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The Beatles’ Last Song

Details of the official video for The Beatles’ “Now and Then” and world premiere revealed

  • The first music video directed by Peter Jackson premieres worldwide this Friday, November 3rd, at 2 pm (Mainland Portugal time)
  • The Beatles’ latest song, “Now and Then”, will be released on Thursday, November 2nd, at 2 pm (Mainland Portugal time)
  • 2023 editions of the compilations “1962-1966” (‘The Red Album’) and “1967-1970” (‘The Blue Album’) will be released on November 10

As announced last Thursday, October 26th, The Beatles’ latest song, “Now And Then”, will be released this Thursday, November 2nd.

Today, Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe is pleased to share the details and premiere plans for the new official video, which Peter Jackson made in his first foray into music video production.

The video for “Now And Then” will premiere worldwide this Friday, November 3rd, at 2 pm (Mainland Portugal time) on The Beatles’ YouTube channel. The touching and humorous video invites viewers to celebrate The Beatles’ timeless love with John, Paul, George and Ringo as we watch them create The Beatles’ final song.

Tune in HERE this Friday, November 3rd at 2 pm PT to join others from around the world in celebrating the premiere of the official video for The Beatles’ “Now And Then”.

Peter Jackson says about making this video:

“When Apple asked me to make the video, I was very reluctant – I thought the next few months would be so much more fun if this complicated task was someone else’s problem, and I could be like any other Beatles fan, enjoy the anticipation of The night before Christmas as the release of a new Beatles song and video approached – in 1995, I loved the childlike excitement I felt as the release of ‘Free As A Bird’ approached.

I could have had that experience all over again – all I needed to do was say no to The Beatles.

To be honest, just thinking about the responsibility of having to make a video worthy of The Beatles’ last song produced a series of almost unbearable anxieties that I had to deal with. My lifelong love of The Beatles collided with the sheer terror of letting everyone down. This created an intense insecurity in me because I had never made a music video before and I couldn’t imagine how I could begin to create one for a band that broke up over 50 years ago, had never performed the song and half of its members no longer was with us.

It would be much easier to go for a run.

I just needed a little time to come up with a good reason to say no to The Beatles – so I never agreed to do the ‘Now And Then’ video (in fact, I still haven’t to this day).

I told Apple how concerned I was about the lack of adequate footage. We would need to use a lot of rare and unseen footage, but there are very few… Nothing seemed to exist that showed Paul, George and Ringo working on ‘Now And Then’ in 1995… There aren’t many pictures of John in mid from the 1970s when he wrote the model… I was greyed by the lack of unreleased footage of The Beatles from the 1960s… And they didn’t even record any footage showing Paul and Ringo working on the song throughout the year past.

A Beatles video should have great footage of The Beatles at its core. There is no possibility of using actors or the Beatles in CGI. Every scene in The Beatles needed to be genuine. I had no idea how anyone could make a ‘Now And Then’ video if they didn’t have decent footage to work with, and that was far from a lame excuse. Now, my fear and insecurity had solid reasons to prevail and allow me to say no without seeming like a coward.

I knew The Beatles don’t take no for an answer if they’re set on an idea – but they didn’t even wait for me to say no. I was dragged along as they addressed my concerns. Paul and Ringo filmed their performance and sent it to me. Apple unearthed over 14 hours of long-forgotten footage from the 1995 recording sessions, including several hours of Paul, George and Ringo working on ‘Now And Then’, and gave it to me. Sean and Olivia found some great unseen home footage and sent it in. To conclude, Pete Best was kindly provided with a few precious seconds of The Beatles performing in their leather suits, the Beatles’ first known film and never seen before.

Seeing this footage completely changed the context – I could see how a video could be made. In fact, I found it much easier to think of it as making a short film, so that’s what I did… My lack of confidence with music videos didn’t matter anymore if I wasn’t making one.

Still, I didn’t have a solid vision of what this short should be – so I looked to the song for guidance.

After separating John’s voice on the mock-up tape over a year ago, Giles produced an initial mix of “Now And Then”. They sent this to me in 2022. I loved it. Since then, I must have listened to ‘Now And Then’ more than 50 times, just for pleasure.

Now I started listening to her carefully for other reasons. I hoped that ideas or inspiration for the short film would emerge from the song. And this started to happen. As I continued listening to it, it felt like the song was creating ideas and images that began to form in my head – without any conscious effort on my part.

