A woman stands on an escalator as a nearby elevator opens with its “up” arrow lit. Presumably she pushed the elevator button, decided not to wait and potentially caused an elevator full of people to have to stop on that floor.
Next we are inside a high-rise office building, looking out a window to see a lady’s feet dangling on the other side of the glass. This is followed by the sight of a body being dragged across the ground.
In later scenes, it’s revealed to us that a young school boy is pulling the dead weight of a live adult whose body is the one we saw initially. And it turns out that the woman outside the window is inexplicably on the back of a window washer.
Subsequent vignettes show another woman dragging a man along a city sidewalk. He’s horizontally laid out, reading a newspaper. We also catch a glimpse of a man who has a bicyclist–along with a bicycle–on his back in an elevator. Juxtaposed with this are people waiting to board a train.
A sign at the train station reads, “Every time we delay the train, the train ends up delaying us.”
We then witness a person trying to put a train token in a coin slot–while having to carry a fellow passenger.
A parting sign reads, “Don’t hold others back. Help our trains stay on time.”
This message urging passengers to be considerate of others was sponsored by Connex, operators of the rail transportation system in Australia. Mark Molloy directed the spot, which was produced by Aussie producton house Exit Films, Melbourne, for agency Cummins & Partners in Melbourne suburb St. Kilda. (Molloy is repped stateside by Santa Monica-based Furlined.)
Wilf Sweetland produced for Exit. The DP was Greig Fraser. Patrick Reardon was the production designer.
The agency ensemble included executive creative director Sean Cummins, creatives John Skaro and Roger Nance, copywriter Jonathon McMahon, art director Lisa Fedyszyn and head of broadcast production Mark Bradley.
Editor was freelancer Rohan Zerna. Jon Holmes of visual effects house Tide, Sydney, served as Flame artist and online editor.
Music was composed by Karl Richter of Level Two Music, Melbourne.
“Beatles ’64” Documentary Captures Intimate Moments From Landmark U.S. Visit
Likely most people have seen iconic footage of the Beatles performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." But how many have seen Paul McCartney during that same U.S. trip feeding seagulls off his hotel balcony?
That moment — as well as George Harrison and John Lennon goofing around by exchanging their jackets — are part of the Disney+ documentary "Beatles '64," an intimate look at the English band's first trip to America that uses rare and newly restored footage. It streams Friday.
"It's so fun to be the fly on the wall in those really intimate moments," says Margaret Bodde, who produced alongside Martin Scorsese. "It's just this incredible gift of time and technology to be able to see it now with the decades of time stripped away so that you really feel like you're there."
"Beatles '64" leans into footage of the 14-day trip filmed by documentarians Albert and David Maysles, who left behind 11 hours of the Fab Four goofing around in New York's Plaza hotel or traveling. It was restored by Park Road Post in New Zealand.
"It's beautiful, although it's black and white and it's not widescreen," says director David Tedeschi. "It's like it was shot yesterday and it captures the youth of the four Beatles and the fans."
The footage is augmented by interviews with the two surviving members of the band and people whose lives were impacted, including some of the women who as teens stood outside their hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of the Beatles.
"It was like a crazy love," fan Vickie Brenna-Costa recalls in the documentary. "I can't really understand it now. But then, it was natural."
The film shows the four heartthrobs flirting and dancing at the Peppermint Lounge disco, Harrison noodling with a Woody Guthrie riff on his guitar... Read More