There is an album launch that a bunch of us have been entrusted to video. It's a rock/metal group and the launch is sometime next month, so we want to ready ourselves and do it well.

We have...

Panasonic NV-DS65
Sony DCR HC20E

to work with... both use miniDV.

So we need some advice on a few points...

> We're planning on buying a tripod - any advice on wat features or w/e it shud have ?

> tips/tricks/advice on how the band should be filmed. Little things professionals do etc? I read somewhere abt one cam on the tripod and one in hand for closeups...this is what we're planning to do. Any other suggestions would be nice.

> Sound. We've had some trouble with sound in the past - like once we got a direct out from a mixer and kinda busted a camcorders sound (not one of the cams above). The mic on the camcorder is not an option since the quality is pretty bad. Will an external mic be good enough? or is there another way to record sound direct from the mixer?

Looking forward to your replies, and thanks in advance :D

Rav

can't really advise on the video side but for the sound you'll need to do it properly.
Get a multitrack in and take either direct outs from the mixing desk (so long as they're pre-fader) and put up at least 2 but preferably 4 or 6 mics for venue sound. Another option is to get some active mic splitters - these will split the signal coming from each mic in the PA rig and send one copy of the sound to the desk and the other to your multitrack.

Taking a direct feed from the desk with nothing else will sound cack.

with miniDV I'm not aware of any sync options but I'm sure it can be done. You can possibly put SMPTE on one of the audio tracks on the miniDV and leave the other channel open on the camera mic for reference.
in post-production you should be able to sync up the mixed audio with the (final) edited video even without SMPTE. a bit painful but not impossible.