S-Cinetone for a School Band Concert: Cinematic Results with Fast Turnaround

Capturing a S-Cinetone for a school band concert production is an excellent way to achieve professional results without a heavy editing load. On May 18th, 2023, I filmed the end-of-year performance at Bonham Middle School. Because their band program consistently earns top UIL honors, I wanted a visual style that matched their high-caliber performance. This event was the perfect opportunity to utilize S-Cinetone for a school band concert to test Sony’s cinematic color science in a real-world setting.

The Benefits of S-Cinetone for Event Videography

What makes S-Cinetone for a school band concert so effective is its ability to mimic the Sony VENICE’s celebrated look. It optimizes skin tones and provides a film-like color grade directly in-camera. For videographers, this means:

• Rich Skin Tones: Students look natural under harsh stage lights.

• Soft Highlights: It prevents the “video” look by rolling off bright lights smoothly.

• Instant Turnaround: You get a professional look “straight out of camera,” which is vital for sharing memories with families quickly.

Overcoming Lighting and Audio Challenges

Using S-Cinetone for a school band concert requires careful management of the environment. High-contrast overhead stage lighting can lead to blown-out highlights. By using a wide dynamic range setting, I was able to preserve detail in both the dark stage corners and the bright sheet music.

To complement the cinematic visuals, audio is paramount. I recorded with a safety channel—a secondary track at a lower volume—to ensure that loud brass crescendos or thunderous applause didn’t cause digital clipping or distortion.

Lastly, maintaining steady camera operation is critical for achieving smooth and professional-looking footage. While handheld shooting can offer a sense of dynamism, it’s often advisable to utilize a tripod to minimize camera shake and ensure stable, high-quality recordings.

Quick turnaround for video production.

For this event, I used Sony’s New S-Cinetone Picture Profile on Sony A7iv camera. Not only does it provide a straight out of camera video, the video may only need slight editing. Using S-Cinetone for a School Band Concert should allow for quick turnaround on video production projects.

Video production can provide original content for your website, social media, and advertising. Video production is an important part of your marketing, giving a face and voice to your business and providing high value for your brand.

What is S-Cinetone?

It’s  Sony’s picture profile built to resemble the Sony VENICE’s celebrated cinematic look renowned for optimising skin tones and providing a film-like color to videos. What’s unique about this profile is that it allows quick and effortless production of video content directly from the camera without much need for post-production color-grading. An experienced videographer can then concentrate on getting the right shot, establish the correct mood, and make sure the scene looks great.

Optimal Exposure for S-Cinetone

To get the most out of S-Cinetone for a school band concert, proper exposure is key to avoiding noisy shadows. Unlike Log profiles that require overexposure, S-Cinetone is designed to look great right out of the camera. Use your camera’s “Zebra” settings to ensure stage highlights don’t blow out. This balance preserves the cinematic texture and ensures your video production remains clean and professional.

Final Results and Workflow

After importing the footage from my Sony A7 IV, the post-production was incredibly fast. Because I chose S-Cinetone for a school band concert, I only needed slight exposure tweaks and minor white balance cooling. The results were vibrant, professional, and ready for social media and archival use immediately.

At Lightning Bilt Creative Studio, we get great opportunities from clients, friends, and familty to test out settings and techniques. This then becomes a newly acquired skill that can be very useful for my clients and their project needs.

Got a Video Project? Contact us today!

// Equipment used: Sony a7IV, Small Rig cage, Sony 70-200mm, Rode Videomic NTG

Written by Ben Raigoza, at Lightning Bilt.