Awesome: I... Shot That!

WOW!!!! How much fun can one person take. Props to the editor Neal Usatin for cutting such a brilliant piece with mass amounts of footage. How many gigs of storage for this project? The stylistic way in which this is put together equals the creative genius of their DVD Anthology. I love the Boys approach to utilizing technology in a new refreshing way.

Finally I just have to say a big "THANK YOU" to The Beastie Boys for another piece of time forever etched into my brain. The positive experiences never end when it comes to these guys. Check out this Film as many times as you can. I hope you have as much fun as I did and they did.

"I'm not here to fight nor incite, I'm like the beach at the Bahamas make you feel alright"

SoCal

In 2004 NYC, the Beastie Boys are performing at Madison Square Garden. They hand out 50 hand-held digital cameras to selected audience members. They use the footage gathered by these fans and put together a concert movie unlike any other before it.

The idea of amateur video is better than the actual execution. The good is to see what is not normally shown. Somebody took their camera into the bathroom. The bad is everything about amateur cameramen. The video looks grainy. It's either shaky or jarringly shaky. It's unfocused. At the core of it all, there is the music. That is good for the fans but not a successful cinematic effort for everybody else.

Watching a concert film is typically something reserved for die-hard fans of that group. This is not the case with Awesome, I shot that. If you like music you probably will like this movie. If you like Hip Hop music, you will definitely love this movie. There are special guests too (like Doug E. Fresh) that will bring it back to the old school! The whole interactive idea of using the fans is brilliant. You get the sense that you are actually at the concert with all the movement - compared to a single shot fading into different angles of 4 cameras. Madison Square Garden practically goes nuts when they play their classics. The Beastie Boys once again prove that they are original, fresh and their music is ultimately better than anything in the todays rap game. All in all the movie keeps you on your toes and is always fun.

The Beastie Boys are hard to classify. You could call them white Jewish rappers out of NYC (one from Brooklyn, Adam aka Nathanial Hornblower, also the director of the movie). But they also were punk rockers, and this never really left them completely. They just love a good beat, and they'll do whatever to get it. Of course they have their Mix Master Mike at the turntable (probably some of the best turntable stylizations I've ever heard), but there's a moment during the concert when I knew more than ever that the Beasties are a unique lot. They go back behind the stage after a number and come back out on some contraption that wheels them and a couple other back up band members, all donned in clothes from a 2nd rate mariachi group, and proceed to play music- without really rapping through both songs- like a cross between Phish and Peter Frampton! It's a very weird moment, but it's still groovy to see and experience. Just like the movie itself.

Done in a completely freewheeling style, Yauch decided to let a whole s***load of fans bring in cameras, contrary to the usual tact of not allowing any cameras (albeit cell phones are now the name of the game for that), and let fifty amateurs film at will during the concert. What ends up being the concert has more edits than Requiem for a Dream squared. It truly goes get crazy, over and over again, as the Beastie Boys go through a terrific show at Madison Square Garden. And it's presented like some crazy art movie from the 60s, without any regard for any of the conventions (well, maybe one or two, but I'll digress). There's rotoscoping, there's disjointed close-ups, there's free-framing during songs, there's real rhythm put in to have the viewer get into the editing along with the songs. Now, to be sure, sometimes this does get tiresome, especially during a song or two (I forget the names) that aren't that good anyway.

But for the most part the Beasties deliver, and the style goes hyper-kinetic to make a point in visual terms that follows along from a tradition started in the movie Woodstock: it's about the audience just as much as the group on stage, so it becomes totally communal. The audience knows all the words to Paul Revere's Horse, and there's even a juxtaposition of a girl dancing and one of the Beasties busting a move on stage. And in terms of a concert movie the group delivers their best work: Body Movin, Brass Monkey, Mic Check, and two of my favorites (in encore, naturally) with Intergalactic and Sabotage (the latter with moshpit in tow, a surprise as the finishing number). The energy is high, the technique is bravely 'anything goes', and as should be with the Beastie Boys it's a lot of fun.

i watched this 93-minute film at midnight during the sundance film festival, and when it ended and the lights came on, i secretly hoped someone would announce that it would be shown again for those who wanted to stay (i know i wouldn't have left my seat!).

i really wish i could have been at the actual concert at madison square garden--the beasties put on a fantastic show with music spanning their entire repertoire (minus the hardcore early days, of course). at one point, they even donned some retro tuxes and played instrumental numbers from "check your head" and "ill communication." as you might imagine, given the premise of the movie being shot by amateurs using hand-held digital cameras, some of the inclusions and streams weren't great, but for the most part, the final edit allowed a wonderful flow between multiple audience viewpoints, backstage hijinks, pre- and post-show moments, and even a bathroom break taken by one intrepid guy. "hornblower" threw in some creative editing and composition elements, too, showing a few songs performed in the cinematography styles the group has used in videos like "so whatcha want" and "shake your rump." the guest performance by doug e. fresh was amazing (as you might expect), and there were several other celebrity cameos from the on-screen audience as well. i was lipsynching along throughout the show, and many heads were bobbing in my theater. i was disappointed that i didn't get to attend the sundance showing the beastie boys visited, but i enjoyed this movie immensely and look forward to buying it when it's released.

P.S. the attempted re-creation of this idea during the beasties' performance on letterman (2/8/06) was *not* indicative of the quality of the the "awesome..." film. the beastie boys did a great job, but the letterman footage was pretty lame and poorly done.

"Once upon a time upon this mic, MCs be really workin' on what they write; With the sound delight, we rock all night, and yes, we're gonna party for the right to fight."