haven\'t read all of it yet, but this is what chris, matt mark and myself have been doing (on a
MUCH smaller scale)
http://www.apple.com/pro/video/pearljam/Pearl Jam
Making Videos on Their Own Terms
By Bija Gutoff
“Pearl Jam has always done things its own way,” says band manager Kelly Curtis, “and always made the experience of its fans the first priority.” Known as the anti-mainstream founders of grunge, the Seattle-based band has been honing its alternative edge since 1990. Labels (most recently Sony) and lawsuits (most famously TicketMaster) have come and gone, while Pearl Jam has hung tight to the gritty independence of its hard-rocking voice.
Pearl Jam — Jeff Ament (bass), Matt Cameron (drums), Stone Gossard (guitar), Mike McCready (guitar) and Eddie Vedder (vocals/guitar) — bristles at any and all attempts at corporate control. The band has resisted most publicity, encouraged concert bootlegs, kept ticket prices low, generously supported charities, spoken out politically, and shunned the music business machine.
“They’re very protective of what gets put out for mass consumption,” says video editor Steve Gordon. “And with things visual, Pearl Jam has never been interested in getting the big machine to do it.” That’s why the very small Apple machine — mini-DVcams with Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro and ProTools on Power Macs and PowerBooks — has this eminently indie group embracing video with enthusiasm.
Miles of Material
For years the band filmed nearly every show; they had miles of material but no way to use it. “I was archiving footage and hoping that one day we’d be able to do something with it,” says videographer Kevin Shuss, “without having to go to some huge Avid post-production house and spend a ton of money importing footage and syncing up audio.”
“I don’t know that there would be three Pearl Jam DVDs if not for this type of technology. It allows people to do on their own what they were previously forced to hire from experts.”
Then a few crew members got their hands on Apple and DV technologies, and before long Pearl Jam was making its own music videos. “With Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro,” says Shuss, “we’ve created three DVDs presenting Pearl Jam in concert, in a way that the band is happy to release to the public. These programs make it possible for a small group of filmmakers to put together a professional quality product.”
According to Curtis, “I don’t know that there would be three Pearl Jam DVDs if not for this type of technology. It allows people to do on their own what they were previously forced to hire from experts.”
No Pyrotechnics
Experts wouldn’t be welcome on a Pearl Jam stage. “They really believe in the purity of their music,” explains Gordon. “That’s why they don’t tour with 15 trucks full of scenery and pyrotechnics. It’s just the band and the lights. They keep it very simple because they want it to be about the music and the people. So having guys swarming the set, with camera cranes swooping and cables trailing, doesn’t really suit their style.”
No such compromises are required. “We use small, three-chip camcorders and film mostly in a handheld style,” says Shuss. “And three of us can capture every concert without using huge crews and all the stuff that would get in the way of the real show: the music.” Adds Gordon, “The tools we’re using felt good to the band. They can get a visual record of the show without corrupting the experience for themselves or the audience.”
As importantly, the home team is running the show. “This technology allowed our crew members to add to their already full plates,” says Curtis, “making three beautiful movies that are reflective of this band and its touring experience.”
Just Our Team
Best of all, says Curtis, “We didn’t have to change a thing. There was no intrusion: it was just our team shooting our team.” For a band so cautious of outside influences, that was critical. “We’re part of the family, people they trust,” says Gordon. “So even though Kevin was our only pro videographer when we started, it worked because the tools are so accessible that anyone can use them.”
When she’s not busy with her regular job as assistant to Curtis, Liz Burns now grabs a DVcam and shoots. “The band didn’t want to have a whole separate film crew,” she relates. “And they didn’t want to have to re-do the lights or stand in a certain place to make it right for the video. They just want to put on a great show and not worry about how they’re appearing. Using DVcams and Apple tools allowed us to be really inconspicuous. We could capture what the band was creating without disrupting the fans or the show.”
“The modular nature of Final Cut Pro gave us a lot more flexibility with post-production,” explains sound engineer Brett Eliason, another member of the core team. “Steve didn’t have to rent an editing suite, so he could work while we were on the road.”
Eliason relates a typical scenario: “I remember one cut Steve edited for the song ‘Bushleaguer.’ I mixed the audio at home and brought the mastered version on a FireWire drive. Then Steve completed the edit on the road. He was able to work with the band during downtime around the shows. Steve brought me a QuickTime movie to import and conform my audio to, then he took my exported audio and created a master for the video — and we did all that after sound check at a venue in Australia.”
Works In Progress
“Using DVD Studio Pro lets us create and edit DVDs on the road too,” says Shuss, “so the band can suggest changes as we go.” Adds Eliason, “Handing a working DVD to the band is a simple and powerful option. It cuts down on communication issues and guesswork. The artist can see and hear the product as it will be packaged for release.”
“Final Cut Pro was an essential piece of the puzzle. We never could have created anything without it. So we started putting together clips and songs and showing them what we could do with Apple technology, and they got really excited.”
Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro form a duo that syncs to the Pearl Jam groove. “We can make a professional product from any environment,” says Gordon “We use them in the office, the warehouse, the dressing room, the bus. Wherever we are, they can ask, ‘Can I see that song from yesterday?’ And I say, ‘Sure, here it is.’ The products are so accessible, and the quality is just great.”
