Tommy Tutone Live – “867-5309/Jenny” at Sound Check and Beyond
If you were listening to music in the early 80’s, you couldn’t miss it. The most famous phone number in pop. 867-5309.
I was invited to film Tommy Tutone at the Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, NH. They were playing there as part of the “Totally 80’s Tour” featuring the bands Big Country, Gene Loves Jezebel and Bow Wow Wow.
Tommy Heath’s 1954 Fender Telecaster is valued from $55,000 to $80,000.
It was a literally a last-minute – okay, last-hour – call from a friend who was photographing the Tommy Tutone concert. The request was to capture some sound check “behind-the-scenes” footage as well the concert itself.
For the sound check, I mounted my Sony A7R-iv on a DJI RS3 gimbal stabilizer and carried it around stage during the sound check. I was thinking B-Roll – just some nice shots to give folks a feel of what it was like. Then the band started playing the iconic “867-5390/Jenny.”
I immediately started concentrating on getting shots that I would NEVER be able to get during the concert, so I made sure to get up close with the musicians. I particularly liked the “from behind” and “over the shoulder” shots since these are perspectives the fans rarely get to see. As I was filming Tommy, in my mind I was thinking of the image of Bob Dylan on the cover of his Greatest Hits Vol 2 album (taken during the Concert for Bangladesh) for inspiration.
Since I wasn’t thinking of capturing songs during the sound check, I didn’t have another camera set up that I could cut to in post-production during this song, so, as I was filming, I had to keep in mind that this the only shot that was going to be seen. This meant making sure something interesting was always on screen, even during transitions from one musician to another. When you have a safety shot you can always cut to (like a wide shot of the stage), you can literally run to another position and not care where the camera is pointing while you make the transition because you can cover the “bad” video with the other shot. In this instance, I didn’t have that luxury.
I was very pleased that the musicians didn’t flinch, ham it up, or show any negativity while I filmed them up close. This is something I always worry about since you are infringing on their space on stage. All of them took the filming in stride and did what they did best.
For the concert footage, I used four cameras. Behind the base player I had a Sony FS-700. The front full stage shot was a Sony A7R-iv. On the side of the stage next to the guitarist was an iPhone, and I roamed around with the RED Gemini.
What I was most unhappy about was how the iPhone got bounced around by the sound. I had noticed this when I tested the position of the iPhone when it was mounted on a small tripod, so I opted to mount the iPhone on a GorillaPod Tripod wrapped around a railing instead. I clearly didn’t do a good enough test because I would have looked for another solution if I saw how badly the iPhone was shaking.
Many thanks to Chris Reburn of Redburn Enterprises for his support with coordinating with the venue and the band to film Tommy Tutone. And many thanks to my good friend, Brian Smith, for making the connection to Chris.
