DJ Shadow: In Tune And On Time DVD Review
Story by Spence D. May 28, 2004 - On Wednesday May 26th DJ Shadow conducted the final theatrical screening of his upcoming DVD release In Tune And On Time before a turn away crowd at the Embarcadero Cinemas in San Francisco, California. Since Shadow (ne Josh Davis) is a Bay Area local, he was on hand to introduce the DVD and conduct a post-screening Q&A. In true DJ fashion, Shadow speaks volumes through his music, but in real life is rather down-to-earth, laidback, and even a touch self-effacing. To wit, just before the theater went dark and after Shadow had given a brief rundown of what we were about to see, he jovially stated: "If you like my music you're probably gonna love this. If not, then you'll probably be in purgatory." Naturally the crowd assembled laughed, but quieted quickly as the lights dimmed and the surround sound system began rumbling.
Since this was a theatrical screening of the DVD, none of the bonus materials or Easter Eggs were showcased. Instead, Shadow presented the main part of the DVD, which is a 2-hour live concert captured at the Brixton Royal Academy in London on his 2002-2003 World Tour.
As an interesting side note, during the post-screening Q&A when I asked Shadow why he only used footage from Brixton Academy shows he explained that he didn't even think about filming the tour until he was three months into it. When they got to Brixton, it presented itself as a perfect locale. For starters, he performed two sold-out shows with approximately 5000 people attending each one. This allowed for the camera crew to set up their gear and leave it up, filming both shows so that if there were any mechanical break downs, they'd have enough footage to cobble something together.
When you watch the DVD you'll notice that the bulk of the live footage is from a concert where Shadow is sporting a long sleeve white t-shirt underneath a short-sleeved white t. But there are a few quick shots where he's wearing a blue t-shirt and a baseball cap. He explained that these were from the other show and after reviewing all the footage, they were better shots. "At first they only wanted to use shots that were dark and captured me from the front so you couldn't see the brim of the cap," he divulged. But, as you will be able to tell from the footage, they gave up on that and just went for the best shots in the end.
Anyway, back to the contents of the DVD. The bulk of the film is nothing more than standard concert footage focusing on Shadow mixing music via his two 1200s, two Pioneer scratchable CD players, and an MPC sampler. The stage set up for the Brixton show was considerably more sparse than when I saw him later in the tour at the world famous Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, though. At the Brixton show Shadow just had his equipment set up on steel girders and three large jumbotron screens behind him that showed miscellaneous images ranging from animated collages to photographic slides and whatnot. At least for me, this taped version of his live show was a bit static and didn't seem to accurately capture his vivid stage presence. During Shadow's actual live show one was able to zone out on the images while soaking up his deft mix. And from time to time a live camera would swoop in and fill the jumbotron with overhead images of Shadow scratching and working the decks. Yet most of the footage included on the DVD is shot from stage left, presenting the right side of Shadow predominantly. I don't know if this is his "best" side or not, but it got a little monotonous only seeing his set-up captured from this static vantage point. Given that his live show included overhead and varying side angles, the film itself could have used some of this alternate views to spice it up a bit.
Another thing that could have been added to the mix would have been more concentration on the visuals. Since the bulk of what Shadow does consists of him tinkering with his equipment, crafting beats and textured soniference, it would have been stellar to have had the visuals slip from the static live show to full-screen video and animation. From time to time the focus does switch to such, but only for a few split seconds and then only focusing on the images that were projected on the jumbotron during the concert.
At one point about an hour into the film, my buddy sitting to my left leaned over and remarked that some behind-the-scenes footage and tour outtakes would definitely help the film to be more engaging. As if on cue the film faded to black and a short behind-the-scenes segment kicked in, showing off a short collage of tour images and featuring some brief commentary from Shadow about how he prepares for a show. Then it faded to black and went back to the concert footage. A little later there was a wonderful crowd collage that was set to the music, images of the various crowds flicking across the screen like an animated year book. This was the type of stuff that needed to be strewn throughout the film with more regularity, as it offered diverse eye candy that worked as an excellent companion to Shadow's music.
