rigby@mail.ru
Главная Дискография Интервью Книги Журналы Аккорды Заметки Видео Фото Рок-посевы Викторина Новое

   CLUB SANDWICH 63

страницы


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

MINING THE FILM AND VIDEO ARCHIVE

Continuing our search through the celluloid cellar

THIS ONE Club Sandwich 63

            Occasionally, just occasionally, the Paul McCartney video collection throws up a certain song for which not one but two promo clips were produced. 'Mull Of Kintyre' springs most immediately to mind, while another example is this one, sorry, 'This One', a single from Flowers In The Dirt issued in July 1989. Why were two videos made? For the simple reason (complications aren't obligatory) that two ideas were discussed and both were liked.
            In fact, the complication only set in later. When the Top Of The Pops production office let it be known that the BBC programme would like to feature 'This One', Paul and the band decided to appear on the show in person. So not many Macca watchers got to see both videos - and some, probably, didn't catch even one.

VIDEO ONE

            The first of the two was the so-called 'Eastern' promo, with meditation scenes and Krishna goddesses abounding, filmed by Paul, Linda, the band and some real Indian dancers at the Albert Wharf studio in Battersea, south-west London, on 28 and 29 June.
            The director, famous in his field yet working with Paul for the first time, was Tim Pope, who explains that the theme was arrived at, appropriately, by a true meeting of the minds. "We both had this overlapping Eastern plan," he recalls. "My thoughts were heading in that direction and then, when I met up with Paul, he'd just had the artwork done for the single's picture sleeve which showed the same swan and goddess idea. We just seemed to sync up," Pope says, slipping, not unnaturally, into film jargon.
            "I set up the whole thing in the studio, the flowers and all of that, and got some joss-sticks glowing before Paul came in, just to get the right atmosphere, and immediately he arrived he said that the sight and smell took him right hack to the Sgt Pepper sleeve photo session. In fact, I admired Paul for being quite joky about the Beatles, for not being so sacrosanct about the group that he couldn't make an entertaining video about it."
            Probably the most eye-catching, even disturbing, aspect of this promo was the effect achieved by painting the appearance of open staring eyes onto closed cyc-lids. It was something all were happy to indulge in...even when the cameras weren't rolling. "It was really weird," comments Tim. "When Paul had the eyes painted on he suddenly, to me, looked like the animated Paul McCartney in Yellow Submarine* And sometimes he would stand talking to me, having a conversation, with his eyes shut but with the painted eyes still staring out at me. Even though I knew it wasn't real it was still very unnerving."
            But why the idea anyway, the human equivalent of painting the shutters? "It was to represent an icon," Pope responds. An eye-con it certainly was.
            Pope's overall intention was to show the public that there was another aspect to Paul McCartney: "A lot of people look on Paul as being quite serious, and perhaps his videos over the years have tended to portray that. But I tried to show that there's another side to him, a more humorous side. And I also tried to capture the childlike quality of the 'Strawberry Fields Forever' video, where the first half is a dream, the second half is a nightmare.
            "That's actually one of my favourite videos of all time. It has a quality which not a lot of other promos have: four blokes jumping around in a field, having a laugh, having fun. Whether or not I managed to capture it in 'This One' I'm not sure, because it's hard to recapture a feel all those years on."
            What is sure is that Tim Pope's intriguing video for 'This One' was a real talking point in the summer of 1989. Perhaps the only disappointment, at least for those involved in its production, is that the cameras were not turning over when a memorable occurrence took place during a rest break. "There were some kids there," laughs Pope, "kids who hang around outside the studio whenever there's a shoot and try to nick some food from the table that's always laid out for the cast and crew. Two grubby-faced youngsters barged in, dived between Paul and I and grabbed some jam tarts. Then one of them looked up at Paul and said 'Who are you then, mate? Are you famous?' and Paul said 'Me? Oh no, no I'm not famous' and the kid rushed off. And I remember thinking 'That kid will never know who he was just speaking to!'"

VIDEO TWO Club Sandwich 63

            By far the rarer of the two 'This One' promos was the second to be filmed, directed by Dean Chamberlain. It received scarcely any TV screenings at all, which just goes to underline how fickle fate can be. Comfortable on the eye it may not be, but Chamberlain's video was the result of an intense, minutely planned shoot (in the barn adjacent to Paul's private studio) that spanned eight days at the beginning of July 1989.
            Lindy Ross, wife of sleeve designer Mike (All The Best, CHOBA B CCCP, Unplugged) was costume designer for the video, and remembers it affectionately. "It was certainly an experience," she says. "From the finished video you can't tell how many hundreds of costumes we had there. We got them all at Berman's - Paul, Dean and 1 just walked through their warehouse in Camden Town [north London] saying 'I like this, I like that...'. All of the outfits were based on Rene Magritte paintings, and all of the filming was done frame by frame."
            Frame by frame! No wonder it took eight days. "And in the dark, too," Lindy continues. "It really was an inspired piece. Dean Chamberlain held a torch into the darkness, so that one could only see what was lit, and swayed it around so that the area filmed by the camera was light and dark alternately. For example, in the sequence where Linda was lying on the sofa and Paul was leaning over her, Dean was standing just out of camera range and sweeping the torch over them, backwards and forwards, so that the camera picked up only what he was lighting. Painting with torchlight is what it's called: the camera shutter is open and you paint with a torch to get the desired effect."
            The finished effect, edited from the miles of film used, was similar to a moving collection of stills, a stop-go video. "We worked quite early mornings and quite late nights," Lindy continues, "it really was the most painstaking video to work on...but fascinating. There was so much standing around and waiting, though, that Paul and I were also able to talk about the World Tour outfits. I later took him to a meeting with Workers For Freedom, who ended up being designers of the year in 1989, and that's how the much-seen tiger shirts and high-collar jackets with embroidered flowers happened."
            It was certainly a busy period for all at this time. For Lindy Ross, eight days working on a rarely seen 'This One1 promo, and the chance to be involved in preparations for such a major concert tour, all had to be worked in around the making of an even rarer McCartney video, for 'Ou Est Le Soleil'.
            But then, that's another story for another time.