Click Here to watch Bart Series Beat Battle Video
A very exciting event put on by Phillip Drummond and Beats Rhymes & Life, and a very enjoyable Friday night at Club 6 in downtown San Francisco. I had only heard of this beat battle a few hours before I set sail towards the bay with Monsrock to meet up with E.C, but I'm glad I had my camera ready to shoot whatever came my way. Prior to this event, I had never been to a beat battle in any way, nor have I really shot in a night club setting. Two new experiences and I enjoyed every bit of it
Phillip Drummond hosts many of these events, and his experience was apparent. There was rarely a dole moment the entire night, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and I got plenty of good footage. Hanging out with my .Label mates was fun, watching them battle it out with some of bay area's finest, was even better. I really didn't know what to expect and no disrespect to everyone there, I really wasn't expecting much. As soon as that first beat dropped by E-Train, I instantly knew this was the real deal. Producer after producer, great beat after great beat, I really started to enjoy myself after a few beats. No doubt there was a lot of talent inside Club 6 that night, I really wanted to be on par video-wise with what I was hearing. The audio was challenging, but the low light setting was really the biggest hurdle here.
Using only my Canon T2i, SpiderBrace and Zoom H2, the low light was a big problem. Early in the video, you can see even trying to get a decent white balance setting was difficult. I actually ended up using a few different ones until I got the picture to look good on the LCD screen. Once I got back to editing, I had to do a lot of color correcting. I used my 50mm Nikon Nikkor the entire night set at F1.4. Trying to use the kit lens was way out of the question. So much so I didn't even bring it. I might have gotten away with the popular Canon F1.8 prime lens, but the ISO would have been through the roof. ISO's did vary through out the night, but there was no way I was going to get around introducing "gain" in the picture. If I wasn't trying to conserve battery life on the Zoom H2, the entire show would have gotten great sound. The quality of these recorders is amazing, I highly recommend Zoom products, and if on a budget, the new Zoom H1 packs a huge punch in a small body and very affordable price of only $99. The SpiderBrace is an awesome product for this type of situation. A tight space full of people and not really knowing what to expect, its great to be versatile and mobile.
Phillip Drummond can throw a great event, and as good as his shows are, he's even better as a person. Very nice and easy to work along side with. If you are in the bay area and want to experience some real underground hip hop, stop by philthybeats.com and see what Phillip has in store. I hope you enjoyed the video and to those who participated. GREAT job and keep making beats. Eat sleep beats.
-Andrew
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