Adele stops concert to call out a filming fan, telling her “take your tripod down”

June 1, 2016 by John Aldred 23 Comments

Whenever you use the words “concert” and “photography” in the same sentence, emotions often tend to start flying. Whether you’re a professional trying to earn a living, being crippled by ridiculous contracts, or a fan who prefers to view through an LCD rather than with your eyes, there’s always some controversy.

This time, it’s Adele, stopping a concert and calling out a fan for not only filming, but setting up a tripod in order to do it!

Visibly upset that somebody was filming her performance during the show in Verona, Italy, the singer told a woman in the audience “Can you stop filming me with a video camera, because I’m really here in real life”.

Of course, it must be frustrating expecting to perform in front of a live audience and being confronted by the little LEDs of a few thousand cellphones. By the way, just so you know, those cellphone flashes really aren’t lighting up the stage, you’re just wasting your battery.

You can enjoy it in real life, rather than through your camera.

Can you take your tripod down?

This isn’t a DVD. This is a real show, and I’d really like you to enjoy my show.

– Adele

Calling out fans isn’t always a great idea, and opinion is divided amongst those on social media. Some condemn while others praises, but this often seems to be the way with anything like this when it comes to Facebook and Twitter.

Personally, I think the fan got the better deal. Adele could’ve easily just had security remove her from the venue. Don’t most concert tickets still have a “No photography” clause?

One thing’s for sure, if you’re going to see Adele in concert, you’ll want to leave the tripod at home.

Should people be allowed to film and take photos at concerts? Or was Adele right? Let us know what you think in the comments.

[via Independent]

About John Aldred

John Aldred is based in Scotland and photographs people in the wild and animals in the studio.

You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.

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Kevin Auld

There is something wonderfully ironic about watching a video of someone telling someone else to stop filming.
- Theuns Verwoerd
  
  Filming isn’t the problem: setting up shop in the way of other audience members is.
  
  Photographers who park themselves in front of, and blocking, the actual audience is a pet peeve of mine.
- Kevin Auld
  
  Theuns Verwoerd you appear to have utterly missed the point of my comment.
- catlett
  
  Agreed. Even if there isn’t a tripod how many times do you see someone raising their phone above normal eye level obstructing the view of people behind them. Could well be the case of this intrepid reporter who you pointed out was doing the same thing with a bit less equipment.
- Joscha Häring
  
  Haha. Thought the same!
- Theuns Verwoerd
  
  Kevin: nope, just disagree. She didn’t tell them to stop filming: she told them to take the tripod down.
  
  Different issues.
- Jameson Clifton
  
  That might be true, but there’s quite a difference between setting up a tripod at a concert and someone taking a short video on a cellphone. Besides the fact it’s obtrusive and inconsiderate, it’s also a safety hazard. Not to mention there are numerous professionals who have to get clearance to shoot at venues and there’s quite often copyright’s involved too.
Çağatay Belgen

This isn’t about filming and keeping as a memory. The b**ch will probably put it on youtube and make money. It is obvious that the performer knew her motive but she kindly asked her to stop filming.
- Dick Durham
  
  What an incredibly rude comment. You don’t know her, and you don’t know her motives, yet you jump to conclusions about them, and then dive in with both feet and aggressively call her a bitch. (Yet you don’t have the courage of your convictions to spell out the word).
  - Çağatay Belgen
    
    Dick, please stop being a dick.
    - Dick Durham
      
      Oh God, don’t do that, I’ve just broken a rib laughing at a joke I’ve heard tens of thousands of times in my life. It never gets old.
      
      It does speak to your puerile outlook though.
      - Sean
        
        How about ..Dick STFU?
      - Dick Durham
        
        Is school out already?
  - ZoetMB
    
    It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if the person wanted a personal memory of the concert or whether she thought she could (illegally) market it. Taking video/photos is generally prohibited (although as a practical matter, it’s almost impossible to keep people from using their smartphones) and it’s certainly completely inappropriate to set up a tripod unless you have clearance from the band and the venue and sometimes not even then.
    
    As for attendees who make videos on their phones, what is the point? You wind up with a terrible video, usually shot from far away with a wide angle lens, highly distorted sound because the phones can’t deal with the high levels and instead of paying attention to the artist, you’re paying attention to making the video. And, since you’re probably holding the camera up, you’re destroying the site lines for everyone else.
    
    Back in the days of the Fillmore East, if you smoked (anything), an employee would come around and shine a flashlight in your face to get you to stop (because of fire laws). That’s what they should do with people and their cameras at concerts. They should have one song where everyone is allowed to shoot (at many venues, even press and pros are only permitted to shoot the first 3 songs) and it should be prohibited at all other times so people can actually enjoy the concert.
    - Dick Durham
      
      Hello lightning.
      Three years to respond to a post. Are you a civil servant?
- Ian Hecht
  
  YouTube’s content match would make it pretty hard for the filmer to make any money off of it – the ads running on top of her video would presumably pay out to the license holder, as they do in any situation where you upload copyrighted material to YouTube.
  - Çağatay Belgen
    
    This is not how it works out. If you don’t put a record from a cd, a live performance from dvd you get the ad income.
    If you see a person in a concert with a tripod, a zoom voice recorder and a camcorder/dslr ask his youtube channel and you will see.
    Why did you guys think they were recording the whole concert? To keep it as a memory… don’t be naive.
  - Renlish
    
    Here’s how you get around Youtube’s filters. You slow the video 1.25%, you add a vignette filter. Bam, entire films and DVDs are on Youtube this way, all you need to do is look. But as has been mentioned, a filmed concert wouldn’t go through the same recognition process. It would slide through until the artists’ people found it and lodged a claim against it.
    - Ian Hecht
      
      Are you certain? I had a student sing an acapella version of “Someone Like You” that got content-matched automatically within minutes of upload.
Leona Rose

if Adele is worried about someone taking her picture.. then why not wear a bag over your head?? i can’t remember a show that i have been to where there wasn’t several camera’s in the place..
- Mike Carson
  
  It’s quite clearly not about that, of course she’s not against being filmed, that’s a ridiculous thought to have. She’s against someone spoiling the experience for others by setting up equipment that’s inappropriate and invasive.
Alexandre Grondin

Boycott Adele
Renlish

I detest people who film at any staged event, not just concerts. It’s a MASSIVE distraction in a darkened theatre/auditorium and when there’s lights flashing it’s horrible for the performer. And setting up a tripod? The height of rudeness for other attendees.