"My First Ever Two-Cam Edit"

The Casper Collection Series - Part 4: "Carrying a Torch" in Hartford 2002

This week’s release is a special one in the Casper Collection Series. For the first time, Carol Casper has created a two-camera edit of a Bob Dylan live performance — the song “Carrying a Torch”, filmed in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 17, 2002.

In this part, Carol explains how she teamed up with Woolhall, another legendary video taper, to combine their different videos from the same show. Her close-up view and his wider angle come together to give a fuller and more dynamic picture of Dylan on stage.

It’s a new step for the Casper Collection and the start of more multi-camera projects to come.

You can find the first three parts of our collaboration here:

Part 1 - “Positively 4th Street”
Part 2 - “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”
Part 3 - “John Brown”

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Carol’s Story:

“As great as a good, single-camera audience video can be, professional videos and films nearly always feature multiple camera angles, so that’s what most of us are used to watching, and with good reason. Multiple angles provide additional perspectives on a performance, and keep the visual experience fresh, while a single viewing angle can become a little tedious and monotonous.

So the “holy grail” for many if not most tapers is the opportunity to produce or collaborate on a multi-cam video. I recently got my first opportunity with this clip of Bob Dylan’s cover of Van Morrison’s “Carrying a Torch,” recorded November 17, 2002, at the Civic Center Arena in Hartford, CT.

I noticed that my friend Woolhall, whose own YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@woolhall) features many great videos he’s filmed of both Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, alone and together, had previously uploaded his own video of this same performance - captured during his first trip to the US in 2002. My own video was missing the beginning of the performance and a little bit at the end. While nice and close up, it’s also a bit marred by some stage rigging that gets into the shot fairly prominently whenever I pulled back to get some of the band into the picture. So I asked Woolhall if he wouldn’t mind sending me a copy of his original footage and allow me to edit a two-cam video combining both of our captures. He happily agreed, and this result is this video, my first ever two-cam edit.

I think the result is stronger than either of the separate parts. While my footage misses the beginning and end, Woolhall’s has several disturbances in the middle. Mine’s from the left side of the stage, his is from the right. Mine is mostly close-up, Woolhall’s is from a little further back. Interweaving the footage eliminated the deficiencies, while Woolhall’s slightly longer view makes a nice occasional counterpoint to my mainly close-up footage.

This will be the first of further two-cam edits to come. Woolhall has graciously sent me the rest of his footage from this Hartford, CT show, as well as from a shoot in Boston the night before. I’m looking forward to creating at least another few two-cam videos that maximize the highlights of both of our captures by combining them together into one stronger whole.”