Behind the Scenes Shooting

Recently, i was offered the opportunity to shoot some behind the scenes work for the making on a music video. As it was wish the regular band, i have grown to know them all, and they all know me, which makes things run a little smoother from time to time.

I thought it might be an interesting thing to talk about, as i have personally never seen anyone talking about Behind the Scenes shooting. i will talk from my experience and share any tips, just in case you get the opportunity.

Upon invitation to the shoot, i was extremely excited to see what it was like to shoot a real music video, i was also very happy to have gotten the opportunity, due to the original photographer having to cancel. As the date crept closer i began to realize, having never shot behind the scenes before, that i had no idea what i was going to be doing....that doesn't happen much...i promise.



I did a small amount of research but nothing would give away the conditions i was shooting in. With little-to-no knowledge of what i was up against, packing light was not an option. I was told that a local venue (THE MECCA) would be open privately to us, so i knew i could have my equipment laying around without fear of theft of damage.

I made sure i arrived about 2 hours early, this gave me plenty of time to figure out what i was doing and converse with the team to get an insight into what was going to happen. After a short while helping with the lighting rigs and music equipment, the sound (and light) check commenced.

During this time, i fitted each one of my lenses and determined the settings for each lens. Automatically, i knew this shoot would be difficult. the whole venue was in pitch black darkness, and the lighting rig, although fairly substantial, was the only source of light.

The problem was that the lighting rig was behind the musicians for a theatrical look. The lighting also fluctuated a lot, flashing, fading and constantly moving (lasers). I was forbidden to use my flash because of disruptions to the video. It became apparent right from the sound check, that i needed a lens that could open up to a wide aperture, to allow me to shoot with a low enough ISO to avoid poor quality, but a high enough shutter speed to freeze the active musicians.

After a short test of each lens, there was a clear winner, My 50mm prime F/2.8. shooting at around 75mm (due to a cropped sensor) this lens gave me reach and a wide aperture of f2.8, which i set on the lenses aperture ring. This allowed me to have my ISO 800-1000, reasonably low for the conditions.

My shutter speed was at 1/400th of a second, just enough to freeze the motion. These settings left me rather under-exposed, but exposed well enough to view the images. As previously mentioned, i often under-expose my image to be safe, especially when i am shooting in difficult conditions. It might be worth noting that i shot in black and white, because of the exposure settings, and colourful lights, the white balance/colour balance was muddy and inaccurate; shooting in black and white changed the light from dirty tones to strong highlights.

I was also restricted composure wise because i had to make sure i wasn't in the video.

The first 5 videos were shot with the video camera on a tripod, straight on, this was for filling footage of the entire band. During the making of these videos, i was restricted to behind the camera man and his tripod. During these videos i got shots of the entire band, just like the video.

Next, the videographer took the camera in hand, and shot 3 videos with each band member, although the shots didn't show the rest of the band, there were in the background at some points. Because of this, the rest of the band had to continue performing.

This meant, i got free reign of the other band-members, with the often pulling interesting moves and playing up to my camera instead. I also got personal performance time with each individual band member because the cameraman was focusing on one person.

The results of this was surprisingly well-received, and i personally was very happy with the outcome. Beginners luck? Maybe, but that's what keeps me going.

Advice to anyone else receiving the chance to shoot behind the scenes, Don't panic, and look at the scene differently to normal, find/look at things in an unorthodox manner, Forget about trying to get 'that shot' and just photograph naturally. Document the scene, and occasionally try to get shots that make it seem like your shoot....is that theft or wit? Sponging off of other peoples hard work is what us photographers do, Lets face it, if we see something interesting we photograph is yes? Well the interesting thing is often someone else's time and effort.


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