Q&A about Rock In Rio DVD
A question/answer session with members of IRON MAIDEN regarding Rock In Rio DVDIRON MAIDEN On The Hot Seat!
The following is a question/answer session with various members of IRON MAIDEN regarding their Rock In Rio DVD. The concert was directed on the night by Video Director Dean Karr who has worked with the band previously on 'The Wicker Man' and edited by founding band member and bass player Steve Harris.
Why choose Rock in Rio to film your first DVD?
Steve Harris - "In many ways it just was the fact that we had wanted to do something like this for a while but the opportunity hadn't presented itself. We had played many Festivals the year before so had not really been able to film anything on our own terms like we did with our previous video titles like Maiden England and Live At Donington. When we got approached by Rock in Rio we discovered that Globo TV in Brazil was filming it. We were headlining the show and we always have amazing shows in South America as the fans there get really involved and into the music so
it seemed the perfect opportunity. We checked out the various camera positions and then made the decision that this was the place to do it. As you probably know with Iron Maiden we never do things on a small scale so we wanted to make sure we could capture individual moments of the show by having our own six man crew there as well to film close ups and film a lot of background footage throughout the South American Tour for some extras."
How many cameras were used to shoot the show?
Bruce Dickinson - "Too many! Ha-ha. But seriously I think there was something like 10 cameras dotted around the stage and a couple out front on the mixing desks. Then on either side of the stage they were using these huge telescopic cranes with cameras moving over the top of the crowd throughout the whole show. Now I've seen the final footage I think the crane cameras that sweep out over the audience really give you an idea of what we could see standing on the stage and just how big the audience was. It was a sea of people all of the way to the horizon. One of the cameras nearly knocked me out at the start of the show as it was mounted up on the walkways next to the drum kit. You can spot me during the first song removing it a bit forcefully. After that I think the Director had a heart attack when he saw me jump onto the moving camera mounted on tracks later on in case I broke that as well !!"
Steve Harris - "Then we had our own four man camera crew who were close to Nicko and the front of the stage making sure we had plenty of great close ups of the guitar solos and Bruce."
Did the filming change the way you performed?
BD - "No, not at all. The most important thing is always the show and I think to play to the cameras in that situation just wouldn't be right to the people in the crowd."
SH - "We were all pretty nervous as it was the biggest crowd we had performed in front of as a headline act. It was our last show of the world tour so we just all went for it and I think the final result speaks for itself. The DVD really captures the energy of show that night."
Janick Gers - "We've often had cameras filming us before for Live broadcasts and the only thing we always try and make sure of is that they don't get in the way of the band and the audience. We all race around like mad so you really just forget about the cameras even being there after the first couple of minutes."
Are you DVD Enthusiasts?
JG - "I watch a lot of movies at home and at the cinema and being on the road you often find copies of things that you'd thought would never exist. I've got a fair few DVD's for some of the big movie titles but a lot of the old music stuff I watch hasn't been released on DVD yet."
SH - "We watch a lot of movies at home. I've seen a couple of music DVD's which looked OK but they weren't in surround sound so you didn't really feel part of it. That's something we tried to ensure on Rock in Rio was that whoever was watching this DVD would really feel like they were in the front row."
BD - "I'm actually in the process of renewing my TV at home as I have a monster TV from years ago which needs about 4 people to lift it. To be honest I don't tend to watch much at home but I watch DVD's while out on the road to pass the time. I was in seventh heaven when they brought out the entire Prisoner TV series on DVD. I'm a huge fan and often had to be dragged away to go onstage! I watch a lot of old stuff as well and weird subtitled Japanese movies. Great stuff."
What do you consider to be the best Music Title?
SH - "It's always difficult to say which is the best as it's always down to the individual. Some people concentrate on the sound while other look at the picture."
Do you think Music DVDs could be improved?
