lyneday
03-26-2006, 10:51 AM
THAT'S A RAP (http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/66026.htm)
By MAXINE SHEN
http://www.nypost.com/photos/entlede03262006.jpgTHREE LIVE CREW: (l-r) Beastie Boys Adam Yauch (MCA), Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovath (Ad-Rock) at Madison Square Garden the night their fans shot "Awesome!"
March 26, 2006 -- The Beastie Boys dropa fan-tastic concert film worth ch-checking out
EVERY music fan knows that a real rock show doesn't look anything like a concert movie. They never seem to include the guy sitting next to you who won't shut up, or the fact that the stars look like insects from the nosebleed seats, or that half the fun is just being there, hanging out with friends.
As odd as it seems, the Beastie Boys are the first band to ever take this to heart. The proof arrives this Friday with "Awesome! I F - - - in' Shot That," a concert movie that turns the genre on its head.
On Oct. 9, 2004, in the midst of their "To the Five Boroughs" tour, the band created an "authorized bootleg" of a sold-out concert, assigning video cameras to 50 fans scattered throughout Madison Square Garden. The only instructions went like this: Press record when the Beasties hit the stage - and don't stop until it's all over.
The result?
About 100 hours of footage yielding a treasure trove of fan shenanigans, including sneaking backstage, dancing in the aisles, beer runs and bathroom trips. Not to mention a few shots of the performance itself.
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch - a k a MCA - directed the film under his Nathanial Hornblow‚r pseudonym. He and a team of editors then spent a year cobbling together the raw footage to produce a kinetic (courtesy of hundreds of quick cuts) 90-minute movie that gets to the heart of a typical fan's concertgoing experience.
Inspired by a 30-second cellphone video clip posted by a fan on the band's Web site, Yauch wanted the audience, not professional cameramen, to put their stamp on the film.
"There's something about having people in the audience holding the cameras and it being low-resolution that captures the energy of what it's like to be in the room," he says, sitting beside Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) in the group's Canal Street studio.
"We could have gone to HBO and a director, but when you do that, it starts to feel cookie cutter," he adds. "You lose the energy and feel of the concert."
One fan cinematographer, Dario Zagar, whose stage-left seat scored him the video gig, agrees. (In exchange for his trouble, Zagar got a T-shirt and $125 paycheck, enough to cover admission for himself and his wife.)
"I have a bunch of concert film DVDs, and this is the closest to being there," Zagar says. "You don't realize how much regular concert movies pale in comparison until you see this."
Although the fan-held camcorders were supplemented with a few high-quality digital video cameras onstage, the majority of the film is a low-res smorgasbord of grainy, sometimes shaky footage.
Alongside video taken from the best seats in the house, there's plenty of shots where the trio looks like Adidas-clad ants, filmed by people having the time of their lives in the cheap seats.
Unlike other concert films, where Diamond says "performers are made to look bigger than they are" and "put on an even bigger pedestal," this "goes totally in the opposite direction. It's all about the experience the crowd is having, not our experience."
B Boy and fan alike say thebest example of this concert cinema verit‚ is when one camera operator films his bathroom break. Including it "showed their sense of humor," Zagar says. "You can hear their music in the background and they're not such egomaniacs that they had to be on the screen the whole time."
Ultimately, "Awesome: I F - - - in' Shot That" stays true to what fans love about the B Boys - the group's preferred abbreviation, by the way - and shows what's kept them relevant throughout a 20-year career.
"It's to their credit that at this stage of their career, they're still trying to do stuff that hasn't been done before," says Blender magazine senior editor Steve Kandell. "The weird thing is [the movie is] such a simple idea, it's surprising that no one's done it before, and that's true about a lot of things they do. They're not the first people to rap or add guitars, but they pull it off in a way that makes it seem like you've never heard it before."
Of course, they didn't set out to revolutionize the concert film.
"The purpose of this thing wasn't to go out and make a movie and put it in theaters," Horovitz says. "We were playing at the Garden and we figured we would document it, just to see what would happen and what the fans were doing out there."
"It was more like an experiment to see what we would get back, more than anything else," Diamond adds.
Still, there were doubts as to whether the experiment would yield anything worthwhile.
"It was a possibility that it wouldn't work out, but since we gave cameras out to the audience, we didn't have too much invested in it," Yauch says. "We'd be out some money and it would be a bit of a pain in the neck, but we wouldn't be in too deep. We could bury the footage and swallow the loss."
But, "we do have some hedgefund people who are really banking on this," he jokes.
