Nick Cave: A Joy (Concerts) to film
A huge thank you to JOY CONCERTS for having me on the team for this incredible one-night-only gig from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and other amazing guest acts!
This really fun/wild gig came about through my work with Jay Bartlett, a lovely guy and fellow videographer, who I’ve worked with a couple of times before, most recently on the shoot with One World Orchestra at Abbey Road (to hear me gush about him some more, do check out the article page on that project!). This time, in a change of pace, Jay invited me to be part of a team of cameramen and technicians on this JOY CONCERTS gig. They do several concerts locally, including the Fatboy Slim concert on the beach this summer (Big Beach Boutique 7).
On this gig, we were part of the social media team. But it’s not as if we were tapping on our phones and designing hashtags. We were creating the content that everyone around the world would see. We were capturing moments and this incredible team were turning footage around on the fly - cutting edits in record time - and getting it out there into the world.
It was a pleasure to take off the Creative Director hat for this one and play as part of a team, being one cog in this well oiled machine! There were drone ops, on-stage crew, people out the front working the Front of House - that was me - and amazing runners, getting footage from the cameramen back to the editing tent, over and over again. It takes a lot of trust to team collaborate, and I’m glad they saw that in me and my services.
Being out the front was fantastic because it meant I saw the best of people and saw the impact of the gig for them - I got to interact with people, engage with them, capture those genuine moments where they’re moving and dancing and feeling it. As always with my work, I’m all about the human touch! And this was Brighton… there was plenty of love to go around!
It was also a gear shift for me in terms of the technical requirements and my own operation. There had to be a lot more management of my footage storage cards, and I had to be strict on my time management because I knew other cogs in this machine were depending on me to play my part and pull my weight - that there would be a runner showing up any minute who needed my footage and needed to run it back to the techs. You soon realise there’s a strategy to it, and you hone that pre-emptive skill you need as a creative videographer, where you pre-empt what you’re going to need before you need it. In this instance, that meant getting my camera switched off or switching the cards at opportune moments.
This day was a blast, and the crowd was HUGE - it absolutely packed out the massive green at Preston Park.
I’m so appreciative of Mr Jay Bartlett, JOY CONCERTS, and the gang, and I look forward to getting the chance to work with you guys again.
