Is that you Gio?
I never recognized you so well dressed...
Everyone Stares out in the U.S.
35 posts
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by Mrs. Gradenko on 14 Sep 2006 16:49
Order it off Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Police-Everyone-S ... B000GAKJAA
“...and er, did anyone try just pushing this little red button?”
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Mrs. Gradenko - Posts: 3522
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by Divemistress of the Dark on 15 Sep 2006 04:13
Hey guys, I made a few notes while I watched the official new release of EVERYONE STARES: THE POLICE INSIDE OUT. Full disclosure: every now and then I write a review for a website that does criticism of art and culture, so I may flesh this out into something for publication sometime soon.
I also got a lot more out of the movie the second time around. One could hear the dialogue much more clearly; something was up with IFC during the initial on-air broadcast of the movie. I had to keep sliding the volume knob up and down, and straining to hear...the only negative comments I have are regarding the volume. It was still a little patchy in spots, and if you turn on the new commentary featuring Andy and Stew, the subtitles don't work; leastwise, they didn't for me, but it could be because I am completely retarded and can't handle anything more complicated than a toaster without difficulty. (Yet here I am, living large on the Internet!! D'oh!!)
OK, I as I review my notes, I did have one or two more things in the "CON" column...
* Should the 'commentary' option be in the Setup menu?
* WHY is this thing only $13??? Considering old Police concert videos go for at least $20? The quality of the editing and footage seems to merit a (much) higher price point.
* Sting is a fool for not participating in the commentary track. It would've been soooo great, and the viewer does notice his absence, given his near-constant presence onscreen. At least he didn't kill the project outright, which certainly was within his power to do.
Now for the good stuff:
This movie was built from the ground up, with Copeland having shot the footage, done the edits and produced the soundtrack. It's difficult to imagine "Everyone Stares" without some rough edges, given the handheld rawness of the footage. The presentation of a fully-formed movie is helped along by Photoshop, and there are some fun extras included like a time-compression setting we discover was simply an added feature present on Copeland's movie camera. The look and feel of the finished film lends a punk-rock aesthetic that meshes quite well with the Super 8 quality of the film.
Copeland avoids another obvious pitfall in his creation of the "derangements" that line the soundtrack. The clear temptation would have been to use Police alternate takes and outtakes as the score, but the derangements add another level of handmade artistry that adds extra flavor to Copeland's footage and edits. Also, the commentary track featuring Copeland and bandmate Andy Summers present in the official DVD release deserves its own discussion in any review written in good faith: It adds a whole extra psychological dimension to the film. The banter between Stewart and Andy is well worth the price of admission, and in places it's really endearing. Stewart speculates at length about individual people shown in his footage, from the Japanese girl "pretending to be Mrs. Rock Star," to the woman in the tweed suit standing by as the band boards its limo. It doesn't hurt matters that both guys have especially melodious voices; Stewart has an unusual inflection that's fun to listen to. One wonders if it's a relic from the goulash of countries where he spent his formative years.
It must have been tempting for Copeland to have made a museum piece out of the film and the band. You know, "This is the famed band Police, seller of umpety ump kerbillion gold records and singles, and winner of every award imaginable to humankind." What's refreshing about Copeland's presentation is that nowhere is it mentioned the Police are in the Rock Hall of Fame, or that Copeland and the other Policemen are winners of more Grammies and multiple accolades than you can shake a stick at. What we see here is Miles Copeland channeling Stan Ridgway singing "Every Breath You Take"; live titling on a piece of duct tape taking place in the car; multiple notices of a certain polka dotted shirt; and commentary on the hair of the girls at the record signing. While constructing a movie made up only of these moments would have resulted in a sort of shapeless mass of a feature, ultimately ES:TPIO is made more interesting because these smaller moments are happening within the context of a greater story arc. (The irregular chronology has been a common criticism leveled at the movie; however, Copeland at that time was not involved in professional moviemaking and had a day job. It seems outside of the scope of this project to expect him to have archived every possible moment of the band's career; also, the spirit of the movie would have been hampered had it been reduced to a dogged representation of the timeline.) In resisting the siren call to promote the band as the singularly greatest musical entity of all time, Copeland creates a curiosity - a movie about a band, and with the full participation of all its members and the attendant recording companies, that is not a thinly veiled effort to sell any product other than the good-faith recordings made by these three guys. You really do get the sense that, at this point in time, the fellows were in this for more than money. In showcasing their humanity, Copeland engages the viewer, who ends up caring more about the film and the band because it's so obvious Copeland's heart is in this.
