A Hard Day’s Night – Shooting Pop

The Beatles are among the most recognizable and instantly successful musical acts in history. Indeed, their fame was so quickly widespread that they wasted no time cashing in on their new-found popularity. In 1964 the Beatles produced and starred in a fictionalized rock and roll movie on the band called ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ featuring songs that were subsequently released on their album of the same name. The movie was predictably extremely successful. What is surprising is the film’s enduring influence over music today. The film’s cultural impact can be attributed largely to the Beatles, but at least some credit must be given to the film’s director, Richard Lester.

The American-born filmmaker was not famous at the time of the film’s release. He only got the job because he directed several episodes of a largely forgotten British sitcom the Beatles enjoyed. Nevertheless, Lester left an indelible mark on both the film and the music industry.

Before A Hard Day’s Night, most rock and roll movies largely surfed on their star’s success, featuring clichéd stories that had nothing to do with the stars. A Hard Day’s Night’s story, on the other hand, is a fictionalized account of a day in the life of the Beatles. The movie makes fun of the Beatles, their fans and their image.

While directing the movie, Richard Lester was inspired by the French New Wave films, which valued realism over the scripted feel most movies had at the time. Lester wanted to shoot all the music performances in the movie with as many as six cameras, each one focusing on something else, so he could stitch together different shots together, and would often insert shots from other scenes in, or even put entire songs over unrelated scenes. The focus in these parts of the movie isn’t to show a concert as it would be performed in real life, but to capture the energy of the songs. To enhance this feeling Lester shot much of the movie on a handheld camera so the movie would feel more frenetic. He also cut the scenes to match the music, and kept small mistakes by the band and the cast to give the movie an authentic feel.

This style of shooting music is one of the main inspirations for the modern music video. The techniques the movie used weren’t actually invented by the film’s crew. Zooms, helicopter shots and playing with the speed of certain parts were all tools that were used in various movies before, but ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ put all these tools together in such a way as to create a film grammar that is still used in the shooting music videos today. The movie’s influence on the music video is so accepted that Lester was once dubbed “the father of MTV” (“Music Television”, a popular American cable channel specializing music videos). Lester refused the title, asking for a paternity test.

‘A Hard Day’s Night’ also inadvertently helped birth a new of a sub-genre of rock. During much of the film, George Harrison plays Rickenbacker twelve-string electric guitar, the second one ever manufactured. It’s jangly, powerful sound is already apparent in the title song’s opening chord.

While watching the film, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds was struck by the sound of the guitar. Soon after, the whole band went ahead and bought a Rickenbacker 360/12, along with a set of Ludwig drums that Ringo played in the movie. Said McGuinn:” The new instruments gave us a sense of confidence that we hadn’t had up to that point. The Rickenbacker 12-string with the aid of electronic compression in the studio gave us the distinctive jingle-jangle sound that we would later be known for.” The Byrds are considered among the early pioneers of folk-rock, a sub-genre combining rock and folk music and as their frontman admits, their success is owed in large part to ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.

Lastly, perhaps the movie’s most obvious mark on the music industry is one that isn’t related to the movie’s quality. Early on in the film, Lennon and McCartney are flirting with their fans on the train. One of these fans is played by a modelphotographer Pattie Boyd, Harrison’s future wife. Boyd inspired several of Harrison’s songs, as well as one of Eric Clapton’s most famous songs, “Layla”.

Sources:

https://the-take.com/watch/what-impact-did-a-hard-days-night-have-on-cinematography-and-composition

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3205-a-hard-day-s-night-the-whole-world-is-watching

https://www.vulture.com/2014/07/10-ways-a-hard-days-night-changed-the-world.html

https://guitar.com/guides/essential-guide/oral-history-rickenbacker-12-string/