Music Industry / For Artists

Shooting live performance videos can be tricky – after all, you’re shooting in real time. Whether you’re creating a live music video, a panel video, conference, lecture or anything else, we’re here to help you out with some top tips and things to think about. Let’s dive in!

Shooting live performance videos tips filmmaking filming video live video sound

Tips For Shooting Live Performance Videos

1. Pre-Plan Your Visuals

Firstly, you need to plan your visuals. For this, you should think about:

  • The tone of the performance
  • Set up, layout and spacing
  • Genre, feel and energy of the music (if it’s a musical performance)
  • What lighting and set you need

TED Talks, for example, are surprisingly simple in their shooting style – using just a few cameras on tripods and a master camera. This works perfectly for this style of live video, so think about what style would suit your video best.

The elements, visuals and set up accentuate and heighten what the music is trying to portray. Should the audience feel intrigued, spooked, hyped or sentimental? Think about this when planning your lighting, set, visual effects and more.

A great example of this is Doja Cat’s live reworking of her track ‘Say So’ at the MTV EMAs. Taking this pop/R&B track in a rockier, grungier direction, the set and lighting all reflected this with dingy, red infused lighting intertwined with feminine flowers, dark make-up and more.

2. Cameras & Setup

Depending on how many cameras you’re using, you’ll need to get thinking about takes, shots and angles. A three camera setup is a tried and tested method, allowing multiple cameras to cover different parts of the performance, band members and so on at once.

If you are using multiple cameras and want some more interesting shots, check out our article on cinematic shot types for inspiration.

3. Bring In Mix Engineers

Another important element of shooting live performance videos or music videos are mix engineers (also known as audio engineers).

As you’re working with live audio as opposed to pre-recorded work, mix engineers are necessary to help capture the best quality audio. Working with mix engineers to make sure they have what they need (such as audio equipment like microphones, input lists and more). They will most likely want to check out how sound carries within the space to inform their decisions, so having access to the venue before (or some extra time) is ideal!

4. Use A Sound Board

When it comes to shooting live events, you’ll definitely need to record audio from a soundboard. This will ensure your audio is top quality, and it’s best to get an audio recording device that can record signal from an XLR or 1/4″ audio output and run on batteries. Don’t forget about cables and other accessories you may need, too!

5. Sync Headphones

In order to capture what’s going on in real time, camera operators and so on need to be able to hear what’s happening. For this reason, supplying synced headphones is a great idea. This way, camera operators know who or where to film when, and sound engineers can signal to hone in for specific shots. This will save you time during the shoot, as well as being helpful for post-production and editing.

6. Time To Edit

Once you’ve got the audio and footage, editing can begin. Here, you can find the best shots, cutaways and so on to use, as well as mixing, editing and cleaning the audio. It’s always best to get the audio mastered, too!

If you’re new to editing, or need some further tips, check out our articles on best free video editing software and our guide to beginner video editing.

6. Final Tweaks & Direction

Now that your video is almost good to go, take a break and return with a fresh pair of eyes. Get different opinions, and act as the director when watching the video, or looking through the footage. Pick out any angles that you want to extend or feature more of, make sure everything is in sync and add any transitions. Then, export and share your live performance video with the world. Go you!

How Audiosocket Can Help

How Audiosocket Can Help

We hope you enjoyed this article, and found some helpful takeaways to help with your live performance video making. If you found this article helpful, we think you’ll love our articles on great storytelling for filmmakers, visual albums and film industry careers!

Audiosocket always want to help photographers, filmmakers and creators in any way we can, such as licensing music for your films, trailers, websites, content creation and more.

If you are looking for authentic, top-quality music, why not check out Audiosocket? Your content deserves the best, so sign up today and access over 85,000 songs as well as Sound Effects & Sound Design to bring your vision to life! You can access Audiosocket’s music catalog for just $10 a month as a Personal creator. Not only that, but this allows you to license an unlimited number of tracks at no additional cost. Talk about win-win!



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