Our first client in the Hangar Space was one of our favorite local staple singer songwriters. Vincent Randazzo also known as his artist moniker Leche Malo, has been performing in Monterey and spearheading multiple musical projects for years.
His latest creation – Leche Malo, exudes a very Bob Dylan-esque melancholy while talking about every day troubles of people and relationships.
Hot Dogs & Risoto - Leche Malo
The Setup
For Leche Malo, we knew we wanted to keep the focus on his words. Vincent is a very expressive singer with a wide dynamic range, sometimes quietly strumming, sometimes raising his voice to an expletive crescendo.
We decided to frame him in front of a simple black backdrop with some added color up-lights to create depth. Vincent remained seated for the performance and that allowed us to use a slider gimbal and a 3/4s framed shot to add some subtle movement but still keep the focus on him. Grant made excellent use of our ellipsoidal front wash with his moving profile shot, playing with the light halo around Vincent’s face to create a very intimate look.
The audio setup we kept very simple – just one Lauten Mic set to capture both guitar and vocals and keep the blend organic so that the viewer feels like they are in the room with Leche Malo.
The Event
Leche Malo performed four songs for us, going through each song about twice. We decided to only keep the best version of each song rather than try to blend multiple takes and lose Vincent’s raw evocative performing.
Vincent is a very confident artist, he knows the approach he wants and how best to achieve it. It was a great compliment to our team that he was able to focus on performing and was happy with how the lighting, video, and approach were structured. The quiet of the Hangar late in the evening added to the feel as Leche Malo’s voice could break through the silence or use it for affect.
We left the session with a much better understanding of the Hangar space and how best to position our cameras around the various obstacles, as well as an idea of how to make our visiting artists comfortable in the space.