In a way, this film is the only possible response to what must be the very real pressures of rockstardom. Stewart mentions the band's clowning as key to the prevention of going crazy from the weight of public expectations, but it seems that grabbing a camera and firing back might also be a uniquely sane response to feeling like Exhibit A in a sociological experiment. As Copeland states early on in the film, "Everyone Stares" actually is his home movie; but it's also our home movie, and functions in a few different ways. It's a time capsule transporting each of us to where we were when we first heard That Song (in this reviewer's case, it's 1980 and I'm in the back of a Camaro, wondering if "De Do Do Do" has any particular linguistic meaning); it's a charming remembrance of the way things were when rock music was still real, and it's a testament to Stewart and Andy, who might have turned into very different sorts of people having experienced this unusual set of circumstances.
It's obvious that time has been kind to Copeland and Summers. Despite their relative psychological distances from the material it seems to loom ever larger in hindsight, almost as though the men can't believe these events actually happened to them. Rumor has it the next Copeland endeavor may be another film featuring concert footage, but it might be interesting to see what he'd do with a larger narrative. His senses of humor and of perspective make this movie much more than the sum of its parts. We even get a few motifs and other homages to the craft of moviemaking: Sting is transformed via Photoshop into Rio's Christ the Redeemer, and the focus on clothing and hair seem almost John Watersian in their detail - Andy dates each piece of footage based on the jacket he wore, and the guys sport bugeyed sunglasses and winged hats in several scenes.
The danger here might be Copeland's own dismissal of this project as a pastiche of throwaway footage he kept in the closet for a couple of decades, but his skills as a moviemaker are beyond dispute. Here's hoping he finds time - between performing with side project Gizmo, and possibly going into the studio this year with Oysterhead (formed in 2000 along with former Phish frontman Trey Anastasio and bassist Les Claypool) to explore a few more avenues for his craft.
I also got a lot more out of the movie the second time around. One could hear the dialogue much more clearly; something was up with IFC during the initial on-air broadcast of the movie. I had to keep sliding the volume knob up and down, and straining to hear...the only negative comments I have are regarding the volume. It was still a little patchy in spots, and if you turn on the new commentary featuring Andy and Stew, the subtitles don't work; leastwise, they didn't for me, but it could be because I am completely retarded and can't handle anything more complicated than a toaster without difficulty. (Yet here I am, living large on the Internet!! D'oh!!)
OK, I as I review my notes, I did have one or two more things in the "CON" column...
* Should the 'commentary' option be in the Setup menu?
* WHY is this thing only $13??? Considering old Police concert videos go for at least $20? The quality of the editing and footage seems to merit a (much) higher price point.
* Sting is a fool for not participating in the commentary track. It would've been soooo great, and the viewer does notice his absence, given his near-constant presence onscreen. At least he didn't kill the project outright, which certainly was within his power to do.
Now for the good stuff:
This movie was built from the ground up, with Copeland having shot the footage, done the edits and produced the soundtrack. It's difficult to imagine "Everyone Stares" without some rough edges, given the handheld rawness of the footage. The presentation of a fully-formed movie is helped along by Photoshop, and there are some fun extras included like a time-compression setting we discover was simply an added feature present on Copeland's movie camera. The look and feel of the finished film lends a punk-rock aesthetic that meshes quite well with the Super 8 quality of the film.
Copeland avoids another obvious pitfall in his creation of the "derangements" that line the soundtrack. The clear temptation would have been to use Police alternate takes and outtakes as the score, but the derangements add another level of handmade artistry that adds extra flavor to Copeland's footage and edits. Also, the commentary track featuring Copeland and bandmate Andy Summers present in the official DVD release deserves its own discussion in any review written in good faith: It adds a whole extra psychological dimension to the film. The banter between Stewart and Andy is well worth the price of admission, and in places it's really endearing. Stewart speculates at length about individual people shown in his footage, from the Japanese girl "pretending to be Mrs. Rock Star," to the woman in the tweed suit standing by as the band boards its limo. It doesn't hurt matters that both guys have especially melodious voices; Stewart has an unusual inflection that's fun to listen to. One wonders if it's a relic from the goulash of countries where he spent his formative years.
It must have been tempting for Copeland to have made a museum piece out of the film and the band. You know, "This is the famed band Police, seller of umpety ump kerbillion gold records and singles, and winner of every award imaginable to humankind." What's refreshing about Copeland's presentation is that nowhere is it mentioned the Police are in the Rock Hall of Fame, or that Copeland and the other Policemen are winners of more Grammies and multiple accolades than you can shake a stick at. What we see here is Miles Copeland channeling Stan Ridgway singing "Every Breath You Take"; live titling on a piece of duct tape taking place in the car; multiple notices of a certain polka dotted shirt; and commentary on the hair of the girls at the record signing. While constructing a movie made up only of these moments would have resulted in a sort of shapeless mass of a feature, ultimately ES:TPIO is made more interesting because these smaller moments are happening within the context of a greater story arc. (The irregular chronology has been a common criticism leveled at the movie; however, Copeland at that time was not involved in professional moviemaking and had a day job. It seems outside of the scope of this project to expect him to have archived every possible moment of the band's career; also, the spirit of the movie would have been hampered had it been reduced to a dogged representation of the timeline.) In resisting the siren call to promote the band as the singularly greatest musical entity of all time, Copeland creates a curiosity - a movie about a band, and with the full participation of all its members and the attendant recording companies, that is not a thinly veiled effort to sell any product other than the good-faith recordings made by these three guys. You really do get the sense that, at this point in time, the fellows were in this for more than money. In showcasing their humanity, Copeland engages the viewer, who ends up caring more about the film and the band because it's so obvious Copeland's heart is in this.
