The Winter Concert

[squeakers]

We attended my youngest child's winter concert.  For such a small community it was very well attended. Parents, grandparents and siblings all crushed together to listen to the kids sing.

This year the lineup of songs was a very good mix.  And there was a quintet did by some 4th grade girls in concert with the rest of the 4th grade that was absolutely lovely.

2 faux pas unfortunately.

1 was the lovely couple behind us who allowed their 3 yo. to run back and forth behind our chairs in the aisle.  This was on the basketball court which has hard wood floors. Rumble rumble Thud! He fell over a few times because the floor is very polished.

2nd was my own sister's. She kept sending our niece up front with a cell phone to take pix of all our kids. While the niece was discreet and did it quickly (between grades as they got situated on the little tier of risers).. it was still not a nice thing to do.

Every year I wonder why the school doesn't pay to have a pro photographer come in and take a few stills and/or video the concert. I know I would pay to have a copy or two ... anything is better than blurry digital photos taken in the dark and from too far away!

[Clara Bow]

You might suggest a photographer to the program director or even the principal of the school. It would be a nice way to make a little revenue for the arts programs as well as a great way to get pictures for the parents without having kamikaze amateurs running up and down. I was in drama in high school and there were numerous parents who would sneak up front to do pictures. It was very distracting to those of us on stage. But it sounds as if your niece did her best to be unobtrusive, too bad others don't follow suit.
And don't get me started on people who allow their young children to act like wild Indians in public. If the child cannot be controlled, then the child needs to be at home!

[Scurvy]

The three year old running would have driven me crazy.  I don't like it when parents let their children run around in restaurants, theaters, or other places that are not intended for that sort of thing - but the fact that child fell and the parents still didn't stop him is even worse.  Even if they didn't care that they were disturbing others they should have been concerned about the child falling!

As far as your sister goes, that wouldn't have bothered me.  In fact, that's how it works at the school my son attends.  All the parents take their pictures before and after each class performs, but during the performance everyone stays seated and there is no flash photography.  Parents who are determined to take photos or videotape during the performances line up along the walls at the sides of the room, and they still don't use the flash during the show.  It seems to work very well and everyone is happy with the arrangement.

I would love to have the option to purchase professional pictures or tapes of my son performing at his school, but I know many parents do not have the budget for that sort of thing - or they just enjoy taking the photos themselves.   If many of the parents I know were told that they would have to purchase pictures rather than taking their own they'd be really upset, and I don't think I'd blame them.

[stanthedevil]

If you know a professional photographer or videographer, you may want to recommend him or her to the principal.  Another option would be to see if you can form a partnership with a local media center.  The grade school my brothers attended had such a partnership.  Seventh and eighth graders could take a class as an elective and learn how to use the television cameras, sound equipment, etc.  Their final project was recording the winter and spring programs each year.  It allowed the students a great experience, gave the parents a low cost option for a very professional video (the teacher of the class ran the show, so the videos were always very high quality), and it made the school a little bit of money ($2-3 on each copy sold).

[Weez]

They may not be allowed to take photographs.  I know some schools here in Scotland have banned parents taking photos or videos of their children's school plays.  Sadly, I think it was because the school couldn't be sure that the photos wouldn't end up in the wrong hands.  Similarly, it's very difficult for schools to get permission to put photos of their pupils on websites - all parents have to sign permission slips.  

Weez.

[squeakers]

If you know a professional photographer or videographer, you may want to recommend him or her to the principal.  Another option would be to see if you can form a partnership with a local media center.  The grade school my brothers attended had such a partnership.  Seventh and eighth graders could take a class as an elective and learn how to use the television cameras, sound equipment, etc.  Their final project was recording the winter and spring programs each year.  It allowed the students a great experience, gave the parents a low cost option for a very professional video (the teacher of the class ran the show, so the videos were always very high quality), and it made the school a little bit of money ($2-3 on each copy sold).

The thing that gets to me is that although we are a small community and money is very tight .. up on one wall is a video set-up for taping the basketball games.  Someone must know how to use it .. and we certainly could use the money from video/stills sales. We have a "donate cookies" sale before the concerts .. you buy what others brought for whatever you want to pay. That money is split between the 2 grade schools (1 is preschool thru 2nd and the other is 3rd and 4th grade).

I'd much rather see 1 person up front snapping/videoing pix than what happens now.  Especially since my niece had to walk between the first set of chairs and the 4th graders sitting on the floor to get a picture. The other parents either snap away (with flashes) all during the concert or, a few, line up to one side and shoot. 

