Professionally shot and edited videos of live performances (concerts, stand-up acts, etc.) often feature shots of the audience. Some of these shots are wide shots of the whole crowd (to show, I guess, how popular the performers are) and some of them are close-up shots of individual audience members smiling, laughing, singing along, etc. Whenever I see such a close-up shot in a really old concert video (say, this 1964 Beatles concert linked to in another thread), I always wonder what happened to the person in question. Did they ever see themselves on TV (or wherever the video was shown)? If they’re still alive, do they still like the band? Do they ever make a point of watching the video today (since everything’s online these days) and pointing themselves out to their friends and family members?
I figure that at least some Dopers have themselves been featured (however briefly) in a published video or film as an audience member for some famous act. Tell me about it! What performance are you shown attending? How did you find out that you were in the video – did you discover this on your own or was it brought to your attention by someone else? How do you feel about your five seconds of fame and your being indelibly linked to the performers? Do you enjoy watching the clip and maybe even showing it to others, or are you completely embarrassed by it?
Unfortunately I don’t have such a story myself. As far as I can tell, I’ve been to only one concert that was recorded for broadcast and home video release. (This was namely the last concert of EAV’s farewell tour.) However, I was sitting so far in the back of the arena that I’m lucky if my face managed to occupy a single pixel in hi-def video.
I’m visible in a medium shot of the crowd to the right of the stage at LCD Soundsystem’s “final” show at Madison Square Garden as captured in the concert video in the Shut Up and Play the Hits boxed set. A post-show conversation I had with James Murphy was filmed for the accompanying documentary but didn’t make the cut. My blurred visage is captured in a whip pan in the documentary but I only know it’s me because I was there and know where I was standing at the time.
Does being in a ‘commercial’ for Heavy Metal Parking Lot count? Back in the early 2000s one of the guys who did the original HMPL was at an Iron Maiden concert and was filming for some extra stuff to put on the DVD. My buddy was a neighbor of the guy so I got put in. I think it’s on youtube somewhere but I’ve not looked for it. I do have a copy of the DVD.
Not exactly, but similar.
I attended an NBA playoff game and was seated in front of 2 nuns in full habit. My friend said the TV broadcast of the game kept showing the nuns while the announcers made “praying for a comeback” and “all the help they can get” type quips. He said I was onscreen about 10 lingering times, luckily not doing anything embarrassing.
If commercials count, I’m in the audience in a commercial for Blue Man Group. I don’t know if it’s a nationwide commercial (it was filmed here at Universal Studios, FL). There’s one shot of the crowd where you can briefly see my family and I. We’re too small to be recognizable, though.
Not me, but in the 1990s I used to work with a well-developed woman ten years older than I who appeared T-shirted and bra-less in the Woodstock movie. Riding on some guy’s shoulders, I believe.
I like to juggle at concerts so I’ve been put up on the big video screen a couple of times. Once I was at a festival (Lockn 2018 I think) and was standing on the balcony of the VIP lounge with a bunch of other people, watching the stage from there and juggling. A camera drone was flying around filming the crowd. It stopped in front of me and filmed me juggling for about 60 seconds. Alas, I’ve never found any evidence that this footage was used in anything public.
My girlfriend (at the time) can be seen on my shoulders (she’s wearing a red t shirt) in the “Paradise City” video. The color portions were filmed at Giants Stadium in 1989 which is where we were. They were the opening act, followed by Deep Purple and then Aerosmith. It went on for hours and it was a blast. We found out by looking for it because we were right up by the stage. I don’t bother telling anyone because you can’t make out our faces.