Two Chicago-area production companies were able to get up close and personal with the Rolling Stones while they prepared to kick-off their world tour.
Golan Productions and Hickory Hills-based Maverick Productions were hired by New York-based Second Coming Productions to provide footage for several news segments that VH-1 will broadcast during the tour’s first week.
Second Coming will also produce an hour long special that will eventually air on the cable channel. “It’s the typical rockumentary,” said producer Ari Golan. “Between Maverick and my company, we shot the rehearsals and the usual cutaways like constructing the stage, soundbites from the crews and people standing in line, and the media circus.”
Golan’s five-camera crew were among the 200 lucky souls to crowd into the Double Door on Sept. 18 for the now legendary unannounced performance.
The call came the night before at 10 p.m., and Golan was sworn to secrecy.
A veteran rock videographer, he said there was nothing technically unusual about the job, which used four cameras wired to a live switch in the truck and a roving ENG camera.
“It was just another small venue shoot, but with the biggest band in the world,” Golan said.
Careful to maintain the club feel, the Stones brought in only a few lights. Sound was another matter. The Stones’ staff replaced the house PA with a feed to a semi-trailer with processing equipment.
A ticket to the double door show was priceless. (For the lucky few who passed the club early that day and actually believed the marquee, it was $7.) Seats to the opening night show at Soldier Field were easier to get, but once again Golan’s crew had a busman’s holiday, as they gathered more footage for Second Coming and VH-1.
Their cameras, as well as the crew feeding the stage’s giant screen, were wired into a Trio truck that provided the satellite up-link to the world-wide broadcast of the band’s first two songs.
“Celebrities are often a pain,” said Golan. “The band knows what they want, so it was easy to do a good job for them.”
SCREEN MAGAZINE
SEPT. 29, 1997
VOLUME 19 NO. 39
PG 2