We're all familiar with seeing GoPro footage on YouTube and TV of sports such as surfing or downhill mountain biking. Increasingly, musicians are finding uses for the tiny cameras too, clamping them to their instruments and shooting video from all kinds of interesting angles and sharing the results to amazing effect online.
The new GoPro Hero 3+ Black Music Edition bundle contains removable instrument mounts, a microphone mount, and a Jaws Flex Clamp allowing you to mount cameras on anything from a cymbal stand or guitar headstock, to a mic stand or keyboard, meaning you're only limited by your own imagination when it comes to shooting a video.
In this series we will show you how to get to grips with your own videos shoots, working with audio, and producing amazing edits using GoPro's Studio software.
For our first example video we've decided to keep things relatively simple by shooting an acoustic performance with Marsh Fires, using two GoPros simultaneously that we'll cut together later.
Once your shot list has been planned don't forget to make a list of the equipment you'll need and charge those batteries. Remember to charge your phone or tablet as you'll be needing that to preview your shots via the free GoPro app (iTunes, Google Play, Windows) which also allow you to knock back the input gain to 70 percent in case of clipping from the internal mic. If you don't have access to lighting we'd recommend you enable the auto low light function to reduce grain.
For our second video we've taken a different approach and shot footage of a fully electric band, The Lash, from numerous different angles to accompany a pre-recorded studio version of the song.
We've used the jaws flex clamp in a variety of positions and also the GoPro head strap and blackout housing for a drummer's eye view.
In the next video we'll show you how to take all this footage and use GoPro's free Studio software to produce a web-worthy edit.
About the GoPro Hero 3+ Black Music Edition
The HERO 3+ Black Music Edition has been designed with the filming of musicians in mind, and utilises The Frame - GoPro's new low-profile camera mount - for unintrusive, high-quality recording.
The HERO 3+'s wide-angle, low distortion lens has been adapted to capture performances in low-light environments, and can be controlled remotely via a smartphone or GoPro Wi-Fi remote. It's able record up to two hours of footage at 1080p/30 frames per second (more than enough for most gigs), and can capture audio via an inbuilt mic or 3.5mm mic input.
It also ships with a range of accessories including a removable, non-adhesive instrument mount suitable for guitars, drums, turntables, keyboards and more, a mic stand mount compatible with both US and European standard mic stands, and a Flex Clamp for mounting to cymbal stands and drum hardware (which also has an opposible, removable neck for a wide range of camera angles).
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