McCartney takes aim at bullying
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Dylan, T-Bone feature on Bear and a Banjo album
LOS ANGELES, Dec 18, (RTRS): Paul McCartney and Emma Stone get surreal for a good cause in the short film inspired by McCartney’s new anti-bullying song “Who Cares”, which held its premiere Sunday night at Beverly Hills’ Fine Arts Theater.
In the short directed by Brantley Guitierrez (a longtime McCartney tour photographer) and choreographer Ryan Heffington, the music legend and the A-lister romp around in a black-and-white dance number with mime-like dancers and harlequins on hand-drawn minimalist sets. The film is designed to kick off the anti-bullying social media campaign dubbed “#WhoCaresIDo” backed by numerous non-profit orgs, including Creative Visions Foundation, Artemis Rising and Blue Chip Foundation.
“Who Cares” will drop Monday on Apple Music as an exclusive for 24 hours. After that the hope is that the video and its earnest message, wrapped up in bizarro imagery, will go viral on social media platforms. “Who Cares” preaches that people – no less a cultural giant than Sir Paul himself! – should speak out more about caring for their fellow humans.
“We need a shift in consciousness to make 2019 a year of caring,” said Kathy Eldon, CEO of Creative Visions, which spearheaded the project with LA-based production company Subtractive.
“We had a big idea and $5,” said Subtractive CEO Kyle Schember. At the post-screening Q&A there were heaps of praise for the top-flight production team assembled for a pic that runs under 10 minutes. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren worked with Stone on the movie that won her an Oscar, 2016’s “La La Land”. Gutierrez said he originally suggested making a film based on a different tune from McCartney’s 2018 release “Egypt Station”, which became his buzziest album in years thanks to Sir Paul’s relentless promotion. But the song “Who Cares” fit the mission of Creative Visions, et al. much better.
The video was shot over two days in early October on a stage in Brooklyn. Scheduling was a challenge. Gutierrez informed the crowd that McCartney stipulates his working hours outside of the concert stage are 12 to 6, “which is probably why he looks that good.”
Gutierrez also answered the One Big Question on the minds of everyone in the audience who turned out while McCartney himself was across the Pond playing London’s O2 Arena with special guests Ringo Starr and the Rolling Stones’ Ron Wood.
“He’s exactly what you hope Paul McCartney is like,” Gutierrez said. “Cheeky and super-kind.”
Jared Gutstadt, the co-founder of production music house Jingle Punks and a multi-instrumentalist who favors guitar and drums, is extending beyond his field with the release of his first album of original material under the name Bear and a Banjo. In typical Punks style, Gutstadt – who performs under the name Jingle Jared – is taking a somewhat disruptive approach. The songs will form the basis of a narrative podcast series released through iHeartMedia’s new podcasting unit Stuff Media.
Co-written and recorded with Grammy-winning hitmaker Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd and produced by T Bone Burnett, the group’s eight-song collection of low-fi Americana is gritty and poetic. Infused with blues, rock and hip-hop, it has the whiskey-fueled charm of music recorded in an Airstream trailer (which it was, in Gutstadt’s Brentwood backyard).
The podcast, which Gutstadt plans to shop as a potential television series, will further amplify the offbeat vibe the songs hint at. “T Bone Burnett, who is truly the Alan Lomax of our time, is a musicologist and an interpreter of folk traditions as pop culture, as with his work with the Coen brothers, and Bob Dylan’s ‘Rolling Thunder Review’,” says Gutstadt, citing in addition to those inspirations the book “The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes”, by Greil Marcus, among his inspirations. Dylan himself contributed lyrics to one of the Bear and a Banjo songs, “Gone But Not Forgotten”, which can be heard here for the first time, along with a second track, “Can You Hear Me Now”.
Former TBS and TNT director of digital innovation Jimmy Jellinek, now a producer and content creator at ITV, has been hired to script the project, which will feature a single narrator spinning yarns at the intersection of folk and noir. “I’m reading the book ‘Why Bob Dylan Matters,’ which talks about how poetry shouldn’t reveal everything, but have layers which can be peeled back so people can discover their own meaning. We have as a jumping off-point the songs, amplifying that somewhat through narrative scripts, but at the service of the listener, and hopefully at some point the anthology viewer’s imagination,” Gutstadt says.
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