Describing the camera location in AUD concert videos
Back in the years 80's-90's, when audience video trading was at his heights (thanks also the the massive Floyd tours),
there was a common practice of describing the camera location by using a simple map which had been developed by
some "big" collectors (one for all, Mr. Ron Fleischer) and adopted by most traders. Showing the position of the camera by a standardized code was helpful to give an immediate idea of the shot angle,
so that you could know the video view in advance. Moreover, this info often allowed a quick identification of different
videos of the same event. The schema was meant to adapt to the majority of the concert venues – mainly the stadiums, but also arenas and
auditoriums; the audience area was in fact subdivided in - field (also meaning floor, stalls, etc): F1, F2 - mezzanine (also meaning balcony, terraces, tiers, etc): M1 to M8 (anti-clockwise facing the stage) Below a re-drawn example of the map:
Apparently this
map isn't any more in use... with film-makers often describing their
videos "filmed from sector Bxx, row yy, seat nn",
which means nothing unless you actually know the venue. I've read descriptions
like "filmed from the left side [looking at the stage]",
while somebody even said "filmed from the right side [of the stage]",
both meaning the same thing. Very confusing indeed.
So, why not bringing it in use again?
I realize that my
proposal may look nowadays a bit "naif", being a reminiscence of the
glorious analog recordings years...
without any doubt a YouTube clip or a digital image are now self-explanatory,
very useful and of (almost) immediate access. However,
I was thinking about using such standardized description not as a replacement
of any proof clips, but just as a simple info, in textual form,
that could be given within a video description or even withing its title
(or subtitle).
As an example - a couple videos of the same event have been recently
posted online:
- Roger Waters 2011-04-01 Assago (Milano) DVD shot by Max1334 <M2>
- Roger Waters 2011-04-01 Assago (Milano) DVD shot by Careful53
A proposed update
could be the use of sectors U1 to U8 (exactly located over
sectors M1 to M8), to point to the "upper level" of seats
that actually exist in many venues.