Four Hours with Peter Jackson on Things We Said Today

[kieranjames]

Amazing. Many thanks!

[WilliamShears]

Great story by PJ at around the 1:45 mark about how the film went from 6 hours to 8...

Basically at some point after the press release was issued stating 6 hours his team had a discussion with Disney about wanting to plan for an extended edition for DVD/BR while they were in the overall editing process. Disney rejected it saying something like 'no one wants extended editions anymore.' So, PJs team recut the film trying to get as much of the interesting stuff in, assuming no extended edition. When they eventually turned in ~8 hours to Disney/Apple, no one said a thing about it!

Listening to PJ discuss the project, it's clear we got very lucky to have him where he's at.

[malomojo]

Great story by PJ at around the 1:45 mark about how the film went from 6 hours to 8...

Basically at some point after the press release was issued stating 6 hours his team had a discussion with Disney about wanting to plan for an extended edition for DVD/BR while they were in the overall editing process. Disney rejected it saying something like 'no one wants extended editions anymore.' So, PJs team recut the film trying to get as much of the interesting stuff in, assuming no extended edition. When they eventually turned in ~8 hours to Disney/Apple, no one said a thing about it!

Listening to PJ discuss the project, it's clear we got very lucky to have him where he's at.

Well, said. I had stayed up ultra late last night listening to this. And, it was that point I literally cheered him on doing what he did. And, if you notice. When, he said what Disney said about extended versions. One of the presenters literally had his face buried in his hands as if to say "Are you f*cking kidding me?" LOL I have a new found respect for Peter Jackson after seeing this. Not to mention how humble he is to be granting all of these interviews to podcasts, and Beatle communities about this film. As, if he is a fan just like us, and wants to see this get top of the line treatment as a fan. you are right. We really did get lucky.

[ashwom1]

My thoughts exactly, Peter Jackson is 100% the right man for this job. I don't think I've ever listened to a more informative interview from someone who has worked with/for the Beatles. I knew he was a fan (and bootleg collector) and surmised on another site that Jackson was a fan of the Sweet Apple Trax (Black Album) bootleg just from some of the clips and comments made in the promotional material for 'Get Back' and this new interview confirms that he absolutely is.

You get Peter saying well I had to include 'Commonwealth' and the 'No Pakistanis' version of 'Get Back' but I had to show context. By contrast Giles Martin was referring to one track on that bootleg as 'Mrs Parker' for goodness sake!

I'm praying that with his newly developed MAL software he's managed to bring out George's vocals on Ramblin Woman/ Mama You Been On My Mind / I Threw It All Away, one of my very favourite segments of the Nagra tapes.

Interesting though that Jackson says there was no dialogue between himself, John Harris writing the Get Back book, and Giles Martin making the Let It Be box set about what had to be included. This kind of debunks a lot of the comments Giles has made about not including such and such because it works better on film (the rooftop being the prime example).

As WilliamShears has already said, the part where Peter says that when he found out Disney had no appetite for an extended blu-ray edition he went back and inserted another two hours into the finished film without telling them because he couldn't bear for the footage to sit unseen on a shelf for another 50 years... and it got signed off by everyone without comment (!)...... this is precisely the sort of fan we've always wished could work on the Beatles archive instead of your Giles Martins, Ron Howards etc. I can't wait.

Thank you to everyone involved behind TWST. As a promotional piece for 'Get Back' it's head and shoulders above everything else.

[Rickenbacker325]

My thoughts exactly, Peter Jackson is 100% the right man for this job. I don't think I've ever listened to a more informative interview from someone who has worked with/for the Beatles. I knew he was a fan (and bootleg collector) and surmised on another site that Jackson was a fan of the Sweet Apple Trax (Black Album) bootleg just from some of the clips and comments made in the promotional material for 'Get Back' and this new interview confirms that he absolutely is.

You get Peter saying well I had to include 'Commonwealth' and the 'No Pakistanis' version of 'Get Back' but I had to show context. By contrast Giles Martin was referring to one track on that bootleg as 'Mrs Parker' for goodness sake!

