Women of Visions
Magnificent Motown

Client: Kelly Strayhorn Theater & Women of Visions
Collaborators: Kelly Strayhorn Theatre, HearCorp, & JBP
Project Type: Live-To-Tape Concert

This project is an interesting animal. This concert may seem very similar to the other Motown concert in the portfolio but the look and sound will be very different. This concert was produced on a much smaller budget and timeframe. To achieve this, we used a technique called “Live-to-Tape”. This technique shoots a take or two of an event as if it were live using a video production switcher (the device used for live TV and streaming). The footage gets recorded onto a hard drive (we don’t use tape anymore) with all of the live switches. We can still tweak the video editing slightly, polish the audio, and add some basic graphics after the fact.

This method reduces cost because it is run much like a live performance. A director is talking to the cameras using a headset and having an operator switch the whole show live. You DO NOT STOP and in many cases, you do not get a second take to fix things. This has consequences, namely: you get what you get! This entire production was set up, rehearsed, lit, filmed, and wrapped in a single 8-hour day. Only a handful of hours went into audio and video editing.

It is good to compare the quality and feel of our live-to-tape Motown and the traditional video production Duoversary Motown.