Does anyone make professional DVD's for recitals or other events?

[aniT]

I need to know if my expectations are too high or if this is really a piss poor job.

DD had a ballet recital in June. We finally got the DVD that was "professionally" made and cost my MIL $25. It's horrible!!! The dancers look like white blobs of light most of the time. Even when they are not white blobs of light you cannot make out anyways face you can just see bodies up there dancing. When my own DD came on the only way I could tell which one was her was because she was the tallest. White blobs of light again. Then they would pan back and forth and I missed a lot of what DD was doing cause she was focused on the one girls that was off to the side rather the then four that were in line where they were supposed to be.

The sound is terrible. It is no better than a home video. I can even pick out DS's crying through the end of it. And there is one point where it actually skips and goes back a frame.

So is this what you would expect? Am I justified in being really annoyed that MIL paid $25 for a video that was WORSE than the home video DH made (of just DD)? Someone give me a point of reference.

Thanks!!

[DaughterOfKali]

Sounds like a very bad job and she should get her money back.

[Autumn Breeze]

This thread has been moved to the proper forum for it's content from Talk Amongst Ourselves to Books, Music and Other Media.

[RufusBeans]

Seems common at our Ballet Academy. The video was horrible and then they took a group photo. $20 . Wow its out of focus and pixelated. The guy was either using a camera with only 1 megapixel or he printed them out using a thumbnail file. absolutely horrible. $20.

I think the problem is they don't really hire professionals. They must hire hobbyists or parents.

Our other Dance studio had pictures done by a professional photographer and they were just fine

[dancindoula]

Our ballet school's previous videographer worked that way. Note the "previous." He did not use good equipment and he did not take proper precautions to adjust for the light or sound. He also did not have the soundtrack fed directly into his camera to block out the audience noise, he just picked it up from the live mike on the camera - the sound came out muffled and tinny. He also refused to attend dress rehearsals and make notes so he frequently missed important action by panning away from center stage. Our current videographer is the exact opposite of all this and charges $35 per DVD. The quality is outstanding. He does pan across the dancers in a closeup once or twice per dance just so parents can get at least one close shot of their daughters, but he makes rehearsal notes and uses multiple cameras so that he can edit everything together and make sure not to miss anything important. I would definitely advise you to discuss this with your ballet school's director. If she is hearing it from multiple parents she will be more likely to take note of it and, frankly, it probably bothers her as well since this is her school's only record of their recital. She may just not know that there really are professional videographers available who charge affordable rates.

ETA: one other quick thought that may help even after she finds a better videographer, she needs to make sure parents and students understand how to use stage makeup. Even a good videographer will have a hard time capturing faces against the glare of the stage lights if the dancers aren't properly made up. There are quick guides and PDF handouts available online that she can give to parents in their recital packets and she can even have a workshop day (we do this in the summer) where everyone brings their makeup and practices in the mirror (if the girls are too young to apply it themselves the older students practice putting it on the younger ones).

[aniT]

She does hire parents for a lot of things. We found this school cause she had a craigs list ad asking for a trade for dance classes for dental work. 6 months later that ad is still poping up so I guess she hasn't found anyone to trade. We started out trading computer repair.