Hip Hop Ambition: Stepping up our Live Game
Our Soundbox Session with Character was something on a whole other level. Not only did Character & Friends have some big ideas when it came to their performance, but the behind the scenes and logistics of it all were leaps and bounds ahead of what we’ve done with past performances. While we did have to scale things back and downsize where necessary, what we were able to accomplish was awesome.
Locally, Character is known for his high energy, quirky, and spontaneous performances. Seeing him live in a normal setting is a unique experience. It had been months since he’d been able to release some of that creative energy, we wanted to do it right. We wanted to capture that energy through the stream and do his performance justice. For this reason, we took things quite a bit further than our typical setup.
Our lighting design and camera setup for the performance.
In a standard live stream, we’ll setup 2-3 cameras and stage lighting in advance. These cameras will stay locked down for the entire performance and simply cut between them during the session. For Character’s set, we really wanted the cameras to give a dynamic feel and follow the action. For this reason, 2/3 of the cameras were manned and hand held. This allowed us to follow Character around, reach to his actions, and just give the entire performance a more organic feel. Each handheld camera utilized a wide 24mm lens and shot fairly wide open. We wanted to cameras to be close in on the action and feel a little of that frantic energy in the room.
As we were planning the look and lighting of the performance with Character, he mentioned a few special set pieces that he wanted to include, some reveals, special lighting effects/cues, and the addition of other artists throughout the set. While we couldn’t accomplish everything we’d dreamed of, we did make it work. We’d not planned on specific effects or cues being hit, but we were able to do a few rehearsals and nail them down. The biggest cue was having an additional singer come onto set during the final song of the setlist. In an angelic costume, we chose to light them with a really soft top light that would fall on them specifically, and not interfere with Character’s hard backlight.
Final look of the angel.
Saying Character’s Soundbox Session was ambitious is quite an understatement. We really shot for the moon with this one and came out just where we’d hoped. Check out the entire set here and check out Character’s music at his links as well.
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Soundbox Sessions is a community minded collaboration to provide a platform for artistic performance during the COVID pandemic.
Find out more about the organizations involved: Soundbox Music Works, Friends with Benefits Denton, Totem Audio, & Colectivo Creative Media.