It took 20km of fiber, 30 cameras and 220 people in #barcelona to broadcast #primaverasound2016 live and in high definition. 48 hours of television to give the viewers “the feeling they’re up there,” says multiple Grammy nominated director Paul Dugdale.
After two and a half months of pre-production, Primavera Sound broadcast went live on June 2-4. Four TV trucks, four audio ones taking splitters directly from the bands and three days’ worth of music from four stages were available to view in real time on Red Bull TV, anywhere in the world.
“What’s really amazing for this #festival is that I’ve been allowed to not always just have a frontal close-up shot,” explains Dugdale, who’s directed concert films and documentaries for some of the world’s biggest artists including The Rolling Stones, Adele, Coldplay, Rihanna, One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Mumford and Sons – and worked on the live broadcast in Spain.
“It’s very standard to have that shot, and it just looks like a #festival. It’s great and it does the job, but we’ve really tried not to have that this time. We’ve been able to have a steady cam right on stage with the musicians with some of the artists. As a viewer, you just feel like you’re up there.”
Live-streamed for three days on two channels and now available on VOD, Primavera Sound is known as one of Europe’s biggest music festivals, with a line-up that tends to present all styles and genres.
“On Friday, Beach House was a ethereal band and the whole show was very, very dark,” adds Dugdale. “For that, you kind of go for a feeling. You can’t really see them anyway, so you just create pictures and a cut that match the music, a cut that is beautiful and flows and let people listen to the music.
“Or sometimes, you concentrate much more on the eyes of the artist, on their facial expression to try and connect that emotion. Or for other dance bands where there is less emotion involved and more energy, you have more audience shots. Everyone is different and we measure it just for that music.”
lulop.com
