Shine A Light - The Rolling Stones

[Jeff Wexler]

I just watched the trailer for "Shine A Light" the Martin Scorsese Rolling Stones movie --- it looks amazing! Everybody is really OLD (including Marty).

see it here:  http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_vantage/shinealight/medium.html

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

[old school]

Wow. Can't wait to see it. Just hope the film is as good as the trailer.

CrewC

[Bash]

I just lost a long post that I tried to send in about working on Rolling Stones at the Max. The system timed out whilst I wrote it.

Will try to rewrite it tomorrow when it is not midnight!!

sb

[Bash]

Oh I'll write it anyway.

I worked on Rolling Stones at the Max 17 years ago.

We ghad a huge meetingg to talk about the comms and TC and guide trax. During the meeting they asked if I could make all the comms wireless, but with local private lines at each camera posi for grip and operators to talk amongst themselves. I said it could be done, but would be very expensive. They answered - we didnt ask how much it would cost, just if you can do it. We did it, at great expense.

I did sound for some vox pops - the dop was one . . . . Haskell Wexler - what a nice guy. The camera was so heavy that we employed two local soldiers to stand either side of the 'handheld' camera - Haskell looked through and kind of aimed it at the punters.

Our portakabin for tech gear was very hot, so whilst opening the window I met the girl from the portakabin next door - turns out she was Ronnie's private chef, and that her job was to cook 3 x Shepherds Pies every day for Ronnie to eat if he wanted one. About an hour later a knock on the window. 'Ronnie missed lunch so do you want his pie?.

I shared it with my crew with huge grins on our faces. We ate Ronnie's lunch!!

Kindest regards, and sorry for the short versions above. I am bushed!!

Simon B

[Bash]

apologies, it is late here.

That should have explained that the soldiers were holding up the camera, and Haskell looked through and aimed it!!

a very tired sb

[Marc Wielage]

I was surprised that, going by the trailers, it seemed that Scorcese was always concerned that Mick and the boys were going to change the set list. (This is a recurring theme in the trailers, both on radio and TV.)

But in the real show, there was a handwritten list of the 20+ songs they did on the two shows, stuck up on gaffer tape right by Charlie Watts' drum kit. Every so often, Mick would take a break to grab a drink of water, and would check out the list to remind him of what the next song would be. Shots of the list are in the film (if you know where to look for them).

With 23 cameras rolling, they couldn't afford to be "surprised" by a last-minute song change. Still a pretty decent concert movie. Editor David Tedeschi did a Herculean job of sifting through about a million feet of film and tape to put this thing together. I'm curious to see how the IMAX presentation will hold up, given that most of it was shot on 3-perf 35mm.

[Marc Wielage]

And just to update this post: Rolling Stone features interviews with the Stones and Scorcese in this month's issue as the cover story. Fascinating article, no B.S., all very true and real (from everything I know).

The biggest surprise from me in watching about 200 hours of this footage is that it's clear the boys really enjoy performing on stage, and there was zero fighting or attitude (at least while the cameras were rolling). It's clear that they're not doing this for the money anymore; it may sound corny, but you get the strong feeling they really love the performing and the camaraderie.