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Eclectic Method- The creators of Phish Fest 8 montage video

Posted by teibs On November - 17 - 2009

eclectic1 @ZackTeibloom Festival Crashers have been super into mash-ups lately. We’ve been Girl Talk crazy forever, danced on stage with Hood Internet and Car Stereo (Wars) this month and my car stereo is being dominated by Hood Internet mix tapes.

Audio mash-ups are great, but the Phish Festival 8 video montage that Electric Method put together is something we had to talk to them about. You can all watch it, but I’ll let Andy let you know what it was like to be there.

“A video that began with “Thriller” turned into a whole mashup of the albums, songs and videos involved with the original 99 albums. As fans recognized different faces and songs throughout the video, roars would erupt for their favorites. Personally, I was just trying to figure out what tricks Phish had up their sleeve and whether or not they were actually playing the Rolling Stones. Alas, the video ended with the Stones and I could start breathing again knowing that I was about to get my “Rocks Off” with Exile on Main St.” -@andyshore

Eclectic Method Goes Phish :: 99 Albums in 4:20 from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Z.T. A project with this much material seems intimidating. What did you start with when piecing the footage together and when did it start to take shape?

GEOFF: Yes, it was definitely one of the most challenging briefs we’ve had yet. For me the starting point in composition was working out how briefly every album would be represented in order to keep the mix to the required length – as a rule of thumb each album would have less than two seconds of screen time. This indicated that the flow of the piece would be determined more by rapid rhythmical cutting than by finding longer melodic matches between album tracks. Quite early on we decided to produce segments composed in this way at various tempos which we then linked together using a TV going out of tune effect.

Z.T. Did you know which album Phish was going to play beforehand?

JONNY: Yes they had us sign an NDA and told us not to tell a single soul at pain of death.

Z.T. What was the biggest challenge of putting it together?

GEOFF: For me, the most important thing was keeping an attractive musical balance between all the different elements. Avoiding cacophony was crucial, knowing that the mix was going to be played through a massive PA. For others involved I know that just finding audio and video to represent songs from all the albums in the short time available was a serious challenge and a major achievement in its own right.

Z.T. How did you decide to choose live footage or video footage on certain songs?

JONNY: It was more about what was available at such short notice. Some of those tracks are really hard to track down when you start trying to find decent quality video.

Z.T. Thriller seems like the natural choice for the intro. What motivated that choice?

JONNY: It was halloween.

GEOFF: It’s only right in the circumstances for Michael Jackson to lead the way…

Z.T. How did you decide which songs from each album to play?

JONNY: We chucked them all into a big pile on our online server and picked what worked best as we went along.

GEOFF: Our choices of clip are usually guided by what makes the best audiovisual impact. It’s important in our mixes to see what is actually producing the sound you are hearing, as well as to have a relatively stripped down sound to compose with (eg an acapella or instrument solo) – these moments are relatively few and far between, so the choices make themselves really.

Z.T.. Did it come to 4:20 on purpose? What were the time constraints you were given?

JONNY: Absolute accident, it’s just a sign man.

Z.T. Were you at the festival? If so, what was it like to see your video played before so many people?

JONNY: No but our manager JB went, he is a HUGE Phish fan, hence how we got to speak to the band in first place. We had other commitments in New York that meant we couldn’t leave.

GEOFF: I was in London at the time, but the following day I got to see footage on You Tube of the mix being played – and the audience loving it! It was thrilling to see the whole project come to its moment like that – it did feel a bit like being there.

Z.T. Did you hear anything about Phish’s reaction to the video?

GEOFF: Actually no – at least not yet. But I guess the fact that they played it must mean they liked it!

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