SH - "Most of the live stuff I've seen recently has just been a stereo mix and I think these bands are missing a great opportunity. That's why we added the DTS option as well as the Dolby Digital so that any home cinema owner could really appreciate the show. If you are talking about Music DVD Audio where you start to mix your studio albums in surround then that is really something special. For me it was quite an experience working with Kevin Shirley and building this sound all around us. It sparked something within me and is something I would like to maybe
develop further down the line."
Were you involved in the Post Production on your DVD?
SH - "Well I worked with Kevin Shirley on the mixing and production of the 5.1 Audio and then returned and started to finish the work on the visual editing side of things. There was something like 50 hours of footage to work through for the concert alone so it was quite a big task for me to take on. Finally once the edit was finished and outputted we then matched up the pictures with the 5.1 final audio masters before it all went to authoring. So you can see I've been involved pretty much all the way through."
BD - "The menu's were designed by a company in Los Angeles. They'd done a lot of work previously on stuff like the Lawrence Of Arabia and The Patriot DVD which was impressive and they used some of Dean Karrs photos to create a morphing sequence of Eddie on the Special Features Menu which looks great."
Were you involved in the authoring?
BD - "Well I've had a couple of books out if that what you mean! Ha ha"
SH - "We had a Specialist DVD Producer come in at this point to make sure that everything was OK technically and that we were getting the maximum we could out of the DVD. You'll notice we have a DTS sound option on the concert disk, which not many music titles have. We wanted to make sure that the picture quality and sound quality was at the highest levels it could go to really make this DVD something special not only for someone who is into the band but also for people out there that want to see a spectacular show in their front room. We saw the final check disks yesterday and it was first time the whole band saw the show properly."
JG - "I was very impressed with the end result. I think our boy's done good!"
What are your thoughts on the Extras?
JG - "As Steve said we had our own Maiden film crew with us which was being directed by Dean Karr. They joined us in Mexico and followed us through to the final show. The had the cameras rolling pretty much all the time to show what it's like to be on the road with Iron Maiden and any daft stuff along the way. It's always a bit mad in South America as the fans take their music very seriously but we always go out and sign stuff. We don't like to be like the Pop Stars hiding in our hotel all the time. Then we each did our own pieces to camera to try and show what we're all about. Bruce went fencing, Steve went to play football and I went to a bar! Not quite sure what that says about me…"
BD - "The idea was to show the fans what we are all about individually which is why we chose to do things we each like doing. For me, I had great fun as the local Record Company guys arranged with the national Brazilian Airline, Varig, the chance the have a go in their 747 Flight simulator. As a few people know I fly a bit and have done more recently but it was great just to have a go landing a plane at Kai Tak airport which is pretty hairy I can tell you!"
SH - "There's something like an hour of extra documentary footage on the band which as Janick said is about what we do on the road when we get a day off and gives a little idea of our different personalities. It's not something we've really done before. We've done stuff about the band playing but not really about ourselves so I think the fans will find it very interesting."
So what are going to do now?
SH- "Well after the last few months which have been a bit mad I intend to spend some time with the family and watch the World Cup. As you'll see on the DVD I love my football. Obviously I want England to win so I'd just like to wish the lads luck."
BD- "I'm doing a few festivals just around Europe over the summer with my solo stuff. I've got a great band together for the few shows I'm doing so that should be fun. I've also started my own Radio show full time on 6 Music on of the new BBC Digital Radio channels which is great as we really get to play music from all ages so there's no crappy playlists to follow. "
JG - "And I'll be down the pub! Ha-ha. Only joking. I'm also looking forward to the World Cup so I'll be at home shouting at the telly no doubt, annoying the wife and kids!"
source: bravewords.com
9 Comments
Cheers for that 
okkkkkk what is wrong with this thread?
Seems fine now!
cheers
how did that get fixed?
It was in the "Topics To Be Approved" thing, so I approved it, and it worked fine!
I'd done that three times!!
I have the magic touch.
apparently so