Music tour videographer Brittany O’Brien takes a pitstop from life on the road to discuss her globe-spanning career so far.
Brittany O’Brien’s career as a tour videographer began, rather fittingly, in her high school’s band practice. Always known as the “kid with the point-and-shoot,” Brittany would borrow cameras from the yearbook department and document her musician classmates in their element. Now, some decades later, she’s still doing the same thing, albeit on a much bigger stage and with much starrier clientele.
Before she was capturing the international tours of some of the world’s biggest bands, Brittany spent years hustling in the photography scene of her home state in California. She’d snagged a wedding photography gig in her early days, but it was upon receiving her first-ever concert photo pass in 2013 that Brittany’s musical niche was conceived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL4oCL8tY-c
“[Wedding photography] was fine, but as soon as I got a taste of music, I became determined to make myself a lifelong creative in this field. I would e-mail local bands and venues asking for a photo pass…I got my first tour offer in 2016 and roamed around America in a big white van. I fell in love with the road. Since then, I’ve toured the world with nine different artists,” Brittany says.
The first tour Brittany mentions, the American leg of Californian band Finish Ticket, would initiate what has now become a lifelong journey on the road. Her work as a tour videographer for musicians like K. Flay, Flight Facilities and Imagine Dragons has traced her from all corners of the globe, and while you’d expect these travels to be a big-budget affair, Brittany recalls the more laidback processes of her photobook-meets-video aesthetic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL9YZYcYxkM
“Whenever I shoot, I love to create a very homey atmosphere…I generally have one camera on me, will take a still image of whatever I’m looking at, then shoot a video of the capture, and go back and make tour recap videos that are the moving version of those same stills. I’ve learned that many musicians hate photo/video day, and I want to change that for them, so I aim to have an incredibly chilled-out space.” she says.
But life on the road isn’t always the picture of calm. As you’d imagine for a creator who spends months on tour with rockstars, Brittany has her fair share of travel stories, from intimate recording sessions with her clients to standing in front of 20,000 screaming concert-goers and, more recently, having a pizza feast with indie band Hippo Campus that ended with matching tattoos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNZnrvuF_VA
“[I’m] overjoyed that I get to work with friends, see the world, and share images with people. My favourite part of my career is feeling grateful for accomplishing that. I’m a very nostalgic person and enjoy creating my own little footprint of photographic history,” Brittany says.
Catch more of Brittany’s work below, and head here to follow her on Instagram.
