What will it be like on the day?

On the day of your filming, we’ll arrive at the venue before the house is open. The duration of our set-up time is dependent on the number of cameras and theatre operating procedure. We’ll likely have discussed where to put the cameras and microphones, usually with the venue, but we’ll re-confirm these positions on the day. We’ll ask to meet the technicians operating the lights, sounds and FX, and communicate what we need tech wise. Our gear runs on battery power, so unless we’ve stated in advance, we won’t need to run messy power leads. We’ll get all of our gear up on its feet. If it’s a space we’ve shot in before, we’ll be pretty sharpish. If it’s a new venue, we might take a little more time to test lenses.
Once we’re happy our kit is working, we need to take levels of what we’re recording. This involves looking at light states, and hearing live sound. We’ll need to see your brightest and darkest light cues, as well as any other interesting FX (projection, lasers, LEDs). We’ll need a person on stage for this, for us to set focus.
We’ll then need to hear a normal level for the show, the quietest moment, and the loudest moment (any singing, screaming or shouting). If we’re taking audio lines from the sound desk, we’ll also need to test these lines.
Once we’re happy with our kit set-up, the venue is happy with the camera’s positions and the production is ready, it’s lights camera action. Your show should go on as normal, and ideally the audience won’t notice us at all.
After the show is over, we can pack down much faster than we pack up, and we’ll be ready to go pretty quick. If possible, we love to do a small debrief goodbye, to confirm that all went well, and go over next steps.