050 – Multi-Camera Video Production for Beginners: Tips and Tricks to Make Your Videos Awesome – with Will Waters of NewTek

Have you ever thought about using multiple cameras to capture video content? Are you interested in taking your video production to the next level? In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I talk to Will Waters from NewTek, who shares about how to get started with multi-camera video production. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – The importance of video content 00:36 – Introduction to Will Waters 02:05 – How practical is multi-camera video production? 03:55 – The benefits of multi-camera video production 06:55 – Mixing and matching cameras 08:47 – What tools or gear do you need to make multi-camera video production possible? 11:22 – The video editing process and post-production 13:39 – How can you create better videos with multiple cameras? 15:57 – How technical is the setup process? 20:48 – What types of content should musicians be creating to engage their audience? 25:53 – How can we market and distribute video content? 28:30 – How important is it for musicians to be publishing video content? 30:14 – Closing remarks Transcription: David Andrew Wiebe: Thanks for joining me. You may have noticed that I’ve started talking a little bit more about creating video and video content as of late. There’s a good reason for that. You may have even heard that people now spend more time on YouTube than all other social networks combined, which is insane. In this episode, I have a special interview for you. Let’s get right into it. I think you’re going to enjoy it. My guest today is the director of product marketing at NewTek. Here to talk about multicamera video production, I’d like to welcome Will Waters. How are you today, Will? Will Waters: I’m doing well David. Thank you very much. David: Is there anything you’d like to share about yourself before we get into the main questions about camera and multicamera production? Will: I’d like to say I appreciate the opportunity here to talk to so many people. I have a background of music and music production live, in the live element really. Background of live audio mix engineering and doing event production and various things. It came through the time when video was just being put onto the stage. I guess through the 90s and everything. I kind of saw this video thing. Well, it’s not that hard to kind of move in. That took a winding path, I guess into a road of now working for a manufacturer and helping develop product that hopefully solves some solutions. But one of the wonderful things is taking some of those things that have been found in the audio world and applying them to video and kind of like vice versa. Bringing together all for artistic or storytelling experience. David: I have some experience with both live and in studio engineering so hopefully there’s some overlap there and I’ll be able to relate to some of the things that you’re going to be sharing about. A lot of musicians struggle with consistently creating video content let alone using multiple cameras to do it. How practical is it for them to even think about taking the production game to the next level? Will: Well, fortunately, in today’s world of technology things have become – the barrier, I guess, to putting all this [together] has really been removed in so many different ways. Even the things that we’re carrying around our pockets, in these smartphones, the things that you could do from an audio perspective, they also involve these cameras that you can easily live stream to whatever platform, from a social standpoint very quickly and easily. But again, taking that I guess to the next level as far as synching up multiple cameras and putting that all together, there is a little bit of complexity. It’s not nearly what it used to be but there is a little bit of complexity that probably is worth talking about to get around. But it can be done and it can be done pretty quickly. While I wouldn’t say – I mean I guess depending on your thought about what is considered inexpensive. Comparatively, it’s actually much lower cost than it has ever been before. In today’s world, this is something that really you can do that and then, of course, use the internet to get to an audience that in the past was completely unavailable as a musician. David: Yeah. It’s not too surprising to me that it would be cheaper and easier than ever before. I mean especially with computer hardware and really just electronic hardware, in general, we’re seeing prices decrease and go down. We live in an amazing time and we can do so much more than we are able to do before. What are some of the benefits of using multiple video cameras? Why is that something musicians would want to do when creating video content? Will: Well, one of the things is if we just think about or we take a step back away from the technology, and if you just think a little bit about how you interact even in the room or maybe as our viewers – I mean the listeners – are thinking about even where they are right now, you tend to take in this data visually. You would look around the room. You look around what may be happening. We’re taking all these data in at a pretty constant rate. Even if you watch your traditional television or something on your Facebook feed even, your eyes are moving around in that player and they are doing different things at it. If you go to an event. You go down to the bar to watch a live performance, you are going to look at the guitar player. You’re going to see the vocalist. You’re going to pay attention sometimes to the drummer. This is just the natural way that we interact with our world around us. What multicam allows us to do is take and show multiple angles, areas of interest that is... Because you can’t physically be in a particular location, what it allows for is that move around of “Hey, look at this. Look at that over there.” It gives you more... It tells us a more concise and more enveloped story around whatever experience that you’re working with. It enhances something. That’s not to say that everything else is unimportant. You can certainly have a single camera that live streams and you can watch that just fine but there is a certain element of I guess professionalism or you move up that when you start adding multiple cameras and then you start directing or telling a story by moving to the fretboard on a particular guitar solo versus just having the static shot, it brings an area of interest that then is enhanced. It really enhances the audio from a musician standpoint. David: Yeah. Several years ago, I had some video blogs done for me by a professional. He would incorporate some of the narrative or some of my talking along with different visuals and different things he picked up around my house or whatever environment we happened to be in like a live music venue. I love how that kind of helped tell a story. It wasn’t just focused entirely on me or what I was saying. It had to do with my music and my environment in which I was creating my music. I really love that and I like your point about how your eyes are going to follow naturally to different places while you’re watching a band. When using multiple cameras, is it important for musicians to be using the same camera for every angle, or can they mix and match different cameras? Will: Well, that’s a really – it’s a creative decision. Just like if you’re doing a recording, the question I was asked a lot is what microphone did you use or what pickup are you’re working with? I think the real answer to all of that is: What is the right tool for what you want to have? Now, the camera is a capture. It’s an acquiring tool. Cameras have different specifications. They are at good some things versus others. One may have a wide focal lens or a large sensor panel. It may be small and can be clipped on to the end of the guitar you know? There are different things that you can put together. Now, for consistency, there are some subtleties that can be important to pay attention to such as the color. When you have the same camera type then you have a better consistency as you switch between those angles. But again, depending on how you want to tell the story, or what you want to draw the attention to, then the camera choice becomes secondary to the content itself. David: I know that my friend Daniel Guy Martin – who's a very accomplished guitarist – he used to go around capturing video footage for himself and what he was up to. He would also capture footage not just with his camcorder or video camera but also with his phone to kind of get a little bit of that low-fi footage in there to mix in with the high def stuff. So, I think like you say it’s a creative decision and might even play into your branding and what sort of image you’re trying to project. So, what tools would a musician need to get started with multicamera video production? Will: Well, there’s a lot of different ways you can go about this. But for a moment, let’s make an assumption that we do have audio covered in some capacity or we’re working with that. Then, the second thing to think about is are we going to want to cut these cameras or we want to put this together kind of in a live or as-it-happens, or do we want to go in to a post-processing where we have recorded video and then we marry them up together? So, there is a big distinction as far as what you can do. Obviously, the live element allows for it to be done very quickly and efficiently so that you can produce your quantities of content and get that out to your audience versus a post-production workflow whereas you may be able to add in more effects or pay attention to more of the finer details and deliver something that is very specific artistically. But of course, that is going to take time and effort that you put into. To get started, that’s really the first thing to kind of think about because they are two som