First DVD: “Touring Band”
Pearl Jam’s first in-house DVD, made in 2000, was “Touring Band.” A compilation of highlights from that year’s tour, the DVD includes 28 songs from 15 cities. “It plays like an ideal set list,” says Burns. “People like the format because it’s from all over the country. They say, ‘That’s the show I saw in St. Louis!’”
The project, admits Burns, was a learning experience. “It came together spontaneously,” she recalls. “Sony gave me a videocam and asked me to film a few songs every night so they could put these 30-second clips on their website. Kevin was filming as usual, and Steve, who was then one of the lighting guys, happened to have a camera too.”
“Then the three of us got together with what we’d shot and decided we could create something bigger than those web clips. We knew the band was recording good audio for the concert ‘bootlegs’ they put out, and Steve had a working knowledge of Final Cut Pro. So we did a proposal and pitched it to the band.”
Continues Burns, “They were open to it — and curious! Because they knew in no way were we professional filmmakers. Final Cut Pro was an essential piece of the puzzle. We never could have created anything without it. So we started putting together clips and songs and showing them what we could do with Apple technology, and they got really excited.”
Diving Into DVD
Making concert DVDs complements the band’s philosophy. “Pearl Jam has an open taping policy at shows,” explains Burns. “Fans can bring in a recording device as long as it’s small, with an internal mike. But they felt that by making their own DVD they could offer their fans a ‘bootleg’ with great audio, where they could also see the whole show.”
Fittingly, since the idea was born on the road, much of “Touring Band” was made there too. “When the band told us to go for it, we ripped out the front lounge on the tour bus and set up a second bay for video next to Brett’s ProTools rig,” says Gordon. “We had a rack-mounted Power Mac with Cinema Display. We’d edit while the bus was rolling. When we got back to Seattle, we set up another system in the warehouse to finish it.”
The second music video, “Showbox” — named after the Seattle club where Pearl Jam warmed up for its 2003 world tour — was only slightly more planned than the first. “We found out we’d be filming the day before the show,” laughs Burns.
“But,” she continues, “we had learned a lot since ‘Touring Band.’ We didn’t have any formal communication between the three of us while we were filming. But we did a better job of positioning the cameras strategically. We knew the music really well, and we had learned how the band wants to be seen. So we could plan a little: knowing that Jeff would jump up at this moment like he always does, one of us would go to him on the camera. We figured out how to shoot from our own points of view, so instead of all of us shooting Eddie at the same time, we’d have more variety in the shots.”
Technology had advanced since “Touring Band,” giving the editor more mobility. “This time around we each had PowerBooks, and we had 12 FireWire drives,” says Gordon. “I strung the drives together and put the whole project on mine for editing. The difference from the first project was amazing. We cut all of ‘Showbox’ on a PowerBook.”
“We did some of the work on the bus, and we kept all the equipment in a case,” adds Gordon, “so when we got to an arena we just found an extra dressing room, set up real quick, and spent the afternoon editing.” The road work speeded the final steps. “We were able to get it done really quickly,” says Burns, adding incredulously, “Steve completed the editing in two weeks.”
Third DVD: “Live at the Garden”
Like “Showbox,” “Live at the Garden” depicts a single concert. “We wanted it to feel like the natural pace of a Pearl Jam show,” says Gordon. “So we worked with the audio to find the best timing between the songs.”
“We had seven cameras shooting two tapes each for all 72 shows, so it saved us a lot of time to have the data converted right in the camera.”
Gordon kept sharpening his skills, learning to do color correction in Final Cut Pro. “This time we all had the same brand of camera,” he says, “so the output was better matched. But one of the cameras was over by the soundboard and because of the distance the color didn’t match. So now, instead of having to use an online room, I was able to do my own color correction. That was great, because sitting behind another editor and looking over his shoulder is nothing like doing it yourself in the same program you’ve been using.”
With the right cameras in hand, the editor was also able to shoot in frame mode. “It de-interlaces the signal in the camera,” explains Gordon, “so you get a smoother and more cinematic look. We had seven cameras shooting two tapes each for all 72 shows [a total of 1008 tapes] so it saved us a lot of time to have the data converted right in the camera.”
The team was even able to add bonus features. “Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro were integral to doing the bonuses, like the Easter egg we put on ‘Live at the Garden,’” says Burns. “We wanted to do that on ‘Touring Band,’ but back then we didn’t know how.” They’ve come a long way since they started. While keeping up with their normal duties, editor Steve Gordon, assistant Liz Burns and videographer Kevin Shuss completed all filming and editing, and Brett Eliason handled the sound engineering, for Pearl Jam’s three DVDs.
Batman… Superman… and Pearl Jam
With its music videos as with everything this fiercely independent band does, Pearl Jam is charting its own path. As Eddie Vedder writes for the liner notes of the first video, “What we find most exciting is the non-traditional, almost grassroots way in which it came together. What you are seeing is basically three people from the touring crew who would finish their regular duties by show time, then grab cameras and become a documentary film team. It was all very Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent…”
The regular guy in the superhero outfit: it’s an apt image for a band that has kept its heart pure, battled the big guys — and won.
