide range of kit to hire, which is all in good condition, and excellent customer service. On top of those essential things they get one further thing right, which is that they offer consistent value for money.”