Are you interested in learning how to record your stand up comedy sets properly?
Tired of putting grainy or blurry or low quality cell phone clips on Instagram only to get the same three or four comments from your open mic buddies?
Do you recognize the need to invest in your career and have proper production quality gear on the go so you can get more eyeballs on your sets and start making some money?
Well if that sounds like you...you're in the right place.
How to Film and Record Your Stand Up Comedy Sets the Right Way
Welcome to our step-by-step guide on how to film your stand-up comedy performances. Whether you're capturing your first open mic night or a seasoned comic recording a special, this guide will help you ensure that you know the basics (and some advanced) so your clips can get the scroll stopping engagement it deserves.
Choosing Your Equipment
Firstly, select a camera that performs well in low-light conditions, as comedy clubs are often dimly lit. Pair your camera with a high-quality external microphone to capture clear audio. Don't forget a sturdy tripod to keep your footage stable.
They're a lot of things you need to know like ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed and of course framing and blocking your shot.
Plan to research a good camera for about a week, and another two weeks to learn it once you have it. However you can easily see the list below in case you want the one I have (Sony A7 4).
Basic Gear You'll Need
One to Three Mirrorless Cameras Made After 2019
An H4n Audio Recorder
Two to Three Tripods
Two to Three Friends or Fellow Comics to act as cameramen.
What You Need To Know Before You Start Recording
Before I begin explaining how many camera and lenses you’ll need, let me warn you. You’ll probably record about 10 gigs before you get it right.
A million things will go wrong the first 5-10 times.Â
I put this guide together so you'll figure out recording your shows by 10 open mics and not 100.
Stand up comedy isn’t impossible to film, or particularly very difficult…if you have a crew. And of course, you have a crew for every open mic with 5 people, right? I mean of course RIGHT!?!?!
Ok, so that’s where it gets difficult.
Unless you have a team of 4-5 people constantly helping, checking levels, angles, lighting, aperture, and focus…live shoots…even in a small bar can be quite hectic.
Camera Setup
Position your camera at the back of the venue at about audience head level to get a wide shot that includes both the performer and the audience’s reactions.
If possible, set up a second camera at a different angle for dynamic cutaways.
Factors to Consider when Recording Stand Up Comedy
3 DSLR’s with the appropriate lenses, one wide-angle, and two slightly side angles which need not be an equal distance away from the middle.
Most of your edits/cuts on your act outs, since emotion/setup/tension you need intimate close-ups/middle shots.
If you can, record audio laughter from your phone in the middle of the audience, or use the H4N 4 channel setting if you really need to.
Also, tripods should be at the height where the camera is at your neck level.
List of Things That Can Go Wrong When Recording Stand Up Comedy
The sound guy at the theater or venue increases the audio level on his/her mixer, which was going to your recorder, now ruining your audio from the mixer/sound recorder. Now all you have is hollow camera audio.
Somebody stands in front of your cameras and blocks the shot or messes up the focus and now the camera is focused on the guys head in the front row and not you.
Audience member's chair hits tripod and moves the angle of the camera, now have your shoulder is out of frame.
Camera SD cards cut out or get full.
Audio gets full or recorder dies because power settings/battery/memory card was wrong.
You moved out of the frame and no camera got you, during your best act out.
Weird hissing from audio recorder because mixer had some loose wire or feedback or cell phone hum.
Aperture was too perfect and depth of field was too crisp, so you’re barely in focus since you move a lot back and forth, not just left and right.
Batteries die after 20 to 45 minutes because the opener took too long, and your best joke was at minute 46 and it was the best response you ever got and OMG WTF.
ISO is too high and footage is way too grainy.
Your set or delivery was off or you messed up one word and now the callback in your clip doesn’t make sense and will confuse the viewer. (not a technical issue but hey anybody feel me?)
Performer kept walking out of the spotlight so all was fine except his/her face is underexposed (e.g. dark bags under eyes and just looks off). I just did this at my show yesterday.
You are too bright or too dark because exposure settings were not fixed and the lighting changed mid show.
Audio Considerations
Good audio is crucial; your jokes won’t land if they can’t be heard. Clip a lapel microphone close to your mouth, or set up a directional microphone on stage.
NEVER RECORD A STAND UP COMEDY SHOW USING CAMERA AUDIO ONLY.
Check the acoustics of the venue and adjust your setup to minimize echo and background noise.
Lighting
If the venue’s lighting isn’t sufficient, consider adding some soft, diffused lights around the stage. This enhances video quality without creating harsh shadows or blinding performers.
Usually however you don't have room to do much lighting at live comedy shows that seat between 50-100, so I would suggest that as long as the stage/room has decent light where you perform, any of the modern mirrorless cameras between $1400 and above should be fine to get great footage with well lit comedians.
Filming and Editing
When filming, make sure to record a bit of the environment before and after the set to give context to your footage. During editing, keep cuts clean and timing tight to maintain the rhythm of your performance.
Can I Use My Cell Phone as a Backup?
I’d advise it. Â
It can serve as your master shot (a backup you cut to when another camera cut out) for the entire stage and also be very usable backup audio for either your full set or your audience laughter.Â
Even if I have a DSLR I sometimes simply use my cell phone cause the crowd work bit was fine from the phone and that’s good enough for 1K views on Instagram.
What if there is no DJ/Soundboard?
Then you’ll have to use audio from your H4N or camera audio so your voice/jokes will be recorded from the speakers along with with the crowds laughter. You could also use your cell phone audio and sync it later, since this will also be better than camera audio.
Conclusion
Comedians need to be recording their sets DEFINITELY for themselves, and in the long run for the benefit for their career and audiences. They also need to be watching those sets rather than just knowing it’s on their phone, and upload those fun crowd moments that happen daily.
As Dwayne Perkins told me in ten mistakes comics make, recording and WATCHING your set between gigs is actually doubling your stage time, since you were probably going to do the same nonsense again without any adjustment.
The internet continues to democratize stand up and you need to find cheap hacks to get near Netflix quality production with $500 of consumer-level Amazon gear.
A million bars and restaurants have epic stages for music, that has good acoustics, the brick wall, great seating, good lighting, and optimal camera placement.
Imagine if you can produce a killer show, record your fun bits and use that platform to launch yourself? That’s more or less what DryBar and Don't Tell comedy are doing, and it’s giving the public what they want.
Good luck!