AGI – Anticipation is building for the release of the official video clip for “Now And Then,” the Beatles’ latest song. The release is scheduled for Friday November 3rd at 3:00 p.m. (Italian time) on the official Beatles YouTube channel, directed by Peter Jackson, who made his debut behind the camera of a music video. The heartwarming and funny music video invites viewers to join John, Paul, George and Ringo in celebrating the group’s timeless and enduring love for one another as they create the Baronets’ latest song.
Jackson and the “Terror of Disappointing Everyone”
“When Apple asked me to direct the music video, I was hesitant – I thought my next few months would be a lot more fun if this difficult task was someone else’s job and I could be like any other Beatles fan, who enjoys the evening before.” Release of a new Beatles song and video. In 1995, I loved the childlike excitement I felt when Free As A Bird came out. “I could do it all again – if only I had said no to the Beatles,” he said Peter Jacksonwho added: “To be honest, all I’m thinking about is the responsibility of having to make a music video worthy of the band’s latest song.” Beatles It has brought up a range of fears that may be too overwhelming to handle. My lifelong love of the Beatles was met with pure horror at the thought of disappointing everyone. This caused a lot of insecurity in me because I had never made a music video before and couldn’t imagine how I could even begin to make one for a band that had broken up over 50 years ago and had never done the song had sung life and in which half of its members were no longer with us. It was much easier to run away.
“I just needed some time to find a good reason to say no to The Beatles, so I never agreed to do the music video for Now And Then (in fact, to this day I never have to). – continues the director – I told Apple that the lack of suitable footage worried me. We should have used a lot of rare and unreleased footage, but there’s very little… There didn’t seem to be anything that showed Paul, George and Ringo working on Now And Then in 1995… There’s not a lot of footage by John in the mid-seventies when he wrote the demo… I lamented the lack of unreleased footage of the Beatles from the sixties… And last year they didn’t even shoot any footage of Paul and Ringo working on the song.
“Every recording had to be authentic”
“A Beatles music video needs to have great footage of the Beatles at its core. You can’t use CGI actors or Beatles. Every Beatles recording had to be authentic. Until then, I had no idea how to make a Beatles music video.” . Every now and then, when you didn’t have decent footage to work with, and that was by no means a trivial excuse. My fear and insecurity now had more than valid reasons to take over and allowed me to say no without leaving an impression. I knew The Beatles wouldn’t take no for an answer when they had a project in mind, but they didn’t even wait for me to say no! I found myself drawn to them as they quickly addressed my concerns. Paul And Ringo They took some recordings of their performance and sent them to me. There Apple I dug up over 14 hours of long-forgotten footage from the 1995 recording sessions, including several hours of Paul, George and Ringo working on Now And Then, and gave it all away. Sean and Olivia found some previously unpublished videos and sent them to me. To top it off, Pete Best kindly provided me with a few precious seconds of the Beatles’ performance in their leather suits, the earliest known footage of the Beatles, never before shown.”
“When I saw these videos, the situation changed completely – I could now see how you could make a music video. In fact, I found it easier if I thought of it as if I was making a short film, so that’s what I did… my lack of confidence “Music videos wouldn’t matter anymore if I didn’t make one. “Still, I still didn’t have a concrete idea of what this short film should look like, so I took inspiration from the song,” he explains after the breakup. With John’s voice from the demo over a year ago, Giles had a first mix of Now And Then produced. He sent it to me in 2022. I really liked it. I’ve been listening to it ever since Now and then more than 50 times, just for pure pleasure. So I started listening to the song carefully for various reasons. I hoped that the ideas and inspiration for the short film would somehow emerge from the music. And that started to happen. As I continued to listen, it seemed to me that the song was generating ideas and images that popped into my head without any conscious effort on my part.
© Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP
The Beatles statue in Liverpool
“I worked with Jabez Olssenmy editor of come backto understand how the new footage could be used to support these vague ideas. It was a very organic process and we slowly started building little pieces, allowing images and music to flow in different ways until it all came together. We wanted the short film to shed a few tears, but creating emotion using only archival footage is a difficult thing. Luckily, the sheer power of this beautiful piece did most of the work for us and we quickly finished the first 30 to 40 seconds of the film. Once that was done, we went straight to the finale, trying to create something that could adequately encapsulate The Beatles’ vast legacy – in the final seconds of their final recording. This proved impossible. Her contribution to the world is too great and her wonderful gift of music has become part of our DNA and almost unspeakable.
“I realized that we needed every viewer’s imagination to do what we couldn’t, and that every viewer had to create their own farewell to The Beatles – but we had to gently guide everyone into that moment. I had some vague ideas, but I did this. I don’t know how to do them. – explained Peter Jackson – Fortunately, we found in the vault a collection of unreleased footage in which the Beatles are relaxed, funny and quite open. This became the cornerstone of our central section and we captured moments of humor in some footage from 2023. The result is pretty crazy and gave the video the newfound balance between sadness and fun. The video was finally completed after WētāFX completed some simple but tricky VFX shots. Honestly, we hope we’ve given The Beatles a fitting farewell, something you’ll have to decide for yourself when the video is finally released in a few days. As I’ve reached the end, I’m very happy not to have to wait for the release of the Now And Then music video, which was directed by someone else. I am really proud of what we have achieved and will continue to appreciate it in the years to come. A big thank you to Apple Corps and the Fabs for giving me the support I needed and not letting me down.”
The video clip follows the release of “Now And Then”, the final Beatles song, written and sung by John Lennon, engineered and edited by Paul McCartneyGeorge Harrison and Ringo Starr and now finally completed over four decades later by Paul and Ringo.
“Now And Then” will be released simultaneously worldwide on Thursday, November 2nd at 3:00 p.m. (Italian time) via Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. The single’s double A-side connects the Beatles’ last song with their first: the band’s 1962 British debut single, “Love Me Do,” completes the circle perfectly. Both songs were mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos®, while the original cover art was created by renowned artist Ed Ruscha.
The documentation
A documentation The 12-minute “Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song,” written and directed by Oliver Murray, will premiere on November 1st. It will also be uploaded to the Beatles’ official YouTube channel at 8:30 p.m. (Italian time). The touching short film tells the story behind the latest song by Beatles, through exclusive video footage and commentary from Paul, Ringo, George, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson. The trailer is available here: Link
The documentary “Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song” can be viewed on the Beatles’ official YouTube profile.
On November 10th, the Beatles collections 1962-1966 (“The Red Album”) and 1967-1970 (“The Blue Album”) will be released in new 2023 editions via Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe. Since their release 50 years ago, these albums have introduced the music of the Beatles to subsequent generations. Now the tracklists of both collections have been expanded, with all songs mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos. 4 new CDs and a 180 gram 6LP vinyl collection join “Red” and “Blue” in a collector’s box. The UK version of the single “Love Me Do” begins in 1962-1966 (2023 edition), while “Now And Then” is included in 1967-1970 (2023 edition) to complete the collections that comprise their entire Cover career.
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