Stop Making Sense Live at Albert Hall Manchester: Multi-Camera Live Event Coverage
Well that was a week.
I was at Albert Hall Manchester across two nights covering Stop Making Sense Live for Kilimanjaro Live with a team I put together covering video, photography and socials.
It was a six camera setup on the show itself. Three of us operating, three locked off, plus Christina as photographer and Rach on socials. Then all the photo and video editing afterwards.
So on top of shooting interviews for a TV documentary I’m working on, not my quietest week.
I used a similar setup on the first Stop Making Sense Live show at Gorilla the year before but I was abroad at the time and had to oversee that one from a distance. This time I was there in person and got tobe hands on with the whole thing properly from start to finish.
The aim was to capture the show in the spirit of the original, albeit without the budget for 35mm film camera (unfortunately).
For the Friday night, the setup included a close-up from the rear of the room, side of stage, a handheld pit cam, plus three locked off angles, a wide, and a rear of stage shot. I was operating the close-up and wide myself whilst overseeing the wider coverage as DOP.
One of the more fun parts was the projector feed. Across both nights, we sent a wireless feed from the handheld pit cam into the projector behind the band, then added the wide camera on the second night with the AV team switching it live for Crosseyed and Painless.
Night one was partly a kit test, albeit a kit test that still had to work in front of an almost sold out Albert Hall.
Once it was up and running, it worked great. It stopped feeling like the cameras were just there for the edit afterwards and started feeling like part of the actual show. The crowd seemed to love it.
Alongside the show coverage, I also supplied event photography, BTS stills, audience vox pops, socials and a full edited version of the performance from all camera angles.
The wider team on this one was Christina on photography, Rachel on socials and vox pops, Georgiana on handheld pit cam, Lewis on side of stage, and me on wide and close-up while managing.
It was also just a really solid team. Five of us in total, all people I trust and all people who know how to work a live event.
This is very much the sort of job I want more of. Still me at the coal face but with the ability to scale things up when the job calls for it.
If you’ve got a live show coming up in Manchester, or further a field, and want someone who can help pull the coverage together, feel free to get in touch!