Speaking of which, for the most part In Tune And On Time is a purely aural experience. The music is really the focus here as the basic by-the-books visuals only manage to capture Shadow's stunning live show in one, perhaps two dimensions. So while the visual nuances can be somewhat boring at times, the audio is nothing more than stunning and one can only hope that Shadow releases a live CD to accompany the DVD.
As the concert footage comes to an end (after an encore), Shadow slips back into the thundering bass groove of the opening track off of The Private Press, the visuals behind him pulling back to reveal a DJ mixing in the park, then pulling back to reveal the entire park, then back to reveal the landmass, and back and back until the rotating orb of Mother Earth eclipse the screen and back even further until there is nothing left but to fade to black. And as the screen turned a deadly shade of night, I couldn't help but hear Shadow's prefatory words echoing in my mind: "If you like my music, you're probably gonna love this. If not, then you'll probably be in purgatory." True words indeed and an accurate summation of the concert footage contained on this DVD. == this is a little story from the people at thegiantpeach.com: just got back from the shadow screening of "in tune and on time" at the embarcadero in sf. and duh! i think i directed people to filter's site, but they were giving away tickets on djshadow.com! anyway, bumped into oliver wang aka dj o-dub (http://www.o-dub.com/) and a bunch of his folks. he's still writing, still working on his dissertation, and enjoying the pleasures of fine dining in northern california.i have to say, if they could somehow do more screenings of the dvd (or if you have a big screen tv), this translates really well onto the big screen. or if you were at one of the shows on the last tour, it's pretty much like seeing it again (not quite the feeling). it was recorded at the brixton academy, and the visuals are excellent. i would have loved to see more behind-the-scenes footage, but they did include cool stuff like video from the day that they shot the endtroducing cover, and the dvd also has some extras. shadow mentioned that there's no commentary...that's not the concept of this dvd...he did do a Q&A after the screening, and spence d (from ign.com) is the only smart person that i saw with a tape recorder (he was also the only person bold enough to take a photo of shadow on my ancient camera). hopefully the tape came out-we will try to transcribe it if it did.shadow mentioned that he will begin work on his next record in june, has a track on the keepintime cd/dvd, and will be collaborating with lyrics born for lb's remix album. in tune & on time drops june 15th
Story by Spence D. May 28, 2004 - On Wednesday May 26th DJ Shadow conducted the final theatrical screening of his upcoming DVD release In Tune And On Time before a turn away crowd at the Embarcadero Cinemas in San Francisco, California. Since Shadow (ne Josh Davis) is a Bay Area local, he was on hand to introduce the DVD and conduct a post-screening Q&A. In true DJ fashion, Shadow speaks volumes through his music, but in real life is rather down-to-earth, laidback, and even a touch self-effacing. To wit, just before the theater went dark and after Shadow had given a brief rundown of what we were about to see, he jovially stated: "If you like my music you're probably gonna love this. If not, then you'll probably be in purgatory." Naturally the crowd assembled laughed, but quieted quickly as the lights dimmed and the surround sound system began rumbling.
Since this was a theatrical screening of the DVD, none of the bonus materials or Easter Eggs were showcased. Instead, Shadow presented the main part of the DVD, which is a 2-hour live concert captured at the Brixton Royal Academy in London on his 2002-2003 World Tour.
As an interesting side note, during the post-screening Q&A when I asked Shadow why he only used footage from Brixton Academy shows he explained that he didn't even think about filming the tour until he was three months into it. When they got to Brixton, it presented itself as a perfect locale. For starters, he performed two sold-out shows with approximately 5000 people attending each one. This allowed for the camera crew to set up their gear and leave it up, filming both shows so that if there were any mechanical break downs, they'd have enough footage to cobble something together.
When you watch the DVD you'll notice that the bulk of the live footage is from a concert where Shadow is sporting a long sleeve white t-shirt underneath a short-sleeved white t. But there are a few quick shots where he's wearing a blue t-shirt and a baseball cap. He explained that these were from the other show and after reviewing all the footage, they were better shots. "At first they only wanted to use shots that were dark and captured me from the front so you couldn't see the brim of the cap," he divulged. But, as you will be able to tell from the footage, they gave up on that and just went for the best shots in the end.
