Tuesday 30 November 2010

Hope Augustus live at PJ's, Covent Garden

Hope Augustus live at PJ's, Covent Garden from eclectictrains on Vimeo.


In June this year I had the opportunity to film jazz singer Hope Augustus at PJ's in Covent Garden.  It was great to get out with a video camera and capture a flavour of the atmosphere at Hope's gig.  The performing space at PJ's is intimate, for those of you that don't know it, and therefore a challenge to film in.  So I plonked myself at the back of an eating area and didn't take the camera off the tripod until the punters had had a few drinks.

It was a fun night.  There were certain moments when the audience were completely captivated which is hard to achieve when everyone is eating and imbibing.  Look out for the audience reaction to Hope singing "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face".  Before the show I filmed a short interview with Hope.  This was a family show, so to speak, as Hope is my sister-in-law.  I hope (every pun intended) you enjoy this short film of the night.

[For those of you interested in the technical stuff: the film was shot on a Sony Z1 (HDV mode);  I recorded extra sound from the PA feed into a Zoom H4n (utterly crucial); I edited on Final Cut Pro and my colleagues at Xube graded my footage using Magic Bullets].

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Picked up the atmosphere very well from your video. Particularly impressed with the quality of the sound. Lovely mix during the music and good use of sound all the way through.Hope came across as a fabulous singer and a warm lady.

Richard Woolfenden said...

Thanks for your kind comments. I'm so glad that you think Hope's beautiful singing comes through.