ThePhoenix.com: So you mean the people in the stadium see that?
Adam Yauch: I mean, they wouldn’t see the elevator part, but they would see when we came out and started the song. It would come up on big screens on the stage, and it does, even in this concert it did.
ThePhoenix.com: So things like that really do convey, then, the immediacy of the experience in an unusual way. There’s a lot of filtering, a lot of digital effects, a lot of elaborate editing, a lot of use of color. How do you think about using video when you do effects like that?
Adam Yauch: Well, part of it, in terms of the editing, part of it is to capture some of the feel of the music, some of the structure of the music. Like using beats to cut a lot, and also, a lot of times, finding different parts of the song. Like maybe cutting one way for a verse and one way for a chorus, or trying to get different feels like that. And in terms of texture stuff, too, like different black and white textures or the color stuff, some of it is just to make it interesting. Because I feel like, you’ve watched it for awhile and how do we make it interesting to watch again, so we played around with some of the effects stuff. But some of it, it’s partly also that it just goes with the sounds, sort of like the feel of some of the songs. Like “Gratitude,” somehow, I just feel like using those colors kind of works with the sounds, with the fuzz bass or whatever.
ThePhoenix.com: It’s very intuitive.
Adam Yauch: Yeah, just whatever feels right. Just experiment. I mean it’s very similar to the way I like to work on music videos, or we work on music. We just kinda play around with stuff, and if it sounds right and looks right, then that’s good.
ThePhoenix.com: Are there other concert films, not by you, that you’ve seen, and that you like a lot that might have influenced your approach?
Adam Yauch: Not really. You know, I always like the Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii movie a lot, but I don’t know that it really influences this film. In fact, this film is probably the polar opposite of that one. But I always liked it.
ThePhoenix.com: What’d you like about that one?
Adam Yauch: Well the Pink Floyd one, it has no audience in it. Or maybe you can imagine that the audience is ghosts. I don’t know. And the camera movement is very deliberate, very slow. And the editing is slow to non-existent, like it will just let a shot play for five minutes. As long as the roll of film probably rolls. Or sometimes they do some cutting with the beat that’s interesting.
ThePhoenix.com: Are you interested in an alternate career as a filmmaker, as well as being a musician?
