Lessons

Lesson Info

Getting into a Show

I like to talk to you guys at home. I know that russ gave a nice introduction I've actually made today my set list because we know bands have set list I needed to have a set list, so I'm going to put that somewhere around here. I know russ had a little bit of that intro going, but the first day we're spending right here shooting a concert, you know, that I love shooting in low light situations and shooting musicians is one of the things that I've done for the past twelve years. I'm going to be using the deforest today with my hebrew trinity because we're going to be shooting tethered so that you guys can see everything that I'm shooting as it's happening, which means I am shooting in raw, but in order to make that tether happen, there is a j peg basic preview that you're going to see on the screen when we start shooting so that's not going to be edited. If you tune in tomorrow, we're gonna go through the editing process of what you're going to see or how I make my images go bhumi muk g...

oo merson, because that's, what I like to do, what else are we going to do today? We're going to hit a ton of information on shooting shows how to get into shows. Who to talk to? We're going to get down the leading the band play here, we've got a nice lighting set up, it always helps when you have a cool venue to shoot at, sometimes you're going to run into venues where you don't have the best lighting in the world on it just may not be the easiest situation to shoot in, but we're going to run through here. Mike, the lighting guy is going to play some tricks on me if he can tio change things up, we're going to have the live studio audience asking questions and really it's it's about getting started, but over the next couple of days, you're going to see me run through a d thirty three hundred within eighteen, the fifty five kid lands. Yeah, I break that out to shoot an extremely low light situations underneath a car I got under a car, I got all dirty, it was interesting or it's going to be interesting cause you haven't seen it, but I didn't really shoot it actually shot it yesterday, but you're going to get to see it replay tomorrow. Um, we have basketball shooting so you can see stuff like that, but really it's low light stuff eighteen running through a kit lands not the easiest thing in the world to do, but that's. Okay, we also have a d six ten because the whole idea here is to show you that if you could do it with the basic, the most basic gear in the world, that you could do it with the best gear in the world to. But it all starts with the fundamentals, and I'm going to be hitting a ton of fundamentals as we go forward. So is that all right? You guys, you want to start talking about shooting shows? Does that sound like fun? I see rush shaking his head. You guys. Has anybody here shot a concert before one? I'm not going to ask questions. Well, you have your mikes if you need them. All right, go ahead. Who have you photographed? Pass that down for me, please. Um, I photographed last summer in kansas with some local bands dead mantan what I've become. So when you got it, how did you get passes? Or did you? It wasn't a venue where he just showed up and shot, and I actually knew the band that always have a manager. So right. And knowing the manager there's a lot of things people want to know. How do we get in the shows and let me just preface something here first day? Talking a lot about concerts second, third day, putting a lot of stuff into practice in any situation that you may run into so stick with us because all the information that we talked to here about concerts can can parlay into almost anything that you're going to shooting, whether you need to get a pass for a local charitable event or you need to get something for for anything it all plays here just say this is concerts, but it could play with something else, so getting passes for shows that is one thing that people don't know they don't know, how do I get into a show that I can't just show up with my camera? I can't just show up and walk in the door because I read here on the door, it says no photo or video, no photography or video with a professional quote unquote camera, what the hell does that mean? What's a professional camera? Isn't that almost anything that you have in this point? So they kind of they do that to you? But you know, if you show up at the door trying to bring in the gear that I'm using today, they're not going to let you in, so the first step in trying to get a pass for a show is making contact with somebody in the band, if you know the ban that's one source of contact if you know management that's another source of contact on, then you can go through publicists which your pain in the ass is and they're usually not fun to deal with but you guys have publicists you d'oh? Are they pain in the ass is to deal with good getting getting passes. The key to getting a pass is having first an affiliation to something you are not going to get into a show just because I want to shoot a show, you need to know who you're shooting for whether it's a school newspaper I don't care if it's a high school newspaper it's still a newspaper, has a headline or newspaper's website, I am shooting for so and so you need that affiliation or they're not going to let you in. You also need toe have work to show them. If you don't have worked to show somebody, then they have nothing to believe that you are who you say you are and that you're capable of capturing quality images or just images in general that's something that you have to lead with so here is how I would formulate an email and I'm just going to give it to you straight I would lead off without how do you find the right email? I guess I need to go into that before anything else you have people's I almost said myspace pages almost said myspace pages oh, boy, I know