Subject:	McCartney's "Good Evening New York City" DVD/CD set
Posted by:	Beatlescollector on 11/5/09 9:05 AM
As I was afraid, once again, Paul's chosen to produce his live concert videos with mind-numbing camera angles and edits. If you haven't seen it yet, he's offering a free download of the video of the song "Highway" from the upcoming "Good Evening New York City" live concert CD and DVD (there's also a free MP3 of the song "Let Me Roll It" - another song we have enough live versions of already). So, I took the time to watch the video clip of the song to count how many different camera edits there were during the song. Mind you, the song clocks in at 3:47 seconds. So, take guess at how many different camera edits I counted on this song... Try 106. Yes, that's 106 different camera edits in just 3 minutes and 47 seconds. That's a different camera angle, on average, every 2.14 seconds!! To make matters worse, 75% of all of the camera edits are shot by MOVING cameras!! (And one camera angle that appears several times during the song is shot from a cheap handheld camera from the back of the audience!). The only good news (a minor consolation) is that there's very few - perhaps 3 to 4 - shots of crowds. For the most part, the camera is at least facing the band (unlike some of his other concert films where the camera is pointed at the crowd for 30% of all the shots). If the rest of the DVD is like this, it will be yet another unwatchable DVD --- his last two concert DVDs literally give me a headache after 20-30 minutes of watching them. The rapid-fire edits from so many camera angles make it almost unwatchable for more than 30 minutes. I was really hoping just maybe this time Paul would have finally been enlightened by watching "The Concert for George" concert DVD and realize - for the first time - what a concert DVD should look like when it's shot by people who know how to shoot/edit concert videos for serious fans that truly want to be able to see the stage show as if they were there. (And not have each song edited like an MTV commercial with hundreds of edits and dizzying camera angles). Unfortunately, I'm not very encouraged by this initial clip that he's released. If you haven't received his email offering the free clip download, go to his website www.paulmccartney.com and sign up for it. I'd love to know if anyone else agrees with my review. Rod
[Posted by butchercoverguy on 12/6/09 12:13 AM] Not to mention that he also autotuned most of the songs on the album (basically Paul's engineer used digital effects on his voice to keep him in tune, but the problem with this is that Paul comes out sounding somewhat like a robot!).
[Posted by Cornflake on 2/9/10 4:10 PM] That was the whole point, man. At that concert, Paul handed out small video cameras to select members of the audience and asked them to film the concert from their own points of view and turn the cameras in after the show. The numerous camera angles are the result of combining the various audience videos of the event. I think this technique was interesting. It was used throughout the DVD and provides some different points of view instead of the same old, tired live-in-concert videos. Just my feelings.