The Long, Troubled History of The MDNA Tour DVD

[Guest Nobody Knows Me]

I have a question, was The MDNA Tour filmed in its entirety at Stade de France, or did they only professionally record parts of the show?

[azrael 735]

I loved the MDNA tour, it was truly a great show - but re-watching the dvd and my GOD it's painful to realise again what they did to her vocals. A bit of echo and noise reduction in GGW would have gone a long way.

I also realised from watching past tours that [controversial opinion incoming] she has lost quite a bit of the class she once had. I mean look at CT versus RHT and MXT. She's gone from wearing cool, tasteful costumes to looking like a power rangers enemy lol.

I always exclude SST as I liked how bonkers this era was. It was frustrating at times but she was still cool.

[nito84bcn 2,843]

I was watching yesterday the MDNA Tour on dvd, and I had a really great time! Sometimes we are very rude with her work on the forums. It was entertaining, I liked that she focused on the current album at the time as always and the show was amazing. Celebration is still at the top of my list of her closing show performances. 
I agree that the audio is a little flat sometimes, but sounds much live than the S&S dvd. And I like that every tour of her is released, or documented. 
Madonna is making my quarantine WAAAY better. Love her. 

[MDNA22 1,256]

The audio mix on GGW and how her vocals sound is so off-putting despite the performance being amazing - it sounds really tinny with no bass overall and really thin vocals and does nothing to help quite a weak song anyway - the brilliant staging and performance saves it but was a shame the sound on the opening song is soo poor, I think it gets better later in the concert maybe there was just a problem with the recording and was the best they could do.  I enjoy this DVD and tour more than Rebel Heart - don't know what they were thinking with the sound for GGW

[Adriabs 278]

Really interesting read, makes so much sense. I actually enjoy this DVD so much, maybe because I've gotten used to it. The only part that really looks badly edited to me is the "fuck yeah" speech, her voice there sounds really low quality, and the speech and audience shots don't flow naturally. Everything else looks fine to me despite the filter.

Knowing this could've been cancelled sucks, I'm glad we ended up getting it, it was one of my first concerts and the first time I was front row at a show, so I loved getting this on DVD.

[eXtremeOccident 2,509]

On 7/13/2020 at 8:20 AM, Adriabs said:

Really interesting read, makes so much sense. I actually enjoy this DVD so much, maybe because I've gotten used to it. The only part that really looks badly edited to me is the "fuck yeah" speech, her voice there sounds really low quality, and the speech and audience shots don't flow naturally. Everything else looks fine to me despite the filter.

Knowing this could've been cancelled sucks, I'm glad we ended up getting it, it was one of my first concerts and the first time I was front row at a show, so I loved getting this on DVD.

Omg, yes, the speech. Completely agreed! Always thought this was the only weird part of the DVD.

Okay, fine, the shots from different venues is annoying, and the constant cuts are annoying (the opening with her reveal is like a seizure)...that said, there are so many beautiful moments:

* Most of the camera angles

* The color editing & all Miami footage (it's clear which was captured there vs. not)

* The whole Transgression sequence

* Like A Virgin / Love Spent photos

* Celebration

It's still a great DVD, even if the editing is a bit amateur at times. It's my favorite of any Madonna tour, so I'm glad she captured it at all.

[Celebration 1,361]

Hi

I just found this on Youtube.
Pity the blu ray is nowhere near as nice looking as this. :/

 

[Brendanlovesu1 12,782]

is the center channel audio better than the official CD rip?

[BoyToyMark 473]

Has the full Stade de France show has ever leaked? I know you can see the first 40 mins on YT.

Sorry if this has already been answered.

[Brendanlovesu1 12,782]

 

9 minutes ago, BoyToyMark said:

Has the full Stade de France show has ever leaked? I know you can see the first 40 mins on YT.

Sorry if this has already been answered.

No, we would have heard if leakers were trading it :( 

[mysweetaudrina9 26]

On 2/19/2017 at 7:34 PM, Future Lover said:

It is now a wide shared opinion that the official MDNA Tour film is nothing more than wasted potential. Horribly edited, color saturation turned up the max, over edited vocals, added crowd reactions taking away from the performance. All things that are accurate. However, many fans only complain about the shortcomings of the film. In reality, we should feel lucky it turned out the way that it did. Join me on the long journey it took to get the MDNA Tour on film. 

 

 

Background

The MDNA Tour was the ninth concert tour undertaken by Madonna in support of her twelfth studio album, MDNA. The tour was one of Madonna's largest and most intricate performances to date. Played in predominately stadiums in Europe and South America, and mostly in arenas in North America, the tour was a critical and commercial success. The show did find some controversy for the usage of firearms in the performance, Madonna flashing her breasts, and accusations of lip syncing. Madonna did not let this deter her and she gave 110% each and every night.

 

 

The Initial Film Plan

It was decided early on that the team wanted to film at least part of the show during the July 14 stop of the tour in Paris at the Stade de France. Indeed, crane cameras and hand held cameras found their way inside the stadium. However, deciding to film the show here created a scenario rarely used in modern concert film production; it was one night only show. Usually, the selection of the venue to film a concert goes to venues that will be getting the show for multiple nights in order to make sure the show is completely captured and there is footage to fall back on should something in one show go wrong. So the filming here as you can see was strange. The show in Paris went off mostly without hitch (and even included the nipple flash from M) and the crowd was mostly into it. However, the footage that was captured didn't suit Madonna completely. Some rumors say that she felt the footage was shot from too far away and that not enough of the performance and energy on stage was captured in the footage. So, the choice was made to cut this footage and start from scratch. 

 

 

South America? Yes! No!

Madonna found incredible success with the filming of her Sticky & Sweet Tour in Argentina. It is a very well known fact that crowds in South America are some of the most energetic in the world. Madonna planned to film the first two shows of the South American leg and her first ever shows in Columbia. It was all perfect. Amazing crowd. Beautiful stadium. Incredible show. Except...the director that M so desperately wanted to film the show was unavailable to shoot in Columbia. So, instead of not using the team she wanted, she decided to axe the filming in Columbia and looked for another place to film. However, cranes were placed in the stadium in Buenos Aires for extra crowd shots. 

 

 

Miami Life Saver

Madonna decided to film the last two shows in the US at the American Airlines Arena in Miami on November 19th and 20th. The venue is a mid-size arena (not a small arena, but far the biggest arena she brought the show to) and the arena always looks great on film. So, all the equipment was loaded in. The shows were sold out and the crowds in Miami usually promised to be energetic. However, on the 19th, Madonna was much later arriving on stage than usual and by the time the show began, there were very noticeable empty patches in the venue. The same happened the following night. While the show footage that was captured was exactly what M wanted, the empty spaces and lack of energy by the third act of the show rendered much of the Miami footage unusable.

 

 

A Brilliant Solution

Faced with the issue of having two less than satisfactory shoots, less than a month left in the tour and no time to organize another shoot. It was time for M and her team to make a choice. Which footage was going to be used in the final film? After some deliberation...obviously it was decided that they would blend the footage of the two shoots and throw in some of the club show for good measure. That is what we ended up with.

 

 

So, my point? Maybe we should all spend less time picking out the faults of the DVD and just be grateful that we even got one.  

so we just have to settle for mediocrity and sub par product because that is all there is?