This month we were back at Curve Theatre to work on an exciting new project which saw us creating three music videos with the cast and creatives of the new Beautiful – The Carole King Musical. The show is a celebration of Carole King and her incredible body of work including hits like Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Beautiful, and Take Good Care of My Baby.
Working closely with Curve’s Artistic Director, and Director of the show, Nikolai Foster, we discussed the vision for the music videos including staging, lighting, coverage and general feel. The central idea was to create an MTV/Live Lounge atmosphere that gave the impression of a jam session rather than a formulaic, structured piece.
We had one day to film the three music videos which included the full company of actor-musicians playing live. To ensure we kept an organic feel to the videos it was decided that the songs would be recorded live during the filming process which meant we would only be able to use the take we agreed was best rather than being able to cut multiple takes together. To make this happen we needed a multi-camera shoot which would allow us to get the required coverage of the full company in each take.
We designed a five-camera shoot which included three static cameras positioned around the circular performance space, we then called on the services of Dan Hunt to operate a camera crane and Mbili Munthali as our Steadicam operator. The added movement provided by the crane and Steadicam is imperative to this kind of shoot and allows you much more freedom and creativity with your coverage decisions. Our core team at Crosscut filled the other roles on the production with Jordan as Director of Photography and Dan, Duncan, and Francesca as camera operators.
We are thrilled with how the music videos came out as they really capture the essence of the music and all of the creative talent involved in the upcoming show.
Beautiful – The Carole King Musical is a Made at Curve production directed by Nikolai Foster and starts its run from Monday 28th February to Saturday 12th March.
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