In the off chance that a DP asks me before he goes off to a shoot what kind of footage I would like, I always answer lots of coverage and points of view that I wouldn’t be able to see with my own eyes. I think this is the difference between a DP that can bring quality to your video and one that can’t. It’s easy to shoot what we can see with our own eyes, but the ones that can find something else, something we don’t see or normally notice, those are the ones I love to work with.
An example I will use is from The Killers new Blu-Ray/DVD from the 2nd track “This is Your Life.” The video is directed by Dick Carruthers, who has a great background of live concert DVDs. It is a fantastic live concert, I’d highly recommend in for your HDTV setup and Blu Ray collection. Some of the shots are a tad fast for me, I end up wanting more. That may be because I’ve been to a couple of The Killers shows though.
The specific example I want to mention from the clip above is my favorite shot in the whole show. Start the clip at 2:26 and listen to the bridge. Most of the shots are ones we can get from being an audience member. There are some close ups on Brandon Flowers (vocals) and Dave Koening (guitar) and the angles used include those from the crowd POV, which is great. I love feeling like I am there, but the magical moment of this song comes at 2:57 when we go from shots we can see with our own perspectives and our own eyes to one that we can never achieve by being there- being right up on stage, right behind Brandon Flowers. It’s an awesome pan from on stage. Until I saw this shot I never though swaying your hands in the air was cool 😉
Getting these types of shots into your piece sell your skill as an editor and it will show your DP you know what to do with what he has taken the time to shoot.