Carrie Underwood Concert Footage

A few days ago we sent out the final videos for the Carrie Underwood 2010 concert tour.  If you're not familiar with her, she's the number one female country artist in the US with 11 number one songs.  Pretty popular.    She didn't really need to do a big show, people would still show up, but the goal with this concert was to go beyond expectation and give the audience a complete experience with the music.  The show director was Raj Kapoor with whom I've worked with for many years now and my responsibility as video director was to make the video walls (four 30 foot high screen plus another two 12 foot high screens shaped in a cylinder and sometimes another two 20 foot high side screens (the IMAGs)) to help take the audience into the music.   Sometimes this is done environmentally, sometimes it's done with something more graphical.   I feel like on these concerts I'm responsible for entertaining everyone who isn't close enough to see Carrie and enveloping them into the experience of the music.    These are the goals.  Raj is very good about creating a cohesive experience where the video and stage and costumes and make up and lighting are all complementing each other and that shows well in this production. There were 22 videos total.  One was more like a traditional music video and I hope that I can share that at some point sooner rather than later as it was the closest thing to something you can watch as a standalone video piece.What I've selected here are a few pieces which share a little bit of the experience of the show from just the first three shows.    I will keep looking for better videos, but I wanted to put this out there while the show was fresh and I had a free moment to do so.  Just a DreamThis first video is a great example of using the video to lead the audience through a more cinematic experience with the artist.   The first section serves the dual purpose of transitioning the mood of the concert as well as allowing Carrie some time to change her outfit.  Once she comes out and sit, you can't really see the changes in the video at this resolution, so watch only if you're enjoying the song.  The FX and compositing for this were done by alivenotdead artist Robert Morris.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXltKFcO6QQGet Out Of This Town / Country RoadsThis piece is another time where we needed to buy some time, so the director decided to have her walk through her history.  (You'll see why she needed the time at the end.)   This was one three videos we shot for her in one day.    All the buildings she is walking by are significant to her life story and her career.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC8c-MckMiYTemporary Home.Haven't found a nice video of this one yet, but I do have a medium okay still shot I found.   The screen is a bit dim in the photo.  But this one is another environmental one where the house in the background went from new to old as well as the tree.   It's a subtle but emotional effect.So SmallAnother environmental one.  The time of day changes, the wheat field moves with the music.QuitterI wish I had a better video of this one, but this will have to do for now.   This was a song where we wanted to have fun with the screen.  Because we had the four slots and had sort of a country western vintage them, I suggested we do a slot machine which commented on the story of the song.    Too bad you can't see the textured dirty glass effects to well in the video, but I do like that the camera person at one point lets Carrie walk off and stays focused on our screens :)  Some of the icons on this were drawn by alivenotdead artist Asia Eng!Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcqgLznikAw&feature=PlayList&p=158F3EC608B75A78&index=12ChangeI wanted to show this one because it had a lot of video incorporation throughout the song.   Again, the opening is giving Carrie a chance to change outfits... and you'll see why she needs it :)  You can also see an example of how the cylindrical screen was used as a curtain. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3xSZOTP154&feature=PlayList&p=158F3EC608B75A78&index=14I Told You SoThis one we actually sent a mirco crew to Nashville to shoot Randy Travis at a famous theater and then used that theater as the set and had Randy come out life size.  (Randy Travis is a very famous Country artist.)  Some of the audience was thrown off for a bit thinking he was actually there.   We also shot close ups of him which played on the IMAG (large side live video feeding mostly) screens but he was in the actual opry theater.  In this image you can see him in the lower left as part of the band.I'll leave it at that for now, I'm not going to go through all 22 of them, but I will at some point show one or two more if I can get good videos of them just because I like them in particular but I just can't find anything that captures them yet.