16mm documentary- music festival

Zamir Merali · June 8, 2008

Hi guys I'm going to be shooting this documentary about the World Electronic Music Festival in July. I was planning to shoot it on 16mm and found a good deal of some fuji 125 vivid stock. However, this festival is essentially a big rave and I wanted some advice from any of you who have shot rave parties before. Will 125 speed film suffice. I'm not too sure what else to ask but if any of you have some advice that you have gained from experience please share. Thanks alot.

Zamir Merali · June 10, 2008

I have the opportunity to also buy some 500T. Will 500T at night, during a party with lots of lighting effects look alright? I really do not know how bright the strobes and effects would be. Thanks.

Ralph Keyser · June 13, 2008

I'd go with the 500T myself, and shoot a test if you can. You've got an awful lot of variables going on. I would expect the 125 to be too slow for typical "night club" scenes (I have no experience with raves :) ). Strobe effects are a bit of a shot in the dark (pardon the pun), depending on the speed of the effect, since the strobe needs to fire when the shutter is open for you to even see it. You may get a little color shifting depending on the type of lights they use for the effects, but it may work in your favor. Again, try it if you can.

Chad Stockfleth · June 13, 2008

This is an outdoor festival? I've shot some raves in Brasil that go all day and all night so you might want to take a couple of different stocks to use. So much is dependent on your stage setup/location.

Zamir Merali · June 13, 2008

This is an outdoor festival and it is supposed to go for three days straight. I bought some 64d and some 500t. So i guess il use as much 500t as i have on the night scenes and then shoot the rest during the day. It won't matter if the colours are a little strange at night because the night scenes are supposed to be more dancy and music videoish. The interviews should set nicely on 64d.

What were you shooting in Brazil? Is it on the internet anywhere?Also do you know of any other documentaries about raves and electronic music that actually have substance? Thanks.

Chad Stockfleth · June 14, 2008

I lived in Rio for a little while with a couple of Trance DJ's that would play huge raves. Everything I did was on video, not film and was used mostly for promotion of either the bands or the show promoters/producers. I don't know if I'd say it had much substance, mostly eye candy type stuff to show how much fun it is. That said, they are a lot of fun. What country are you shooting in?

Zamir Merali · June 14, 2008

Canada. The World Electronic Music Festival is running its last year and I thought it would be a great opportunity to make a documentary. I want to let people know what the rave culture is really like. It's not just maniacs dancing on Ecstasy although that's what it looks like when you look at random eye candy footage. Any tips on how to actually film the dancing parts?

Mohan Sandhu · June 25, 2008

Hi, I really like the sound of this!

What camera and glass are you shooting with?

I can?t recall that many dance music docs, but here are some I dig, most focus solely on the DJ?s and Producers and you?re lucky to catch more than a few seconds of just the crowd. It would be great to see someone capture some of the energy of being in the crowd rather than just the History, personalities and technique behind the music.

So;

?Notes on Breakcore?, the trailer looks great but I can?t recall many shots in the film that focus solely on the crowd, the few that do don?t look that good and certainly don?t convey much energy.

(the full Doc?s also on Youtube (legally))

Oh, and this looks very promising but is yet to be released, so only a trailer.

?Universal Techno? about Detroit techno is worth a watch

And this is fairly decent footage of a rave-ish thing in Montreal

On the Hip-Hop front, Doug Prays film ?Skratch? about turntablism covers the movement in a very accessible way.

(trailer)

Hope that was of some help,

Good luck!

I?ll be moving to TO from the UK at the beginning of next month and hadn?t heard of this before. Gonna have to try and check it out, if you need an extra pair of hands give me a shout.