Hi!
I am using two Mini DV video cameras (one for a side shot and one for a centered long shot) to tape a single singer doing a show this Saturday night.
The singer is using pre-recorded music tracks and playing electric guitar at times during the show. I have three 500 watt softboxes available if needed.
My theory for getting the best sound for this shoot is this, although I’m not sure it's the best.
I have one M-Audio Mictrotrack digital recorder (using a removable CF card) taking the left and right outs of the main mixing board. This will capture the vocals/guitar/music tracks very clearly as I've done this already. But, there is no audience sounds.
So, I'm planning on using another Microtrack with two condenser mics plugged into it and placing them in front of the stage facing (the audience/stage?) to pick up not only the audience sounds but the singers sounds after they have been released into the room and now have some "live" sound feel.
I'm planning to use a "clapboard" before the show so I can sync up the audio with video later and then also mix the two audio recordings together for a "clear" but live sound.
I'm hoping this will work but wanted any help I could get here.
Thanks.
Jerry
www.jerrycastaldo.com

The guy who really knows about this is "TurnMedia" but I'll stick my sixpenn'oth in and suggest having one or more microphones just for the audience sounds, plugging it/them into one of your camcorders, that way the "audience and ambient" sounds are already synced to one of the videos.

I agree completely with placing microphones in front of (or pointing at) the speakers since I've found that the pure line mix from the desk tends to be a bit "thin" since the audio engineer is mixing so that it sounds good in the room.

Unless one of your cameras is very mobile and can't be cabled, my solution would be:

Mixing desk output into camera 1
Audience and ambient into camera 2
Speaker into microphones into CF recorder.

PS: My field is lighting though and I would definitely not use softboxes on a stage show as they completely destroy the atmosphere often giving a flat illumination.

I don't have one of those Beachtek audio adapters with phantom power ($365 each) so that I can plug my good condesner mics directly into my cameras, that's why the external audio recorders are being put to use.
As far as lighting, I only have softboxes that I use for chroma keying, so again, since this is a one time thing, I didn't want to purchase anything else.
Thanks again.
Jerry
www.jerrycastaldo.com

Lighting isn't my speciality either but here's my two cents anyway. What about reducing the output on one or two of the softboxes (is this possible?) and have them act as a filler light and a backlight as in three point lighting? The key light being the softbox whose output wasn't reduced. If this was possible it would certainly give you more lighting options with the equipment you have.

__________________
Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

Thanks, I'm gonna get some dimmers today and that would probably help me get a better lighting situation.
Jerry