Behind the scenes at Gwinnett




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John Bensley did a great job taking photos at the concert last week and he captured some that showed the behind the scenes technical stuff.  I thought I would share them today.

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Several of the technical crew put in three 15-hour days. They were as tired as they look here.

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There were technical teams scattered throughout the venue, but the real decisions were actually being made outside the venue in a production truck that was pulled up to the loading dock in the back.  

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All seven cameras were run from this truck to various places inside the venue and the director and producer monitored those cameras.  The headsets worn by the camera crew were connected to the crew in the truck who told them what to do and switched shots between the cameras.

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The stage manager was also in constant contract with Kim in the truck who used him to pass instructions on to me and others.

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We used two cameras in the back of the venue, one in the balcony and two cameras on stage that were hand held by crew who used them for tight shots on musicians.  There were two special cameras used. The first was a jib (crane) camera that was used to slowly pan the audience and stage. The second was a steadicam, which is a camera attached to a rig that is designed to allow very slow smooth moves without any shaking.  

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Lighting and staging was done by Delta Stage Lighting in Nashville.  They specialize in these kinds of events and really wowed the crowd.  They used all the venue's lights but brought in about 100 of their own.  Forty of them were "movers", meaning the lights that move around and do very cool stuff.  They were installed on the floor as well as hanging above the stage.

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There were two other technical teams that I did not get shots of: monitor audio and recording audio. They were installed in locations on stage left.  Recording audio (Jason Prisk) captured all audio from the event for the finished product.  Paul Corley came in from Nashville for the sole purpose of keeping all the musicians hearing each other.

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These shots are of my fabulous producer Kimberly Ryan Smith!

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Before the show, we did a crowd warmup where the video/audio teams captured audience reaction shots such as applause.  I came out and talked a bit during that time.  Five of the Bates family flew in from New York where they were doing promos for their new show United Bates of America and I got them up on stage.  Watch their show.  We love the Bates;)

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And while this is not backstage stuff, we thank our very special crowd, which was critical to making the taping work well.

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