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Just found this out via a tweet this morning from a guy called Jason Knox.  Looks like this may currently be only available on the US iTunes store.

"Over the past five years I’ve worked on an exciting creative project / jigsaw puzzle for ⁦‪@NeilFinn⁩. Thank you, Neil, for the opportunity and for being supportive throughout the process. So many great songwriters / artists on that stage. itunes.apple.com/us/movie/7-wor… <https://t.co/agFhlN5  "

 

https://sixcolors.com/post/201...ing-final-cut-pro-x/

7 Worlds Collide: A fan edits his hero using Final Cut Pro X

Neil Finn is my favorite songwriter, and his 1980s band Crowded House is my favorite band of all time. (And their first album is my favorite album. And that album features my favorite song. You get the idea.) So it’s a pleasure to relay the story about how Finn’s 2009 “7 Worlds Collide - Live at the Powerstation” concert video managed to show up on iTunes (and, soon, on other video outlets) this month.

It turns out that Jason Knox, a musician and video editor, is similarly a Neil Finn fan (as well as a Six Colors reader). Way back in 2013, Knox discovered that Finn was sitting on video footage from 7 Worlds Collide 

, an all-star concert in Auckland, New Zealand from 2009 featuring Finn and his sons; Johnny Marr of The Smiths; Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway of Radiohead; Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone and John Stirratt of Wilco; K.T. Tunstall; and a bunch of others. A studio album of songs was released in 2009, but the live concert remained unreleased. According to Finn, he had simply gotten too busy to find someone to edit all the footage into a coherent whole.

Knox figured he’d take a shot in the dark and offer to edit the concert together himself in Final Cut Pro X, and sent Finn a DM. After sending Finn some links to music videos he’d edited for a friend’s band, Finn must’ve figured Knox was worth a try—they got him the footage and he and Finn collaborated on the project via Dropbox.

“What kind of blows my mind about this whole thing is that we now live in a world where a fan can reach out directly to one of their musical heroes on social media, edit a two-an-a-half hour concert film on a home computer, collaborate via email and file sharing services from half way around the world, and then have the final film distributed via streaming to anyone,” Knox told me. “Neil deserves a lot of credit for his willingness to take a chance on me and send terabytes of footage from New Zealand to a stranger in Chicago.”

Knox’s professional work is largely focused on sound design, so there was a bit of a learning curve with the large, multi-camera project. “I learned a lot more about Final Cut Pro X while working on the concert video… I think it’s a great example of how FCPX has really put power into the hands of ordinary people who just want to accomplish a creative goal,” he said. “I think that Apple’s done an amazing job with FCPX-it’s designed so well that it allowed me to keep stumbling forward into a project like this, and I’m really grateful for that.”

Knox says he feels grateful that Finn was willing to take a chance on a fan, and that he feels lucky that he was able to do something “to say thank you for all the great music throughout the years.”

Since he began working on the project more than four years ago, Knox has had a chance to meet Finn a few times when his tours passed through Knox’s town. “It’s nice to know that the old adage ‘Don’t meet your heroes’ doesn’t always apply,” Knox said. “The entire project has been a pleasure from the start.”

The final concert—nearly two hours and 40 minutes long, featuring 32 songs from the Crowded House, Radiohead, Smiths, and Wilco songbooks as well as some originals and some covers of other artists (I’ll never get tired of “Throw Your Arms Around Me” by Hunters and Collectors), is now available on iTunes, with other services forthcoming. And all thanks to one brave fan who offered to help make the project happen.

 

 

 

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I took the leap and bought this.  I haven't watched the whole thing, but I'm having mixed feelings.  First of all, I think it's fantastic that Neil took a chance on having this fan edit the concert together, and I'd certainly rather have this version than none at all.  That said, while it doesn't seem obviously amateur or anything, it does lack a certain professionalism.  I can't put my finger on it and I'm not super experienced with editing myself, but I found myself *aware* of the editing, which I know is not ideal.  Ideally you get lost in it and don't notice how things are cutting between this camera and that, but I never quite lost that awareness. I don't mean to damn the effort with vague disappointment but anyway, I felt like I could tell this wasn't done by a true professional filmmaker.  Even so, it's still watchable and enjoyable.  Maybe this is my own weird perspective and others will find it great, I don't know.  If anyone else watches this, please let us know what you think.

Last edited by slowpogo

I jumped on it as soon as I saw Neil retweet something yesterday.

I havent been this excited about a concert video in a very long time; It reminds me of what happened with Farewell To the World, it took a good 10 years to get a proper release.

The concert is simply amazing!!! The performances are just unbelievable to watch. The quality of audio/video is top notch and the editing is pure genius. Really makes you fee like you’re there in the audience at the show.

Is it polished, coreographed, hyper-rehearsed? No, but neither were those shows. Thats the magic.

This isnt Fleetwood Mac performing a scripted setlist with 9 musicians and teleprompters on stage. This is raw artistic magic unraveling over the course of 3 nights.

Oh ane did I mention its almost 3 hours long? (Amazing!!!)

I give this 5/5 stars.

Do yourself a favor and by it now, watch it over and over again.

Tell your friends, help spread the word...

