'Salute to the Blues' Shot on Panasonic HD Varicams

[Gregg Lengling]

The piercing licks of B.B. King, the sliding vocals of Bonnie Raitt, the imposing delivery of Odetta only begin to intimate the scope and depth of the talent who performed earlier this year at "The Salute to the Blues," a five-hour concert staged at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, the first event in the Year of the Blues (beginning Feb. 1, 2003) proclaimed by the U.S. Congress.

Produced by Jigsaw Productions in association with the Experience Music Project, the rock-history museum in Seattle, to benefit the Blues Music Foundation, the concert also provided material for a concert film directed by Antoine Fuqua (Oscar-winning "Training Day," "Tears of the Sun') with Martin Scorsese as executive producer and Margaret Bodde as co-producer. (Mr. Scorsese is also the executive producer of "The Blues," a PBS film series for this fall.)

The concert was documented in a multi-camera shoot with nine Panasonic's AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema cameras, with Panasonic's AG-DVX100 Mini-DV 3-CCD camcorders used for background footage and pick-up shots. The Panasonic cameras were rented from Abel Cine Tech Inc. (New York, NY). The production is currently keeping to a five-month post schedule, with the ultimate two-hour film slated for broadcast and/or theatrical release before the conclusion of the Year of the Blues.

The evening of the concert, Fuqua directed six VariCams moving throughout the 5,900-seat Radio City Music Hall (two on jibs, three hand-held, and one Steadicam); the remaining three cameras were on pedestals in the front of the house. The cameras on jibs were equipped with wide-angle lenses, and those on pedestals with long lenses for intimate shots. The cameras were fiber-linked to HD monitors, so the director was confident of a look he liked right at the capture point. The cameras also fed two 25' 16:9 screens.

Two AG-DVX100s were used for off-site rehearsals and, on concert night, in the backstage green room and for other non-performance footage.