As one of the pioneers of live music video direction, Christine Strand has brought close-up images of the world's most popular rock stars out to the people in the cheap seats. In the course of her nearly 20-year career, she has collaborated with some of the biggest name designers in the business, including Mark Fisher, Patrick Woodroffe, Allen Branton, Roy Bennett, Nick Sholem, Chas Herington, and Willie Williams. She has traveled the world with the Rolling Stones, The Who, David Bowie, Journey, U2, and Tina Turner, whose 24/7 tour is among her most recent credits. Contributing editor Catherine McHugh recently spoke with Strand about her singular career.
Catherine McHugh: How did you become a touring video director?
Christine Strand: I got a job through a friend of mine at WMTV, a TV station in Madison, WI. I had taken a few TV/film courses in college, but I got complete on-the-job training at this small TV station where you did everything from run the camera to editing to lighting and set design — even cutting the grass. When I moved to San Francisco, I got a job at KPIX as an engineer, where I ran the camera as well as doing some lighting, audio, and switching.
CM: How did you begin working on rock tours?
Strand: The switch to music happened gradually, and it was a result of meeting the right person at the right time. Through friends, I met Paul Becker, who was doing video for Journey at the time. Actually, the first concert where I had seen video was Journey in 1981. I'd been to so many concerts before in my life and loved them, but you either had to bring your binoculars to see the faces of those onstage, or you had to work your way up to the front row, where you ran the risk of getting squished to death. After seeing that show, I thought it was a really good use of video. It was all IMAG [image magnification] at that point — two screens on either side of the stage with cameras on them — but it added such a dimension to the show. You could actually see the expressions on the band members' faces.
Paul was going out as video director for The Who's It's Hard tour in 1982, and I was still working at KPIX. By that time I had moved from engineering into directing — a lot of news and talk shows, but also sports, for which I did camera and technical directing and vision mixing. So, on my vacation time from KPIX, I would go off and run camera for The Who. That was really fun and very different. My assignment was to follow Pete Townshend around the stage, and I couldn't believe I was getting paid for doing that! Eventually, I quit my full-time job at KPIX, and focused on music production work.
CM: Was it technically difficult for you to go from working in a television studio to a touring situation?
Strand: Having the sports background made it a little easier for me because I had been used to stringing a lot of camera cable for cameras in stadiums and I had worked with the video trucks that would just drive into the stadium and set up. So, in that sense, I had some background in remote productions, which was very helpful.
CM: What tour marked your first as a video director?
Strand: David Bowie's Glass Spider tour in 1987. It was very theatrical as opposed to just straight-ahead IMAG of rock musicians onstage. The tour had four singer/dancers, who wore strange fabulous costumes, and they sort of told the stories of the songs as they were being played. There was a secondary video screen upstage with all kinds of abstract film images on it for about four of the songs. That was separate from what I was working on, but it intrigued me, and it added a whole new dimension to that show. Then, in 1988, I went out on Mick Jagger's solo tour in Australia and Japan and that led in 1989-90 to the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels and Urban Jungle tours.
CM: How did that come about?
Video can really add texture and emotion to a show.
Christine Strand
Strand: Actually, I think creative visualization had a lot to do with me getting on those tours! I was still working full time at KPIX and one day, as I was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, I was thinking about the question, ‘If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?’ And I thought, ‘Well, I would love to work with my favorite band of all time, the Rolling Stones.’ Four years later, there I was!
That tour was mainly IMAG as well, but I was trying to put a little more into it than that. I brought along an effects generator and had some fun by occasionally changing the look of the picture a little bit. I really love the look of film, so I'm always looking for ways to make video simulate film.