you don't want to find that that they shouldn't have a myspace page. Do you guys have a myspace page anymore? Who knows that ten years ago, five years ago, something like that you confined email addresses anywhere you could find him, you find management, you connect with them, you look for the band's website, look for their facebook page, it's all over there, some bands you can connect with just by sending them a message on facebook because some of them respond or twitter, twitter has gotten open so many doors for me to talk to so many people and get access to people that I never would have gotten access to, because I talked directly with the artists themselves or whoever that celebrity quote unquote, was. So once you find the email address is, how do we formulate an email? It's simple, hi, my name is, I'm looking to photograph this band this day, this location, and who am I shooting for it's? Pretty simple. I'm shooting for this blogged. All right, so that's, what you're doing, you've already said who you are, who you're shooting for the date and the location, so you've made it easy in the first paragraph second paragraph I have photographed so and so or here's my portfolio here's a couple of links to my work. Thank you. If there's any questions, please get back to me, please let me know I'm looking forward to photographing the band it's that simple do not right novels to people. If you're going to write novels, the people, they're not going to read it they're just not make it easy for them to say yes. If you make it easy for them to say yes, then it's going to be easier for you to ah to get a pass now if you don't have an affiliation that's always another thing started blawg start a square space squarespace dot com slash throw might as well already said it will go to it. Uh, but that's beside the point have a blogged get associate id with a local music block there's a million blog's out there. They may not pay you because one thing to remember that shooting concerts there's not a lot of money in doing that unless you become the top of the top of the echelon that's getting sent around by everybody. So that's just that's just that if you don't have that affiliation, get one, start your own site, find somebody to work with and that's how you're going to get in a lot of the times no offense to ah to the publicist, they don't vet you very well because I've run into the pit where there's people that have their iphones and their ipads out and somehow they received a pass that's not the best thing toe have in there, so I would hope the publicist would vet you. But if you do those three paragraphs that I said, you're going to get into a show there's no reason for them to tell you no that's getting into a show that's giving you the secrets of there's no secrets to this stuff there aren't but also just like I said earlier, if you're getting into concert photography as a way of making a living, the blunt answer to whether that's going to happen is primarily no you know it's fun, it's fun to shoot shows it's fun to interact with bands they make great subjects one way that you can separate yourself from everybody else is getting access to the band directly and doing candids behind the scenes, which we're going to have in a segment later today we're going to get into the green room where all of the shenanigans happened, that's right he's got a lot of shenanigans in green room, so that's where we're at that's getting into the show, we're here at the venue day of day of show what do you need to do to get into the venue to get ready to shoot you show up right before it starts no you're going to show up you're going to pick up your pass you have to pick up your past have your I d ready I know this sounds simple but there's so many times when I first started I don't know what the hell I was doing and I don't have anybody standing here like me to tell me what I needed to be doing so when you show up in a venue you got to find the press box the will call you have your id and you're gonna ask for your pass and guess what's going to happen when you ask for your pass do you guys have I'll ask you you have microphones do you guys have any idea what's gonna happen when you ask for your past no yes they're going to ask for identification and the past is not going to be being up waiting for you there you go the past and I didn't tell him to say that what the past nine well when in doubt the past isn't going to be there and that's fine don't flip out there's no reason to flip out you you should have the email that the person sent you back with their name maybe try to get a phone number to somebody there maybe who's the torment always respond I always responded back to e mails with well, by the way, what is the tormentors toward manager's name and cell number in case there's an issue day of show that way I have a connection and that worse to fold that means what my pass isn't there I have somebody to call but secondly I can reach out to them and say hey, by the way after the show is it ok if I shoot candids? Is it all right if I come back stage jj is all right if I do stuff like that because not many people people are afraid to ask the worst thing that's gonna happen? Well, what's the worst thing that's going to happen if you ask they say no but then they could say yes so if you go into a situation looking for that yes you know you're getting that number you say hey, by the way, can I run into can I talk to you before the show? I'd like to show you some of my work to see if I could do something special you show them your work now you want to make sure that your your phone either has all your images in it which is the new thing but back in the day when I started we didn't have iphones I had a little four by six book that had a couple of prints in it by a couple I mean forty eight and that's how we fit in the book but I would I would show