In a way, this film is the only possible response to what must be the very real pressures of rockstardom. Stewart mentions the band's clowning as key to the prevention of going crazy from the weight of public expectations, but it seems that grabbing a camera and firing back might also be a uniquely sane response to feeling like Exhibit A in a sociological experiment. As Copeland states early on in the film, "Everyone Stares" actually is his home movie; but it's also our home movie, and functions in a few different ways. It's a time capsule transporting each of us to where we were when we first heard That Song (in this reviewer's case, it's 1980 and I'm in the back of a Camaro, wondering if "De Do Do Do" has any particular linguistic meaning); it's a charming remembrance of the way things were when rock music was still real, and it's a testament to Stewart and Andy, who might have turned into very different sorts of people having experienced this unusual set of circumstances.
It's obvious that time has been kind to Copeland and Summers. Despite their relative psychological distances from the material it seems to loom ever larger in hindsight, almost as though the men can't believe these events actually happened to them. Rumor has it the next Copeland endeavor may be another film featuring concert footage, but it might be interesting to see what he'd do with a larger narrative. His senses of humor and of perspective make this movie much more than the sum of its parts. We even get a few motifs and other homages to the craft of moviemaking: Sting is transformed via Photoshop into Rio's Christ the Redeemer, and the focus on clothing and hair seem almost John Watersian in their detail - Andy dates each piece of footage based on the jacket he wore, and the guys sport bugeyed sunglasses and winged hats in several scenes.
The danger here might be Copeland's own dismissal of this project as a pastiche of throwaway footage he kept in the closet for a couple of decades, but his skills as a moviemaker are beyond dispute. Here's hoping he finds time - between performing with side project Gizmo, and possibly going into the studio this year with Oysterhead (formed in 2000 along with former Phish frontman Trey Anastasio and bassist Les Claypool) to explore a few more avenues for his craft.
-
Divemistress of the Dark - Posts: 7873
- Joined: 12 Jul 2006 14:10
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by conroy on 15 Sep 2006 11:35
Great review, Divemistress! I, too, thought about what if Sting were on the audio commentary track, but in a way, I'm glad he wasn't involved. I think he is in a much different place in his white ivory tower (i'm plagiarizing one of Stewart's often used lines) than either Andy or Stewart who still seem extremely grounded in comparison. I would rather have heard Miles or the late, great Ian doing the commentary with them than Sting.
The only other thing I would have liked would have been a separate audio track without any narration or voiceover, just the music and sounds from the film.
It is definitely a great thrill to watch no matter what.
The only other thing I would have liked would have been a separate audio track without any narration or voiceover, just the music and sounds from the film.
It is definitely a great thrill to watch no matter what.
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conroy - Posts: 3452
- Joined: 07 Feb 2005 18:06
by tigress on 16 Sep 2006 21:25
I bought it! 
Wohoo! Wohoo! Wohoo!
It's so much fun! I especially like Stewart and Andy's commentary in the extras. I always wanted to know what Stewart's speaking voice sounded like. I mean I know he talks during "On Any Other Day" but I kind of figured he was using more of a performance voice during that song, so hearing him just speaking in plain conversation with Andy was really cool. Has the DVD been released anywhere else, yet? You all will be so pleased!
Wohoo! Wohoo! Wohoo!
It's so much fun! I especially like Stewart and Andy's commentary in the extras. I always wanted to know what Stewart's speaking voice sounded like. I mean I know he talks during "On Any Other Day" but I kind of figured he was using more of a performance voice during that song, so hearing him just speaking in plain conversation with Andy was really cool. Has the DVD been released anywhere else, yet? You all will be so pleased!
Tigress
"I caught you a delicious bass."
-Napoleon Dynomite
"I caught you a delicious bass."