Unfortunately this year they had the kids on the court floor (on a tier) rather than up on the stage.  They only had 1 side of the bleachers down.  The ones facing the kids.. er.. like this:

north bleachers=closed
kids on a tier, facing south
kids on floor, facing north
2 rows of chairs
south bleachers.

So unless you stood in front of people there wasn't a good way to get decent pictures. My pix last year (from my seat) were blurry (the kids were walking in front of me), odd colored from other flashes messing with my adjustments and just too far away to get any detail.

I think the next time I see one of the principals I'll suggest a videographer or your suggestion above of involving the bigger kids .. my kids have 12 more years to go at this community (one is a kindergartner) and it would be nice to have pretty photos to share with their grandparents and to have for myself.

[ClaireC79]

At my childrens school they record it and sell the DVD, you can choose to have 1, 2 or 3 concerts on it (depending on ages of children - last year we only had the youngest grouping as both girls were in the same concert, this year we'll have to get the one with 2 on as they are in different plays this year)

They don't sell stills but it's easy enough to get stills off the DVD, and they did makesure they zoomed in on each child

[Slartibartfast]

My junior high always had videotapes available - but then the chorus teacher's husband was a professional videographer, so I guess he had to come to her concerts anyway :-)  Our auditorium didn't have a great place to take video either, but he always set up his camera and tripod in the fourth or fifth row, in the middle, and he did this at least an hour before the show so you knew where it would be when you were choosing where to sit.  It did leave a small wake of unused seats behind him, but that was far outweighed by how everyone else could see because nobody was standing up and trying to take pictures!

[Lisbeth]

I'd recommend to the school that it recruit people to act as ushers and volunteer photographers, and that the ushers prevent audience members from running around or taking pictures during the show.  When those things go on, they are very rude and distracting.

[Breezygirl]

Christmas concerts..... hmmm where to start. I agree that noisy children running all around, screaming babies and the children that kick your seat and the ones who's parents do nothing to control them can be distracting and I do not agree with that at all. They should control their children or remove them so others can enjoy the show.

But on the other hand these concerts should be for all to enjoy just not the adults.  I have refused to take my younger son to see his brother's concerts as I see so many intolerant people glaring at anyone who has a small child in the audience who dares to even make a peep or shift in their seats. Heaven forbide a child enjoying the show with a giggle of glee. 

They are small children and although you try your best to keep them quiet and still they still make the odd noise or movement and perhaps clap at the wrong times. People need to also be understanding that children are children and try not to be so touchy, it is Christmas time after all.

[kherbert05]

The staff should have told the child to behave, when the parents failed to do so.

Suggest the professional photographer/videographer to the school. If your secondary program teaches videography that would be a great resource if they have the capabilities to make multiple copies. There may be legal concerns.

Last year we tried to have a DVD made of one of our plays. We had to get a signed release from ever child performing, or the DVD couldn't be made. Turned out we didn't get enough orders. We did decide before hand that if getting a pro DVD made means that a foster or other endangered child can't participate - we aren't getting the pro DVD made.

This is my 6Th year teaching. In the previous 5 years I've had at least 1 kid who was endangered. (Foster kid with abusive parents, child who's parent escaped an abusive relationship, or custody battle with kidnapping in the past). This year I have over 600 kids and we have about 15 with custody issues.

Note the parents with custody issues usually just ask that we don't display their child's picture/name at the front of the school and that we be aware of the problem with the other parent. The foster system is more rigid in the rules.

[kingsrings]

At my high school, they ended up banning attendees taking photos of the graduation ceremony because it got to be too much of a disruption. Parents would be clamoring all over the place trying to get the perfect shot of their child walking across the stage and yelling at other people for getting in their shot, which was unavoidable since the place was very crowded. It got to be more about taking the picture than witnessing the ceremony. They hired a pro photographer to take pictures of the graduates walking the stage and then sent the proofs for purchase to the families. I think this would be an excellent solution for your situation. Sure there will families whining about having to pay extra for a picture/video of their kid, but there really is no other solution for solving this problem.

[Xanthia, Maker of fine Tin-foil hats since 2007]

At my high school, they ended up banning attendees taking photos of the graduation ceremony because it got to be too much of a disruption. Parents would be clamoring all over the place trying to get the perfect shot of their child walking across the stage and yelling at other people for getting in their shot, which was unavoidable since the place was very crowded.

The year my older brother graduated, after the graduates were seated and the flashes started popping, all of them pulled out cameras ans at the same time took pictures of the audience, it was SO FUNNY.  The AV department videoed it and sold it for like $10.00 (this was a small school , my brothers graduating class had about 150 and mine had 90 people)