Anyway, back to the contents of the DVD. The bulk of the film is nothing more than standard concert footage focusing on Shadow mixing music via his two 1200s, two Pioneer scratchable CD players, and an MPC sampler. The stage set up for the Brixton show was considerably more sparse than when I saw him later in the tour at the world famous Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, though. At the Brixton show Shadow just had his equipment set up on steel girders and three large jumbotron screens behind him that showed miscellaneous images ranging from animated collages to photographic slides and whatnot. At least for me, this taped version of his live show was a bit static and didn't seem to accurately capture his vivid stage presence. During Shadow's actual live show one was able to zone out on the images while soaking up his deft mix. And from time to time a live camera would swoop in and fill the jumbotron with overhead images of Shadow scratching and working the decks. Yet most of the footage included on the DVD is shot from stage left, presenting the right side of Shadow predominantly. I don't know if this is his "best" side or not, but it got a little monotonous only seeing his set-up captured from this static vantage point. Given that his live show included overhead and varying side angles, the film itself could have used some of this alternate views to spice it up a bit.
Another thing that could have been added to the mix would have been more concentration on the visuals. Since the bulk of what Shadow does consists of him tinkering with his equipment, crafting beats and textured soniference, it would have been stellar to have had the visuals slip from the static live show to full-screen video and animation. From time to time the focus does switch to such, but only for a few split seconds and then only focusing on the images that were projected on the jumbotron during the concert.
At one point about an hour into the film, my buddy sitting to my left leaned over and remarked that some behind-the-scenes footage and tour outtakes would definitely help the film to be more engaging. As if on cue the film faded to black and a short behind-the-scenes segment kicked in, showing off a short collage of tour images and featuring some brief commentary from Shadow about how he prepares for a show. Then it faded to black and went back to the concert footage. A little later there was a wonderful crowd collage that was set to the music, images of the various crowds flicking across the screen like an animated year book. This was the type of stuff that needed to be strewn throughout the film with more regularity, as it offered diverse eye candy that worked as an excellent companion to Shadow's music.
Speaking of which, for the most part In Tune And On Time is a purely aural experience. The music is really the focus here as the basic by-the-books visuals only manage to capture Shadow's stunning live show in one, perhaps two dimensions. So while the visual nuances can be somewhat boring at times, the audio is nothing more than stunning and one can only hope that Shadow releases a live CD to accompany the DVD.
As the concert footage comes to an end (after an encore), Shadow slips back into the thundering bass groove of the opening track off of The Private Press, the visuals behind him pulling back to reveal a DJ mixing in the park, then pulling back to reveal the entire park, then back to reveal the landmass, and back and back until the rotating orb of Mother Earth eclipse the screen and back even further until there is nothing left but to fade to black. And as the screen turned a deadly shade of night, I couldn't help but hear Shadow's prefatory words echoing in my mind: "If you like my music, you're probably gonna love this. If not, then you'll probably be in purgatory." True words indeed and an accurate summation of the concert footage contained on this DVD. == this is a little story from the people at thegiantpeach.com: just got back from the shadow screening of "in tune and on time" at the embarcadero in sf. and duh! i think i directed people to filter's site, but they were giving away tickets on djshadow.com! anyway, bumped into oliver wang aka dj o-dub (http://www.o-dub.com/) and a bunch of his folks. he's still writing, still working on his dissertation, and enjoying the pleasures of fine dining in northern california.i have to say, if they could somehow do more screenings of the dvd (or if you have a big screen tv), this translates really well onto the big screen. or if you were at one of the shows on the last tour, it's pretty much like seeing it again (not quite the feeling). it was recorded at the brixton academy, and the visuals are excellent. i would have loved to see more behind-the-scenes footage, but they did include cool stuff like video from the day that they shot the endtroducing cover, and the dvd also has some extras. shadow mentioned that there's no commentary...that's not the concept of this dvd...he did do a Q&A after the screening, and spence d (from ign.com) is the only smart person that i saw with a tape recorder (he was also the only person bold enough to take a photo of shadow on my ancient camera). hopefully the tape came out-we will try to transcribe it if it did.shadow mentioned that he will begin work on his next record in june, has a track on the keepintime cd/dvd, and will be collaborating with lyrics born for lb's remix album. in tune & on time drops june 15th