them that and what would happen is the tour manager would be like we toured with these guys you know them like oh yeah I know those guys are not friends with them we hang out and they like all these images are great could you do this for us so that could be a thing that they say and you're just making contact you're trying to set why am I telling you all this why am I giving you all my secrets I don't know because why not that's just that's what you do you make those connections and then you get access to the band where most people aren't getting access so back to the past not being there thank you for the good answer that was perfect the past isn't going to be there well hey could you can you talk to the will call a person who's back there you never know who they are they usually hate their job and they're usually quick and angry and you say hey could you reach out to the tour manager it's supposed to be here I talked to this person this person or this person I'll hang on I'll wait it's perfectly fine that's why you get there early sometimes the passes aren't up yet that just means that the tour manager hasn't run them or sent the p a up to send them tv waiting so never flip out on anybody don't flip out on people you get a lot more with with honey and sugar than you do with fire and brimstone I think that's how it goes um so that's that so you pick up your pass because it's waiting for you every single time you get it now what do you do well what I like to do is I get into the venue you another thing to keep in mind certain shows if you're shooting the biggest shows in the world at the biggest venues in the world they're going to put you in a holding room you may get three songs to shoot and you may not have a a ticket for the show so after your three songs you leave you go you go home you don't get to watch a show so getting a photo pass doesn't entitle you to to see the show for free if you like the band by a ticket to support them right get in I've done that like twice e haven't done I haven't bought a lot of tickets I bought a ticket for jet because I love jet back in the day and I bought christina perry's ticket to go see her saying uh what's that song thousand miles no no no what which one is it it's ah I'm only human something like that but anyway I bought two tickets yes all right question from at home we got sam cox on a couple of the people asking about the same topic after shooting a concert you have to get permission from the band before actually posting your photos can we save that let's say what can we say because I want to go in chronological order perfect their great questions is that how we're gonna work it you're going toe get her up to may I'll jump in whenever you want me to know that you can just if you have something really pertinent on the subject but save those questions sam that's a great question well let's get it done in order plus that makes that forces you to watch it longer by the way sounds good to me you have a question right here what do you do if when you go to pick up your past they ask you to sign a disclaimer oh wow you're going to do that it's a good question yeah that is that is that okay all right so in this day and age of people that give you your gun you could take a load off great question thank you. You have people bands it's usually not the band that gives a crap about you shooting do you see that as the crap it's usually not the band that cares the band wants you to shoot they don't care they want you to shoot the whole show because they want cool pictures but today the bigger acts in the world the paramore is the nineteenth spew off a bunch of names, but there could be a form waiting there and that form is a bunch of legalese that's going to say a bunch of different things but generally it's going to say you were going to sign the rights away to these photos sometimes is going to like by shooting this show we can ask you for photos at any time and we're not going to pay you and we own them and I say I don't want to give away free guide I say no talk to security first, my favorite thing to do is talk to security why? Because they're the people that are running the pit that are either going to kick my ass when it's time to get out of the pit or they just don't understand why I'm there so I walk up and it's like and I make first contact if you want to get access and you don't have a past you walk up and it's like security sitting in the dark like hey what's going on doing good today or if it's at an outside venue and it's it's hot like hey, can I get you a water? And as you say, get your water I'm already walking by if I don't have a pass because there but I'm veritable I belong there all right I'm not saying that's how you walk into a show if you just want to walk into a show I'm saying I actually belong there I also wear my lanyard with forty seven different passes on it so I look official you have to look the part look the part and then you know you get more respect that way so I walk in security hey, by the way I have this photo past this is this is a pass it allows me to shoot the entire show I want to let you know before it starts because after three sons is going to be really loud and I don't want to have any miscommunications because if they start pulling you out after three and you miss what you need to shoot then it's like you just missed everything and you should have talked to them beforehand plus when you let them know they respect you it's just like oh you know I when you say when you tell me it's three songs that time to go I'm ready to go it's gone but I just want you know that I'm here to shoot I'm approved to do x y and z and and that that way you tell them before the show because they usually will have their ear plugs in and want to beat the crap out of you if you step out of line which is what happens and so you don't want to step out of line.