Fortunately, the footagethey got back was more than interesting enough for a feature film release, let alone the DVD they'd originally planned to put out. But to the B Boys' dismay, they didn't get anything too hot to handle - revealing bathroom sojourn aside.
"I hoped for a little more raunch," says a disappointed Horovitz. "I would have liked to see a little more sleaze, a little more gross behavior."
"You wanted the guy passed out in the food court," Yauch says.
"Yeah, that kind of thing, I like sleaze," Horovitz says. "I'm not necessarily sleazy, but I appreciate some sleaze. Mike, if you had a camera what would be the sleaziest thing you would have done with it?"
"I could have gotten hella sleazy - I would have taken the camera and rubbed it all up on my chest," Diamond says, to the communal mirth of his band mates.
The one thing that the B Boys wish they had planned for, though, was to get footage of their fans before and after the concert.
"We should have done it more like 'Spellbound' [the spelling bee documentary]," Yauch says. "Done more about the fans' back-story, had them talking about going to the concert, its importance to them."
Also, "there's one shot in the movie, during 'Time To Get Ill,' where the guy screams the chorus into his girlfriend's ear as loud as he can. I wish we'd had that couple after the show, had them talking about, like 'Why'd you scream that into my ear?' "
"That would have been really good. We blew it," Horovitz jokes.
Still, the simple brilliance of the fan footage and the success of the experiment - at Sundance, the film got a great reception - has already spawned an imitator. Coldplay recently had five fans film a Toronto show for a DVD.
But, as Blender's Kandell sagely points out, "forget about the fact that it's not their idea and it's already been done well. Do you really care what the crowd of a Coldplay show looks like?
"The Beastie Boys audience is so diverse, seeing them at the Garden - catching them in their own environment with their fans - you can tell it's everyone from every conceivable area in New York," Kandell adds. "It sounds a little trite, but it's hard to imagine any other band that would have a broad enough appeal where the crowd itself could potentially be as interesting as the band onstage."
When The Post asked the B Boys if they are the only band that could pull this type of concert film off, the guys are quick to say no - and offer up their own suggestions.
"Wu Tang would be a good group to do it," says Horovitz.
"I'd see this as a vehicle for Nick Lachey," Diamond adds. "Or Liza Minnelli. I'd like to see what her fans are like."
maxine.shen@nypost.com
By MAXINE SHEN
http://www.nypost.com/photos/entlede03262006.jpgTHREE LIVE CREW: (l-r) Beastie Boys Adam Yauch (MCA), Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovath (Ad-Rock) at Madison Square Garden the night their fans shot "Awesome!"
March 26, 2006 -- The Beastie Boys dropa fan-tastic concert film worth ch-checking out
EVERY music fan knows that a real rock show doesn't look anything like a concert movie. They never seem to include the guy sitting next to you who won't shut up, or the fact that the stars look like insects from the nosebleed seats, or that half the fun is just being there, hanging out with friends.
As odd as it seems, the Beastie Boys are the first band to ever take this to heart. The proof arrives this Friday with "Awesome! I F - - - in' Shot That," a concert movie that turns the genre on its head.
On Oct. 9, 2004, in the midst of their "To the Five Boroughs" tour, the band created an "authorized bootleg" of a sold-out concert, assigning video cameras to 50 fans scattered throughout Madison Square Garden. The only instructions went like this: Press record when the Beasties hit the stage - and don't stop until it's all over.
The result?
About 100 hours of footage yielding a treasure trove of fan shenanigans, including sneaking backstage, dancing in the aisles, beer runs and bathroom trips. Not to mention a few shots of the performance itself.
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch - a k a MCA - directed the film under his Nathanial Hornblow‚r pseudonym. He and a team of editors then spent a year cobbling together the raw footage to produce a kinetic (courtesy of hundreds of quick cuts) 90-minute movie that gets to the heart of a typical fan's concertgoing experience.
Inspired by a 30-second cellphone video clip posted by a fan on the band's Web site, Yauch wanted the audience, not professional cameramen, to put their stamp on the film.
"There's something about having people in the audience holding the cameras and it being low-resolution that captures the energy of what it's like to be in the room," he says, sitting beside Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) in the group's Canal Street studio.
"We could have gone to HBO and a director, but when you do that, it starts to feel cookie cutter," he adds. "You lose the energy and feel of the concert."
One fan cinematographer, Dario Zagar, whose stage-left seat scored him the video gig, agrees. (In exchange for his trouble, Zagar got a T-shirt and $125 paycheck, enough to cover admission for himself and his wife.)