I'm praying that with his newly developed MAL software he's managed to bring out George's vocals on Ramblin Woman/ Mama You Been On My Mind / I Threw It All Away, one of my very favourite segments of the Nagra tapes.

Interesting though that Jackson says there was no dialogue between himself, John Harris writing the Get Back book, and Giles Martin making the Let It Be box set about what had to be included. This kind of debunks a lot of the comments Giles has made about not including such and such because it works better on film (the rooftop being the prime example).

As WilliamShears has already said, the part where Peter says that when he found out Disney had no appetite for an extended blu-ray edition he went back and inserted another two hours into the finished film without telling them because he couldn't bear for the footage to sit unseen on a shelf for another 50 years... and it got signed off by everyone without comment (!)...... this is precisely the sort of fan we've always wished could work on the Beatles archive instead of your Giles Martins, Ron Howards etc. I can't wait.


Thank you to everyone involved behind TWST. As a promotional piece for 'Get Back' it's head and shoulders above everything else.

Somebody finally said it besides me! Well put sir

[mikec]

I don't normally promote my podcast (Things We Said Today) here, but this week we had Peter Jackson as a guest, and he provides a lot of great information - as well as two clips demonstrating MAL, the new AI-based demixing software his company is using. Astonishing -- instruments and voices separated with no artefacts, no faint sounds of the stuff that was eliminated, etc. He also shows us video, from his iPad, of the film and soundtrack material as he received them.

Strangely, he approached us rather than the more usual other way around. And he said, no time limit -- and spoke to us for four hours. Anyway, here's the episode description and the link:

In Episode 355 of Things We Said Today, Ken Michaels, Allan Kozinn and Darren DeVivo interview Peter Jackson, the director of “The Beatles: Get Back” – the most anticipated Beatles project since “The Beatles Anthology,” in 1995. Mr. Jackson is also, of course, the director of the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies, and the extraordinary World War I documentary, “They Shall Not Grow Old.” And true to form, the master of film epics spent no less than FOUR HOURS with us. Included is lots of new information about the film and the techniques Mr. Jackson used to make it – including demonstrations of his new AI-based audio system (MAL), which goes far beyond spectral technology in separating layers of sound within a mono recording. Lots of talk as well about the Nagra tapes, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the power dynamic within the Beatles during the making of “Let It Be,” and other topics – and a number of mysteries Mr. Jackson still wants to get to the bottom of.

Enjoying it so much, however there is a cut at 1:02:55 and you did a quick cross-fade after Peter was talking about a special packaging he would like to be released with both GB and LIB , so did you guys cut something "exclusive" Peter told that maybe it's not supposed to be told yet? or I came up late and you already did an edited/shorten version?

[Tex]

When PJ was talking about the upright piano in the February 1969 session photos I'm surprised no one thought it could have been for "Old Brown Shoe".

[zaval80]

A big mystery for Peter is what was in the Savile Row control room and when, what and how much of Magic Alex' work was put there, where it went, and what happened there after the portable EMI equipment was moved out. He goes on to mention about the building later having been condemned as unsafe; the photo of the front door on Ringo's "Rotogravure" LP showing the building boarded up and graffiti-ed. But he wasn't sure when that happened. This interests me, too, so I've started reading up on it. Let's see if we can get a clearer understanding of what went on. My primary source of information right now is Geoff Emerick's book. "Here, There And Everywhere."

Isn't Stefan Granados book on Apple (the latest "2.0" edition) a better source on this, at least the demolition part?

[mojofilter]

Isn't Stefan Granados book on Apple (the latest "2.0" edition) a better source on this, at least the demolition part?

I'm sorry, I can't answer your question. I've never heard of the author or his book.

[zaval80]

Isn't Stefan Granados book on Apple (the latest "2.0" edition) a better source on this, at least the demolition part?

I'm sorry, I can't answer your question. I've never heard of the author or his book.

I have the first edition from 2000 and look forward to getting this one. Granados has interviewed a lot of people who were involved with Apple. The book is full of hilarious stories like the one about an enterprising employee who managed to steal the lead from the roof (a popular crime in London back then) and to carry it all out of the offices. Of course, the Magic Alex stories are there, too.