My production company Berad Studio was recently given the opportunity to shoot the Triple Shot Oahu event for MXLGY.com at the Addiction Night Club in the Modern Honolulu.
Much different than a television commercial, event shooting is very unplanned and unfiltered. Rarely do you get a second chance to get your shot, so being on point and in focus is critical.
MXLGY’s co-founder Mike Prasad was my primary contact for the job and seeing as I had never shot a event in a bar before I had to confirm how much and what type of equipment to bring. He said he wanted primarily hand-held shots so as usual I reached immediately for my Express35 “Event Rig” equipped with my Zacuto EVF, Zoom H4n, Rode VideoMic Pro. I was told a tripod would be too bulky and impede foot traffic so I shot any locked and dolly shots from my Cinevate Altas 10 slider.
Shooting in a club is quite difficult for a few reasons:
1. You are constantly shooting in unflattering, dim lighting conditions so fill light and fast lenses were a must. To combat the low light conditions I mounted a Fotodiox 312 LED light to the top of my rig and shot with a really fast (large aperture) lenses. I chose my Zeiss (Contax) Distagon 35mm/1.4 as my primary lens on the 5Dii and a Tokina 12-24/f4 on a Canon 60D for wides. I also had a Zeiss 50/1.4 ZF and 85/1.4 (Contax) nestled in my ThinkTank Wired Up 20 for quick access.
2. When shooting at such large apertures on a full frame camera it can be really difficult to nail focus, so I much prefer the Zeiss lenses which have a larger focus range for fine tuned focus, and it would have been even more difficult with a follow focus system.
3. One of the art forms all event shooters try to master is invisibility. It’s hard to get candid, non-posed coverage of an event when people know you are near. This is one of the disadvantages of a large shoulder rig or cine-setup that I hope one day to master.
The night was full of fun and excitement and I was personally stoked to be in a lively, fun environment shooting a subject unfamiliar to me. I really enjoy shooting in new setups and scenarios because it allows me to stretch outside of my typical style and workflow to accomplish something I normally wouldn’t attempt to produce.
The bar was bumpin’ with specialty drinks crafted by Dave Newman, Tim Rita and Roxanne Siebert and the room was thumpin’ to the live beats of DJ Compose.
All in all, I had a rad time shooting and learning about this hip and creative take on traditional bar tending known simply as Mixology.
Event images provided by Travis K. Okimoto
