U23D proves that Bono and friends are pioneers still
From the Herald Sun
U23D, a full-length concert by the Irish musicians shot entirely in three dimensions, makes it cool to go to a rock concert in a pair of glasses.
Midway through U23D there is a stunning shot of Bono standing on a small stage in front of a sea of people holding aloft mobile phones.
The crowd stretches into the distance and spotlights beam down on the U2 frontman from an angle, with the impression of depth magnified by smoke drifting through the shafts of light.
It’s the perfect illustration of how 3D can turn an ordinary concert film into something spectacular. Co-director Catherine Owens, whose day job is being U2’s art director, says it’s one of her favourite moments in the film.
‘‘There’s also this fantastic shot where you’re zooming over Larry’s (Mullen Jr) drum kit and you get this incredible depth and then the camera pulls down and you can see the crowd in front of him,'’ Owens says.
‘‘And of course there’s the shot of Bono where he reaches out and it looks like he’s touching you.'’
U23D is billed as the world’s first digital 3D live action movie — it was made before the recent Hannah Montana concert film — and was filmed during the South American leg of the Vertigo world tour in 2006.
Though it looks and feels very much like a single concert, U23D was actually made during seven dates with the close-ups filmed during a run-through of the concert played to an empty stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Owens says the band was determined to minimise the disruption for the fans who had shelled out their hard-earned cash for the concerts. ‘‘They don’t like to come the whole way to a country and have fans pay for tickets and have to look at the backs of cameras,'’ she says, adding that the concert run-through wasn’t actually played to no one.
‘‘U2’s rather large crew are there and then outside the stadium walls are all the kids who’ve been camped out for days on end, so we got some wonderful reactions from them out there in the dark.'’ Of the 24 songs that were shot, 14 made it into the finished film. They include newer hits Vertigo and Beautiful Day alongside classic U2 moments Sunday Bloody Sunday, One and Where the Streets Have No Name.
Though some songs were cut for technical reasons, Owens says the band was particularly ruthless in ditching songs in which they felt their performance wasn’t up to par.
‘‘Mysterious Ways, which we really, really wanted to include in our set list, the band never felt the performance was believable. With Bono it’s all about: ‘Do you believe these people? Do I believe that guy? Do I believe that drummer?’
‘‘We even lost the opening song of the tour, City of Blinding Lights, based on the fact the band felt the song just wasn’t taking off.'’
Having toured with the band since 1992, Owens says if she could pick any U2 tour to film in 3D, she would have picked 1997’s PopMart. ‘‘It was such a holy extravaganza,'’ she says. ‘‘But in saying that, musically where U2 were at in Vertigo really lends itself incredibly well to film.'’
As spectacular as some of the visuals are in U23D, Owen believes it’s only the prototype for a new wave of cinema. ‘‘We have just opened a tiny hatch in a very big door,'’ she says.
‘‘We’re hoping that we’ve given a really good sample of what’s possible for 3D and we’ve crafted it very diligently, but at the same time we’re hoping that people will pick up from where we’ve left off.'’ U23D opens today.
