Will you make it to the cut

Arena acts such as Iron Maiden and Joe Satriani alongside festival favourites such as Tegan & Sara have all shot videos in India, to document some of the madness for their concert DVDs. This month, The Prodigy who will perform in India, plan to take home some footage for a viral video. Lalitha Suhasini finds out why Indian audiences make for a livewire tour film

AS much as 25 year-old foreign exchange trader Sriram Lakshminarayan would like to believe that he isn't your typical metalhead, he is. He may have worn a Pink Floyd tee shirt to the show, but the black banner that read 'Iron Maiden is my religion,' said it all. "If it's a band I love, I'm right up there by the barricades," he admits. And that's exactly where he was when Iron Maiden performed in Mumbai in 2008, making it to one of the opening shots of the concert film Iron Maiden: Flight 666, that released last year. Alexander Milas, editor, Metal Hammer magazine, UK's largest-selling music magazine has been quoted saying that he realised how India was an untapped goldmine for the metal music industry abroad after he watched Iron Maiden: Flight 666 shot by Sam Dunn and Scott McFayden.

Keith Flint of The Prodigy loves crowd-diving; catch him in action at the
Invasion Festival in Delhi and Bengaluru in January PIC/GETTY IMAGES

Fans at the Iron Maiden concert at Palace Grounds in Bengaluru in
2008. PIC/ Satish Badiger

The West has just woken up to the fact that there are millions like Lakshminarayanan, who not only make a beeline at the ticket counter, but also a fantastic spectacle in a concert video. In 2005, when Joe Satriani was in Mumbai, he slipped in live footage from his concert into the Bonus Features section of Satriani Live that released in 2006. Yes, Lakshminarayanan was at this show too, but didn't make it to the video.

Indian audiences lend themselves to high-energy live videos because the energy and enthusiasm to watch big ticket bands has an explosive quality about it. Mumbai-based Babble Fish Productions' Director, Samira Kanwar, who has shot a number of festivals in India that hosted international acts including The Big Chill in Goa and the recent NH7 Weekender held in Pune, reasons that unlike fans in say, Europe, who have frequently watched big acts at festivals and are no longer awed by the experience, Indian audiences are eager to be at a concert.

"Audiences are experiencing everything for the first time. Including a variety of countries adds depth to the band's DVD," adds Kanwar, "The reason why it happened so recently is probably the Internet. Now bands have outlets to showcase their content, which in turn demands more content -- its span is more than just a DVD release. Mumford & Sons' Gentlemen of The Road Series is cinematically brilliant, but its distribution is primarily via the Internet." Besides, it's much easier to source economically-viable equipment in India compared to other exotic and popular tour destinations such as Japan.

For most, like Paul Dugdale, an award-winning music video director who has been working with UK electronica band The Prodigy since 2008, shooting fans, who have never seen the band live before, is the key to a great tour film. "I'm blown away by the honesty of their expressions when they watch a band like The Prodigy on stage, marvelling at the sheer energy and scale of the production," says Dugdale, in a telephonic interview from London. Dugdale will shoot a viral video at the Eristoff Invasion Festival coming up next month in India for the band's website. "I don't know whose idea it was, but I know that the band is extremely excited about coming to India. I'll be shooting at both venues (Bengaluru and Gurgaon). There will some footage from the run-up to the festival as well, but it's the essence of the culture in India that we want to capture, so we will include the real tapestry of the country as well." Dugdale adds that there are a couple of locations in mind that will help viewers feel the pulse of the country. "Wherever I go, I try to absorb the culture. It's not always about looking for the hardest, scariest parts although I do try to avoid the typical touristy spots and go into the dark ghettos. Even when we were in Serbia, we shot at parts of the city that were bombed during the war and look shelled even today."

Anirudh Voleti, who has been a music entrepreneur with Mumbai-based event management agency Only Much Louder, for six months, agrees. Voleti travelled with Canadian indie rock band Tegan & Sara when they were in India recently. The band also shot a video in India and "had no clue they had fans in India." Adds Voleti, "But besides shooting shows, they also shot all over the cities -- the traffic, a boat ride to Elephanta caves." The video, assures Voleti, has all the madness that is intrinsic to India and being in India isn't just about a few cheesy shots at the Taj Mahal. "Bands want a unique experience and a feel of the real India," he says. Asian Dub Foundation, for instance, came up with an exploratory trip of the back lanes of Nizamuddin on their own.
And when bands showcase their India tour they're not just showing off their 'Indian fan base,' but also nudging other bands to wake up to the concert potential here. The future is definitely here.u00a0

Heard this?
Filmmakers turned musicu00a0 video directors
> Martin Scorcese -- the cult filmmaker shot the Bad video for Michael Jackson. Scorcese also made The Rolling Stones concert film Shine A Light and the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan.
> Guy Ritchie -- Besides being known as Mrs Madonna inspite of having directed hits such as Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. Ritchie, of course, also directed Madonna's What It Feels Like For a Girl.

