PMC Unpaved Fireside Chat

The Night

PMC Unpaved is the Pan‑Mass Challenge’s gravel ride in the Berkshires. The night before, riders gathered by the lake at Camp Mah‑Kee‑Nac in Lenox for the event’s first fireside chat. Meredith Beaton‑Starr of the PMC sat down with Dr. Ben Ebert, President and CEO of Dana‑Farber Cancer Institute and a PMC rider himself. The stage was lit purple against the dark.

They covered why research is moving faster than ever, a pancreatic cancer breakthrough with PMC funding behind it, how philanthropy lets young scientists chase ideas a federal grant never would, and Dana‑Farber building its own cancer hospital. Then the riders got the microphone.

The Shoot

Three cameras and a drone covered it for Snowcap Productions. I ran two: the locked two‑shot on my Sony FX9, and a Sony a7 IV on both speakers’ close ups and the crowd’s questions. A roaming handheld worked the audience, and the drone took the lake and stage from above as the light went. Sound came from one recorder off the stage mics, not the cameras.

The Edit

I synced the three cameras and the drone to the recorder and cut it as a live multicam. A close up when a speaker makes a point, the two‑shot when they talk to each other, the crowd when a line lands. The stage mics came in low, so I rebuilt the dialogue and leveled it to streaming loudness. Several rounds of client notes followed, mostly on when the drone helps and when it gets in the way. The cut runs just under half an hour, from sunset over the lake to the night wide at the end.

Watch & Links

Watch on Vimeo → The Pan-Mass Challenge → The PMC Unpaved Living Proof Toast →