I teamed up with Jabez Olssen, my editor on Get Back, to try to figure out ways to use the new footage to support these tenuous ideas. It was a very organic process, and we slowly started to build small fragments, sliding images and music in different ways until things started to come together.

We wanted the short film to make you cry a little, but generating emotion using only archive footage is complicated. Fortunately, the sheer power of this song did a lot of the work for us, and we finished the first 30 or 40 seconds of the film fairly quickly.

Then we went straight to the end and tried to create something that could adequately summarize the enormity of The Beatles’ legacy – in the last seconds of their final recording. This task proved to be impossible to accomplish. The group’s contribution to the world is immense and their wonderful musical gift has become part of our DNA and defies description.

Percebi que precisávamos da imaginação de cada espectador para fazer o que não podíamos, e fazer com que cada espectador criasse o seu próprio momento pessoal de despedida dos The Beatles – mas tivemos de, gentilmente, conduzir todos os espectadores até esse lugar. Tinha algumas ideias vagas, mas não sabia como as concretizar.

Felizmente, o Dhani Harrison estava a visitar a Nova Zelândia nesta altura. Discuti o final com ele e descrevi uma ideia vaga na qual estava a trabalhar. Os olhos encheram-se logo de lágrimas – então foi assim que seguimos.

O Jabez e eu começámos a pensar na secção intermediária. Na verdade, poderíamos ver o início e o fim agora e rapidamente percebemos que o nosso plano inicial de ter um poder emocional semelhante nesta seção intermediária seria algo completamente errado. Os The Beatles não era assim. Na sua essência, eles eram irreverentes e engraçados, e a secção intermediária deveria captar esse espírito. Precisávamos de rir dos Beatles e rir com eles. Eles estavam sempre a exaltar-se – e quanto mais as outras pessoas os levavam a sério, mais eles faziam palhaçadas.

Felizmente encontramos um conjunto de cenas inéditas no arquivo, onde os The Beatles se mostram descontraídos, engraçados e bastante sinceros. Essas imagens tornam-se a espinha dorsal de secção intermediária, e incluímos sentido de humor em algumas imagens filmadas em 2023. O resultado é bastante maluco e proporcionou ao vídeo o equilíbrio necessário entre a tristeza e um lado mais humorístico.

Ficou finalmente concluído depois da WētāFX ter concluído algumas imagens de efeitos especiais simples, mas complicadas.

Para ser honesto, embora esperemos ter dado aos The Beatles uma despedida final adequada, isso é algo que vocês precisarão de decidir por vocês mesmos quando for finalmente lançado – daqui a apenas alguns dias.

Chegando ao fim, estou muito feliz por não estar à espera pelo lançamento do vídeo de ‘Now And Then’ realizado por outra pessoa. Tenho orgulho genuíno do que fizemos e guardarei isso com carinho nos próximos anos. Um grande obrigado à Apple Corps e aos Fabs por me darem todo o apoio que precisava – e por não me permitirem escapar.”

The world premiere of the video follows the worldwide release of the double single “Now And Then”/“Love Me Do” by The Beatles this Thursday, November 2nd at 2 pm (Mainland Portugal time). “Now And Then” was written and sung by John Lennon, developed and worked on by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and now finally finished by Paul and Ringo, more than four decades later. The double single combines The Beatles’ last song with their first: the band’s 1962 UK debut single, “Love Me Do”, the corresponding part of which now comes full circle with “Now And Then”. Both songs were mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos®, and the release includes original cover art by celebrated artist Ed Ruscha.

This Wednesday, November 1st, a 12-minute documentary, “Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song”, written and directed by Oliver Murray, premieres. The film’s global online premiere will take place on The Beatles’ YouTube channel at 7:30 pm (Mainland time). This moving short film tells the story behind The Beatles’ latest song, with exclusive footage and commentary from Paul, Ringo, George, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson. The trailer is available to watch now.

On November 10, The Beatles’ compilations “1962-1966” (‘The Red Album’) and “1967-1970” (‘The Blue Album’) will be released in new versions in 2023 by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/ One and. Since they were originally released 50 years ago, these albums have introduced generations to the music of The Beatles. Now, the lineups for both collections have been expanded, with all songs mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos by Giles Martin and Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios, aided by audio mixing technology from WingNut Films. The British version of the single “Love Me Do” is now the opening theme of “1962-1966” (2023 edition), and “Now And Then” appears on the compilation “1967-1970” (2023 edition) to complete the collections that span the group’s career. Both collections include new essays written by journalist and author John Harris.

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