Getting to Invasion festival
If you haven't booked your tickets yet, log onto www.invasionfestival.in.
The fest will be held in Bengaluru on January 13 and in Gurgaon on January 15. Tickets are priced at
Rs 1,350 and 1,500. The line-up also includes Australian electronica act Pendulum, Pentagram and Bay Beat Collective from Mumbai and Midival Punditz from Delhi amongst others.

Shooting The Prodigy
Music video director Paul Dugdale recently won the Best Live Music Coverage award at the UK Music Video Awards for his livewire video of the band's performance at The National Bowl in Milton Keynes, UK. In an exclusive phone interview with Sunday MiDDAY, Dugdale tells us the story behind some hair-raising videos and how he recklessly crosses over to the rough side for a recce.

What was it like shooting at the Milton Keynes Bowl?
Milton Keynes was insane. There were big flares in the crowd. And when Keith (Flint) dived in, the crowd split at one point. It was insane. We had nearly 20 cameras and only eight cameramen. But we wanted to cover what's happening at every corner. It's also brave of the band -- they just love doing what they do.

Are you torn between running for your life and shooting some of your craziest footage ever?
It's quite like Who Dares Wins. It's intense and dangerous sometimes. At a show in Scotland in 2008 (it was at the T in The Park festival), five minutes into the show, my camera was nailed by beer or god knows what. Fortunately, we had a couple of spare cameras around. You just got to do what you have to, to get the best footage.

How did it all begin?
My first shoot with them was when they were on tour in Bilbao, Spain, six months before their album Invaders Must Die came out in 2008. They were test running the songs at shows, still writing some songs and quite apprehensive, since it had been four years since they'd released a new album. I was obviously a fan of the band. Their stage craft is spectacular and we hit it off straight up. Oh, and it was raining in Spain so it was a crazy shoot.

There must have been some shocking moments that may or may not have made it onto video...
No one likes having a camera around 24x7, but The Prodigy are good that way. They're pretty out there and I get access to their most intimate times. They're always cool and have a good vibe. Sometimes, one of them has a look that says, 'Put that camera away.' Yeah, but one of the times I got shocked as well was after a show in Serbia. It was a very good show but Liam completely trashed the dressing room. I don't know why. Maybe he was letting off some of the post show adrenalin. These were those thin-board walls and I have some shots of Liam punching big holes through them. It was a very quick shoot and some if it is in Take Me to The Hospital Josh Homme/Liam Howlett wreckage remix version.

What are the edits like?
I edit all my videos. I try to keep it as real as possible and keep it hard. The cuts are quite quick to maintain the energy and excitement that the band brings to the show.u00a0

Name a video that you're really proud of.
I've shot a lot of tour films for them, but music videos are pretty timeless. The proudest I've been of is the Invaders Must Die video, which is the first video I shot with them. It had helicopters and actor Noel Clark in it, which was a really cool move on the band's part.

What kind of inputs does the band offer for the videos?
Roping in Noel Clark for Invaders Must Die was their idea, but Take Me To The Hospital was the first real collaboration. It was Liam's idea to get an ambulance. The concept for that video was more them than me.

Where did you find that run down building where Take Me To The Hospital opens?
That was a crazy place. The opening shot is set in a derelict mental hospital named Hellingly Hospital in Southern England. I found the place through a girl I met on the internet. She worked as a stripper and photographed these derelict buildings as a hobby. The hospital must have been out of service for at least 20 years. So we went there and spent the day shooting, avoiding vicious dogs and strange men. It was the most terrifying thing I've done in my entire life. The windows were boarded up and the place had these long, spooky corridors. The place had a dark, mean spirit. It was the weirdest Sunday afternoon that I've ever spent and we nearly got caught by the police as we ran out of the place. We made excuses even as we had cameras stuck between our legs, and luckily we got away.

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