Peter Jackson, the acclaimed film director of the critically lauded Beatles documentary Get Back will be the featured guest on Robert Rodriguez’s Something About The Beatles podcast. The director had been a fan of the podcast and he himself tracked down Rodriguez for a special three-hour conversation covering Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s goldmine of footage and the information that still could not fit in the new series’ nearly 8-hour runtime. Along for the chat is guest co-host Dan Rivkin of the They May Be Parted blog, which examines the Let It Be project in detail.
Rodriguez has broken the conversation down into three episodes (in the best Peter Jackson tradition), of an hour apiece. The second episode dropped on Monday December 13; the final installment arrives on December 19th. (Peter has indicated an interest in returning to the show, possibly even bringing a special guest along).
In episode one, Jackson reveals that a Blu-Ray is coming, in 2022 at the soonest, and that it will be all of the nearly 8-hour cut. He also defends Michael Lindsay-Hogg throughout, pointing out that the 2021 work people are admiring so much now was possible only because of the work that Lindsay-Hogg captured back in 1969.
Jackson describes how The Beatles were initially self-conscious before the cameras, and how they eventually let their guard down. Jackson describes Lindsay-Hogg’s technique of covering up a camera's power light to trick the group into believing they weren't being filmed, therein capturing priceless moments
In episode two, Peter discusses at length the technical challenge of taking previously believed worthless footage or tape and, through AI, suddenly revealing conversation buried beneath the noise and cross chatter. Nowhere is this more evident than in the moment after George quits when John and Paul have a frank, serious discussion, believing that what they're saying is private. The surreptitiously taped discussion was long believed to be frustratingly inaudible underneath the sounds of clattering silverware and ambient noise. With Peter's innovative use of technology, this Holy Grail of moments suddenly came to light.
Episode three wraps up with a discussion of how, despite how these sessions were described by the participants after the fact, their friendship was intact. He also discusses the intent behind the sneak peek reel, and how it wasn't intended to give the feel of the full piece doc. Lastly, Jackson notes a number of moments that were necessarily cut from the doc and how he's keeping track of them, in case an extended cut opportunity comes his way.