"I have a bunch of concert film DVDs, and this is the closest to being there," Zagar says. "You don't realize how much regular concert movies pale in comparison until you see this."
Although the fan-held camcorders were supplemented with a few high-quality digital video cameras onstage, the majority of the film is a low-res smorgasbord of grainy, sometimes shaky footage.
Alongside video taken from the best seats in the house, there's plenty of shots where the trio looks like Adidas-clad ants, filmed by people having the time of their lives in the cheap seats.
Unlike other concert films, where Diamond says "performers are made to look bigger than they are" and "put on an even bigger pedestal," this "goes totally in the opposite direction. It's all about the experience the crowd is having, not our experience."
B Boy and fan alike say thebest example of this concert cinema verit‚ is when one camera operator films his bathroom break. Including it "showed their sense of humor," Zagar says. "You can hear their music in the background and they're not such egomaniacs that they had to be on the screen the whole time."
Ultimately, "Awesome: I F - - - in' Shot That" stays true to what fans love about the B Boys - the group's preferred abbreviation, by the way - and shows what's kept them relevant throughout a 20-year career.
"It's to their credit that at this stage of their career, they're still trying to do stuff that hasn't been done before," says Blender magazine senior editor Steve Kandell. "The weird thing is [the movie is] such a simple idea, it's surprising that no one's done it before, and that's true about a lot of things they do. They're not the first people to rap or add guitars, but they pull it off in a way that makes it seem like you've never heard it before."
Of course, they didn't set out to revolutionize the concert film.
"The purpose of this thing wasn't to go out and make a movie and put it in theaters," Horovitz says. "We were playing at the Garden and we figured we would document it, just to see what would happen and what the fans were doing out there."
"It was more like an experiment to see what we would get back, more than anything else," Diamond adds.
Still, there were doubts as to whether the experiment would yield anything worthwhile.
"It was a possibility that it wouldn't work out, but since we gave cameras out to the audience, we didn't have too much invested in it," Yauch says. "We'd be out some money and it would be a bit of a pain in the neck, but we wouldn't be in too deep. We could bury the footage and swallow the loss."
But, "we do have some hedgefund people who are really banking on this," he jokes.
Fortunately, the footagethey got back was more than interesting enough for a feature film release, let alone the DVD they'd originally planned to put out. But to the B Boys' dismay, they didn't get anything too hot to handle - revealing bathroom sojourn aside.
"I hoped for a little more raunch," says a disappointed Horovitz. "I would have liked to see a little more sleaze, a little more gross behavior."
"You wanted the guy passed out in the food court," Yauch says.
"Yeah, that kind of thing, I like sleaze," Horovitz says. "I'm not necessarily sleazy, but I appreciate some sleaze. Mike, if you had a camera what would be the sleaziest thing you would have done with it?"
"I could have gotten hella sleazy - I would have taken the camera and rubbed it all up on my chest," Diamond says, to the communal mirth of his band mates.
The one thing that the B Boys wish they had planned for, though, was to get footage of their fans before and after the concert.
"We should have done it more like 'Spellbound' [the spelling bee documentary]," Yauch says. "Done more about the fans' back-story, had them talking about going to the concert, its importance to them."
Also, "there's one shot in the movie, during 'Time To Get Ill,' where the guy screams the chorus into his girlfriend's ear as loud as he can. I wish we'd had that couple after the show, had them talking about, like 'Why'd you scream that into my ear?' "
"That would have been really good. We blew it," Horovitz jokes.
Still, the simple brilliance of the fan footage and the success of the experiment - at Sundance, the film got a great reception - has already spawned an imitator. Coldplay recently had five fans film a Toronto show for a DVD.
But, as Blender's Kandell sagely points out, "forget about the fact that it's not their idea and it's already been done well. Do you really care what the crowd of a Coldplay show looks like?
"The Beastie Boys audience is so diverse, seeing them at the Garden - catching them in their own environment with their fans - you can tell it's everyone from every conceivable area in New York," Kandell adds. "It sounds a little trite, but it's hard to imagine any other band that would have a broad enough appeal where the crowd itself could potentially be as interesting as the band onstage."
When The Post asked the B Boys if they are the only band that could pull this type of concert film off, the guys are quick to say no - and offer up their own suggestions.
"Wu Tang would be a good group to do it," says Horovitz.
"I'd see this as a vehicle for Nick Lachey," Diamond adds. "Or Liza Minnelli. I'd like to see what her fans are like."
maxine.shen@nypost.com