-Napoleon Dynomite
- tigress
- Posts: 186
- Joined: 04 Aug 2005 20:39
by Divemistress of the Dark on 17 Sep 2006 03:03
If any of our buddies from outside the U.S. are dying to see this - and can't wait for the worldwide release - I'll volunteer to buy copies and mail 'em. We can settle up via Paypal, or you guys can just send me cool videos from your own countries (I'm a sucker for international music, I gotta tell you. Lately I've been listening to some Hebrew artists an Israeli friend sent me...)
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Divemistress of the Dark - Posts: 7873
- Joined: 12 Jul 2006 14:10
- Location: Nashville, TN
by Mrs. Gradenko on 17 Sep 2006 04:14
Danno looked SO cute after he cut his hair, looked like a hippy with long hair though.
Did Sting or Andy cut their hair after joining The Police? I can't think of early pics of them, well that dorky book one of Sting.
Who was the "Golden God"?
Did Sting or Andy cut their hair after joining The Police? I can't think of early pics of them, well that dorky book one of Sting.
Who was the "Golden God"?
“...and er, did anyone try just pushing this little red button?”
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Mrs. Gradenko - Posts: 3522
- Joined: 18 Apr 2005 06:35
- Location: Phenomenal Brat
by tigress on 17 Sep 2006 20:50
"Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people."
Is this statement really true, Mrs. Gradenko? If that's the case, I'm in trouble because I'm a lefty.
Stewart is too. Or is he ambidextrous? He always signed his autograph with his left hand on the DVD recordings.
Is this statement really true, Mrs. Gradenko? If that's the case, I'm in trouble because I'm a lefty.
Stewart is too. Or is he ambidextrous? He always signed his autograph with his left hand on the DVD recordings.Tigress
"I caught you a delicious bass."
-Napoleon Dynomite
"I caught you a delicious bass."
-Napoleon Dynomite
- tigress
- Posts: 186
- Joined: 04 Aug 2005 20:39
by sockii on 17 Sep 2006 22:19
I've heard it's true, because so much equipment/machinery/technology is designed by default for righties. Therefore us lefties (yes, I'm one too) tend to suffer more accidental deaths. Or something like that.
But, hey, don't forget the old saying that only left handed folks are in our right mind!
But, hey, don't forget the old saying that only left handed folks are in our right mind!
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sockii - Posts: 4888
- Joined: 05 May 2005 02:05
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by cpriddims on 18 Sep 2006 02:13
[quote="Mrs. Gradenko"]I'm going to convert the derangements to mp3, we'll see how that works out.[/quote]
Mmmmm...
Maybe you're on to something.
Hey Stewart, how about throwing some extended mixes together of the derranged tracks from Everyone Stares and making it downloadable on your website?
Mmmmm...
Maybe you're on to something.
Hey Stewart, how about throwing some extended mixes together of the derranged tracks from Everyone Stares and making it downloadable on your website?
Bonnaroo, Miami (front row), Tampa, Atlanta, SAVANNAH!
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cpriddims - Posts: 581
- Joined: 08 Aug 2006 07:23
- Location: Atlanta, GA USA
by cpriddims on 18 Sep 2006 02:30
Ok this one is a little over the top, but..
Anyone else notice the cover of the Everyone Stares dvd? POOF! No cymbals!
Stewart, thanks for the crafty photo editing so we can see the 3 amigos and the awesome crowd!
Anyone else notice the cover of the Everyone Stares dvd? POOF! No cymbals!
Stewart, thanks for the crafty photo editing so we can see the 3 amigos and the awesome crowd!
Bonnaroo, Miami (front row), Tampa, Atlanta, SAVANNAH!
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cpriddims - Posts: 581
- Joined: 08 Aug 2006 07:23
- Location: Atlanta, GA USA
Hey KK:
by Louise Lane on 18 Sep 2006 02:52
[quote]Hey Stewart, how about throwing some extended mixes together of the derranged tracks from Everyone Stares and making it downloadable on your website?
[/quote]
Isn´t that simple, is it?
[/quote]
Isn´t that simple, is it?
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Louise Lane - Posts: 84
- Joined: 21 Jun 2006 17:26
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by Mrs. Gradenko on 18 Sep 2006 05:10
Your right I don't think it would be that simple. Theres a reason Andy and Sting don't want the derangements sold. Now when they get over it, and just give us what we want, we'll be set.
How about Stewart sends them to Gio, and Gio passes them out to us? Andy and Sting never have to know...
My emails below if anyone has them and feels like it.
The extra footage, wouldn't he have to go through the whole German band thing (you know what I mean), to make it legal?
How about Stewart sends them to Gio, and Gio passes them out to us? Andy and Sting never have to know...
My emails below if anyone has them and feels like it.
The extra footage, wouldn't he have to go through the whole German band thing (you know what I mean), to make it legal?
“...and er, did anyone try just pushing this little red button?”
-
Mrs. Gradenko - Posts: 3522
- Joined: 18 Apr 2005 06:35
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