Rock Band 4 Cover Art

Well… I finally lived up to a dream I didn’t even know I had.

A photo of mine is the cover art for an internationally acclaimed video game: Rock Band 4.

Not only is that something pretty worthy of bragging rights… it also meant that I basically got to shoot a gig performed just for me. The marketing team wanted to use an actual photo for the cover, which meant bringing in a band to play a show to an audience, and having me there to photograph.

On the one hand, it was a Disneyland version of the chaos I deal with on any working day (lighting optimised for the photo, band well spaced, crowd carefully not getting in my way…). On the other hand, the pressure was on and I knew darn well I had to get that shot.

It was a really good experience and a cool thing to shoot on the day. The band was really solid and the crowd was actually enjoying the gig. Although this is a massive and stressful campaign, on the day of the shoot the client was laid back and supportive. We’d talked through the idea and style of the photo, and had everything lined up to be as streamlined and controlled as possible.

I took the photos and handed over the files.

This was a very different experience than my usual work shooting live. Not only was it carefully controlled and highly specific, but it was also strange to hand over unedited files and wait to see what the final image would look like. I’ve got to admit I was a little nervous about it--where would the editing take the image? Would it look like what I shot? Did I get the perfect angle, did I maximise the lighting, would the final edit still feel like my photo…?

Turns out, I’m pretty darn pleased with it. I like the colors they used and the staging they chose and the feel of the image. They wanted to have it look like the video game was part of an actual live scene, and I think they pulled it together well.

And now I keep getting RockBand ads popping up in my social media streams...complete with my photo. Gotta say, it’s a pretty cool feeling.