What a totally unexpected 10 years ago blast from the past this is! Just watched it all and as familiar as I've been with what transpired at the shows , it was a lovely surprise to see the cover of Thunderclap Newman's "Something In The Air" at the end!
Coincidentally - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers covered the same song on their greatest hits compilation in the 90's as the only new track along with "Mary Jane's Last Dance" which went on to be an International hit.
Fast forward to today and Neil and Mike Campbell are bandmates!
Well done and much thanks to the fan who orchestrated this footage belatedly seeing the light of day!

It’s streaming on Amazon now.  I’m an hour into it and I love it.  This is the Neil I know and love, playing with a bunch of sympatico musicians who aren’t divas.  Not sure why the edits bother you slowpogo - it’s just cutting back and forth between different nights and doing a pretty seamless job if you ask me.

 

brownie posted:

It’s streaming on Amazon now.  I’m an hour into it and I love it.  This is the Neil I know and love, playing with a bunch of sympatico musicians who aren’t divas.  Not sure why the edits bother you slowpogo - it’s just cutting back and forth between different nights and doing a pretty seamless job if you ask me.

 

I’m glad it doesn’t bother you. I’m just saying, it shows that this person is a first-time editor. I know someone who’s a professional editor, and like any art form it takes many years to master...it’s incredibly unlikely this person, who says his real training is in sound, *wouldn’t* be a little iffy. Also, there’s always a flurry of ultra-positive reviews whenever Neil puts something out so I take you guys with a grain of salt 😉. Maybe y’all just have your rose-colored-Finn glasses on. Like I said, it’s watchable, but a bit off to me.

Last edited by slowpogo
In Love With It All posted:

Does anyone have a tracklisting for this?  Can't see it listed in the iTunes store.

Distant Sun
Down On The Corner
Long Time Gone
Hazel Black
A Change Of Heart
Gather To The Chapel
Second Chance
In The Land Of Fairies
At Least That's What You Said
Reservations
Too Blue
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
Throw Your Arms Around Me
What Light
Jesus, Etc.
You Never Know
The Late Greats
California Stars
I'm A Wheel
The Ties That Bind Us
Learn To Crawl
Bodysnatchers
Four Seasons In One Day
Black Silk Ribbon
I Got You
She Will Have Her Way
Weather With You
Fake Plastic Trees
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Don't Dream It's Over
Reptile
Something In The Air

Steve Shealy posted:

Thank you, Ligature! Some real gems there I wouldn't have expected! California Stars, Fake Plastic Trees, plus several I'm not familiar with. Would have liked to see Elroy get to do his Cobbler.

I was wavering a bit, probably going to have to go ahead and get it now. Great price for nearly three hours of entertainment.

Take the plunge Steve, it's a very cool part of Neil's career that probably didn't get full exposure at the time. Obviously there's been the album and documentary movie to delve into since but there's quite a lot going on in the set list here that wasn't represented on the album or in the documentary movie - It's been the preserve of fans who saw the shows at the Powerstation a decade ago until this week. Examples: Neil singing Radiohead's "Bodysnatchers", the Thunderclap Newman cover, several Wilco songs, Johnny Marr singing "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want", an additional Lisa Germano song...

It's true - there's no "All Comedians Suffer" or "The Cobbler" or Don McGlashan's "Girl Make Your Own Mind Up" and Tim Finn's contribution is unrepresented too (but I'm I'm sure that's because Tim didn't perform at any of the concerts).

It reminds me that there were select 7 Worlds Collide performances beyond New Zealand too - a night at Dingwalds in London featuring Wilco members, and one at Largo in Los Angeles with KT Tunstall, Bic Runga, Lisa Germano and Elroy where he did perform "The Cobbler", and a show in Santa Barbara after the documentary premiered at the film festival there which included Lisa Germano and Sebastian Steinberg where "All Comedians Suffer" and Sebastian's song "The Water" were performed.

It's been great to look back on the Powerstation shows, but also knowing that 7 Worlds Collide could be revisited at any time in the future! - Just imagine which musician friends Neil could collect for a third run!

Thanks @Underthewheel, that was my mistake.

Great review @The Ligature! Were those additional shows in the UK and the US billed as actual 7 Worlds Collide shows, or were they just Neil Finn solo shows where a couple of special guests made an appearance?

I did up a spreadsheet featuring the songwriters and lead vocalists of each song if anyone's interested. Also included are each song's origin and some of my thoughts on the performance and project. You can find it here.

Secret God (Stew) posted:

Great review @The Ligature! Were those additional shows in the UK and the US billed as actual 7 Worlds Collide shows, or were they just Neil Finn solo shows where a couple of special guests made an appearance?

 

The show in Los Angeles was billed as "7 Worlds Collide at Largo", whereas shows there on the following two nights were billed as Neil Finn shows.
I believe the show at Dingwalls in London which took place a week earlier was also billed as a 7 Worlds Collide show.
The Santa Barbara performance was a case of Neil taking the opportunity to play a show with some friends at a nearby venue after The Sun Came Out documentary movie premiered at the Santa Barbara film festival, so that was a Neil Finn show with Sebastian and Lisa being the two 7 Worlds Collide participants available.

Last edited by The Ligature

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