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• Videographer Brooks Quinn was on the production team of the Mac Leaphart documentary

Mac’n at the ’Drome took place at the Hippodrome in January. A free outdoor screening of Mac’n at the ’Drome took place on Sun. April 29 at Cinebarre in Mt. Pleasant. The event kicked off with live performances by Leaphart and guests, followed by a screening on the inflatable screen. DVD copies of the film go on sale on Mon. April 30. Visit macleaphart.com for more.

City Paper: How and when did you start working with video production for Mac’n at the ’Drome?
Brooks Quinn: I’ve been doing event and commercial video for the past five years now. I originally wanted to be a journalist, but I discovered I was a lot better at visually telling a story than writing one. Video production is something I thoroughly enjoy, from the entire process of creating the idea to shooting it and editing until the final product. I’ve really enjoyed the projects I’ve been a part of, especially the people that I’ve worked with.

City Paper: Have you ever worked on a project like this before?
Brooks Quinn: I’ve worked on documentaries in the past as well as a few currently, but this is a first music documentary for me. I really liked the concept when Joel Frank and Ben Bounds approached me. It was definitely a learning experience and a great collaboration of talented people. The video is reliving the moment of the show that night with some stories in between.

City Paper: What were the biggest challenges involved in shooting and arranging the scenes for the concert event? It seemed like you all hustled like mad to get it done.
Brooks Quinn: The biggest issues were mainly just trying to find the time with everyone’s busy schedules to shoot interviews and arrange the story of the show. The arrangement of songs for the video were actually pretty simple; we just kept it basically as the show ran originally. I was blown away at how, as soon as we would let people know what we were shooting and who we were shooting for, they immediately were willing to help out and make as much time as necessary to help out. We had people send videos in from around the country and the world who wanted to be a part of it.

City Paper: What were the most challenging aspects of following up with a feature-length documentary on the event?
Brooks Quinn: Surprisingly, the post production after the show was pretty smooth sailing. Jeff Leonard[of Ocean Industries studio] mixed the audio for the show, David Keller [of Charleston Video Services] shot all of the live footage, and Chad Trujillo [of the USAF] did all of the photography for the event, so even with the mix of putting all of this items together worked amazingly well.

City Paper: What did you learn about the local band scene during this experience?
Brooks Quinn: I learned that the Charleston music scene is an extremely tight-knit group and they look out for each other. This event was a shining example of how many people all sharing the same passion for music can come together to help a fellow musician out.

City Paper: What’s your favorite scene in the final cut?
Brooks Quinn: My favorite scene would definitely have to be the last song when Mac comes up to the stage and plays Ronnie Lane’s [of the Faces] “Ooh La La.” Everyone is on stage, and it really puts the entire show in perspective. There’s a lot of footage that really stands out in my mind but some of it didn’t make the cut because we were still trying to make the video as PG-13 as we could, maybe an outtakes video can come from this but we’ll see.

A small crowd of senior metalheads and local rock musicians showed up at the Carmike Cinema on James Island last night (Tues. April 21) for the screening of the new Iron Maiden documentary Flight 666.

The Cinema staff didn’t seem to even know what it was, although, there was one poster hanging in the lobby by Auditorium 1.

In the seats, I spotted guys from such local bands as Dante’s Camaro, HotShotGun, Super Deluxe, the Diesel Brothers, Children’s Choir, Torture Town — and even a bandmate of mine from the Stiff Joints and the Pits (that's bassist John Crain in the photo!). No one left disappointed. Flight 666 was like a modern-day This is Spinal Tap, except everything went right.

Filmmakers Scotty McFadyen and Sam Dunn did an excellent job of capturing bassist Steve Harris, singer Bruce Dickinson, drummer Nicko McBrain, and guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick Gers on their massive world tour last year — 2008 Somewhere Back in Time tour in support of a new “best of” compilation.

Watching the band work hard, actually get along, and enjoy playing as they traveled to 13 countries in 45 days in a custom-fitted Boeing 757 (it even read “Iron Maiden” across the side) was entertaining and encouraging, but the big highlights were the carefully-shot and edited concert clips. Great sound quality helped, but the band’s mature chops were more impressive than ever. The shots of the exuberant audiences in Central and South America were especially impressive.

I’ll be spending my weekend relearning “Run to the Hills” and “Six Minutes to Midnight“ on the bass (if possible).

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One of the longest-running acts of the metal era, rock band Iron Maiden stand as elder statesmen — sagely head-bangers armed with massive stacks of gear, Spinal Tap-esque stage props, and dozens of fist-raising anthems. In their early years, led by bassist Steve Harris, Iron Maiden were leaders of the so-called "New Wave of British Heavy Metal."

These days, the Maiden men are on top of the world — literally. After over 30 years of work (and several lineup adjustments), Harris, singer Bruce Dickinson, drummer Nicko McBrain, and guitarists Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick Gers recently reached a new pinnacle when they announced the premiere of Iron Maiden: Flight 666 — a documentary film following the band on its 2008 Somewhere Back in Time tour in support of a new "best of" compilation.

"We like to break ground into new territory, and that's how the idea of doing a documentary of the whole tour came about," says McBrain in his cockney accent, speaking by phone last week. "It was only a year or so ago that we did these shows, so it's very fresh."

Maiden traveled to 13 countries in 45 days in a custom-fitted Boeing 757 dubbed "Ed Force One" (in reference to the band's grim mascot "Eddie"). Working in association with Banger Films, EMI Records, UMe, and Arts Alliance Media, filmmakers Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn caught it all on high-def digital video. Flight 666 opens in limited release across the U.S. on Tuesday.

"We had a special premier in South America in March on the last leg of this last tour," McBrain says of his first official viewing of Flight 666 with all of his bandmates by his side. "I'd seen it quite a few times already, but the rest of the guys hadn't seen it. The whole band were sitting in the audience. [Lead guitarist] Dave turned around to me and said, 'Nicko, this is weird. You look handsome ... you look really good up there!' It was frickin' weird, us being in the audience, watching ourselves perform for an audience."

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• Iron Maiden stands with their magic carpet, 'Ed Force One.'

Travelling by plane allowed the band to play in countries that had previously been logistically impossible for them to perform — places such as India, Ecuador, and Colombia. Much of the film documents the intensity and challenge of the hefty tour schedule.

"What really worked for us was the fact that the Banger Productions guys were fans of the band prior to getting into making the film," says McBrain. "The live footage is absolutely stunning. They managed to capture the essence of the band live without a bunch of cameras all over the stage. It's incredible how they did it. I'm very psyched about it.

"For someone who hasn't been into Maiden, they'll take away from this why it works," he adds. "The true stars of the movie are the fans — three or four generations of fans. Plus, they'll see the passion in how we play, the way we are as individuals, and how we tick, if ya like. For those who are like, ' Who is this band? You don't hear them on the radio, you don't see them on the telly ... they don't make 45 rpm singles, write pop songs, or do reality shows. What is it that makes them so big? What is it that people love about them?' All of that will be answered here."

The single participating cinema in S.C. is the Carmike James Island (1743 Central Park Road, 843-795-9499). Flight 666 screens at 8 p.m. on Tues. April 21. Visit www.ironmaiden.com for more. For more insights from Nicko McBrain, visit the music section at charlestoncitypaper.com.