DOCKSIDE Night Club

Magus Visual South Africa supplying kit and directing the media & multi-camera shoots for the club.

   

Magus Visual have been supplying kit and directing the media & multi-camera shoots at the biggest and most technologically advanced super club in the Southern Hemisphere! The clubs name is DOCKSIDE and is based in CAPE TOWN South Africa.

The club comprises of four dance floors, this multi-faceted dance arena offers a wide range of various types of music in each venue appealing to all age groups. Equipped with state of the art laser, lighting and sound technology.

Weekends are Party Nights and the club buzzes, Juanne from Magus is in charge of camera setups and the media event.

   

The gear used consists of the following:

2-4 x Sony DSR PD150 (depends on the size of the production)
1 x Colour board spy camera placed on a helmet. (as used on Fear Factor)
1 x Sony DFS 500 or the new soon to arrive Panasonic MX 70 video mixer.
1 x 9" monitor per camera including the board camera.
1 x 14" monitor for final cut preview.
1 x digital camera to project images of the club (night time only).
1 x Comms kit (communication head set with microphones and belt pack so that the director can talk to camera men).
6 x 50m BNC cable drums.
6 x 50m XLR cable drums.
1 x DSR 45 to record the final cut. This machine allows up to 4 different audio inputs and we use all of them. 1 for effects, 1 for the music coming from the DJ mixer, 1 for the hand mic used by the presenters or the DJ’s voice and 1 for audio special effects.
1 x ME66 rifle mic for clubbers or crowd noise. Screaming, clapping and whistling... Positioned on top of DJ’s box over looking the main dance floor.

All the video feeds are projected onto huge screens in the main arena. On big events, we feed the video and audio to all the smaller dance floors in the club. Because the club gets so packed with clubbers, the PD150 with mini Sony infolithium camera light (HVL-20DW2) is perfect... it's small and light weight and the gain can be increased in really dark areas. As we are not broadcasting the footage, the gain comes in handy.

   

So what does every clubber want to see so badly apart from themselves, but never comes close to it… the DJ close-up and personal, spinning his tunes on the turn tables. Live action straight from the DJ booth. That's where the board camera comes in, it’s locked off with the flex arm removed straight from the helmet used on the Fear Factor shoot, just in front and above the DJ. The video feed is then projected to screen so that every clubber in the club can see there Hero on the decks spinning the tunes and doing their tricks.

   

Magus also use a laptop to generate the 3D graphics, logos, advertising & photo's for projection during the night. Juanne says he always trying new ideas, designing new specialized equipment to make life easier, especially on multi-camera shoots.

Visuals Group Technical Department.