PERSONAL YOU: Making Your Best Dance Video - professional videographer shares his tips

Dance Magazine, Dec, 1998 by Marian Horosko

Want to make your best video souvenir of a Nutcracker performance? Student recital? Competition? Dennis Diamond not only personifies the word videographer, he has raised videotaping to a new art form. He tells you how to make your best dance video.

"I think the biggest mistake when taping a performance is to move the camera around after it has been set and focused," says Dennis Diamond, the dance profession's most famous videographer. "In the hands of an inexperienced person, or even an experienced videographer, changes in camera angles can often lose or omit important sections of the choreography."

Diamond, who twenty-two years ago pioneered the now widely used method of capturing a performance, attended the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City, where he studied jazz, tap, ballet, modern dance, and choreography. He danced professionally for five years, after which he wandered into the offices of a cable TV station and heard, "Well, you look bright; how about a job?" The result was a new career, and today his company, Video D, is a unique production unit that documents performances with a dancer-cameraman-editor as its director.

Here are some of Diamond's suggestions for producing a successful video.

IF YOU ARE A PARENT:

1. Get permission to in writing to tape from the dance teacher, school, or theater. Include all details--date, time, place, noncommercial reason for taping (such as personal enjoyment), and give assurance that the video will not be distributed for sale or for any commercial purpose.

The best time to tape is dress rehearsal when, it is hoped, the production will be a run-through with few stops. "Don't try to edit with the camera if you make a mistake or the dancers stop" says Diamond. "Don't rewind; just continue recording or you may erase what you have."

2. If there are professional dancers in the production, be sure to obtain a signed release from each of them to document their performances. Include the same details as in the permission statement from the school--date, noncommercial use, time, and place.

3. Set up a tripod at your standing height with your camera far enough away from the stage to include the proscenium sides and a little less than the top curtain (this placement is usually about midcenter in the audience or no farther away than thirty feet). Make sure that the performers can be seen full-figure. Bring batteries and tape for two to four hours. Diamond recommends the HI-8mm, VHS, or Panasonic camera; a zoom lens; a Bogan tripod or one with a leveling device; and a bubble light.

4. Focus a bit lower than the center of the dancer's body or the legs will look too short. Place your tripod center stage and remain there even for a zoom shot.

Musical accompaniment is probably recorded, but if live musicians are present, it might get complicated when you ask them and the conductor for releases to record the performance. But be sure to ask, even for a rehearsal taping.

Remember that you are not permitted to tape during a live performance.

5. Graphics are an added cost. These are the written names, dates, and credits that usually precede the performance. Graphics, based upon your information, can be produced for your video by a local production house. Editing is also an additional cost, particularly if you have separate zoom shots. It is another service provided by a local production house.

"Another very important thing to remember," Diamond adds, "is not to be tempted to change the focus once the rehearsal has begun. Just keep the full figure of the dancer within the frame. Don't pan on people who are going offstage. I often compare using the camera to driving a car. As a beginner, you usually oversteer, until you realize that there is little to do except pay attention to what you have in front of you."

IF YOU ARE A TEACHER:

In order not to be swamped with individual parent videographers during a dress rehearsal or at any other time (this can become a touchy situation), permit only one professional or designated person with permission to tape the dress rehearsal or live performance. Be firm and make no exceptions. Enable the videographer to see the work at least once before taping the performance. Post a notice saying that copies of the final video will be made available on VHS at a nominal cost, usually about $25, including graphics, edits, and other visual material. An excessive price can lead to multiple copies being made from one purchased copy.

In addition, state that while persons may not tape from the audience during a performance, nor from the wings, taping backstage will be permitted.

By making it clear that there will be only one videographer with permission to tape gives you control over the quality of the performance, your image, and your reputation as a director and choreographer. The cost to hire a videographer is about $350. A package deal that includes editing and credits can be negotiated.

If the performance includes professional dancers or musicians, include in your contract with them that a videotaping will occur at the dress rehearsal, and that the conditions are noncommercial. Point out that having a professional videographer will show them to their best advantage, that the taping will be under your direction, and that it will be sold only to persons associated with the school. If you have a soloist who doesn't want to give you permission to tape, tell him or her that it's okay--you'll put in the understudy.