Rockfest

I went on Rockfest during the summer and I wrote this at the beginning of the semester. It's a little late, but I'm finally going to post it.



And so it begins
Rock Fest, July 2007

Mountain Rock Music Festival, now that was an experience. To be quite honest I was feeling extremely nervous to go on my first gig. I felt like I didn’t know anything. The only experience I’ve ever had running a camera was for Com 261 and all of our projects were scripted and our cameras were on tripods. None of it was ever live. Not only was I feeling inexperienced, but I was feeling a little out of the loop. I didn’t know a single person going on the gig. Since I live fairly close to Michigan, I was asked to drive separately in order to save some room in the van coming from Purdue. So I was about to work with a whole bunch of people who have both taken Bill’s class and know each other pretty well. Can you see how that would seem pretty daunting? Besides those thoughts, I kept thinking about how lucky I was to even be able to do this gig. I learn better hands-on anyway, so this was a great experience.

As it turns out, I didn’t really have to be nervous to meet the other interns. Everyone was really nice and helpful. The next morning after I arrived we started right away with load in. I felt a little bit useless at this point. I didn’t know how to set up anything and a lot of the equipment is too heavy for me to lift. I did my best to help despite my lack of strength. I successfully taped up some boxes and carried a television, but mostly I just observed everybody else.

The next day was when I really started learning. I was pretty amazed at everything I saw. I looked at all the cables and cords running to the truck and I couldn’t believe that someone actually understands how all of it works. There were all these monitors, buttons, and knobs. I didn’t have a clue what any of them did. Everyone kept talking about the band Da Yoopers and how they weren’t really excited about them. This band was going to play twice, so I thought maybe that would be a good place to start. I asked Bill if it would be okay if I watched the first performance and ran a camera for the second performance. So that’s what I did. Aaron Hebda had to show me exactly what to do. I didn’t even know how to hold the camera up on my shoulder or where to put my hands, but he gave me a quick lesson. He showed me where the mic was and how to use the zoom and focus and told me that I needed to tuck the triax cable into a belt loop. Well, I was all set up and ready to go, but I didn’t have any idea what to do. I was given a lot of directions during the show, but I didn’t know what they meant. “Dutch”? “Lose it off the neck”? What does that mean? I think I missed terminology 101. I was able to run a handheld for a few more bands that day and each time I learned something new. More than anything I remember being surprised at how sore I was at the end of the day. Now I get why we stretch before working; it helps. That night Chicago was the headliner and I went out with Russ, one of the other interns and we just watched them rock out for the rest of the evening. All in all, it was a pretty great day.

The second day I learned a few more things. One of which was coiling. Katie Worden took me and two other of the new interns and made us coil cables for a while. Katie also took us to the front of house camera and showed us how to set it up. After that, each time we set it up and tore it down I went back there to help. There is a lot to remember and it was difficult because we had to tear it down so quickly in order to get out of the way for everyone else, like the audio guys. I got to run the front of house camera for one band that day and it was my first experience with a long lens camera.
Day two and day three kind of blend together because I think I did about the same thing both days. I don’t remember which day it was, but I got to run a handheld for Third Eye Blind. Up to this point I had done battle of the bands winners and smaller bands that are lesser known and the “A team,” as we called them, did the headliners. I was not at all expecting to get to work for Third Eye Blind because they are well known and it makes more sense to have a more experienced person shoot them. I think I’ll always remember that moment. I was over on stage left with the base player. I remember thinking that it went so quickly. It seems like they ended right after they began. It was a very surreal moment for me. I’m not even a huge fan of theirs, but I guess I never really thought I’d ever get to do something like that. Oh, in addition to that, I shaded for Styx. I can’t say that it was quite as exciting, but it was good to sit in the truck and have a chance to listen to the director and to watch the four monitors and get a better feel for how things are done from there. And Styx was amazing to watch by the way.

And then there was the fourth day. Oh what a day. It started out like the other days, I ran both the handheld and long lens and played hackey sack when I wasn’t working. Then it happened. Bill made me direct. Since this was my only gig that summer he felt that it would be good for me to direct a couple of songs for Deep Purple so I could experience all parts of the gig. What? I can’t direct!!! I thought I was going to throw up. This was not at all expected. I was told that as long as I hit the button on beat, I would be fine. I think I may have had a panic attack during it and I wanted to leave after two songs, but they made me stick around for one more. I felt really bad for the camera operators because they had to be really patient with me. I was calling the shots really slowly and I didn’t give them any direction at all. I basically let them choose their shots and then just told them when they’d be on. I did keep on beat though. I guess I can give myself credit for that. After I was done with that, I had to take a walk because my nerves were getting to me and I was shaking. I think someday I’ll try it again, but I do not think I’m ready to try that again any time soon. It was probably good for me because it gave me an appreciation for directors and what they do, but I still don’t feel ready to do it again.

Over all I feel like I was pretty lucky to have gotten to go on that gig. I have a lot to learn yet, but now when I’m sitting in class I understand the lectures better because I can actually visualize in my head what’s being talked about. I got to hang out with some pretty amazing people and I gained a little experience.