What's up with the 4-speaker playback in the "control room" at Apple?

Teacher's Pet wrote: Tue Dec 07, 2021 10:48 am What's up with the 4-speaker playback in the "control room" at Apple?

Yeah. It's weird. Someone even quips, "But you've only got two ears!".

pure l wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 2:11 pm
Don't get me wrong. I love the interplay, the goofing around, the serious moments, (and yeah, Linda Eastman was FINE!) but there's simply too much oddity happening with the "make it look like this video footage is happening under that audio footage" situation. I guess at that point I don't quite trust that what was actually happening is really being played-back in such a way as to honestly reflect what was really happening. Minor quibble, I guess, but if it's not 100% real then it's just not real. It's a crafted soap opera. Or a weird take on a reality show that happened years before reality shows. I half expected a VR Princess Leia to waltz in so Disney could claim that the Beatles came up with an idea about space travel or something. I'm sure this is coming at some point though. welp.

Totally get this, and FWIW this seems worse/more noticeable w/ the Twickenham footage than when they moved to Apple when George comes back. I could kind of role with the not direct audio/visual match up as it's pretty much what a lot of doc/verite concert and live footage looks like from the era.

Not trolly question though: do you have motion control/smoothing activated on your TV? If so, I could see that making it look MUCH worse.

tallchris wrote: Tue Dec 07, 2021 12:32 pm

pure l wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 2:11 pm
Don't get me wrong. I love the interplay, the goofing around, the serious moments, (and yeah, Linda Eastman was FINE!) but there's simply too much oddity happening with the "make it look like this video footage is happening under that audio footage" situation. I guess at that point I don't quite trust that what was actually happening is really being played-back in such a way as to honestly reflect what was really happening. Minor quibble, I guess, but if it's not 100% real then it's just not real. It's a crafted soap opera. Or a weird take on a reality show that happened years before reality shows. I half expected a VR Princess Leia to waltz in so Disney could claim that the Beatles came up with an idea about space travel or something. I'm sure this is coming at some point though. welp.

Totally get this, and FWIW this seems worse/more noticeable w/ the Twickenham footage than when they moved to Apple when George comes back. I could kind of role with the not direct audio/visual match up as it's pretty much what a lot of doc/verite concert and live footage looks like from the era.

Not trolly question though: do you have motion control/smoothing activated on your TV? If so, I could see that making it look MUCH worse.

I'm actually kinda looking forward to the next couple episodes (if only to be done with it ). Someone else mentioned the same thing about things getting a bit better when George comes back. Do they show them actually recording stuff later? I have some Beatles recording book that gets into tons of detail about how each song was recorded, etc. It's pretty bitchin. I guess the next money grab will be someone pulling up the tapes and doing some youtube videos about how stuff was recorded? I could get into that though.

I finally finished it. I'm a super fan, but I couldn't do a whole episode in one sitting. That said, I enjoyed the deep dive.

One major quibble:
"Get Back" is really the title track of this production. It's a fair McCartney tune. I never loved it, but it's okay. When they hit it again with Billy Preston it gets exciting. When they have their surreal roof moment and cut into it, it's also exciting. But then you have to hear it 3-4 more times in each situation. It gets tiresome.

Also the roof thing was supposed to be their triumph after a terrible grind, and in some ways it was. But I couldn't escape the fact that they labored most of the day for several weeks and all they could bust out from the rooftop was 4-5 songs. I'll accept they were repeating them for takes, but it felt a little like "Well, this is all we have."

Wasn't keen enough to watch without FFWing a bit in part 1 and 2. Wouldn't suggest it be edited down or anything. The Twickenham stuff made me really uncomfortable -- just seemed like a nightmare context for writing music. Giant, cold, empty sound stage with a bunch of non-musicians hanging around everywhere and movie cameras rolling on them. Couldn't wait for them to get out of that space.

Interview with Jackson:

As a foursome, they all make an incredible unit of four people. Ringo is the least emotionally involved in it all, but he’s the glue that holds it together. He’s got to be there (on his drum riser). He doesn’t know what George and John or Paul are going to play next. They don’t have any plan. They suddenly just launch into some song, and he’s got to be right there, so he doesn’t get to relax at all. They can goof off and do stuff, but as soon as they start (playing), he’s got to be there. I feel sorry for Ringo. He’s got to be focused and concentrate the entire time. He doesn’t look like he’s having a great deal of fun most of the time, but because he’s got to perform. He’s the heartbeat of the group, and he’s such a great drummer. The Beatles are the Beatles. They’re not John Lennon and the Beatles or Paul McCartney and the Beatles. They’re the Beatles of the four guys as a unit. That’s what I think people will take away from this. It’s not that ‘John was the genius’ thing, or the ‘Paul was a genius’ thing, or ‘George was underrated.’ All the stories that you read, sure, you can spin it like that, but what people will take away is the Beatles were, and always have been the unit of four guys all supporting each other, all liking each other, and having this affection for each other. They’ve got each other’s backs every step of the way.

https://variety.com/video/peter-jackson ... s-secrets/

Do you think the newspapers will stop posting daily updates on the Beatles any time soon? This must be the biggest wave of Beatlemania since the 1990s.

Hey Beatles Mystery Detectives...The above video conclusively confirms that at least one John Lennon song is about taking a dump. The only question is... which one?

Johnny Doglands wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 12:26 am

Hey Beatles Mystery Detectives...The above video conclusively confirms that at least one John Lennon song is about taking a dump. The only question is... which one?

lennon wrote:a soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the national trust.

it’s true. Look it up.

El Protoolio wrote: Mon Dec 06, 2021 6:52 pm It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen.

I finally saw the whole thing and I think it sucked.

First of all, I don't think it added anything to Let It Be, except more. More bad takes of songs, more petty bickering, more bored Beatles goofing off. It's fine as warts and all bonus material for the completists, but if there was something new here, I couldn't find it. As John Lennon reflected on getting Phil Spector to knock together the album. "He was given the shittiest load of badly-recorded shit with a lousy feeling to it ever, and he made something of it."...which is what the original film also did with the crap footage.

Secondly, isn't Peter Jackson supposed to be a big deal or something? His editing decisions are just corny and felt like an iMovie algorithm, and things like using a White Flash transition when anybody is taking photos is SUPER FUCKING AMATUERISH, especially when the CAMERA CLEARLY DOESN'T HAVE A FUCKING FLASH!

Thirdly fuck you for ruining the only redeeming part of this whole exercise, which is the Beatles coming alive on the roof and actually delivering after 6 miserable hours on the promise of playing live. They sound great on the cuts that made the record, but not only do I have to listen to all the duff takes, but you decide you need to show every single camera in a miserable split screen instead of showing us the vital performance we've been waiting for. Oh no, there is an overly polite bobby in the lobby. Oh dear, they woke a comical old lady up from her sleep. Lets cut away from the performance and show this crap instead.

Interesting aside...it's not at all unlikely that the whole roof idea was stolen from Godard and DA Pennebaker's "1PM" which has Jefferson Airplane in a very similar set up, though a tad more confrontational "New York....WAKE UP YOU FUCKERS!" It's no wonder they only got through one song.