Both Anna and I were able to go to Cornerstone this year without paying for anything but travel. We took Amtrak Chicago to Macomb and were picked up by Sylwinn with one free ticket. When we got to the gate I went to the Volunteer tent and got the second free ticket. Anna babysat for some friends and I volunteered this year on the “Web Video Production Team.” From day to day, this usually meant I worked 11am-4pm and then 6pm-10pm or so. It was rough. There were supposed to be five of us volunteers shooting video, but two never showed up, and a third didn’t show up for two of the five days. The fourth was a high school student with little experience and the looks of a Relient K groupie. Argh. Relient K groupies. Us folks in the trailer had our suspicions about Relient K groupie and the late-show gettin’ romantic and all that, too…
I shot a good deal of footage; two or three “music exclusives” and interviews a day, as well as promotional shots and as much footage of bands on stage as I could. It is up at http://www.cornerstonefestival.com/videos.php. Clouds threatening rain on Saturday prompted the Main Stage acts to move to Encore 1 and Gallery stages, which meant that we were covering the shows. Main Stage has its own cameras and operators because of the Jumbotron screen thingy, but with the bands at the smaller stages we were the only option. So for Underoath and Devil Wears Prada we set up scaffolding in the crowd for Brian and a volunteer, and we went through a crazy amount of security and annoyance to get me access to the stage itself. Scott set me up in a box in front of the stage at first, but one of the security guards standing there blocked most of my view, so later he moved me actually on stage, where I could sit unobtrusively watching men behind the scenes making sure that Underoath’s keyboard was working and their drummer was happy… You can kind of tell from the video where I was–though I wish they had used more of my angle; I got some good shots in there. I worked on these:
- Ben Shive
- Bill Mallonee
- Chris Huertz: Simple Spirituality
- David Bazan
- Deas Vail Exlcusive
- Derek Webb (whose guitar pickup was wonky)
- Don’t Wake Aislan Exclusive
- Flatfoot 56 exclusive
- Glen Clark & The Family
- Max Simmons
- Men as Trees Walking Exclusive
- Ocean is Theory
- Photoside Cafe & their Exclusive
- Rodent Emporium Exclusive
- Soong-Chan Rah: The Next Evangelicalism (from North Park Seminary!)
- Soul Mobile
- Spoken
- Terry Taylor
- Traa Daniels Interview
- Underoath and TDWP
- The Wrecking Exclusive
Good people I met: Scott, Brian, & Nate from the trailer, Steve White (who interviewed Huertz and Rah), Scott Knies (of Maron, Brother Red Squirrel, JPUSA in general). I also re-introduced myself to J. Robert Parks, an old Imaginariumer, and we had some good long conversations.
Artists I was turned on to: Mike Choby, Brother Red Squirrel, Seabird, Deas Vail, Max Simmons.
Hopefully we’ll go again next year with this volunteer gig or in some greater capacity.
Tags: amtrak, Brian Behm, Brother Red Squirrel, Cornerstone Festival, Deas Veil, J Robert Parks, Maron, scaffolding, Seabird, threatening rain, web video production