For the next Rolling Stones tour, Voodoo Lounge, in 1994-95, the video screen was centerstage rather than flanking the stage. So that in itself added a new dimension to video content, because it no longer worked to just put cameras up on the centerstage screen for the entire show. That's when the whole concept for video evolved into being more than just cameras and IMAG and became more a part of the stage set and lighting show that was being offered to the audience. In that show, Mick Jagger did give me a lot more input as to what he wanted to see up on that screen, in addition to cameras. A lot of the images were derived from the artwork on the album and then animated. Ideas grow from the music — that's one of the really fun parts, to think of the music and the images they evoke and then you can put them up there on the screen and make them happen.
In between the Rolling Stones' tours, I was associate director (AD) for U2's Zooropa. That was such a huge production videowise, because there were screens and monitors everywhere. There was so much video playback involved. It was fun to work on and it was so interesting — a great generator of ideas.
Then, for Tina Turner, I did the Wildest Dreams tour in 1996-97 and in 2000, her 24/7 tour. Part of the great thing about what I do is working with artists I have so much admiration for. Tina certainly is one of those.
CM: How has the equipment changed since you first started touring?
Strand: When I started out, we would take out four tube cameras, a little video switcher, a couple of projectors, and two soft projection screens. Now, first of all, the cameras have gotten a lot prettier and nicer and they can handle the contrasts between low light and bright light in rock shows much better. Projectors are still used a lot, actually, as the IMAG on the sides of the stage, and they still work quite well. But the advent of the daylight screens, from the Sony Jumbotrons to the newer LED (light-emitting diode) screens have made the most difference. They are so bright and the picture quality has greatly improved, so you can now use video during the day. You can also put them in the middle of the lights, and thus centerstage, as so many are these days.
There are also a lot of new, spiffy little effects generators that can do some nifty tricks — without getting into effects for effects' sake. I love to take video and change it a little bit. Making it black and white, then putting some scratchy film on top of it is one of my favorite things to do. Or give it some other type of texture that goes along with the mood of the song, or integrate DV graphics along with it. On Tina Turner, I took out the Pinnacle Extreme. It's a great little box that has some really nice effects in it as well as a character generator. We would run credits at the end of every show, and we were able to update them as needed quite easily with that.
The other great advance is that now it's so much easier to use video playback in shows. We used to have to use tape machines for video playback. So you had to fast-forward or rewind to get to the cut you needed. But first with laser disks and now with the DVRs [digital disk recorders], they allow you instant access to whichever cut of video you want without having to scroll through an hour of tape to get there. Another handy piece of equipment is machine control; I've been using the ARTI system, which is a software program that you can take with you on any laptop computer. It has a little box attached to it that you can hook up to each piece of your video equipment. Then it talks to the tape decks, the switcher, the effects generator, the digital video recorder, or laser disk, or whatever you're using, so you can build a cue for each song, much in the same way a lighting designer builds cues with a lighting console.
CM: What do you feel video adds to a production?
Strand: People spend so much money on the price of the ticket, even when they may be at the back of the venue, but they do want to see a closeup of the artist. They came there to listen and to see their favorite band. So it's really important for the audience to be able to see the interaction between the band members — the little looks they give each other. With all the technology and all the artistry that goes into any production, I think letting the cameras tell the story of what is going on up on the stage is still a very valuable element.
In another creative way, the video can really be a storytelling of a song. On Tina's past tour, she did the song, “Fool in Love,” which was the first song she ever recorded. We got footage of her performing it for the first time, so the audience could see her then and see her sing it onstage in synch with the video. That really helps tell the whole story of the artist. You see her then and now. And she looks fantastic — even better than she did 30 years ago. That's something the audience takes home with them. I really like being able to put those ‘wow’ moments into shows. You don't want people to go home thinking they just saw a video show — you want them to get the whole experience. The video can really add texture and emotion to the show.
CM: Do you ever get tired of being on the road?s
Strand: Well, touring is such a different lifestyle that you really do have to love to travel, but I've always had that wanderlust. At the start of every show I direct, I still feel an adrenaline rush and get excited about it — even after hearing the music for 100 shows in a row. I've had the luck to work with some of my very favorite artists and I never get tired of it. I just love it.