An Acoustic Afternoon with Arctic Monkeys

Posted by rebeccajoelson on August 21, 2014 · 2 Comments 

Arctic Monkeys came to town two weeks ago and we, in collaboration with Rowlberto Productions, fm949, and Studio West shot Alex and Matt live in studio. They performed 4 songs acoustically for an audience of around 60 lucky radio listeners.

Camera department was 4 of us – me and Kevin and Rowley & Rob. Aw, that just sounds so cute. If you notice a fifth camera in there, there is, we set a fifth camera on a locked shot on Matt because we had the extra gear. I wasn’t able to shoot photos during the official set because I was working double duty, manning the close slider rig. If you squint, and look really close, you can sorta see the camera setup in the last photograph, I was positioned to the left of Alex, far right in the photo. I used my Canon 5D Mark3 with a 24-70, living mostly around 45mm. I also had my Small HD Monitor to make sure my focus was on point. Kevin was stationed opposite of me on the bands’ right with a long lens on sticks, sniping beautiful closeups of Matt and Alex, while Rowley was in the middle, also on sticks, grabbing Alex’s close-up. Rob manned the “audience” slider which we thought was cool because it gives the viewer the feeling of being in the audience of the closed-set performance.

It was, in a few words, something we feel honored to have been a part of. The guys are beyond talented. Before the audience was allowed in, they did a ten minute soundcheck; listening to them check, hearing their voices raw, and in person, was epic. If I had to describe them in a word: SWAGGER. Those boys have it.

It’s experiences like this that remind me of how blessed I am to work in this field, creating images, moving and still. I will never get tired of my job. Work? What’s work?

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