Hours of footage
Minutes of work
Crew sheetkeep it in your pocket on the night
Night / venue
Date
In charge

Audio · the compass for everything

  • The mixer records all night. Line feed from the desk, start to finish. If the recorder splits the files every 2 GB that is fine.
  • Every camera records audio, even bad audio: it only has to hear the same music.
  • NEVER turn off the camera audio: a silent camera cannot be synced.
  • Level by hand, low (around -20 dB): a club goes past 100 dB and distorted audio is the worst enemy of sync.
  • NO automatic gain (AGC): it pumps exactly on the loud moments.
  • Small external mic pointed at the speakers on the static cameras, if you have one: it doubles the strength of the lock.
  • Room mic on the crowd (folder AMBIENTE): it is how the program understands when the room goes off.

Cameras · fewer stops, fewer problems

  • Start early with every camera and let them run: thirty seconds of shared music is enough, but the more the better.
  • Continuous recording on the static cameras: every stop and restart is one more file.
  • Same frame rate on all of them. Different resolutions are not a problem.
  • Timecode (jam sync) at the start of the night, if the cameras have it: one more safety belt.
  • Batteries and cards for the whole night: swapping a card halfway through a drop is the worst possible moment.

Folders · the names matter

  • One folder per camera inside the folder of the night, with the standard names:
    MIXER · AMBIENTE · CAM_FOH · CAM_BOOTH · CAM_DX45 · CAM_SX45 · MOB_DJ · MOB_PISTA · MOB_PUBBLICO
  • It is not paperwork: the directing uses them. On the drop it cuts to the declared wide, on the roar it goes to the roaming camera on the crowd.
  • SemSync creates the folders for you: tab Prepare, tick what you have, press Create folder structure.

Before you pack up

  • Stop the cameras AFTER the mixer recorder, not before.
  • Copy the cards into the right folders and check that everything is there before formatting.
  • NEVER format a card the same night: you check a copy with a fresh head.
  • Write on this sheet what went wrong (cameras off, stops, card swaps): at the edit it is worth gold.
Do not worry about drift. The internal clock of every camera slides on its own, even by a few frames over one night, and no setting prevents it: SemSync measures it along the whole night and corrects it by itself, point by point.