More and more I find myself sitting behind people at concerts (and in church) recording a performance with their phone. I struggle to understand why.
Recording at church should be right out, clearly your focus is on the recording and not on self reflection or seeking inspiration that will make you a better human.
At a concert, especially on in the dark, several problems exist:
- Most people record with their phone vertical, which defies all logic. We see the world in widescreen, our TVs are all widescreen, why not turn the phone 90* to reflect that?
- The phone is on. Sitting behind you, I have no desire to see what is on your screen or have my view of the performance damaged by your addition and unwanted light source.
- You affect the performer. They can see your phone screen reflected on your face.
- The quality of your recording will be crap. Have you seen YouTube videos of concert recordings?
- You’ll be so focused on recording you won’t be able to deeply enjoy the performance.
- You clearly don’t know how to follow directions because “no recording or flash photography” was clearly stated at the beginning.
- In purchasing a ticket to a performance you purchased rights to a live performance. You did not purchase recording rights (which you likely couldn’t afford anyway) or any other rights. You get one shot to enjoy it. Everyone around you gets the same opportunity.
By recording an event on your phone you ruin it for yourself, and everyone around you who you affect by your actions.
The next time someone around you does this, you should demand they pay for your ticket because they’ve infringed on your your rights to a once-in-a-lifetime event.